09:00 I sit down in front of my laptop and take a little
look online. Steve, my brother in law, has sent me an interesting web article
about a bunch of honey bees and their apparent mathematical abilities, which
have been proven by a recent experiment.
Researchers proved that honeybees could learn to
understand the concept of what the number zero means as a numerical quantity,
which shows a surprising level of mathematical sophistication.
a typical honeybee, thinking of some
mathematical problem
how cute he looks, that little guy !!!!
In their experiment, the researchers showed the honey
bees a number of cards, each with a different number of symbols on. And it was
always the cards with the fewest symbols that had sugar water behind them. The
honey bees like sugar water, so they soon learned to select that card with the
fewest symbols on: and if they had the option of a card with no symbols at all
(ie the equivalent of the number zero), they always chose this card.
How cute they are, honey bees !!! And the fact that they
are proficient in mathematics make them only cuter in my eyes! What dear little
fellows !!!!!
People have 10 fingers and 10 toes, and that's why we
have formulated our decimal system. As far as I know, honey bees do not have
fingers or toes, but each honey bee has 2 feet: perhaps the binary system is
the natural choice for their situation.
Hans Andersen, the famous Danish author, was very
interested in inchworms, who in the classic Danny Kaye movie seem to count by
using the powers of two, as they crawl over a crop of marigolds in the local
school's garden, just outside the school's biggest window: by chance, the
students were starting on a math lesson when Andersen was passing by, which was
lucky.
Two and two are four, four and four are eight
etc ....
09:30 I continue to surf the web. I see that honey bee's
relatives, the bumble bees, may certainly have been living on earth for a long
time - that's something there's no doubt about!
546 million-year-old tiny footprints, the oldest
known - good grief!
The oldest known "footprints" left by an animal
have recently been uncovered in southern China. The identity of the creature
that made the 546 million year old tracks is still unknown, but they come from
the period when the earliest animals are believed to have evolved. The tracks
probably belong to a two-legged animal, such as a bumble-bee.
Fascinating! It is one of my obsessions to try to imagine
the unimaginable. And 546 million years is a concept that is very difficult to
grasp, no doubt about that. The whole thing makes my own short life extremely
insignificant, to put it mildly. And all my little problems: it's obviously not worth
worrying about them, thank goodness! What a relief!!!!
Of course, the age of the universe itself is even
greater than 546 million years, no doubt about that, and the universe itself is billions of light years wide.
And how will our current universe die? Will it eventually stop expanding and collapse
in on itself, back where it started when the big bang occurred? And after that will there be another big bang and a new universe? Has there already been an infinite series
of big bangs in the past and yet another infinite series of big bangs to come
in the future? I think we should be told - there must be someone who knows !!
infinity - something to celebrate!
10:00 I call Scilla, a member of our U3A Danish group,
who has not been very well recently. I ask about her health. In addition to
being a member of our U3A Danish group, she is also the leader of the local U3A
Old Norse group. In late April, while Lois and I were in Australia, she was
hospitalized due to kidney problems and general weakness. She is currently
staying with her son in Frome, Somerset.
She says she's been a little better since I last called
her a couple of weeks ago, but she still tends to get dizzy and so cannot move
around very easily. She does not expect to be able to return to her apartment
in Cheltenham for at least another 2 months - poor Scilla!
But she has her computer with her now - she and her son
recently came to Cheltenham to pick it up. I ask her if she wants me to send
her a copy of "Line", the Danish crime novella, which is our U3A Danish group's current project.
The novel is about a famous-in-Denmark clairvoyant and
reality tv star who apparently committed suicide by sticking a pair of scissors
into his stomach, just outside the famous abandoned church at Skagen, on the
north coast of Jutland. But was he in fact murdered?
My god - a peculiar and creepy story - that's something I
have no doubts about, and, in short, a crime novella which will help Scilla to
keep her brain ticking over: it's just her "bag"!
The abandoned church at Skagen, on the
northern coast of Jutland,
where a Danish celebrity clairvoyant and tv reality star
apparently
stuck a pair of scissors into his stomach - yikes!
The abandoned church in happier times
10:30 Lois and I go out into the backyard and do a little
weeding in the vegetable garden and around the fruit trees. After an hour (our
personal time limit), we stop working and relax with a cup of coffee on the
terrace.
12:30 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a
huge afternoon nap.
15:00 I get up and jump on my exercise bike. I cycle my
usual 6 miles.
We drive over to the mailbox next to the former art college to
send the Danish crime novella off to Scilla, and post some other letters: mostly
letters from Lois to various members of her church. She is responsible for the
financial aspects of the church's bible seminar program.
18:00 We have dinner and spend the evening watching
television, an interesting documentary about Britain's suffragette movement.
