GOOD TV

[Stanley]

The EU train crash is still happening in slow motion David. I think it will eventually be extremely serious....
Moh, I haven't looked at Poldark, might catch it on the repeats.... The way Timothy West and Prunella Scales address her memory loss is so endearing.....

[Stanley]

I'm still recording the repeats of World At War on BBC2. Still riveting TV.

[Stanley]

Will Hutton last night on Selling Britain Off.... food for thought!

[Stanley]

Last episode of the World at War repeats yesterday. Made in 1973, it is still a wonderful series and I'm sorry it has finished.

[Stanley]

I enjoyed Diarmaid McCullough’s programme on sex and the church last night until my TV died!

[Stanley]

Watched Diarmaid again last night on the computer. I could see all the naughty bits clearly......

[Tripps]

Watched University Challenge final tonight. Quite chuffed to answer a starter question which defeated both teams. Question on dB ratios.

I thought that Paxo's answer to a question which the which the team got wrong, was also wrong.

University Challenge final. ( 15mins 10 secs )

He asked - What is the equation of a circle whose centre is at the origin, and passes through the points where the x and y coordinates equal 1. The team said x²+y²=Root2.
Paxo said no = 2. I think it is = 1. Any thoughts from maths whizz's?

Really should get out more.

[Stanley]

The lad on the left from Gonville was brilliant with the starter questions based on classics.... Can't help with the sums, all gobbledygook to me.....#
All TV is 'good' now I have the correct colours......

[plaques]

What is the equation of a circle whose centre is at the origin, and passes through the points where the x and y coordinates equal 1. The team said x2+y2=Root2.

The team is correct in saying that the radius would be root 2. But using it in Pie xR squared.(don't know how to show up mathematical functions) would bring it back to 2. So they are both technically right. Since a circle has only one variable the radius is the only thing you can use in any equation. Squaring the circle, ie; using the radius to obtain the area, required the constant Pie to be calculated. Pie is one of those number sequences that seems to defy all logic.

[Tripps]

I've had another think, this time without the benefit of Lidl's S.Australian Shiraz.

If the circle's centre is at the origin, and it passes through the point where x=1 (y=0) then its radius must be the distance from the origin to the curve; thus = 1. A circle can have only one radius. I rest my case m'lud.

[Stanley]

I'm pretty good on Vulgar Fractions.......

[plaques]

Tripps Your latest post is correct but you have changed the goal posts or should I say axis position. Don't want to disagree with you so if you send me a bottle of Shiraz we can both get into the same frame of mind.

[Tripps]

Seconds out - Round 2.

Yes - what I said above is right, but having checked again that wasn't the question.

Jeremy asked for the equation of a circle which passed through the point(1,1). I had taken it as when it passed through (1,0) , and (0,1). The students gave the radius of the circle root2, as their answer, whereas the equation for the circle is x²+y²=r². Thus r² is 2. It was all a long time ago.

So Paxman was correct. How could I have thought otherwise.
Curses. In vino non veritas!

[Stanley]

Jeremy will read this and be relieved..... What strikes me is that even tough all this is beyond my ken, if you asked me to divide a circle into say 179 equal divisions I could do it easily using tangential dividing gear on my lathes and other tools. Mind you, I'd have to read up the calculations first to refresh my memory..... (in theory the above holds true for any number but of course you eventually run into problems with scale)

[Stanley]

Really enjoyed Diarmaid doing his second programme on sex and the church last night. (it wasn't interrupted by the set going AWOL!)
If you missed it, well worth watching, some surprising facts if you've never looked at the history of marriage.....

[Stanley]

For the last two nights I have watched a couple of the 'quiet TV' programmes that BBC4 screened. The one of the man making the chair was brilliant! I watched the two hour canal trip last night and although it wasn't as interesting as the chair maker I felt no pain and sat there quietly watching the canal roll past. I think we need more of these.....

[Tizer]

We watched a recording of the glassblower `quiet' programme last night. Mrs Tiz enjoyed it but I'd have been happier with it being 15 minutes instead of 30. I did enjoy the lack of inane voice-over and music though!

I wrote recently how `Coast' is one of my favourite TV programmes but I was a bit disappointed with the Norfolk Island one. It had less variety and the sound quality was bad - every time there was a Neil Oliver dubbed voice it was much quieter than the rest of the programme. No wonder so many people have been complaining about BBC sound quality. They don't seem to think it matters any more. The Australia series of Coast I've enjoyed for the fabulous landscapes but these programmes seem to have an obsession with the bad side of life - the prisons, the war, inequality. The BBC on its politically correct bandwagon again!

Did any of you watch the first programme of the series about the demolition men?

[Stanley]

Yes I watched the demolition prog and recognised some of the men.... From the trail I suspect there will be local interest in the next programme, the dropping of Glen chimney at Colne. Slightly better than the usual run of demo programmes.
I'm not a big fan of Dan Snow, a bit too much of pics showing him doing heroic things.... But the Armada programme last night was good because of the new information that has been gleaned from the Madrid documents.

[Tripps]

"the Armada programme last night was good because of the new information that has been gleaned from the Madrid documents.

I agree - bumped into it whilst surfing the TV. Were there really so many ships?
Can't wait for the next episode.

[Stanley]

Nice to know our views coincide again David. I shall overcome my dislike of the presenter syndrome and watch the next two episodes.....

[Tripps]

Did you watch the 'demolition' of Winston Churchill last night? Mainly why he lost the 1945 election - boy did the pollsters get that one wrong.
A bit confusing at times due to the mixture of contemporary film with modern reconstruction, but very interesting.

I missed the start - surfing again - but they said he was drunk during many of his speeches, and his ''fight them on the beaches' speech was in fact recorded nine years later, and only delivered live and not recorded, in the Commons. I vaguely remember it was said a few years ago, that an actor in fact recorded most of his speeches. Which is true?

I enjoyed seeing Walthamstow Dogs packed to the rafters for a rally, and they say he and his car were physically attacked afterwards. My mother told me that he was offered the Freedom of Oldham, (he was once the MP), but never dared to come and claim it. After seeing that - maybe it was true.

[Stanley]

There was a lot of propaganda surrounding Churchill as he was undoubtedly such an asset during the war but it's generally accepted that he had many flaws, one of which was his drinking. Towards the end of the war he made many mistakes due largely to old age and inflexibility, he started to believe his own advertising. It didn't help when he compared the Labour Party to Nazis in a hustings speech when he said that a Socialist State would need a version of the Gestapo in order to govern....
Yes, there was a rumour that an impersonator re-recorded may of his speeches later. It was said to be Norman Shelley (LINK) but as this came from the disgraced historian David Irving there is doubt about this. The Wikipedia article is probably very near the truth.
He was also infamous in his early political career for tergivisating....

[Stanley]

Watched episode two (one more to come) of Dan Snow's Armada... Apart from the repetition and the heroic yachtsman images it was again an interesting and informative programme..... Looking forward to episode 3 next Sunday.....

[Tripps]

Don't tell me how it finished - that would spoil it for me.

Amazing that all those letters, in ink on paper, have survived for nearly five hundred years.

[Stanley]

They are the king pin of research on which the whole programme is based. It makes you wonder how many seriously important bits of paper are laid about in archives waiting to be discovered and analysed.