Tag: Brilliant

Cricket Season Underway

Celebrating the start of a new cricket season.

INTRODUCTION

The first round of County Championship matches in season 2018 is drawing to a conclusion. Where there has been action (Yorkshire’s failure to get their ground into playable condition caused their game against Essex to be abandoned without a ball being bowled). I also have some photos to share, and will provide answers to the last problems I posed.

RAIN, WICKETS AND THE ODD RUN

A lot of drawn games have resulted due to poor weather before and during the matches. However, those matches which have had definite results have been absolute crackers. Only one game remains in progress – Sussex against Warwickshire, with the former’s David Wiese having scored the only century of this first round of fixtures (and off a mere 94 balls, helped along by 14 fours and three sixes). Sussex are building are useful lead, but it will take something spectacular in what is left of the match for anything other than a draw to eventuate. Gloucestershire beat Kent in a very low scoring affair (the largest team total in any of the four innings was only just over 150). Middlesex also won their match in short order, completing the job early on yesterday. Two other matches had definite results:

HAMPSHIRE V WORCESTERSHIRE

Worcestershire generally have a lot of away games scheduled for early in the season to give the New Road ground an apportunity to recover from its winter inundation (it is very close to the river Severn, so this is pretty much an annual event), and this year is no exception. Their match against Hampshire at Southampton (I refuse on principle to refer directly to grounds that are named after a sponsor) saw many twists and turns, but Hampshire were pretty well always ahead of the game. James Vince’s spirited 75 on the opening day was a fine effort, but yet again he failed to turn a good start into a really significant score. All-rounder Gareth Berg matched Vince’s score. Worcestershire fought back from a dreadful start in their own first innings to top the 200 mark, but they still conceded a deficit of 79, and Hampshire then scored 244 in their second innings to leave Worcestershire needing 324 to win. Worcetserhsire were so far short of threatening this target that it took a defiant last wicket partnership to get the final margin below 200 runs. 

LANCASHIRE V NOTTINGHAMSHIRE

Lancashire were all out for 158 in their first innings, Nottinghamshire responded with 222, and overnight Lancashire were 58-2. Harry Gurney and Jake Ball (Left-arm Fast and right-arm Fast Medium respectively) bowled magnificently this morning, and Lancashire’s last eight wickets scraped together a measly 15, which meant Nottinghamshire needed just 10 to win. Nottinghamshire themselves managed to lose four wickets while chasing down this target, making the score for the day 25-12. 

PHOTOGRAPHS

These are all from this morning:

MagpieTwo cormorants ITwo Cormorants IICormorantsBlackbird

Bee
My first bee picture of 2018

Bee IIBee - close upSlugPollinator IPollinator IISmall TortoiseshellSmall Tortoiseshell - close up

SOLUTIONS

I posed these problems on Friday, in a post titled “Solutions (And New Problems)“

  1. Deck of Cards:
    Card problem

This is a multi-choice question, the possible answers being:

a) Less than 50%
b) More than 50%
c) Exactly 50%
This problem generated a huge amount of controversy among solvers on brilliant (many of those who opted for exactly 50% being unable to accept that they were wrong and arguing over it). The answer is “less than 50%” – whatever colour the top card in the pack is there remain 51 cards of which 25 are the same colour as the top card and 26 are the other colour. Hence the probability of the bottom card being the same colour is the top card is 25/51, which is just less than 50%. The more cards the deck contains the closer to 50% the probability gets, but it never reaches 50%.

2. Groyne

Groyne Q

This one caused such confusion to solvers om brilliant that over half of them got it wrong. The answer is A, since the groyne acts as a block against waves approaching it from the right as you look at it, and therefore the reduced speed of those waves causes sediment to deposited on that side of the groyne. 

Come On Aldi, Show Some Tree-spect

A petition, a Thunderclap, a message to Aldi, some photographs, and a couple of little snippets.

INTRODUCTION

Although there will be a couple of minor items tacked on that the end, this post is mainly devoted to a thunderclap and a petition, both regarding an area of woodland that adjoins a Nature Reserve and is under threat from plans by supermarket chain Aldi. 