The host of the program is the charming Lucy Worsley.
I have to admit that I have not been feeling particularly
enthusiastic about watching this program. The title itself is a bit of a
turnoff: it contains the presenter's name, which is always bad news - the
presenters themselves are the focus in too many of today's documentaries, which
is a bit of a shame.
Additionally, I do not care much for presenters of
historical documentaries who insist on dressing up as people from the period
they are talking about. And Lucy Worsley is definitely the worst offender - she
needs no excuse to indulge herself in the BBC's wardrobes. My god, what madness
!!!!
Finally, I do not like historical reconstructions in
documentaries - I have a good imagination and I prefer to imagine the past,
rather than watch professional actors, who I know are only playing a part.
My god, I'm such a whinger, no doubt about that !!!
Having said that, this program is very informative about
women's long struggle for voting rights, I have to admit. However, it is a bit
of a shame that there is no time for a sensible debate also between academics
about some of the historical issues that the program was raising: for example,
why the Liberal Party for years repeatedly promised to introduce a voting
rights law but did not do so when they were in power and had the opportunity to
do it. Good grief, what a crazy world we live in !!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz !!!!!
Danish translation
09:00 Jeg
sætter mig foran min bærebare og kigger lidt på nettet. Steve, min svigerbror,
har sendt mig en interessant webartikel, der handler om en flok honningbier og
deres tilsyneladende matematisk evner, der er blevet bevist af et nyligt eksperiment.
Forskere
beviste, at honningbier kunne lære at forstå konceptet om, hvad tallet nul
betyder som en numerisk kvantitet, hvilket viser en overraskende niveau af
matematisk raffinement.
I deres
eksperiment viste forskerne honningbierne en række kort, hvert med en
varierende mængde symboler på. Og det var altid de kort med de færreste
symboler på, der havde sukkervand bagved. Honningbierne kan godt lide
sukkervand, så de snart lærte at vælge det kort med de færreste symboler på: og
hvis de havde optionen af et kort med overhovedet ingen symboler på (dvs
ækvivalenten af tallet nul), valgte de altid dette kort.
en
typisk honningbi, tænkende på et eller andet matematisk problem
hvor
ser han dog sød ud, den lille fyr!!!!
Hvor er de dog
søde, honningbier!!! Og det, at de er dygtige til matematik, gør dem kun sødere
i mine øjne! Kære lille fyre!!!!!
Mennesker har
10 fingre og 10 tæer, og derfor har vi formuleret vores decimalsystem. Så vidt
jeg ved, har honningbier ingen fingre eller tæer, men enhver honningbi har 2
fødder: måske er det binære system det naturlige valg, for deres vedkommende.
Hans
Andersson, den berømte danske forfatter, interesserede sig meget for
målerlarver, der i den klassiske Danny Kaye-film, ser ud til at regne ved hjælp
af potenser af to, mens de kravler over en række morgenfruer i den lokale
skolens have, lige foran skolens største vindue: tilfældigvis var eleverne i gang med en
matematisk lektion, da Hans kommer forbi, hvilket var heldigt.
To
og to er fire, fire og fire er otte osv....
09:30 Jeg
fortsætter med at surfe nettet. Jeg ser, at honningbiers slægtninge,
humlebierne, helt sikker kunne have boet i lang tid på jorden – ingen tvivl om
det!
546
millioner år gamle fodspor, de ældste kendte – du godeste!
De ældste
kendte "fodspor" efterladt af et dyr er blevet afdækket i det sydlige
Kina. Identiteten af skabningen, der lavede de 546 millioner år gamle spor,
er stadig ukendt, men de kommer fra den periode, hvor de tidligste dyr antages
at have udviklet sig. Sporene tilhører sandsynligvis en tobenet dyr, såsom en
humlebi.
Fascinerende!
Det er en af mine besættelser at prøve at forestille mig det uoptænkelige. Og
546 millioner år er en periode, der er meget svær at fatte, ingen tvivl om det.
Det hele gør mit eget kort liv ekstrem ubetydeligt, for at sige mildt. Og alle
mine små problemer: det er ikke værd at bekymre mig om dem, gudskelov! Sikke en
lettelse!!!!
Selvfølgelig
er alderen af selve universet endnu større, ingen tvivl om det, og universet er
milliarder af lysår vidt.
Og hvordan vil
vores nuværende univers dø? Vil det kollapsere ind i sig selv, hvor det
startede fra, da det store brag skete? Og vil der så være et andet store brag,
og et nyt univers? Har der været en uendelig serie af store brag i fortiden og
endnu en uendelig serie i fremtiden? Jeg synes, vi skulle blive fortalt – der må
være nogen, der ved!!
uendelighed – noget at fejre!
