Oh help, I nearly put a bottle of bleach in the fridge just now!

Is that why fridges are all white inside?

According my music teacher, my violin is a 7/8 violin...it doesn't look much smaller than my friend's at all-I always thought it was just made slightly differently!

Does anyone know whether the picture that is the google background is real?! If it is, I so want to find it! (Post A Level roadtrip avec les friends)
http://www.google.co.uk/

It's probably just as well I didn't grow up in Sheffield, or Leeds, or York when I was little, as every time this came on the screen, with that scary music, it used to scare the living daylights out of me...

Why?

I think it was because it was a bit loud and noisy, and it used to come out of nowhere... I was only little...

How many of us had heard of a vuvuzela before a few weeks ago?...

I heard it at the Confederations Cup in South Africa last year

Car Expert

Some of us only came across it for the first time in the title of Wednesday's thread!

Ah, but did you know it was called a vuvuzela?

Admittedly, no

Car Expert

Yep

I think the reason why you knew that is that you've had one secretly stored at your house for years

My friend passed me a note in Maths today...

r=(square root)A/3
A=?

I passed it back having written A=3r2 (the 2 means squared) and she immediately said 'yes, I got it right!'

I had forgotten that she was taking unit 3 of her GCSE Maths early, and had the paper 2 this morning!

Nice to know that she trusts my maths skills though

Roll on the end of GCSEs

I shouldn't complain though, only two left...out sixteen!

The word 'vuvuzela' will be very useful in Scrabble for disposing of the two pesky 'v' tiles...

Ah. I hadn't seen the reference to music and didn't realise there was sound. I was wondering what was so scary about the logo...

There's not a lot that's scary about a small stylised 'y', no...

Er - shouldn't that be A=9r2? Or was the original equation square root (A/3)?

Whilst I saw the paper (invigilating) I can't remember what the precise question was; I scanned through quickly, firstly just to see whether we would be asked for tracing-paper/compasses etc and secondly to judge what sort of a paper it was. Pretty nice, like paper 1, but perhaps Q22 regarding area/volume scale-factors would have sorted some of them out.

One of the strong A'level candidates thought that their Mechanics exam was this afternoon, so arrived late. Actually, what he did was to open the door to the Gym, where we were holding GCSE maths. Before he disappeared (very quickly!) I managed to spot him and realised what was happening. So, fortunately I was able to catch up with him and get him to calm down, rather than panic. "Take a few deep breaths," I said (he's a grade 8 Tuba player*!) "Here's me, giving advice on breathing to a tuba player!" I commented. He was fine.

*I accompanied his playing of the Gregson Tuba Concerto last October - I think those sitting in the front row felt the blast!

Just had a glance through the Birthday Honours list : found two musicians there (Graham Nash/John Cale), can anyone find more than that?...

Why has my ITV1 gone all blocky?

What, split-screen?

Nope : there are squares and things all over my screen on digital I've switched to analogue, and that's OK

Ah, like giant pixels? Perhaps they're reverting to the old radio method of splitting the pitch into squares, for the sake of commentary!

Yep, like giant pixels! I don't remember the old radio commentary method : too young

Sorry, yes it was square root of the whole thing - it's hard to write equations clearly on the computer!

Found out Open Uni result is out next Friday

Hope you've passed okay now, juniper.

The Golden Ratioi (Golden Section) is often referred to by the Greek letter 'phi'.

When it arises as the solution to a quadratic equation it has two values; roughly 1.618... and 0.618...

The total number of my posts is just 1 away from being 1000phi, whilst simultaneously, the number of my posts in this Forums Cafe is equally, just 1 away from 1000phi, using the second value!

If I were to have left this observation any longer, I would only have veered further away from this coincidence.


The Golden ratio turns up all over the place in nature, architecture and music.

There's a book by the noted music scholar Roy Howat, entitled Debussy in Proportion:

"Through detailed analyses of the piano pieces Reflets dans l'eau and L'isle joyeuse and the symphonic poem La mer, Dr Howat shows how the pieces are built precisiely and intricately around the two ratios of Golden Section and bisection so that the music is organised in various geometrical patterns which contribute substantially to its expansive and dramatic impact. The final chapter traces evidence of whether the proportional systems were designed consciously, and if so, where and why Debussy might have learnt such techniques."

Fingers crossed...

Thanks guys Not really that bothered about the result (she says!), it was a bad course choice but 3 months of waiting is more than enough

Whilst watching the birds feeding in the garden I mused why female bullfinches were not called cowfinches!

Is the pollen count particularly high today?

Not here, but it might be where you are. It's been chucking it down with rain all day here. We had really bad pollen earlier in the week though before it started raining. My eyes got too sore for the computer or reading (which isn't good as all of my work involves one or the other).

Don't know where you are but it seems to be, where I am (somewhere in London). One a day antihistamines don't work for me- I just suffer through the day then take the old-fashioned knock me out ones at night. I knew it was ridiculous when I was taking four of the one-a-day pills, a day.

They said last night it would be high today in the southeast, and I was sneezing and snuffling like goodness knows what first thing this morning. It didn't last though, fortunately, though the weather's been fine all day.

Charlaine Harris is Genius

Mine's just come on since late this afternoon, although I'm quite pleased to note that I've just been a bit snuffly rather than itchy-eyed or with itchy roof of mouth (which drives me crazy!).


Yep, I'm in London, too.

Four pills a day?! Where can I get hold of some of the old-fashioned antihistamines? I've just taken one that's "non-drowsy" and would happily have taken a "drowsy" one if I'd had any!

I've been getting a bit of Hay Fever somedays.
Loratidine has no effect on me , but Cetirizine is much better
I was told some time ago by a friend in the pharm industry (with no vested interest!) that Cetirizine works best for most , though not all people.

I just got a good mark in an essay, which basically means that I got a first overall for my last module. I am relieved rather than happy. I can stop having nightmares. This is not the reaction I should have. I should be thrilled. I don't think I have a talent for happiness.

Have one of these lucky045...



Well done!

Haha, thanks B-C!

Car Expert's total number of posts is the height of Everest, in feet! - 29,028

If yours is 8848 then that's Everest's height in metres.

According to Wikipedia it's 29,029 ft...

But some say it's actually 29,035 ft tall...

All we know is, post-count wise, I'm somewhere in between

Car Expert

Yes, it has fluctuated over the years, although I've always known it as 29028 since my schooldays.

Anyway, I'm glad you found the post in time!

I've got a few to go. I'll try and remember to celebrate when the time comes.

I'm sure you'll be able to enveigle the help of a musical sherpa or two to help with the ascent!