SAVE QUESLETT TREES

There are two parts to this, starting with…

A THUNDERCLAP

To participate in the Thunderclap you need to be on facebook and/or twitter and/or tumblr. Below is a screenshot formatted as a link:

ATC

Linked to the Thunderclap is a petition, a screenshot of which appears below, again formatted as a link.

QTP

The main business of this post ends with…

A MESSAGE TO ALDI (AND PLANNING AUTHORITIES)

I feel very strongly that Aldi should accept the initial negative decision, especially given how many supermarkets (including two other Aldis) are located close to this area already. I am a fairly regular customer of Aldi stores in my own part of the world, but that may not remain the case if Aldi do not reconsider their stance over this. I conclude with some advice for all involved in this decision to consider, tendered in the form of a picture created by Anna from a comment I posted on her blog:

Nature Meme.jpg

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are some of my recent photographs, before I finish off with a couple of minor items. 

Black backed gullsBird gatheringBird gathering IIelusive squirrelBird gathering IIISquirrelSmall waderBirds in treeBirds on a wallbird laden treeCormorant MDCLXVICormorant MDCLXVIISea BirdsWest Lynn ChurchCormorant and gullsRedshankThree gull specieslesser black backed gullsBlack headed gullHerring gullSmall bird in valley

A COUPLE OF NUGGETS

The last few days have seen two numbers come up for me:

  • 300 – the number of successive days on which I have solved at least one of brilliant’s problems – here is one of them for you:
    triprob
  • 900 – my Lumosity Performance Index has just exceeded this value (after this morning’s workout it now stands at 917. Below, concluding this post is first the breakdown of my LPI, and second a little puzzle for you:
    LPI
    Ebbinghaus
    Solutions will be in a future post.

 

Answer to Wednesday’s Teaser

An answer to one question and a new question. Also some photographs.

INTRODUCTION

I also have a few new photographs to share, but the main purpose of this post is to answer the question I included in “Midweek Medley“. 

THE ANSWER

There are three elements to this section – first a screenshot showing the correct answer, then my written explanation of how I worked it out (I did it in my head in rather less time than the explanation takes) and then another screenshot showing a solution posted on brilliant.

18

I solved this one as follows:

Firstly I noted that the smallest base that need be considered is base 8. Then I converted 777 from bases going upward from 8 back into base 10 and assessed whether or not the number was a fourth power.

777 in base 8 is 511 in base 10 = 73 x 7 = not a fourth power.
777 in base 9 is 637 in base 10 = 91 x 7 = not a fourth power.
777 is not a fourth power
777 in base 11 is 931 in base 10 = 133 x 7 = 49 x 19 = not a fourth power
777 in base 12 is 1099 in base 10 = 157 x 7 = not a fourth power.
777 in base 13 is 1281 in base 10 = 183 x 7 = 61 x 7 x 3 = not a fourth power
777 in base 14 is 1477 in base 10 = 211 x 7 = not a fourth power
777 in base 15 is 1687 in base 10 = 241 x 7 = not a fourth power
777 in base 16 is 1911 in base 10 = 273 x 7 = 39 x 7 x 7 = 39 x 49 = 3 x 13 x 7 x 7 = not a fourth power.
777 in base 17 is 2149 in base 10 = 307 x 7
777 in base 18 is 2401 in base 10 = 343 x 7 = 49 x 7 x 7 = 7 x 7 x 7 x 7 = 7^4 = a fourth power.
Thus the answer is indeed 18.

Below is a screenshot of Jerry Han Jia Tao’s solution posted on brilliant:

18sol

Rather more elegant than my method of solving by brute calculation – but it was early in the morning when I tackled this problem, which is possibly why I missed this approach. 

A NEW PROBLEM

This was the one I solved this morning to extend my solving sequence on brilliant to 252 days:

7

PHOTOGRAPHY

GullSwimminjg cormorantgulls and lapwingsGulls

Midweek Medley

A mixed bag of a post with nature, mathematics and photography all featuring prominently.

INTRODUCTION

This post features stuff from a variety of sources, and of course plenty of my photographs. I am going to start with the focus on…

NATURE

I start with some news from Germany, where in a bid to reduce congestion and air pollution a number of cities are trialling free public transport. The image below comes from the Guardian’s coverage of this story:

Regular visitors will recall that I mentioned something about London possibly becoming a National Park City in one of my earlier posts. I am now delighted to say that it will happen – London will become the world’s first National Park City. 

