Time Lords and Ladies
Oh, if only Ed were here to give you this news.
We apparently have the September problem solved. Oh yes. The powers that be say they have talked to the people who maintain the blog who say they have found the glitch and sorted it. We have been "assured" that the problem is solved - we will now have to wait until September for it to be September. Though for heaven's sake do let us know if you see any signs of it happenng again. Just continue to use the "Oh Look, September Again" email address - giving time, date and circumstance.
Sparky Mark was of course closely monitoring the situation yesterday from his perch on Brighton Beach. I thought his face was glowing with delight this morning, but in fact he fell asleep on his side on the sand (near the pier and by Harry Ramsden's fish and chip emporium - you may have spotted him). He's tried to counteract the effect by wearing a bright stripey shirt - it's not working.
Sunburn tips, anyone?
Thanks by the way for your concern about my working patterns. You are very kind. I've certainly had a funny mixture this week - lates, earlies, days - because it's such a busy period at the moment. But I'm happy and healthy - honest.
How are you enjoying the Glass Box experience? It'll be my first time today!
all the best,
sequin
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Well good morning Sequin, and it's lovely to hear from you again. And I'm pleased to see that you have adopted the use of "Sparky Marc" so smoothly. One question: Eric bloggered off to Leeds already, has he?
Sequin;
Nice to see you back again so soon.
Re: Sparky Marc and the sunburn. If his lips start to chap and blister get him to smear a little horse manure onto them.
It won't help cure them but it'll stop him licking them!
Si.
Whilst I applaud PM's combatative style in dealing with cynical politicians who seek to manipulate the media I did feel that it was inappropriate with the security chief from Iraq who was on yesterday. The country had just lost 200 innocent civilians in genocidal attacks that Hitler would have been proud of. As the gentleman said they they are not dealing with a conventional war with a recognisable enemy but a lunatic element who are targetting innocent men, women and children at random. The only qualification being that they belong to, or who are near a sectarian area other than their own. Rather than cynicism towards those charged with putting an end to this carnage we should be offering every support. The final question put to him, "What is plan B?" was unworthy of you.
In a way it is a shame, there are definately monents, mostly in the depths of winter when I long for early autumnal days like September 18th... A TARDIS trip back there would be most welcome in early January... ah well!
Eeeewwwww Si! (2)
Morning Sequin - nice to see you're still coping womanfully with everything 91Èȱ¬ News throws at you!
Dab Sparky Marc with calamine lotion. I shouldn't think it will make much difference, but it will give you a laugh.
My son's school has just started handing out "Pat on the Back" awards for good behaviour and work etc. So, the first Pat on the Back of the Blog to Sparky for dealing firmly with September and for knowing his 3 times table.
My wife and I live near the centre of a town far from the noise of tractors and the stench of broiler chicken houses; the road is quiet and we have many wild residents and visitors: badgers, foxes, squirrels and so on.
We both see the last two often, swanning around as if they own the place, but have never actually seen the badgers, having failed so far to carry out my plan to sit out in the dark, silent and downwind of the sett, in the hope of seeing them gambol or mate or whatever it is badgers get up to at night.
When I first realised they were there I asked the local badger society about them and the man got hold of the wrong end of the stick, thinking that I wanted to know how to kill them, but when I explained that they were welcome he told me about leaving out trays of peanuts and so on.
I never got round to this either, but they seem to be thriving. And then there are the birds: assorted finches, blue tits, sparrows, dunnocks, starlings, blackbirds, wrens, robins, magpies and unidentified others.
I don’t find them a big thrill myself but my wife acquired some binoculars so that she can watch them lashing into the copious banquets she provides while chirruping about in a neurotic sort of way (the birds, I mean). They can't be very bright, because our fat ginger lazy cat, called Miseryguts has already presented us with the corpses of two of them.
But the incontinent seagulls (properly, herring gulls) are another matter; I wish I could poison the filthy beasts, like Tom Lehrers’s pigeons:
We’ll murder them all amid laughter and merriment. Except for a few we take home to experiment…
Or, following on from Si (2) I can send round a 'Lampshade' collar (?rottweiler or spaniel sized?)
