MikeStevens MicroBlog

iVideo

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:05:27 +0100

I've had one tutorial on iVideo in the local Leicester Apple Store. Skilled, excellent tutition from Jon M.

The result is the video of my brother-in-law's 75th birthday paty which I've posted on YouTube.

It's available on the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o40y7ZNNLws

I've booked another tutorial to polish the video as I can see several minor errors.

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Eights

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:26:32 +0100

Can you write down the number 8 eight times so that they add up to 1000? They can be next to each other or under each other or any combination.

Have a go.

Thanks to Richard Wiseman http://richardwiseman.wordpress.com

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Antibiotic Resistance

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:12:34 +0100

Having worked in bacteriology laboratories for the whole of my 40 year career, I noticed at first-hand the worrying increase in resistance of bacteria to antibiotics.

It has recently been reported that General Practitioners were being encouraged with financial benefits to reduce the quantity of antibiotics they prescribed.

Many, arguably most, infections that are referred to GPs are caused by viruses. Antibiotics have no effect on viral agents, full stop.

Many, arguably most, patients take antibiotics and do not complete the course prescribed as the symptoms of the infection has ceased.

Taking small amounts of antibiotics is an excellent method of procuring resisitance.

These are bacteria and are killed by antibiotics, the first of which, penicillin, was discovered by Alexander Fleming. He warned against resistance in his 1945 Nobel Prize lecture.

He said “It is not difficult to make microbes resistant to penicillin in the laboratory by exposing them to concentrations not sufficient to kill them, and the same thing has occasionally happened in the body… …and by exposing his microbes to non-lethal quantities of the drug make them resistant.”

Why has it taken so long?

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Twitter: my take

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:57:32 +0100

A few friends of mine have opened Twitter accounts but have failed to use the service. It's almost certainly because they don't understand it's purpose.

One friend said that he'd “stick with email for sending messages” He is a stubborn bugger (note the male article) and would prefer not to follow my lead but if he did understand the usefulness and pleasure that Twitter provides, he would change his mind. Another, a young lady friend, joined because it was the fashionable thing to do. She also didn't understand Twitter's rationale and was probably bewildered by it. Her tweets were addressed to “Celebrities”, I hope she wasn't expecting personal replies.

So here's my “take” on Twitter, my Twittertake.

Twitter is the “thing” at present (2009) and is relatively successful, relative in the grand scheme of internet-related things. However, it's poorly understood. It's also difficult to explain and I hope this attempt does not fall into that category.

As I mentioned earlier, Twitter is misunderstood because people compare it with something they are familiar with, e-mail. It's not a mail or message service, it is more like a newspaper.

Most people only read parts of a newspaper, it should be the same with Twitter, select the items and writers (Tweeters) that interest you.
News is freely and very rapidly available. the BBC and major newspapers post tweets regularly.

There have also been many examples where “ordinary” people have posted tweets immediately after something significant happens. The 2009 California earthquake elicited 20,000 tweets very quickly which informed other twitterers the severity of the quake.

Tweets are restricted to a maximum of 140 characters, however larger documents can be attached using a web address shortening system such as tinyurl.

Personally, I usually look at my tweets using a Twitter “client” Tweetie on my iPhone.

Twitter is classified by some as a 'micro-blogging” service. I'll make that the subject of a future blog.

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Coventry Transport Museum

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:34:36 +0100

Following our very sucessful forays to the RAF Museum, Hendon and the Imperial War Museum, Lambeth, Keith, Chel and I decided to see something more gentile at the Coventry Transport Museum.

There's a very convenient coach service which arrives 200 yards from the museum entrance. Also, for us seniors the coach is free.

Keith has owned many many vehicles and worked on many more in his career as a mechanic and a garage owner. Most of the cars and motorbikes he has owned seemed to be in the museum!

Here he is dispensing "draft" oil, how it was delivered in the old days
.