Finally moving on to a local level, the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk have produced a new pamphlet titled The Walks Tree Trail. Copies are in stock in the Custom House, which houses King’s Lynn’s tourist information office, and I have photographed every page of one of the pamphlets:

WTT I
A really good idea, and a we,lcome show of ‘treespect’. Thst the nearest entrance to The Walks is a mere few minutes walk from my flat is a bonus.

WTT IIWTT IIIWTT IVWTT VWTT VIWTT VIIWTT VIIIWTT IX

EDUCATION MINISTER REPEATS PREDECESSOR’S BLUNDER

A while back the then education minister Nicky Morgan was interviewed about some comments she had made regarding mathematical standards and during that interview was challenged to perform a very simple multiplication, which she balked at doing, bringing down on herself a storm of mockery. You might think that Nick Gibb would have learned from his predecessor’s embarrassment but you would be wrong. Interviewed on TV after announcing the launch of tougher maths tests for primary school children he was challenged to perform a very simple multiplication (8 x 9) and in a repeat of Ms Morgan’s performance he refused to do so. Nicky Morgan may not have known what she was bringing down on her head by ducking the question in her interview, but for Nick Gibb there is no excuse. In the event that I am ever interviewed on TV and challenged in this fashion I will give them the answer (72 if it is the same question that Mr Gibb shied away from answering) and then ask if they might care to set me a proper question. I have three takes on this story for you:

  • The Guardian’s version
  • The Evolve Politics website’s version
  • Mike Sivier of Vox Political’s version

This is a good preamble to my next section…

A MATHEMATICAL TEASER

I offer you a question from the mathematical website brilliant which I greatly enjoyed when I tackled it myself. I will give the answer to this little conundrum at the weekend.

777

PHOTOGRAPHS

These are from today, in and around King’s Lynn:

MoorhenCormorantMoorhen 2BlackbirdMute Swan CMjute Swan CIMute Swan CIIside by side by sideMute Swan CIIIMute Swan CIV3 Muscovies, 2 MallardsMute Swan CVMultiple species

 

England One Day International Record

Some stuff about the ODI at the MCG, a neurodiversity quote, a mathematical puzzle and some photographs

INTRODUCTION

After the horrors of the Ashes test series it makes a change to write about a winning performance from an England cricket team in Australia. I also have a few other things to share of course, including more of my photos.

RECORDS GALORE AT THE MCG

The pitch at the MCG for the first of five One Day Internationals (50 overs per side) was a vast improvement of the strip they had produced for the test match, and the players produced a match worthy of the occasion. England won the toss and chose to field. England;s improvement in this form of the game since their horror show at the 2015 World Cup has been such that even before they started batting an Australia tally of 304 seemed inadequate.

England got away to a quick start, although Jonny Bairstow did a ‘Vince’ – looking very impressive for 20-odd and then giving it away. Alex Hales also fell cheaply, but Joe Root came out and played excellently, while Jason Roy produced the major innings that England needed from one of their top order. When his score reached 124 Roy had an England ODI record for the MCG, and that soon became an all-comers MCG record, to match Cook’s all-comers test record score for the MCG. When he went from 171 to 175 Roy establish a new England ODI individual scoring record. His dismissal for 180, with 200 just a possibility was a disappointment but by then the result was not in doubt, and even the loss of a couple more wickets in the dying overs served only to reduce the final margin. England won by five wickets with seven deliveries to spare, and it was a much more conclusive victory than those figures suggest because three of the wickets came with the outcome already settled courtesy of Roy. Joe Root also deserves credit for his support role to Roy’s pyrotechnics, a selfless display that saw him finish just short of his own hundred when the winning runs were scored. The Test squad has a lengthy shopping list of new players needed (two openers given Cook’s age, at least one new batsman for the middle order, a couple of genuine quicks and a serious spinner at minimum), but the ODI squad is in splendid fettle.

