Yawn ... wakey, wakey ... (2)

Discussion in 'The Muppet Show' started by Daisies, Sep 25, 2009.

  1. shiney

    shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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    Hi Kandy,

    Those books were a good deal :gnthb:

    If Mr Kandy is interested in mathmatical books then there is a really good book called 'The Man Who Counted'.

    Here is an extract from a review of the book for Mr Kandy to read (everyone else can ignore it :hehe:)


    Set in Baghdad circa 1321, The Man Who Counted is the story of Beremiz Samir, a man gifted with tremendous mathematical acuity. Through the eyes of a man who befriends Beremiz on the road one day, we witness Beremiz use his extraordinary talent to settle disputes, give sage advice, and win himself rich rewards-- as well as present fascinating mathematical oddities for the reader's bemusement and edification. Upon entering an inn called The Four Fours, for example, Beremiz remarks that using simple mathematics, you can use four fours to yield any number between one and ten. 44-44 = 0, 44/44 = 1, 4/4 + 4/4 = 2, (4+4+4)/4 = 3, 4 + (4 -4)/4 = 4, and so on.
    Later, Beremiz is told of a rajah who willed his daughters a certain number of pearls with the instructions that his first daughter receive one pearl plus one seventh of those remaining, his second daughter get two pearls plus one seventh of those remaining, his third daughter get three plus one seventh of the remainder, and so forth. His daughters complained to a judge that this scheme was unfair, but the judge upheld the bequest as being just.because each daughter would receive the same number of pearls. From this information, Beremiz determined the total number of pearls the rajah left behind and how many daughters he had. Can you?
    Most fascinating to me was the revelation of the extremely odd property of the number 142,857 when multiplied. When doubled, the numbers in the product are the same as in the original number and are in the same order, but in different positions. This holds true when multiplied by 3, 4, and 5. When multiplied by six, the two groups of numbers swap places. When multiplied by seven, the product is 999,999. When multiplied by eight, the product is 1,142,856. Here, the seven in the original number has been split into two parts-- one and six-- which appear on each end of the product. The oddity of 142,857 continues to manifest when multiplied by 11, 12, 13, and so on.
    The story is told in the style of classic Arabian fables like the 1,001 Nights-- a style that makes for easy reading and keeps the material entertaining and approachable. In fact, it is so accessible that a friend of mine is planning to use it to teach math to his future students. Were I a junior high or high school math teacher, I would certainly try to incorporate The Man Who Counted into my curriculum. Books like this turn potentially dry areas of study like mathematics into fun activities that stimulate the imagination. And they make delightful, light bedtime reading. The Man Who Counted by Malba Tahan, subtitled a collection of mathematical adventures, is published by W. W. Norton and Co. with a cover price of $9.95 and an ISBN number of 0-393-30934-7. And by the way, the answer to the problem of the rajah's bequest is that there are thirty-six pearls distributed amongst six daughters. Salaam. ]


    And here is a Google link.

    http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=book+"the+man+who+counted"&meta=&aq=f&oq=
     
  2. takemore02withit

    takemore02withit Gardener

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    Just popped in to say hello and hope you are all well. We fly out to Madeira in the morning. Just what Mr 02 needs after all his hospital appointments and all the poking around he has had to suffer recently. Looking forward to taking some pics with my new camera :) Everybody take care. 02 X
     
  3. rosa

    rosa Gardener

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    good morning everyone,
    takemore enjoy your holiday look forward to seeing your pics when you return.
    kandy and shiney had a lovely xmas dinner yesterday funnily enough didnt have a drink haha had enough the day before, the turkey had a nice taste a norfolk one and i bought a bigger one its in freezer for xmas day.
    have a great day
     
  4. Kandy

    Kandy Will be glad to see the sun again soon.....

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    Good morning 02,Rosa and everyone.