Nice to see you back Sequin. Can I have some of what you're on please ? :-)
Troll alert @ 7.
Si.
Oh, don't badger him Simon! ;-)
I look forward to hearing you tonight Sequin. It will be a goodie (hopefully Tom Brooke-Taylor).
Oh my word, Sequin, will Eddie ever get through the door at the PM Office again! Awards! Where does he stack them all?
Yet modest enough not to declare to us.
Good to see you in the saddle, lovely hearing your voice (your ubiquitous voice) this week. Did Eddie lock up his goodies again or is he letting you have a few treats today?
Give the man a hug from us when you see him next.
Sequin - Nice to have you back with us.
You were asking about the Glass box - well I think most of us appreciate it, and I hope it's been beneficial, though there have been a few critics at the onset.
One thing though, Eddie sometimes puts it up a little late.
If you get it up before 5 then there may be more comments - esp as the programme is 'on-air'.
Oh yes - and mind the gap between your out, and Big Ben - otherwise the Reverend Green will be on to you! Eddie's gap was 7.5 " last night so you'll have a job to beat that!
Nice to have you sitting in for Eddie while he's away. I hope he left the keys to the drinks cabinet. I think we should all toast his success while you're on air tonight, and it'd only be fair for you to join us. Plus, I think you deserve a nice alcoholic beverage of your choice, given the amount you've done this week!
Sequin, you're a heroine. Even when you have impossible interviewees your voice doesn't become, what was it, squeaky or something.
Yes, us girlies can cut the mustard. Positive discrimination, affirmative action or other illegal pusuits aside
Um, not that I'm suggesting splendid women or their employers should do anything illegal, like, oh, killing badgers, impersonating a Chelsea Pensioner or plying a hansom cab without a bale of hay on the roof. Let alone the issue of mince pies.
The gap was almost non-existent! Now, where's the glass box?
xx
ed
Mind you, Garry Richardson's new programme proves that sports commentators are batty...
Si (@9), is that really a troll @7? How do I tell? It didn't seem to be being particularly, well, anything much, leave alone controversial. And there wasn't a bridge in sight. Is any reference to badgers calculated to raise temperatures, or something?
I can't believe Garry Richardson has been allowed onto another programme -- he's annoying enough on Today with all of his shouty nonsense! And he goes on as if the listener doesn't exist and his sports slot is there purely for the "enjoyment" of his collegues in the studio. I'm afraid I had to switch off at 6.30 tonight :-(
Ap(18) - Ditto. I thought it was awful.
Ap(18), RJD(19)
I listened but only because I couldn't easily get to the radio to turn it off.
I'm now (half) listening to something about symmetry and group theory on R4 that's leaving me feeling very dim. I was with them up until the point they said "Basically it's..." Can anyone translate it into simple English? Is operating on a square something I need to know about?
Did I miss the volunteer coastguards on PM or were they not mentioned? I was hoping for sensible debate on that.
Ap 18 & rjdstopit 19 - oh is it really that Gary richardson? I heard so many trails for it last week and thought, "isn't that the name of the sports guy on Today", but in a me kind of way, didn't either check it out, or listen to the programme tonight. Nice to have my suspicions confirmed, thanks. I'll avoid it next week too :o)
Symmetry and group theory? Oooh, is that this week's In Our Time? Fantastic. (Checks his Podcast manager - and indeed there it is).
Can I translate it into normal English? Well, possibly not - I haven't actually listened to it yet so I'm just going to ramble. It's a decade since I was at University, so I'm a bit out of practice.
Set your calculators to MATHS. ( )
Why is Symmetry so fundamental to physics? The main reason is a theorem of Emmy Noether's (1882-1935). Noether was one of the few female mathematicians of her generation and the first woman admitted to the faculty of Göttingen University (but not without a struggle). Noether's theorem states that there is a direct relationship between symmetries and Conservation laws. So since the laws of Physics are symmetrical in Time (it doesn't matter when you conduct an experiment), this implies that Energy is conserved - you can't create Energy out of nothing, nor can you destroy it. Similarly, since the laws of Physics are symmetrical in Space (it doesn't matter where you conduct an experiment), Momentum must be conserved.