Some of the vehicles brough back memories for us all. Here is a Triumph Tiger Cub bike, the first motorcycle I owned; great fun days. All those girls on the pillion (not all at once)

Chel we disovered had shook hands with Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery, when he, Chel, was in the RAF Regiment.

This is "Monty's" staff car, which it is said travelled 60,000 miles in one year. (Can't really believe that, however, that's what the sign on it said).

More of mine now, a Triumph Spitfire, my first sports car, which was followed in my ownership by an MGB and a Lotus Elan. Girls again clamouring around, but like the Tiger Cub bike, all the cars only had one passenger seat.

After a pint or two we returned to Leicester and dined at the Bistro Pierre.

Keith hadn't had that much to drink but surprised us when he pointed to the clock tower on the Leicester Town Hall and asked "What's that?" We thought there was a punch-line coming, which in a way there was when he said "I've never seen that before". Considering that he has lived in Leicester for 70 years it was somewhat surprising!

Another great trip. Where next? Keith suggests York.

Pehaps we should use this for transport:

It held the world land speed record from 1983 until 1997 at an average of 633mph. At that speed it would only take 12 minutes to get to York. Not sure about the parking process though.

A bientot.

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The Meeting

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:51:42 +0100

"The Meeting" statue at St. Pancras station, London

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Reflections

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:20:24 +0100

Here's a reflection of my mate Keith

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Charity Application: Rejected

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:30:53 +0100

In my area of Leicester, UK we have a community newspaper, the Evington Echo. It is produced entirely by unpaid volunteers. In total about 100 people are involved, 15 or so are actively involved in the production and many others freely deliver 5,900 copies to all homes in the area.

The Echo is an outlet for local news, the promotion of events and services. We also have adverts from local traders. We charge small sums for the adverts, which basically pays for our printing costs which is our only major expense.

We would like to purchase some publication software and probably a laptop computer. I discovered that the software costs £1000 full price but is massively reduced to about £200 for charities.Our finances peclude us spending the larger amount now and probably in the future.

We thought we might be a typical charity and submitted an application for registration to the Charity commission only for it to be rejected.

Their rejection letter included this statement: "The production of a newspaper is not charitable since it would not necessarily be educational nor, on the whole, would it add to the readers useful knowledge" It added a legal case reference supporting this view, Re Shaw (1957) 1 WLR 729. Note the date "1957", surely things have moved on.

Newspaper editors might like to know that their papers are neither educational nor do they add to their readers useful knowledge.

Personally, I's surprised by this rejection,not the least because I spent many many hours poring over two 20 page forms and documents, before actually filling in another large application document.

I'm at a slight loss where our next step should be. There is an appeal mechanism but it asks for new material not previously submiited.

Any help would be appreciated.

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Time

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:46:04 +0100

Just think, if Time didn't exist everything would happen all at once. Imagine all the blogs arriving together!

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Premiership Rugby Team

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 10:45:45 +0100

Which team do these guys play Rugby for: Seveali'i, Mapadua, Tagicakibau, and Hala'ufia?

Clue: They play in green and are a "London" club.

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My Mate Keith's Rocket

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 10:15:26 +0100

It's my mate Keith's 70th Birthday so we decided to "launch" him. So here's my attempt.

(It looks phallic)

I'll blog how it / he goes.

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Web v Newspapers

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:53:45 +0200

I'm writing an article about the effects that the Internet and Web are having and will have on newspapers.

I'd appreciate your thoughts.

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Sentences

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:21:32 +0200

Before I started blogging I used to finish my sentences but now I.....

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A Hero Friend

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 09:27:15 +0200

Jack Driver

A colleague and friend of mine, Jack Driver, passed away recently. He worked at Leicester University for many years at the same time as I did. We were bridge partners for several years. We also played cricket together for the University staff team. Whilst having a shower after the games, Jack's body showed “signs of wear”, in the form of many scars. When I asked what caused them he brushed off my question saying something about “the war.”