    02 and Mr 02,hope you enjoy your much needed holiday:thumb:

    Rosa,glad that you enjoyed your turkey and that you were good with the drinkies:hehe:Our turkey crown is a Norfolk one so it should taste nice.I can't wait for it to come round now.You might get some snow up your end of the world this week as well:p

    Shiney Mr Kandy said Thanks for the post although he hasn't studied it properly as we were just going out and is the book in pounds or dollars,as you have written it in the $ sign.I will speak to him later to see if he wants to get the book but he might wait until after xmas,we shall see.:) Hope your Suffolk trip went ok for you:)

    Well we had rain again yesterday afternoon when we popped out for a couple of hours so my bird seed that I put out for the ground feeders has got wet yet again.They don't like a roofed bird table so have to leave it open then the rain gets to it:(

    The weather forecast is for getting colder the next few days and there could be snow on the way but I expect it will miss us:p

    What's the betting we have a wet and windy xmas this year:(

    Hope you all have a great day:luv:
     
  5. wiseowl

    wiseowl Admin Staff Member

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    Good morning Rosa ,Kandy and all my other friends at GC,please have a lovely day and take care of yourselves:)
     
  6. Marley Farley

    Marley Farley Affable Admin! Staff Member

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    Good Morning Woo & Kandy, hope everyone is well.... Have a good day everyone whatever you are up to.. :thmb:
     
  7. shiney

    shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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    Good morning everyone,

    O2, I know you will already be on your way but I hope you have a lovely holiday. Madeira is a very nice place. :gnthb:

    Kandy, I just cut and pasted that review so because it is in dollars it was obviously an American review. I don't even know how old the review is. :scratch:

    I've just quickly Googled the book on Amazon and it shows some for sale (used - in good condition) for about £5 + postage.

    The weather looks ready to change and get colder so I shall wrap up warm and see whether there is anything I need to sort out and store away in the garden.

    Have a great day :D
     
  8. Penny in Ontario

    Penny in Ontario Total Gardener

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    Good morning everyone,

    Its cold here, and its snowing, just flurries, but snow none the less.

    Have some laundry in, and off to vaccum soon.
     
  9. rosa

    rosa Gardener

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    good morning everyone,
    up early this morning hubby left at 4 for the airport i should sleep well tonight being up this early.
    off shopping again this morning getting some bits for xmas ohhh kandy drinkies im going to buy some wine, vodka to keep for xmas haha.
    have a grand 1st december everyone,

    [​IMG]
     
  10. Kandy

    Kandy Will be glad to see the sun again soon.....

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    Morning Rosa and everyone,

    Rosa love your tree and deckies:gnthb: and also like the ones you have on your fire place.I bet they took ages to put up:D I am feeling quiet christmassy and when we gop for our evening walk each n ight there are more houses starting to put up all their decorations outside as well as inside and I do love to see them lit up:D

    We have got a few bottles of wine in to have with our Christmas turkey so we are well on our way.We have to get up into the loft soon and get all the stuff down and tomorrow I have to get ringing to book up well in advance for next years Christmas:D

    Frost was forecast for overnight and I have just been out to start Mr Kandys car for him so the frost goes and it is bitter out there:pI also went to fit my new Tax disc and my car inside is so cold i can't get the platic holder that came with the car to stick to the windscreen so will have to try again later.:D

    Looks like it will be work indoors this morning although I have some buckets of stuff to go over to the allotment for the compost biins so will have to look at doing that at some point.

    Hope you all have a good day.:luv:
     
  11. shiney

    shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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    Good morning everyone,

    Just a brief hello as I am very busy today. Off to a big meeting shortly that will last all morning, running my bridge club this afternoon and playing a bridge match in London tonight. So won't be back until about midnight.

    It's frosty and sunny out there so shall have to wrap up warm. :old: :)

    Have a great day :D
     
  12. Penny in Ontario

    Penny in Ontario Total Gardener

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    Good morning everyone,:)

    Its cold here and we had snow overnight:flag:, the vehicles have a good dusting.:dh:

    The wind is howling pretty good here too, but its blowing the snow away :hehe:

    Oh Rosa....how pretty and festive your place looks:D...as for your "drinkies" Rosa....dont forget to get some Kahula or Baileys and put a little splash in your coffee or hot chocolate:yho:.......darn that stuffs good :rotfl::rotfl:!
     