A CLASSIC NEURODIVERSITY COMMENT

This comes courtesy of twitter:

ND

PHOTOGRAPHIC INTERLUDE

Moorhenmixed birdslapwingsGulls and lapwings IItwo lapwingslapwing IIlapwing IGulls and lapwingsboat

A PUZZLE

Those of you who have read Alison’s response to my nominating her for a Blogger Recognition Award will have noticed that she specifically mentioned enjoying the puzzles that sometimes feature here. Here courtesy of the mathematical website brilliant is another:

Cioncatenation

PHOTOGRAPHS

The colony of muscovy ducks that I first saw in late 2017 are still in residence along a section of the Gaywood River that is close to where it enters The Walks en route to becoming the Millfleet, in which guise it flows into the Great Ouse…

Group shotdark muscovyGrey Muscovy IGrey Muscovy IIIMuscovy headdark muscoviesdark muscovy IIdark muscovy iiidark musciovi ivdark muscovy with white frontdark muscovies IIdark muscovies IIIdark muscovy with white front IIdark muscovy with white front IIIDark muscovy with white front VDark muscovy V

 

Sunday Sharing Spectular

A mixed bag of a post, featuring autism, politics, mathematics and photography.

INTRODUCTION

As well as the wide variety of ,links that give this post its title it will feature some of my own stuff, notably pictures.

AUTISM

I start with some stuff about Autism, beginning with…

AN ANNOUNCEMENT FROM LAINA

Laina, guiding genius of thesilentwaveblog, has set up a new blog specifically for sharing stuff. Her announcement of this is here, while the new blog can be seen here.

STIM THE LINE

I end this little section with what is a new find for me, stimtheline, with a post titled “Autism is Me“.

GENERAL LINKS

The four links in this section are links that form no natural groupings:

ROBERT LOVES PI ON FULLERENES

This refers to three related pieces that I have seen on robertlovespi. Fullerenes are spheroid carbon allotropes (also known in some circles as buckyballs – both the formal and informal deisgnation pay tribute to the architect Richard Buckminster Fuller who was particularly known for geodesic domes). The three pieces are:

  1. The one that first attracted my attention, titled “The Construction of a Zome Model of a 240-Atom Fullerene Molecule, In Seven Pictures“
  2. Then comes “A 240-Atom Fullerene, and Related Polyhedra“
    C240 fullerene 2
  3. Finally, “The C-320 Fullerene Polyhedron“.

A TEASER

This one comes from brilliant, though it has a little addition of my own as well:

PN

This is an easy question, even without the multi-choice options given on the site. If the 51 under the dividing line was replaced by 53 it would become fiendishly difficult – can you work out why?

PHOTOGRAPHS

GullPale drakeMoorhenHorse and Cart

Flatfish
This is a twitter find.

 

 

Links, Puzzles, Pictures

Links, puzzles and pictures. Public transport features, as does some general politics, and mathematics. The pictures are of course my own.

INTRODUCTION

I have many links to share with you, and wilkl be setting a puzzle. I will be putting up another of my tree posts immediately after this one, so my pictures feature stuff other than trees.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT

This section comes in two parts, starting with…

NEWS FROM MY LONDON TRANSPORT WEBSITE

Just before lunchtime today I received the following email:

Dear Thomas.

I am writing regarding http://www.londontu.be 

My name is Andrew and I work for Nicola at Tour London. Nicola is a tour guide in London UK who takes individuals and groups to the most famous landmarks in London, as well as discovering hidden gems along the way! We were wondering if it were possible for us to appear on your “links” page in any way given that we share such a similar topic.

Alternatively would you be interested in content pieces? Nicola has a vast knowledge of London and would love to share it with your audience. 
Finally, If not content, do you have any other advertising opportunities?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards,

Andrew | Marketing Executive
Tour London
Tourlondon.org.uk

 

Naturally, I was delighted to receive such a communication, and I have since put in some links, done a special post about this site and ‘pressed’ a couple of their pieces. Please visit londontu.be to read about this in more detail, and then explore tourlondon to see what they have to offer.

WE OWN IT – TRANSPORT

The campaign group weownit have created a resource with the catchy title Privatisation Fails. Below is a screenshot of the homepage for this resource:

pf

Of course, I followed up the bus and train links. Here is a paragraph from Privatisation Fails Buses:

Buses

30 years ago, our bus services were deregulated and privatised. This has been a disaster for our buses. Fares went up and routes that weren’t profitable were cut, meaning you now pay more for less.  In 2017, the Bus Service Users Bill was passed, which included a clause which bans local councils from creating their own public bus companies. 

On this page are the Big Five bus companies that grew out of deregulation and privatisation in the 1980s – together they control 70% of the bus travel industry in the UK. Many of these companies either own, or are owned by, rail companies as well.

Read more about bus services, and how and why we want to bring them into public ownership, here.

Next up comes Privatisation Fails Railways:

Railways

British Rail was broken up and privatised between 1994 and 1997, and since then rail services in the UK have been provided by private companies. There are 16 rail franchises in the UK, where the government gives train companies funding to run services for a certain period. 

Many of the companies that run our trains are European state-owned companies who reinvest millions of pounds a year in dividends from their British operations into their own transport systems. As you’ll see, these companies often own franchises within franchises. You might be surprised to learn who owns your morning commute! We’ve also listed three ‘ROSCOs’ or rolling stock companies, who lease trains to rail companies.

Read more about the privatisation of rail and what we can do about it here.

POLITICAL LINKS

Royal Mail workers have voted by a huge margin to take strike action. The official voting figures are:

Turnout 73.7%
Yes 89%
No 11%

This means that 65.593% of all those eligible to vote cast their vote in favour of strike action. I did this calculation myself, entirely in my head, but here for the record is how to get there…

Calling Turnout T and Yes votes Y and Overall Percent Yes as O we have O = TY/100. Putting the known figures into this we have O = (73.7 x 89)/100. To avoid decimals until absolutely necessary we change this to O = (737 x 89)/1000. To calculate 737 x 89 we can reduce to single figure calculations as follows:

737 x 89 = (700 x 89) + (30 x 89) + (7 x 89), and then splitting these up 700 x 89 = (700 x 80) + (700 x 9), 30 x 89 = (30 x 80) + (30 x 9) and 7 x 89 = (7 x 80) + (7 x 9). We now have a series of multiplications which can all be treated as single figure multiplications, with in some cases zeroes to be stuck on the end. Multiplying them out gives us 56,000 + 6,300 + 2,400 + 270 +560 + 63. Adding these together we get 65,593, and dividing by 1,000 requires a decimal point to go between the first and second five, giving us 65.593%. PS It took a lot longer writing this out than performing the calculations in my head!

I have two links for you about this vote:

A SKWAWKBOX QUADRUPLE BILL

The Skwawkbox, one of the best new media sites around, has had several particularly outstanding pieces recently:

PHOTOS 1 – ANIMALS

From Monday and yesterday:

Swan IV
Mute Swan (first four images) on the section of the Gaywood near Kettlewell lane.

Swan IIISwan IISwan IDucks and drakesMallard drakeMoorhen

Squirrel with Conker
This squirrel was sufficiently occupied by its shiny new conker for me to get this picture.

A TEASER

This puzzle comes courtesy of brilliant:

PNQ

PHOTOS 2: VIEWS

Minster Lumiere
Although all these pictures were taken in varying degrees of darkness none involved the use of the flash, which is an absolute last resort for me.

CH Lumiere VCH Lumiere IVCH Lumiere IIICH Lumiere IICH LumiereCustom House IICustom HouseNar meets Ouse, high tideWL Churchtownscape at dusk

 

 

Autism, Transport and Renationalisation

Some links, some pictures and solutuons to a few puzzles I had posed earlier.

INTRODUCTION

I have a number of interesting links to share, along with thoughts and photographs of my own and solutions to my last set of puzzles.

AUTISM RELATED LINKS

My first link in this section is to a post titled “Why Is It Necessary To Intervene With The Natural Course Of Being Autistic” published on THE BULLSHIT FAIRY. Here is the most important section of the piece:

Why is it necessary to intervene with the natural course of being Autistic?

“Early” implies that there is a need to “catch” things early, before it progresses.

Autism is not a disease. It is not progressive. It just IS.

It is disrespectful because it ignores our own timing. Autism is a developmental disability and respecting that is important, instead of applying a neurotypical timeline of neurotypical milestones to neurodivergent children.

And while some aspects of occupational therapy and life skills can be beneficial, if there is no respect for each child’s timing, and if it is done in a manner that is compliance based/reward based, and if this is called “Early Intervention”, then it is just another name for ABA”

My next link is to thge early stages of wbhat looks set to be an excellent series of posts. Blogging Astrid is writing a series of posts about autism under the banner #Write31Days. I have two links for you:

My next two links come from firebrightstarsoul and both concern education and autism:

  • “Enough to break your heart” which deals with a school day which (due entirely to failings on the part of the school) went very badly wrong. I quote one paragraph, which comes near the end of the story:
    We were told we’d be given parent codes to log in to the school’s app so we could find her missing assignments and help her on the weekend until she’s caught up. She didn’t know where to even find this information on her laptop, and when she tried to tell the teacher she didn’t know what she was supposed to work on, the teacher smirked at her and dismissed her with the pithy remark, “I bet you do.”
  • “The one-room school-house” which (unsurprisingly given the above) looks at the possibility of homeschooling. Here is a picture from this piece:

This section concludes with…

TWO SEGUE LINKS

My last two pieces in this section are at the intersect of autism and public transport. First, from the i newspaper comes a piece titled “Travelling as a disabled person: I have autism – it takes me days to recover from one Tube journey“, one of a series a pieces by members of campaigning group Transport for All being published there this week. Here is the image which heads the article:

Claire has autism and says: "The world is a very unpredictable and confusing place."
Claire has autism and says: “The world is a very unpredictable and confusing place.” (Image: Transport for All)

Finally, a petition on the official site for petitioning the UK Parliament, which means that it is only open to UK citizens, calling for a necessary change to the PIP rules. Below is a screenshot link:

PIPP

Please visit, sign and share.

LINKS RELATING TO RENATIONALISATION AND TRANSPORT

My first link in this section is to a piece on Vox Political titled “McDonnell States Labour Will Take Back Rail, Water, Energy and Royal Mail | Beastrabban\’s weblog” This excellent piece sets the stage for the rest of this section. Below is the single most important paragraph, by way of a tempter:

And if Labour does, as I fervently hope, renationalize those industries, I would very much like a form of workers’ control implemented in them. One reason why the Tories were able to privatize these industries was because, when Labour nationalized them after the Second World War, the party was too timid in the form nationalization took. The state took over the ownership of these industries, but otherwise left the existing management structures intact. This disappointed many trade unionists and socialists, who hoped that nationalization would mean that the people, who actually worked in these industries would also play a part in their management.

Since that piece was produced Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK has put up a post titled “The public want nationalisation because nationalisation makes sense” in response to a hand-wringing editorial in The Observer, which started from noting that a recent study had revealed the full extent of public support for renationalisation (water – 83% in favour, electricity and gas – 77% in favour andr railways – 76% in favour – leading the way) and went full-on Tory from there, regarding renationalisation as a bad thing and coming with ideas for how this ‘threat’ might be dealt with. Professor Murphy, like me, takes the opposite stand-point, and points out how flawed the Observer piece is. 

PHOTOGRAPHS 1

This set of photographs is of Lot 553 from the auction of Monday September 25th (see this post):

whole mapPastureLand under cultivationOrkney and Shetland islandsExplanatory NoteThe French connectionIrelandKLLondonVarsityIOW

SOLUTIONS TO PUZZLES

The first of three puzzles I set that I have not yet provided answers to was a question from Triva Hive:

In which country is Europe’s only desert located?

a)Italy
b)Greece
c)Poland
d)Spain

I am sufficiently well informed about Italy, Greece and Spain that I was fairly sure that none of them is the answer. Thus, having ruled out the impossibles I was left withe one answer that however improbable must be the true one – Poland. The screenshot below shows that my Sherlockian approach to the question bore fruit:

bledow

The second puzzle was Abbot Fox‘s “street scramble”:

Puzzle

Unscrambling this gives “Pilling Park Road”, and the map below shows the location of said street:
PPR

The third problem came from brilliant and featured a treasure hunt. Below is the answer:
33

PHOTOGRAPHS

Just before I publish this and head out for a spot of ecotherapy and to top up the photo collection here are some non-tree pics from yesterday:

Moorhen2

Fish
A rarity – a fish sufficiently close to the surface of the Gaywood River that I could take a picture of it that (just about) came out.

C&GCGCgulls and corvidsresting cormorantSwimming ternstag beetleCormorant and gullsbird gathering

 

Puzzles and Solutions

Some solutions and some new problems/ questions. Also details a thank you card for TFL and some photos.