A few years ago at a social occasion, after we had both retired, Jack said to me out of the blue “I won a medal”. I asked him what it was and he replied “the Military Medal” He still refused to tell me what action was involved on his part.

He died this year, 2009, aged 87.

I happened to be having a meeting with Mark Charlton, the News Editor of our main newspaper, the Leicester Mercury. After our meeting,as I was leaving and as an almost jocular aside I said “Do you want some news Mark?”. He said Yes and I told him about Jack's recent death and the award of his medal.

A few days later an article duly appeared in the Leicester Mercury. In it there were more details of Jack's life. http://tiny.cc/VIly2

Included in this tribute were some words from the citation which accompanied Jack's award.

"Throughout the fight Pte Driver set a high standard of courage and with complete disregard for his own safety stood up to enemy fire and received it at point blank range."

To my delight and surprise an obituary then appeared in the Daily Telegraph no less.

http://tiny.cc/7LPnL

This obituary included more information about the action which Jack was loathe to talk about.

Driver's job was to advance to throw his grenades, which he duly did. Then, standing up to enemy fire at point-blank range, he killed several Germans. When his ammunition was spent, he seized the weapon of a wounded comrade and continued firing as a shower of grenades was hurled back at him.

The attack proved unsuccessful, but the citation for Driver's MM said that he acted without regard for his own safety and that his fine example was largely instrumental in the platoon's inflicting considerable casualties on the enemy.

I also submitted a few words to the Leicester Mercury which were included in the bereavements section:

DRIVER Jack. A good mate, unique bridge player, cricketer with a suspect action and all-round good bloke. Hero too, awarded the Military Medal. Seven No trumps.
He told me that he was ordered to report to Buckingham Palace to collect his medal from King George VI. He was given seven shillings and sixpence for his expenses! (That's 35p today)

I'm aware that I'm dwelling a great deal on Jack's bravery and that's not my intention. It's the fact that almost no-one knew of these details, including almost all of his friends and family. I felt that it should be recorded in my personal blog.

He was a keen golfer and he mentioned a few times that he played regularly with another man named Jack. It transpired that they had been playing together for years when they discovered that the both knew me, indeed the second Jack was my uncle!

Jack was Chief Technician in the Physics Department of the University of Leicester for many years and prominent in many of the social and sporting activities of the University staff, many organised by his good friend Terry Garfield.

At his funeral, the hearse was preceded by a representative of the Parachute Regiment Association and a Guard of Honour of his veteran colleagues formed up when the hearse arrived at the crematorium. They stood to attention as the coffin bearing his Parachute Regiment cap and his medal were removed from the hearse.

Appropriately his ashes were scattered at his favourite golf course at Oadby

Goodbye Mate

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Counting

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 09:07:46 +0200

There are three types of people, those who can count and those that can't.

(Thanks Stephen Kear)

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Fractions

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:50:43 +0200

I'm told that four out of three people have trouble with fractions.

Thanks Stephen Kear.

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Collective Nouns

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:15:36 +0200

The Editor of our local newspaper, the Leicester Mercury used "Twitter" to say that he was going to attend a meeting of fellow editors.

He asked for suggestions for a collective noun that could be used for such a gathering. I suggested a "Scribe of Editors"

What is you suggestion for the collective noun for Bloggers?

To see other examples of collective nouns go to: http://twitter.com/collectivenouns

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Grumpy

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:53:17 +0200

Sometimes I wake up grumpy, but often I let her sleep.

(This does not refer to Chris or ...............)

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Sex Bird

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:54:33 +0200

Beware, this involves depiction of a sexual act. However, Stephen Fry is involved and it has been shown on the BBC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cli0gNxGLdI&feature=youtube_gdata

I hope this blog is not censored due to it's content.

UPDATE

YouTube have removed the video, so the link won't work, Sorry. It surely wasn't because of the sex element, it must have been copyright, it was on the BBC.

