Currently many students are busy with their exams and unfortunately...the number of scripts we have to correct is increasing by the day!
I was online sometime ago, and i noticed a funny display message, please see below:
If you cannot see it properly it reads: 'Why is it zat all zose lecturers have a smile and seem happy....If only they knew how zey are being cursed'
Come On!!!
Anyways, I hope there are exceptions to that statement!!!!
I had a very nice little conversation with Yash yesterday...in what started as a theological discussion on Agni ('The Hindu God of Fire') who consumes all the offerings made during prayers, and brings them to the actual Gods. Since all the offerings are burnt, the delivery service is quicker than FedEx. I know this comparison will shock some of you...
Well lets get back to the conversation with Yash, we were talking about forces, inertia and ... then i told him about a phenomenon i read about sometime back. Its called Coriolis forces, its due to the rotation of the earth about its axis.
This is why a whirlpool in a basin, and cyclonic winds spin in opposite directions in the north and south hemisphere.
You can read more about it. Avinash also told me that in one episode of James Bond, he used this technique to know in which hemisphere he was. Our conversation led us to Eco-Light and Photoluminescent paints.. Just think about it people - lets assumed we used photoluminescent paints on our buildings, we could consequently decrease the power used for street lightings in towns by switching on the lights later.
We also talked about electromechanical UPS using a magnetic field to decrease power loss due to frictional forces. I also told him about my MSc Project Supervisor Professor Norman Revell, one of the brightest persons i met, who wanted to make a universal charger to charge mobiles, cameras, wireless mouse, coffee.... using an induction charger which looked like a mouse pad and which was USB powered. Unfortunately, Professor Revell died last year, a big loss to me, because he was a very inspiring person, and participated tremendously to MSc Project, by his sharp supervision and he helped me get in touch with industry people from Polaris UK and also a very famous researchers from Oxford. Rest In Peace Professor Revell. God Bless you humility and kindness
Well I met someone interesting lately, and its Miss Carrot, she is very good company and she is very funny. We fight a lot...no we argue a lot...no! no! no!..rather we discuss a lot. Its always nice to chat to people with different perspectives...it opens up the mind..and as someone once said....The mind is like a parachute: It works best when it is open! Anyways, Miss Carrot is very nice and funny!!! She has a lot of imagination and gosh she is sharp, and impulsive!
I am looking forward to doing something soon: put a feedback form online as one of my 'famous' poll questions.....i think i will do that on the 30th of May....at least the students will be able to tell me what they think, and i will disable moderation for that day, that is the comments will appear instantaneously on the blog ....well that 'instantaneously' might mean after minutes ....we are still in a third world country when it comes Internet Speed...come on Mauritius Telecoms......sorry Orange.....it is so unfair....The fair use policy is sooooo unfair.
About a week ago, I was watching the news on TF1 and the french Minister of Education Xavier Darcos, whereby he suggested a 'besoin de la France de se recentrer sur les fondamentaux'. Please read this article..its very nice. The french were used to being very good in Maths, but looks like its changing and their Minister is worried about it...they are willing to decrease the content of the syllabus of other subjects to devote more time to Maths and French Language. I was in the bus this morning and there was a form 4 girl who as unable to find the roots the equation below by factorisation.
Y=3 x2+8x+4....where are we heading....may be our syllabus needs to be REVIEWED and and to me reviewed DOES NOT MEAN SIMPLIFIED.
If a country like france is doing it and taking the right steps when they see a decrease in performance, may be instead of removing stuff like Iterative methods like Newton-Raphson and ......may be we should do the same! Else our students will keep getting worse...and i am worried because they need to pay for my pension
Lol....many of you might still be waiting for the politics section...unfortunately, i have not watched the news lately.
So see you soon!!!
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