The Four Ages Of Sand

Question of the week: How old is the word 'fag-end'?

I would have thought 'fag end' was a relatively modern word. However, I've just seen it in my wonderful book from 1688, "Epistolae Ho Elianae Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren" (previous post)

 

A quick search reveals:

n.	1.	An end of poorer quality, or in a spoiled condition, as the coarser end of a web of cloth, the untwisted end of a rope, etc.
	2.	The refuse or meaner part of anything. The fag-end of business. - Collier.

 

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, published 1913 by C. & G. Merriam Co.

 

And it turns out to have been in use for around 400 years:

 Origin: 
1605–15

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fag+end

And fag is a corruption of flag:

(If that's too small to read, here's the link)

http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/sayingsf.htm

Question of the week: why would you put a sweater on a penguin?

 

Give up?

They are for birds affected by an oil spill.

Tom spotted this great item:

The tiny sweaters, while eliciting aww's and squee's, serve a very important function: they prevent the oil-soaked birds from poisoning themselves by preening, as well as keeping them warm before it's their turn to be cleaned up by cleanup workers.

Full story here:

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/10/penguin-sweaters.html

Just for a moment, I wondered if it was actually true, but a quick search shows it is. Sorry for doubting you Tom!

http://www.factmonster.com/spot/penguinsweater.html

There's even a song about it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweaters_for_Penguins

 

 

Question of the week: Which country has the cheapest petrol in the world?

It's...

...

... my second homeland, Venezuela. 

(Spotter; sister Sue)

1. Venezuela: Caracas — 2/3p per litre

Yes, to get hold of the cheapest petrol in the world, you'll have to travel all the way to the South American country of Venezuela. Petrol is just 2-3p per litre in the socialist republic — that's around 54 times cheaper than prices here in the UK. So if you have a 70 litre fuel tank in your car, you could fill it up in Venezuela for around £1.50. While In Britain it would cost you a whopping £95.

Prices are kept low thanks to subsidies from the country's left-wing government.

But it comes at a high price in other ways. See here for the full story:

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/The-cheapest-petrol-world-yahoofinanceuk-978605645.html

 

 

Question of the week: Is it legal to eat Rooks?

Yes, sometimes.

And by Rooks, I mean this kind

not this kind

Although that's legal too I suppose.

A pub has stopped selling wild bird on its menu - in the form of rook salad - on police advice. So what is the legality of such dishes?

The Taverners pub on the Isle of Wight managed to sell 30 servings of its unusual addition to the specials menu before the authorities asked the landlord to desist.

All wild birds in the UK are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

Technically, it is legal for people to eat some species if they killed the birds under licence but, with the exception of wood pigeon, they can never be sold for human consumption.

It would, however, be legal to eat a wild bird if it had been killed by someone else, or discovered dead as roadkill - although anyone wishing to do so would have to prove they were not responsible for its demise.

The hitherto obscure area of law was brought to public attention by the Taverners. However, the pub's owners and the customers who chose the dish were not technically guilty of breaking the law.

 

Full story here, spotted by Alan: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14631856

Question of the week. Are capitals important?

I share an office with Numeracy teachers. I was lamenting the poor state of grammar & puntuation in emails at work, and also on the internet, and one of my colleagues suggeted that we should forget all about apostrophes and capitals becaue the meaning is clear from context! 

I realised I could no longer stay in that office and was very relieved a few days later to be asked to move out. This from my colleague to his boss: 

"Just to inform you, I have talked to Iain about his desk and our intention to ask Jane to move in to our office. He kindly offered his desk and stated that he doesn’t mind moving out to help us have all the Numeracy team together."

"Doesn't mind"?? I was considering resigning! 

So, are capitals important? I think this from Tom says it all:

Iain,

In the  world of hi-tech gadgetry, I've noticed that people who send text messages and emails have forgotten the art of capitalization. For those of you who fall into this category, please take note of the  following statement...

"Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse."

 

Any questions?

 

Question of the week: Which UK city is in the National Geographic Top 10 "Must see" list?

At Number 6, just behind the dramatic Andean landscape of Patagonia in Argentina and Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park and ahead of the Azores and the island of Roatan in Honduras, it's...

... see here for answer and link:

Question of the week: What's the difference between "hydroscopic" and "Hygroscopic"?

UniM asked me what Hygroscopic means, and I said "surely you mean Hydroscopic?" and she said "If I had meant Hydroscopic I would have said Hydroscopic but I said Hygroscopic." And I said "There IS no word Hygroscopic, there is only Hydroscopic." 

After a frank and healthy exchange of views, we checked on Google. 

So what is the difference between Hydroscopic and Hygroscopic? Well I was half right; one's a word and one isn't.

That's right, there is no word hydroscopic ;-(

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen99/gen99896.htm

Question of the Week: What's the plural of sunglasses?

It's the very question that this guy at the Hatfield Car Boot sale apparently struggled with.

Question of the week: Can you see Lunar craters with the naked eye?

Ah there are just too many amazing things to explore up there and not enough time!

I want to get into studying double stars, quasars, and asteroids. Then there are the galaxies, the planetary nebulae, and clusters. And let's not forget the planets and the Moon. I've rather abandonded the Moon recently, which is a shame because of all the astronomical objects, the Moon is surely the most impressive one to view and image.

Last night  I revisited some of my images from before Christmas and found some pretty decent ones of Clavius and surrounding area. Clavius is one of the largest (diameter: 140 miles)and oldest (4 billion years old) lunar craters. I posted an image of it before, and also a video of it through the eyepiece of the 10" scope 

Close by is another very well known crater, Tycho. In fact if you've ever looked up at the full Moon you will have seen it because it's surrounded by a bright ejecta blanket with rays spreading out across the whole of the southern area of the Moons surface.  Take a look when the Moon is full next week; you can't miss it, even with the naked eye. It's the white blob at the bottom.

(Wikipedia)

Here's the best of the photos I took before Christmas. Clavius is in the top right and Tycho is the smaller crater just below the centre. It's a composite image of around 130 separate frames:

 

Question of the week: Are there planets around binary stars?

A friend at work just asked me if there are planets around binary stars. I said I was sure there were, but then started to think: what would the orbit be? would it be stable? Do we actually have any evidence of such planets?

Thank goodness for Google I say:

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/980122c.html 

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2007/04/alien_sunsets_b.html 

Walter Cruttenden thinks our Sun is part of a binary system too, but to be fair, he is completely mad:

http://www.consciousmedianetwork.com/members/wcruttenden2.htm 

and a poor grasp of punctuation too, which is even more unforgivable: "...the Sun may indeed have it's proper angular momentum..."