What is Group Theory? Group Theory is a way of expressing symmetries mathematically. The leading light of Group Theory was Evariste Galois - a rather hot-headed French mathematician of the early 19th C. The story that's always told about Galois is that he ended up losing his life in a duel - having spent the previous evening hastily scribbling down all his unfinished ideas.
A group is basically a set S plus an operator @ that satisfies some rules: let's take the integers and addition as an example.
1) Closure. Given any x,y in S, x @ y is also in S. So in our example, any two integers added together makes another integer.
2) Identity. There must be an element I of S, such that x @ I = x. In our example, this is zero. Any number plus zero is unchanged.
3) Inverse. For any x in S, there exists an element x* such that x @ x* = I. In our example, x* is simply "minus x". So 3 + (-3) = 0.
4) Associativity. It doesn't matter what order you perform the operations in if there's more than one: (x @ y) @ z = x @ (y @ z). In our example, if we have (3 + 4) + 5 = 7 + 5 = 12. 3 + (4 + 5) = 3 + 9 = 12.
After this it gets rather complicated, and my hazy memory of things like SU(3) (a group that is fundamental to the Standard Model of particle physics) would need serious refreshing. (Honestly? I'm surprised I can dredge this much up).
Just listened to Belvyd's intro - I'm up against Ian Stewart and Marcus du Sautoy?? That's like being the Dog and Duck B team up against Chelsea and Barcelona. This post is long enough now as it is so good night all.
I'm afraid it was Garry Richardson (checked the spelinge - how sad does that make me?) (no, don't answer)
at least sporty types can take the p out of themselves (oh, gawd, that marks me out as a hater of TMS on LW)
No, I'll shut up, cos I've dam*ed myself 2ce in 1 post and that's quite enuff.
I thought Sequin was excellent and trust that this very excellence will be noticed in high, prize-giving places.
Strangely enough though, I switched off halfway
through. I've a feeling it had as much to do with the harrowing optimism of the security chief as with anything else. I felt I needed time to reflect on the interviewee's deliberate obfuscation of these crucial issues. In this connection and contrary to Tom, I didn't get the impression he was the victim of cynicism or harassment. A Plan B is absolutely fundamental and use of emotive terms like "unworthy" is, well frankly "unworthy".
I suspect my response from last night to RJD and Val P has been moderated, which is a tad harsh because, while I criticised a certain sports presenter, I did explain why at my 18 above: I wasn't just randomly 'having a go'.
Dear Carolyn,
You are brilliant, there was hardly any gap at all before the bongs, there was just a tincy wincy one mind - but I think it was acceptable. You deserve an award.
Edward! See, it can be done.
Electric Dragon (22) very brave of you to post that, I thought - I wish I was more of a mathematician, because lots of it does actually sound quite fascinating, but I'm afraid my beleagured brain cells just can't keep up.
And the piece on the first woman football commentator? Just made me angry that still, in the year 2007 (that's TWO THOUSAND AND SEVEN) people, including other women, are just waiting for a woman to make a mistake at a "man's" job in order to prove how worthless she is. Good luck to you Jacqui, I say. Given the rambling rubbish we often hear from many commentators, I'm tempted to lay a bet that she'll shine out.
Electric Dragon(22)
I am SO impressed!! Not something I'm going to lose sleep over but you were better at explaining it than IOT.
K
Garry Richardson has just been on the Fig Lover Show talking about music and he didn't shout or sound patronising or arrogant at all. See, he can be nice when he wants to. Perhaps sport brings out the worst in some people?...
So, you're not allowed to talk about sport now as well as not watch it, if you don't play it? I suppose that's why competitive tiddlywinks is so popular! :o)
I thought Fig Lover was actually quite good this morning. I even felt compelled to write to her blog!
The fisrt rule of Sports Club is "You do not talk about Sports Club"; the second rule of Sports Club...
Gah, don't put words in my mouth RJD -- I was merely acknowledging that GR was much more pleasant today. Maybe he just likes weekends? :-)