interesting and weird?

A few interesting and weird items:

Well, I did not expect snow in England in April but yes, it happened! Not as nice as when on the mountains but I do like the white stuff. April Snow! and more snow and some more pictures of the beloved white stuff

Well, there is no doubt that humans are strange creatures: mobile phones on planes and more weirdness. What next?

Well, occasionally I like two fingers of Champagne (Krug please) but now am a bit confused by this Champagne village in Switzerland!!! And they also make a Champagne. Will have to check carefully the labels next time we order wine.

Greetings

Quo Vadis Education?

I will pose a few questions for which I find it difficult to find answers:

1. Did you know that negative probabilities exist?? that means something other than 0% chance, 10% or 100% (the latter meaning something happens for sure, it is certain), something like -50% chance, or – 70% chance…
2. Did you know that fish do not have passports (!) and as a result have trouble swimming in international waters??
3. Did you know that the square root of 100 is 50 (√100 = 50)??

The above is a selection of answers to university exams that I had the privilege to cast and eye on! Would you believe it? Imagine an engineering graduate designing a bridge and calculating a ’safe’ load… with a negative probability? Would you be crossing bridges in the near future? Not really. No wonder that there is consternation by top scientists .

As per the rest I make no comment. I am happy to be a little dog that takes time and EXERTS EFFORT to be educated.

woof woof

My Birthday

Today is my Birthday. So naturally I was expecting presents and all the attention and fussing I could get. I did not get disappointed. Daddy gave me a very nice pudding that I have shared with my friends while partying. We celebrated Australia Day as well but did not drink bier as we prefer good wine… Mummy gave me a book that hopefully will teach me how to deal with mad relatives with unpredictable reactions. The book’s title is ‘Playing for Real’ and is a text on Game Theory by Ken Binmore, an authority on the subject who has also been engaged in the design of the telecom auction in the UK. I have started reading this book. It is written in a pleasant but serious way something I really value. I hope to keep you posted on my progress as I devour the chapters one by one! Maybe I will manage to teach mummy how to be good at poker, after having studied my new book.

I am off now to continue with the celebrations and partying…

Woof

A Pigeon Tax

I am angry and upset. And with no power to bring about any change to what I perceive as very unfair and unloving behaviour.

My mummy has been trying to explain to her mother, Elena, that the reason why mummy is unwell so often is primarily due to her immune system being compromised as a result of having been infected with a parasitic infection picked from the many pigeons that Elena has been feeding for years. This systemic infection is very difficult to get rid of if at all. The answer mummy gets is that it cannot be true, it is all rubbish, and that pigeons are wonderful and carry no disease whatsoever. This is too bad. Something needs to be done so that these flying rats get evicted for good. We can do without their droppings, mites and all other diseases that have made it impossible to even visit our old childhood home in Corfu.

Apparently, Venice is trying to get rid of the birds as it costs them a lot to clean the historic buildings. Congratulations! Pigeons in large and uncontrolled numbers are dangerous. What about introducing a municipal charge, a pigeon tax? All residents of the city should have to pay it and indeed it would be a good idea to use the money collected to clean the streets, pavements and squares of this beautiful but dirty city! And it would be very easy to collect to if it was added to the electricity bill; no way to escape paying it.

I wonder whether UNESCO who have recently nominated the old town of Corfu as a ‘world heritage site’ can do something about it and press the municipal authorities with cleaning up and educating people about the dangers of feeding pigeons. In addition, I would recommend the imposition of very heavy fines to anybody that feeds pigeons at their balcony, terrace, window sills, on pavements etc. And this would certainly apply to Elena. A financial disincentive might work better when one is faced with obstinacy that borders lunacy.

Riding bicycles on ice???

A bicycle? An icicle? An icile and a bicycle together?

This sort of questions were occupying me today and I was wondering whether one could observe them together or, similar. Icicles fascinate me; here are some images

But on these images there was no bicycle and ice fused together… so my conclusion seemed to be that one cannot observe them together.  But, I was wrong!  I just heard from my Dad that a good friend of his has just skid on the ice, where ice means a collection of a multitude of icicles (in fact an infinite set), while he was riding his fancy bicycle.  So there I was, thanking the fairies for creating this event.  A bicycle meeting the icicles.  Imagine how spectacular a picture it would be if one could have managed to get one at impact.

Then I started thinking about our friend.  Was he hurt?  It seems that he did get hurt a bit but soon he will be over it.  What can I say?  Did it not occur to him that maybe bicycles and ice are not good complements?  But then what do you expect from humans?  They have little common sense.  It cannot occur to them that it is best to use all fours with claws extended in such tricky conditions as ice; observe polar bears??  Well, I only hope that our friend learns from his experience and next time he performs such antics, he has the camera ON.

Woof woof

Hello!

This is my first blog. A new year has just started and I am full of hope that this one will be much better and calmer than the previous one. Not that I did not have fun last year but it has been very difficult for my mum. Most of all troubling to her is the fixation and stubborness of her elderly mother on feeding about 300 pigeons on her balcony and windowsills (in a nice greek island) when she knows that this makes my mum very sick, so much that it is not possible to visit the place!! It is so bizarre that pigeons come first and above all else. Will write more later…

Bye for now

W oof