All about Numbers

The numbers we all use (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) are known as "arabic" numbers to distinguish them from the "Roman Numerals" (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, etc). Actually the arabs popularized these numbers but they were originally used by the early phonecian traders to count and keep track of their trading accounts.

Have you ever thought why ........ 1 means "one", and 2 means "two"? The roman numerals are easy to understand but what was the logic behind the phonecian numbers?



It's all about angles !
It's the number of angles. If one writes the numbers down (see below) on a piece of paper in their older forms, one quickly sees why. I have marked the angles with "o"s.
No 1 has one angle.

No 2 has two angles.

No 3 has three angles. etc.

.....

and "O" has no angles

10 things you never knew about chocolate

10. The Aztecs drunk it



Chocolate was originally a cold drink whisked from cocoa beans by the Aztecs - and women were not allowed to drink it.





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9. It was more valuable than gold



When Cortes conquered the Aztecs in 1520, he found that cocoa beans were prized higher than gold.





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8. It was named in the 17th century



The word 'chocolate' was first recorded in English use in 1604.





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7. It helped found the British Museum



The British Museum owes its very existence to chocolate. It was based on the personal collection of Hans Soane, who invented milk chocolate.





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6. Chocolate bar an English invention



The bar of chocolate was invented by JS Fry and Sons of Bristol in 1847.





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5. Expensive egg



Last year's most expensive chocolate egg was encrusted with more than 100 diamonds and made for La Maison du Chocolat with a £50,000 prize tag.





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4. Royal approval



On New Year's Day 1900, Queen Victoria sent 100,000 boxes of chocolates as a personal gift to soldiers fighting in the Boer War.





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3. Brits can't get enough of it



The average person living in the UK - man, woman or child - spends over £1 a week on chocolate.





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2. The King loved it!



The last food Elvis Presley ate comprised four scoops of ice cream and six chocolate chip cookies.





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1. Egg-cellent selection



Woolworths is this year selling 170 varieties of chocolate Easter egg.

What is a dream?

Rabbit's Ph.D. Thesis

Scene It's a fine sunny day in the forest, and a rabbit is sitting outside his burrow, tippy-tapping on his typewriter. Along comes a fox, out for a walk.
Fox "What are you working on?"
Rabbit "My thesis."
Fox "Hmmm. What's it about?"
Rabbit "Oh, I'm writing about how rabbits eat foxes." (incredulous pause)
Fox "That's ridiculous! Any fool knows that rabbits don't eat foxes."
Rabbit "Sure they do, and I can prove it. Come with me."
They both disappear into the rabbit's burrow. After a few minutes, the rabbit returns, alone, to his typewriter and resumes typing.

Soon, a wolf comes along and stops to watch the hardworking rabbit.
Wolf "What's that you're writing?"
Rabbit "I'm doing a thesis on how rabbits eat wolves." (loud guffaws)
Wolf "You don't expect to get such rubbish published, do you?"
Rabbit "No problem. Do you want to see why?"
The rabbit and the wolf go into the burrow, and again the rabbit returns by himself, after a few minutes, and goes back to typing.

Scene: inside the rabbit's burrow. In one corner, there is a pile of fox bones. In another corner, a pile of wolf bones. On the other side of the room, a huge lion is belching and picking his teeth.

Moral: It doesn't matter what you choose for a thesis subject. It doesn't matter what you use for data. What does matter is who you have for a thesis advisor.

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