Ippoippo

Bloody awful this is.

The BBC have an article up about the ‘pre-uni’ Maths tests in China, compared with the 1st Year Uni tests in the UK.
I don’t care what anyone says… school tests in the UK are getting easier. The exams I did back in the 90′s were certainly easier than the ones from the 80s (we used 80′s papers for preparation).
Looking at the UK 1st Year Uni question… I was doing that when I was 14-15 years old (if I recall correctly), maybe earlier.

Mind you, it seems that the Chinese, and Far East Asian countries like Japan, Korea etc are also just better at maths anyway. I remember reading something that suggested it was because the language was a lot more logical and regular in the naming of numbers that led to children basic maths concepts at an earlier age. English speaking kids find it harder, because they are effectively fighting against the language as well. Interesting theory anyway.

… except in this case, I’m not against it. About time fashion statements did some good.

I hope this letter to the NorthWest Arkansa News is just a bit of dry, sarcastic humour…. is it???!!! Please tell me it is?

You may have noticed that March of this year was particularly hot. As a matter of fact, I understand that it was the hottest March since the beginning of the last century. All of the trees were fully leafed out and legions of bugs and snakes were crawling around during a time in Arkansas when, on a normal year, we might see a snowflake or two. This should come as no surprise to any reasonable person. As you know, Daylight Saving Time started almost a month early this year. You would think that members of Congress would have considered the warming effect that an extra hour of daylight would have on our climate. Or did they ? Perhaps this is another plot by a liberal Congress to make us believe that global warming is a real threat. Perhaps next time there should be serious studies performed before Congress passes laws with such far-reaching effects.
CONNIE M. MESKIMEN / Hot Springs

Doh!!!

That was the verdict over the killing of Lucie Blackman in Japan.

It’s a tough one this… from what I understand, the evidence was somewhat lax in the case of Blackman’s death. However, taking into account the sentencing for all the other incidents and the offer for ‘condolence money’, one does have to wonder.

I think part of the issue in this, is that once again the Japanese police have let us down (I reckon). It seems that Japan’s 98% conviction rate is pretty much down to the fact that most people end up just confessing to whatever they did wrong. It just seems to me the Japanese police is unable to handle situations where they have to investigate stuff!

Who knows.

There’s more discussion here and here.