They Might Be Giants published a new album called Here comes science. You can listen to some of the songs on their homepage right now. I like the song Meet the elements, as seen on The Great Beyond – Nature Blog and Boing Boing.
Category Archives: Fun
Ukes at the Proms and on TV in Germany
This year the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain played at the Proms for the first time. You can listen to the concert here at the BBC until August 25th. I’m listening to it right now. (Via MetaFilter.)
Also: Yusuf Islam (formerly known as Cat Stevens) and the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain play Peace Train on German TV. (3 nach 9, Sendung vom 29. Mai 2009. Wer sich für das darin angekündigte Gespräch mit Yusuf interessiert, findet es hier.)
My Erdős number is infinity
Today’s xkcd comic made me laugh out loud!
Non-mathematicians who don’t know ErdÅ‘s or what an ErdÅ‘s number is should take a look at these Wikipedia articles: Paul ErdÅ‘s, ErdÅ‘s Number.
If you’d like to read more about ErdÅ‘s I recommend two books on him that I’ve read and enjoyed:
- Bruce Schechter: My Brain is Open: The Mathematical Journeys of Paul Erdős
- Paul Hoffman: The Man Who Loved Only Numbers
ErdÅ‘s also inspired a book on elegant mathematical proofs called Proofs from the Book, which is worth checking out too if you’re into that sort of books. (Disclaimer: I haven’t read this one cover to cover yet.)
Watching the English
… is the title of a book by a British anthropologist I read last summer before visiting the UK. The author, Kate Fox, takes a close look at her fellow countrymen, and to this foreigner at least, her observations were both interesting and amusing.
Of course, queuing is a particularly English habit which I’ve often observed. The English do it everywhere and consequently get cross if someone tries to jump a queue. What I have never seen, though, is what they do if someone actually jumps a queue, but MeFi user garius explains it in this comment, which I urge you to read:
Hilarious!
The rest of the thread about queueing is worth a read if you are interested in queueing habits around the world.
Ausreden
Oft hört man als Lehrer ja interessante Ausreden, warum ein Schüler z. B. seine Hausaufgaben nicht gemacht hat. Der Lehrerfreund bietet jetzt gute Ausreden für Lehrer, die ihre Hausaufgaben nicht gemacht haben – sprich, die Klausuren/Klassenarbeiten noch nicht korrigiert haben: Drei gute Ausreden für nicht gemachte Korrekturen.