What I Learnt Today

The chef in our kitchen rules! *

Tomight she prepared a lovely oozy mushroom risotto accompanied by grilled mushrooms with garlic, rosemary and thyme and a cucumber, spinach and pinenut salad.

With a bit of help from Jamie and his 30 minute recipe series.

* PS Is it just me, or is My Kitchen Rules the worst show ever shown on television?

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Driven by the challenge of K Rudd, Ms Gillard has left no stone unturned to make sure that anything Tony can do, she can do better.

So, Mr Abbott may have won a Rhodes scholarship, been awarded two University Blues for boxing, and played first grade rugby for Syney University. These photos show that Ms Gillard is in secret training to nullify any advantage he might have from the sporting electorate.

You can box – but I can wrestle. Tap out, Tony

I may be skating on this ice, but at least I’m skating

Theres no me in team (unless you rearrange the letters and leave out ‘at’)

I’ll see your tight head and raise you a loose head.

The final nail – I’ve got the numbers to run for president of the Front Rowers Club.

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The Google Doodle today is in honour of Heinrich Hertz, who would have been celebrating his 155th birthday  – if he hadn’t died from Wegener’s granulomatosis in 1894, or something else since then.

Hertz was the first to conclusively prove the existence of electromagnetic waves.

In 1930, the Hertz was made the SI unit of frequency which measures the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon.

Google frequently replaces its familiar Goooogle logo with a special design to commemorate special days. It has used animated images such as the Hertz logo only rarely.

Happy birthday, Heinrich.

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Tomorrow is Ash Wedneday.

Are you giving up coffee for Lent?

No. Neither am I.

There is good evidence that caffeine provides a stimulus to mental alertness. 

It also acts as a legal performance enhancer for sports – the AIS has a guide to it use. 

(Alex Watson was ahead of his time)

And it is well known that all decent computer software is developed in the early hours of the morning ‘under the influence’ of caffeine. (What ever happened to Jolt Cola?)

And we have already reported in WILT that Paul Erdos says that “A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems”

However, too much caffeine causes sleeplessness, irritability and nausea.

How much to have?

Researchers at Penn State University to the rescue!

Caffeine Zone is an iPhone app that monitors, predicts, and displays a user’s caffeine level in real-time based on a pharmacokinetic model and the user’s input of when they consume caffeine. 

The app warns you if you’re about to consume a coffee that will put you over the sleep threshold, while it also alerts you if you could do with one more cup.

Caffeine Zone users can enter their caffeine consumption and the app generates a line chart of predicted caffeine level for the next 24 hours. It also shows a cognitive active zone, an area of level where most people will feel active, and sleep zone, an area of caffeine level where most people will be able to sleep. These values are adjustable. These zones can be changed to represent individual differences”

How much Caffeine in my drink?

According to the International Coffee Association, an espresso has about 115 mg, Instant Coffee 65, Cup of tea about 60mg, Coca Cola about 50mg and Red Bull 80g.

See you in the green zone.

 

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What makes a difference in educational outcomes for school students?

Class sizes? Infrastructure? Access to resources? Laptops for students?

The research has one answer.

The quality of the teacher.

And where are we investing our money?

If you missed 4 Corners this week, it is well worth a look.

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2012/02/06/3421391.htm

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