  13. Kandy

    Kandy Will be glad to see the sun again soon.....

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    Good morning Shiney,Penny and everyone.

    Shiney sounds like you had another busy day yesterday.I bet you are looking forward to a nice long rest away from your bridge matches over the xmas period.It can't be long now:flag::D

    Penny how lovely for you to have the snow.I wish it would fall for us Xmas Eve so we can at least have a white Crimbo:D

    Anyway,I went out yesterday morning and started Mr Kandy's car to get the ice off of it while he got himself ready for work.Anyway,thirty minutes after he had left I got a phone call from him to say that a van had run into the back of him at a roundabout:oops:,and luckily he wasn't hurt and the chap addmitted it was his fault.Anyway,The tow bar took the full force of the bump which left a nice round dent in the bumper of said van:hehe: I said to him if i hadn't been so helpful and let him defrost the car that accident wouldn't have happened:(

    When Mr Kandy got to work he rang the Nissan garage and they said they didn't do body repairs and they sent him to a company they deal with.He took it round after work and they have taken photos of the bits that are out of alignment and are going to order the parts in and while we are without a car for the three days the car will be off the road another company they deal with is going to lend us the hire car and it is all going to be done as an insurance job against the other chaps insurance.Mr Kandy is going to ring up the hire car comapny to make sure that he doesn't have to pay anything out for the hire car as he doesn't see that he shouldn't be having to pay out for something that wasn't his fault.As long as we get the car back by Christmas Eve then we shall be happy:p

    I had a good afternoon and managed to get all the composting stuff over to the allotment,all my bean canes down and finally the winetr broad beans into the ground.It was getting late so didn't have time to net them against the mice but they are surrounded by windbreak stuff anyway,so that will have to do for the time being:D

    We had rain last night so everywhere is wet again:(

    Hope you all have a great day:luv:
     
  14. Penny in Ontario

    Penny in Ontario Total Gardener

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    Good morning everyone,

    Its warmer here today and calling for rain later, and then switch to flurries overnight.

    Glad Mr.Kandy is ok, thats scarey!
     
  15. Kandy

    Kandy Will be glad to see the sun again soon.....

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    Morning Peri and everyone.

    Peri,hope your trip up to Leighton Moss goes off ok and that you see plenty of birdies and that the weather is good as well.If I remember rightly there used to be a duck board walk through some reed beds to get to one of the hides but as it has been so long ago since we went there that the memory seems to be fading a little.:p Have you ever been to Minsmere?that is another brilliant place to go and used to make a nice day out but since the petrol prices started going up we stopped going to the far out bird reserves:(

    By the way,love your Hawfinch avatar.I tried putting up a xmas one yesterday morning and I got a message saying invalid file whatever that means so will have to try again

    Hope your computer problems get fixed soon as well.:thumb:

    Penny thanks for your kind words for Mr Kandy.He was ok because the tow ball bit took the impact,and now we have to make sure the other chpas insurance pay up because more damage has been done to the car through the impact than what Mr Kandy thought so we won't be happy if we are out of pocket through this as it wasn't Mr Kandys fault:(

    Anyway,I got loads done yesterday and even had a chat with my eldest sister on the phone and she was telling me she has now lost 47lb in weight so that is a briiliant achievement for her although it looks like she will be on the tablets for the rest of her life to control the diabetes:p

    Mr Kandy is getting the car sorted so hopefully it will be all done for xmas,but as the parts need to be got in that could take a little time.As long as it is fixed by xmas eve then we shall be happy.:D

    Well it was quiet cold yesterday but that is to be expected this time of the year.At least it will kill off all those nasty bugs hopefully,cough cough:D

    Hope you all have great day:luv:
     
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