INTRODUCTION

I have solutions/ answers to some problems and a few new problems for you. I was going to be blogging about my activities on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday but that will have to wait until tomorrow now.

SOLUTIONS 1:
OPENING THE “DOOR OF DEATH”

In my post “Coming Up – A Trip To Cornwall“ I set this juicy little puzzle:

DoD

Each of the three filled in columns contains one large number and several smaller numbers. In each case the big number is the sum of all the smaller numbers – 6 = 3+2+1, 28 = 14 + 7 + 4 + 2 + 1 and 496 = 248 + 124 + 62 + 31 + 16 +8 + 4 + 2 + 1. In each case the smaller numbers listed below the large number turn out to be all of that number’s factors. A number that is equal to the sum of all its factors is called a perfect number. Looking closer still we that 6 = 3 x 2, 28 = 7 x 4 and 496 = 31 x 16. In each case these multiplications consist of a larger number that can be expressed in the form (2 ^ n)-1 and the smaller number is equal to 2 ^ (n-1). Further, the larger multiplier is in each case a prime number. Investigation reveals that the next prime number of the form (2 ^ n)-1 is 127, and the other multiplier must therefore by 64. Multiplying these two numbers gives 8,128. Thus the final panel will consist of 8128, with vertically below it the numbers 4064, 2032, 1016, 508, 254, 127, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2 and 1. This was a tough puzzle but it would have been downright vicious had I made the door’s mechanism consist of five panels, these four and the fifth for you to work out – for a bonus can you explain why?

I also asked if anyone could identify to the real life door that I had used as the basis for the “Door of Death”. It is one of the doors to King’s Lynn Town Hall and in reality of course it is not remotely deadly (indeed barring dying of boredom during a council meeting there I can think of no risk of death anywhere in that building).

SOLUTIONS 2: GAYWOOD RIVER QUIZ

This one appeared in my post “The Gaywood River”. The answers are below:

Quiz - answers

NEW PROBLEMS

I have three problems for you. The first comes from Trivia Hive. Unfortunately I cannot present it to you in their format without giving away the answer, so instead I present in plain text:

In which country is Europe’s only desert located?

a)Italy
b)Greece
c)Poland
d)Spain

Puzzle number two comes by way of the twitter feed of estate agents Abbot Fox:

Puzzle

Can you reveal the street name?

My third and final problem comes courtesy of the mathematical website brilliant and sends you on a treasure hunt:

TH

A THANK YOU CARD FOR TFL

I was delighted to receive an email from campaigning organisation sumofus inviting me to sign a thank you card to TFL for having given Uber the boot. I have already shared this invitation on facebook and twitter and ‘pressed’ it to my London transport themed website. I now invite my followers here to add their names to this thank you card: 

TYTFL

PHOTOGRAPHS

These photographs were taken in Norwich…

Window

Mural 1
This is on the ‘ceiling’ portion of a covered passage near…
Castle
…the castle
Haart Map
This map is in the office of Haart in Norwich, and I could not resist trying to photograph it from the street.

 

Anderson Joins 500 Club and Other Stuff

Jimmy Anderon’s 500th test wicket, some links, some puzzles and some photographs.

INTRODUCTION

As well as the title piece this post will feature links, pictures (items that will be going under the hammer at the end of September principally) and puzzles – including answers to a couple. 

ANDERSON JOINS 500 CLUB

As predicted by me in a previous post the third and final test match of the England v West Indies series has featured a moment of cricket history as James Anderson duly collected his 500th wicket in this form of the game. Among bowlers of anything other than spin Glenn McGrath leads the way overall with 563 (off-spinner Muralitharan’s 800 for Sri Lanka is the record, followed by leg-spinner Warne’s 709 for Australia). The two spinners have set marks that are not realistically within Anderson’s grasp but the 563 of McGrath is well and truly catchable. 

The historic moment came near the end of play yesterday, in the West Indies second innings (btw as I write this Anderson has increased his tally to 504) and it was a dismissal worthy of the occasion. He was denied in the West Indies first innings not by their batting (they managed a meagre 123 all out) but by a remarkable spell from Ben Stokes who finished that innings with figures of 6-22 – a test best for him. England led by 71, which looks like being decisive – the top score coming from Stokes (60). This combination of circumstances leads to me to finish this section with a raft of predictions/ hostages to fortune:

  1. The Brian Johnston champagne moment – James Anderson’s 500th test wick – 100% certain whatever happens in what is left of this match!
  2. Player of the match – Ben Stokes barring miracles.
  3. Player of the series – Ben Stokes – 100% nailed on.
  4. Match and series results: England win and take the series 2-1 – West Indies have just been dismissed for 177 in their second dig leaving England 107 to win – Anderson a career best 7-42 taking him to 506 test wickets.