Thanks for the email Mike Carr

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Clockface Puzzle: The Solution

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:49:03 +0200

Here's the answer to the divided clockface puzzle, I posted a few days ago:

The question was to divide the clockface into 4 parts, each of which contained numerals which added up to the same total.

I was sent two correct answers.

With appreciation to Richard Wiseman: http://www.richardwiseman.com/

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Postage Stamp

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 18:30:15 +0200

Be like a postage stamp,

stick to one thing till you get there.

Thanks to Stephen Kear

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Albert Hall

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 07:38:19 +0200

I went to see a concert by Elton John at the Royal Albert Hall, and I took this photo before the event.

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Clockface Puzzle

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:41:59 +0200

Can you take the clock face and cut it into four pieces such that the numerals on each part add up to the same number?

If you have worked out or know the answer please indicate that you do know, but don't post how until Monday 5th please, so others may have a go.

(With acknowledgements to Richard Wiseman)

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Dots before your eyes

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:23:45 +0200

Need some time playing,run your mouse across www.cesmes.fi to create endless magic dots before the eyes. It's oddly addictive and zen like.

http://www.cesmes.fi/

Enjoy

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Religious Animal

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 07:32:55 +0200

Mark Twain observed, “humans are the only religious animal”. They have religions, several of them. This allows humans to love each other but also to kill each other when the religions do not concur or agree. This latter fact make religion disagreeable to some / many / most people?

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Indirect Sex

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 08:50:51 +0200

I've just read something in the Daily Telegraph which mentions "Indirect Sex".

It's not people you've had dirct sex with, it's all the people your partners have had sex with, and all the partners they have had sex with and so on and so on....

An unsubstantiated source says that the average Briton had had indirect sex with 2.8 million people .... Crikey!

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Karprekar

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:18:34 +0200

This is a peculiar arithmetic phenomenon, discovered by Karprekar.

Think of any 4 digit number (not 1111,2222 etc)
Take to 4 digits and arrange them in numerical order, with the highest digit first.
Then arrange them in order with the lowest digit first.

Now you have 2 sets of 4 digit numbers

Subtract the lowest number from the highest

Now you have another 4 digit number

Repeat steps 2 and 3 above.

Repeat all theis process until something odd (or actually even) happens.

What is it?

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Arithmetic

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:10:02 +0200

Try this using your mental arithmetic only (not a calculator) and post the answer under "comments" below:

Take 1000 and add 40. Now add another 1000. Then add 30. Add another 1000 then add 20. Then add another 1000 Now add 10.

What's the total?

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Lottery Prediction: followers

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 20:43:50 +0200

Following my last post on my blog concerning the lottery prediction illusion, I had significantly more people reading my blog.

Was that because people wanted to know how to win the lottery?

or did they want to discover how Derren Brown performed the illusion?

I wonder!

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Lottery Prediction

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 08:28:28 +0200

The illusionist Derren Brown had a live TV show on Wednesday in which he claimed to have predicted the 6 UK lottery numbers.

it was a very impressive feat and seemed to be genuine.

If you didn't see the show, I apologise and you can stop reading now, or find it on YouTube.

He had a follow-up show in which said he would explain how he did it. He didn't, he just muddied the water.

Here's my explanation, (I am a scientist, so it's scientific / logical)

First a few certainties.

He could not have known the numbers before they were drawn
If he had known them before the draw he would have made them known before the draw.
There must have been a visual illusion
As it was on TV with no audience it must have involved manipulating the cameras and the presentation on the TV screen
So, I think it was a split screen one side live and one side recorded. The screen we saw looked as if it was one screen, in fact it was two. Brown was on the right side, the rack was on the left. I repeat two different screens merged together.
When the real draw was made an assistant put balls marked with the correct numbers on the rack. This was hidden by the split screen.
When all the balls had been drawn, the split screen was removed to reveal 6 correct numbers.

It sounds complex and was very skilfully executed I hope my explanation makes sense and is the trus answer, not the smokescreen rubbish that Brown used in the follow-up show.

Do you have an alternative explanation?

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