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Jeanie P's avatar

Very interesting!

You mentioned Pythagoras' Theorem. I wasn't all that good at maths but, thanks to a brilliant teacher, managed to pass the exam ('O' level that is, if anyone remembers those exams before they became GCSE).

This is the story that wonderful teacher told us:

Once upon a time there were three Indian squaws who all happened to be pregnant. They all gave birth on the same night.

The first slept on a buffalo hide and gave birth to a boy.

The second slept on a deer hide and had a girl

The third slept on a hippopotamus hide and had twins, a boy and a girl.

So the squaw on the hippopotamus equals the sum of the squaws on the other two hides.

Simples!!!

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John Dee's avatar

I must tell Mrs Dee this! When I started grammar school they tried my year out with the 'new maths' and the half-bored maths teacher mumbled through a large black beard. I sat at the back looking out of the window. Out of an intake of 283 I was a dismal 281st. In my second year the teacher was loud and enthusiastic; I sat at the front and managed 4th place. Maths went from being torture to my favourite subject despite it being the same syllabus. I could say that maths teachers count but that might elicit groans!

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Jeanie P's avatar

Mental arithmatic was my downfall because of not being able to remember numbers for long enough. Give me a pen and piece of paper and I was slow but mostly succesful. Escaped the new maths, probably by a few years. Though Venn diagrams were already in vogue for some subjects

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Liz's avatar

Jeanne we must be from the same era, I remember that one lol

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Sheila's avatar

The statistics speak defeats me, but psycho-linguistics sounds fascinating. Using data over a long time (and I daresay in historical terms it's actually quite a short time) seems a very obvious thing to do.

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John Dee's avatar

It was one of the golden nuggets of my first degree. My third year project had me investigating whether you could influence cognition through subliminal presentation of text, this being the basis for my PhD, but that's another story for another day.

The problem with climate science is reliance on the instrumented period 1850 - 2023, which is a pathetically small window. Outside this we're talking proxy measurements that always rest on bold assumption and technical limitations, with all of this work funded by those with a political agenda. It's quite insane; back in the day we called it "cheque book science".

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Sheila's avatar

Looking forward to the other story. Goodness how manipulated we are in every way. Yesterday evening I watched a bit of news (something I rarely do these days). The weather was being ‘explained’. Roughly paraphrased, this was the largest cluster of storms since storms were given names in 2015, never mind 1850. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, it sounded so ridiculous 🙁

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John Dee's avatar

I've been waiting for that nonsensical statement to appear which is why I've been putting out these articles over the past year or so, though it is more idiotic than I imagined with only 9 years under the belt. Chances are this cluster will peter out shortly, which is why they're grabbing the opportunity. Sadly, there are many folk whose basic education is insufficient for them to understand just how much we're all being played.

They tried something similar with the yellow, amber & red weather warnings a couple of years ago but played it down when it was pointed out that the warning system had kicked-off the previous year!

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Michael Cook's avatar

Thank you. Clear concise and tells an interesting tale. Sadly based on lots of $$$$ ££££ floating around the media/academia are paid not to hear or see, just like excess deaths 2021-23.

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Liz's avatar

The last one, hank, we never had any wind in soggy Worcs, but sure had a boat load of rain, floods etc, the previous one was really blowy and a couple of small trees went down. It usually seems to us that the name ones are less windy than no name ones. Odd it looks so quiet in the 70s as that's when my parents lost their big poplar, as did the neighbours, and the village was cut off by fallen trees, New year 1974 I think.

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John Dee's avatar

I shall look forward to this - thanks!

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la chevalerie vit's avatar

oh sorry for the duplicate comment

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John Dee's avatar

Cheers!

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Nuala Norris's avatar

Radio and television unbearable now, chock-full of self-satisfied proselytising, propaganda, lecturing, explaining. Radio maybe slightly more bearable, but only in that they can’t do diagrams and pointers. Constant patronising nudge, most of it agenda-driven and devoid of any viewpoint that doesn’t fit the prevailing narratives. No science, just endless assertion by an easily-provoked orthodoxy. Aaargh.

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John Dee's avatar

Well, I guess that's the job they're paid to do. And it's easy money because weather patterns will keep on giving.

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