LINKS

I am grouping my links in categories, starting with…

AUTISM

Just two links in this subsection, both from americanbadassactivists and both concerned with that hate group masquerading as charity Autism Speaks, or as Laina at thesilentwaveblog calls them A$.

NATURE

This subsection features four links:

  • First, courtesy of Wildlife Planet a piece titled “A Plant That Glows Blue In The Dark“.
  • With the unprecedented sight on weather maps of America and the Caribbean of three hurricanes poised to make landfall simultaneously (by now one of those, Irma, is already battering Cuba), A C Stark has prodcued a very timely piece whose title “Climate Change: The Elephant in the Room” is sufficient introduction.
  • This subsection closes with links to two posts from Anna. First we have Part 7 of her series about Butterflies in Trosa.

    The other post features a link to a video of a swimming sea eagle (only viewable on youtube) and a picture taken by Anna in which 11 sea eagles are visible.

POLITICS

This subsection includes one stand-alone link and four related links. The stand-alone link comes from Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK is titled “Scottish people deserve the data they need to decide, whatever their political persuasion“.

My remaining four pieces concern a single individual who is widely tipped to be the next leader of the Conservative Party. It is this latter fact which has exposed him to intense scrutiny, resulting in the following collection about…

JACOB REES-MOGG

To set the scene we start with Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK’s piece simply titled “Jacob Rees-Mogg“. 

The second and third pieces in this sub-subsection both come courtesy of the Guardian:

A SEGUE LINK – A QUIZ

With apologies to those of my readers whose first language is not English, and who therefore cannot take on this quiz, I offer you courtesy of quizly a test on one of the biggest sources of grammatical mistakes in English, safe in the knowledge that my own score in said quiz can be equalled but not beaten:

PUZZLES

I appended a question to a link that featured the year 1729 in a recent post. This was the question:

The puzzle I am attaching to this is: which two famous mathematicians are linked by the number 1,729 and how did that link come about?

The two famous mathematicians linked by the number 1,729 are G H Hardy and Srinivasa Ramanujan. The link came about when Hardy visited Ramanujan in hospital during the latter’s final illness and mentioned the number of the cab in which he had travelled – 1,729 and went on to suggest that this was a very dull number. Ramanujan said in response “No Hardy, it is a very interesting number, the smallest that can be expressed as the sum of two cubes in two different ways”.

 The other puzzle I set in that post was this one from brilliant:

treasurehunt

If the statement on door 1 is true, then the treasure is behind door 2, which makes the statements on doors 2 and 3 both false = not acceptable.

If the statement on door 2 is true then the treasure is behind door 3, which makes both the other statements false = not acceptable.

If the statement on door 3 is true, then the statement on door 1 could also be true, making the statement on door 2 false – this scenario is acceptable.

Thus we open door 2 and collect the loot.

I finish by setting you another puzzle, again from brilliant, the 100th and last problem in their 100 Day Challenge, and a cracker:

SC100 - q

Don’t be intimidated by that maximum difficulty rating – it is not as difficult as the creators thought. Incidentally you still have a couple of days to answer the problems properly on that website should you choose to sign up – although it would be tough to them all in that time!

PICTURES

1
This is lot 1 in our next sale – the first of 200 lots of old military themed postcards. Can you guess which of the lots pictured here is on my radar as a potential buy?
329-a
Lot 329 (four images) – a fine volume when new but this copy is in terrible condition.

329-b329329-c

340
Lot 340
347
Lot 347 (two images)

347-a

341
Lot 341 (six images)

341-a341-b341-c341-d341-e

£2 - Trevithick 2
I picked up this coin in change at Morrison’s today and I took two photos of it, both of which I offer you to finish this post (it is only the Reverse that makes it interesting – the Obverse is the usual portrait of ludicrously over-privileged old woman).

£2 - Trevithick 1