10:00 Jeg
ringer til Scilla, en medlem af vorers U3A danske gruppe, der for nylig ikke
har haft det ret godt. Jeg spørger om hendes helbred. Udover at være medlem af
vores U3A danske gruppe, er hun også leder af den lokale U3A oldnorske gruppe.
Sidst i april, mens Lois og jeg var i Australien, blev hun indlagt på hospitalet på grund af nyreproblemer og almindelig
svaghed. Hun bor for tiden hos sin søn i Frome, Somerset.
Hun siger, at
hun har det lidt bedre, siden jeg sidst ringede til hende, for et par uger
siden, men hun har stadig tendens til at blive svimmel, og dermed kan ikke
bevæge sig meget let. Hun forventer ikke at kunne komme tilbage til sin
lejlighed i Cheltenham i mindst 2
måneder – stakkels Scilla!
Men hun har
sin computer nu, som hun og hendes søn for nylig kom til Cheltenham for at
hente den. Jeg spørger hende, om hun vil have at jeg sender hende en kopi af ”Line”,
den danske kriminovelle, der er vores U3A danske gruppes nuværende projekt.
Novellen
handler om en dansk-berømt clairvoyant og reality-tv stjerne, der
tilsyneladende har begået selvmord ved at stikke en saks i sin mave, lige udenfor
den berømte tilsandede kirke i Skagen, på Nord-Jyllands nordiske kyst. Men blev
han faktisk myrdet?
Du godeste –
en mærkelig og uhyggelig historie – det
har jeg ikke nogen tvivl om, og kort sagt en kriminovelle, der vil hjælpe
Scilla med at holde hjernen tikkende over: det er lige hendes ting!
Den
tilsandede kirke, Skagen, på Jyllands
nordiske kyst, hvor en danskberømt
clairvoyant
og tv-realitystjerne tilsyneladende stak en saks i sin mave – yikes!
Kun
kirkens tårn er tilbage efter adskillige sandstormer
Den
tilsandede kirke i lykkeligere tider
10:30 Vi går
ud I baghaven og luger lidt i grøntsagshaven og omkring frugttræerne. Efter en
time (vores personlige tiddgrænse), holder vi op med at arbejde og slapper af
med en kop kaffe på terrassen.
12:30 Vi
spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i sengen og tager en gigantisk
eftermiddagslur.
15:00 Jeg står
op og hopper op på min kondicykel. Jeg cykler mine sædvanlige 6 miles. Vi kører
over til postkassen ved siden af den tidligere kunstakademi for at afsende den
danske kriminovelle til Scilla og andre breve: for det meste breve fra Lois til
forskellige medlemmer af hendes kirke. Hun er ansvarlig for de financielle
aspekter af kirkens bibelseminarprogram.
18:00 Vi
spiser aftensmad og bruger aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn, en interessant
dokumentarfilm, der handler om Storbritanniens
suffragette-bevægelse. Programmets vært er den charmerende Lucy Worsley.
Jeg må
indrømme, at jeg ikke har været særlig entusiastisk over at se dette program.
Selve titlen er lidt af en turnoff: den indeholder værtens navn, hvilket altid
er dårlig nyhed – selve værten er fokussen i for mange af nutidens
dokumentarfilm, hvilket er lidt af en skam.
Derudover holder
jeg mig ikke ret meget af de værter af historiske dokumentarfilm, der
insisterer på at klæde sig ud som mennesker fra den periode, de fortæller om.
Og Lucy Worsley er absolut den værste lovovertræder – hun behøver ingen
undskyldning for at forkæle sig i BBCs garderober. Du godeste, sikke et
vanvid!!!!
Til sidst kan
jeg ikke lide historiske rekonstruktioner i dokumentarfilm – jeg har en god
indbildningskraft, og jeg foretrækker at forestille mig fortiden, snarere, end
at kigge på professionelle skuespillere, hvem jeg ved, kun spiller en rolle.
Du godeste,
jeg er sikke et pivehoved, ingen tvivl om det!!!
Trods alt det,
er dette program meget informativt om kvinders lange kamp om stemmeret: det må
jeg indrømme. Det er imidlertid lidt af en skam, at der ikke er tid til en
fornuftig debat mellem akademiker om nogle af de historiske spørgsmål, som
programmet handlede om: for eksempel hvorfor det liberale parti i årevis igen
og igen lovede at indføre en stammeretslov, men ikke gjorde det, da de var med
magten og havde lejligheden til at gøre det. Du godeste, sikke en skør verden
vi lever i !!!!
22:00 Vi går i
seng – zzzzzzzz!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment