4.48 Psychosis

The string of numbers (100, 91, 84, 81, 72, 69, 58, 44, 37, 38, 42, 21, 28, 12, 7) in the title of this blog comes from the Tindersticks song 4.48 Psychosis, which takes its name from the Sarah Kane play 4.48 Psychosis. The truly wonderful Isabelle Huppert is currently starring in 4.48 Psychose (as it is now called) at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
4.48 a.m. is apparently the time when you are most lucid and thus most prone to suicide.

I have seen the Tindersticks in concert a few times over the years. I saw two contrasting shows in 2001.

1. Subterranea, London – only a couple of hundred people at this one. This was part of Rough Trade’s 25th anniversary celebrations. The band appeared slightly nervous – one song was restarted, another abandoned. The atmosphere was great, the audience listening to each note, each word in quiet reverence. Apart from one loud-mouthed person behind me: “I liked that one… what are they called again? The timber sticks? Weird name.”

2. Royal Albert Hall, London – a few thousand at this one. The band was exquisitely supported by a 17 piece string ensemble, brass section and backing singers (would have had trouble fitting onto the stage at the Subterranea). The band had clearly rehearsed in the hall and got the right level of amplification for band members, providing one of the best sounding concerts I have attended. I can compare this to concerts at the Royal Albert Hall by Morrissey and Elton John (on separate occasions), who appeared to have turned up, plugged in and played, without thinking about how to work the unique acoustics of the hall.
The support act was the excellent David Kitt, who has since become a favourite of mine.

Search Requests

As we’re at the end of the month, I thought I would have a quick look at my website stats to see how people arrived here during September.
This month sixteen different search engines brought visitors this way.
350 hits via Google.
90 hits via Yahoo.
30 hits via Ask Jeeves.
What were people searching for? A sample:

sufjan stevens pronunciation
margarine pronounce
how to pronounce isadora
breathalyzer eat chapstick
water molecule
Air wick
cricket modes of dismissal
a house endless art all dead yet still alive
frying bacon in the oven
stutter rap
tree face
mango peach smoothie
stutter lyrics i st-st-st-st-st-st-st- stutter
teal is the new black
he is not so much singing but sermonizing his tragedy perhaps is that the audience is preoccupied with song
bicycle repair
woody allen rice is good when of something
questions on myself
moon songs
purple is the new black
woody allen anything else bunuel
where we re from the birds sing a pretty song and there is always music
daniella westbrook chav
lorry sheds load

Bra Wars

It looks like Peter Mandelson may be about to end the EU-China textile row (aka Bra Wars). Although its policy has fallen apart, the European Commission were quick to deflect responsibilty- it is the fault of the Chinese (breaking the agreement) and the “blocking minority” of protectionist-minded Southern European countries (not releasing goods).

I wondered if this would affect me. I just had a look in my wardrobe to see where my recent clothing purchases were made (I had no idea what I’d find, never look at labels):

UK: 4 items
China: 2
USA: 2
Egypt: 1
Malaysia: 1
Portugal: 1

There were a few items that did not mention where they were made (or the details were well hidden) and one t-shirt had the following, humorous label:

come join the youth and beauty brigade

This week I have been listening to lots of music:
The Decemberists
David Kitt
The White Stripes
John Cale
The Fall
Bob Dylan
The B-52’s
Natasha Bedingfield
Neutral Milk Hotel
Iron & Wine

Air Wick or Haze

I just purchased a cellophaned four-pack of air fresheners. Two of them say ‘Air Wick formerly Haze‘ and the other two say ‘Haze soon to be Air Wick‘. Talk about being in the right place at the right time; is this cool or what?

Quadratic Equations

Another situation cropped up last night when a basic knowedge of quadratic equations proved very useful.
Richard Bacon posed a problem on Radio Five Live:

There is a round robin football tournament, where each team plays every other team once and once only. If there are 91 matches in total, how many teams take part?

If there are n teams, then they have to play the other n – 1 teams, making a total of n(n – 1), but each game is counted twice, so the total number of matches must be n(n – 1)/2.*

So: n(n – 1)/2 = 91

=> n(n – 1) = 182

=> n² – n = 182

=> n² – n – 182 = 0

=> (n – 14) (n + 13) = 0

So there must be 14 teams in the tournament, since a tournament with -13 teams does not make much sense.

*The number of matches can also be viewed as a simple arithmetic series:

Team 1 plays n-1 games
Team 2 plays n-2 games (not counting the game with team 1)
Team 3 plays n-3 games (not counting the games with teams 1 and 2)
.
.
Team n-1 plays 1 game with team n (not including the games counted before).

So the total number of games is:
1 + 2 + 3 + … + (n-2) + (n-1) = n(n-1)/2

Walking On Air

This afternoon I sent off some year seven students with digital cameras – they were taking photos for leaflets they were making about the school. Most came back with photos of displays, the sportsfield, the trophy cabinet, the buildings, and students and teachers both in action and posing.
One pair took a little longer than the others – they had decided to snap the headteacher in his office. Brave boys. When I was that age, I would have been far too scared to undertake such a mission. One of them told me how impressed he was with the headteacher’s office: "It’s really amazing, especially the carpet – it’s like walking on air."

GCSE Maths

I am an examiner for Edexcel GCSE maths.
I was surprised when I learned of the grading boundaries a few weeks ago. Friends (teachers and others) were incredulous when I explained that, on the paper that I marked, candidates scoring 45% earned an A grade and those scoring 13% earned a C.
This is now being talked about in the press: The Mirror, The Independent, and others.

Shadow Education Secretary Tim Collins said of the marking: “All those who sit GCSE maths will know that 45 per cent is not even half marks and therefore can’t possibly be the benchmark for an ‘A’ grade.”

Not true, Tim. I know from experience that there are plenty of students sitting GCSE maths each year who cannot convert between percentages and fractions.

Staples to buy Office World

I love shopping for office equipment and stationery- I like to have the lastest stapler, shredder, post-it notes etc.
I was surprised to read today that Staples is going to buy Office World; my two favourite shops becoming one means fewer fun trips at the weekend.

On a related note, many people have admired my crocodile ruler – you can get these from the Early Learning Center.

Oslo, Norway

I went to Oslo at half term – here are a couple of photos of the cool things I saw.

This guy stood motionless for ages; the slogan was written in Norwegian on the front.

The road outside this bookshop was cordoned off while workmen shovelled the books in through the doorway.