What I Learnt Today

Australia had better hope that Western Samoa claim some big scalps in the upcoming World Cup, or July 17th will forever be a National Day of Celebration in Western Samoa.

Samoa has a population of only 170,000. Most people still live a traditional life, in which most of the day is spent in communal activity. Sport is a feature of daily life. Sunday is reserved as God’s day, and the different denominations represented in each village will gather in their own church before coming together for a Fia Fia. Saturday is devoted to the one religion that unites each village in war against it’s neighbours – Rugby.

When we travelled in Samoa last year, the country was celebrating it’s victory in the World Rugby Sevens championship. It is not a team that should be underestimated.

The Wallabies today were rocked by the ferocity of the Samoan game. The men in Blue have always been known for their physicality and attacking flare – today they demonstrated structure and consistency in defense, and the Wallabies had no answer. Many of the best Samoan players now play for European clubs, and are available for their national team, rather then being adopted by New Zealand or Australia.

Samoa beat the Welsh in the World Cup, and that event remains central to Samoan rugby lore. The Welsh will now be very happy to share their prominent role in Samoa’s rugby history with the Australians.

 

View or Add Comment

The girls last night saw Mary Poppins and her umbrella fly over the rooftops and land on the stage of the Capitol Theatre. Bert, Jane, Michael and Mary danced with the chimney sweeps, had tea on the ceiling, jumped into the world of toys, and flew kites. A supercalafragilistic time was had by all.

Who created these enduring characters? Perhaps someone who grew up with a string of horrible nannies and distant parents and dreamed of a better life? Surely a Londoner who had daily contact with the upstairs/downstairs world and was familiar with cockney life?

Or was Mary Poppins created by a team of writers from the Disney Studios to showcase young talents Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyck?

Would you believe that the entire world of Number 17 Cherry Tree Lane was created by a girl from Maryborough in rural Queensland?

PJ Travers was the JK Rowling of her time, and like her creation Mary Poppins, even when famous, she ‘never told anybody anything’.

Travers was born in 1899 as Helen Coff, in Maryborough, where her father Travers worked in a bank. he was born in London, but had Irish connections, which meant that he considered himself a romantic poet and drank too much. He and his eldest daughter would sit at night and make up stories about the stars.

He died when she was seven, and the family moved to Bowral, supported by a very strict great aunt. I wonder if she met a young Don Bradman, 9 years her junior?

She had a brief career as a dancer and actress, then as a poet and journalist. In 1924, aged 25, she left Australia and travelled to England to seek her fortune. She never returned.

Mary Poppins was published in 1934. Another seven books about her adventures were published subsequently, the last in 1988!

It was the Disney movie of 1964 that brought her fame and fortune. Ironically, she hated it, and refused to give Disney permission to use her character again.

Pamela Travers died in London in 1996, aged 97.

Add a comment

How can you keep your brain sharp?

What should you eat?

Is ‘Use it Or Lose It’ a proven technique?

How much sleep?

Does exercise help?

The Alliance for Ageing Research has compiled the latest research to help you keep your brain in top shape.

http://www.agingresearch.org/section/topic/brainhealthresearch

Add a comment

You are a contestant on ‘Pick A Box’, and have won your way through to the final round.

“As our champion of the night, you get the chance to win our major prize – a brand new Holden!  Pick a door, and the prize behind it is yours” says the host, Bob Dyer.

There are three doors – behind one of them is a car, and behind each of the other two doors is a goat.

The organs plays some thinking music, the audience call out suggestions, and you pick door number 1.

Bob is a pro, and knows how to build suspense. “Our champ has picked door number 1. Dolly, let’s see what he would have won if had picked door number 3”, he says.

The room is silent. Bob’s glamorous assistant Dolly slides opens Door Number 3. The audience gasps. A goat stands quietly behind it, chewing it’s cud.

(Bob knows what’s behind all the door. Every night he opens another door, and every night it reveals a goat)

“Now champ”, says Bob. “You have a choice. You can stick with your original selection, or change to Door Number 2. What’ll it be – stick or change”

What should you do? Which option gives you the best chance of winning – switching, staying, or is it 50:50 whatever you do.

This ‘Monty Hall Problem’ was first posed by Steven Selvin in 1975, and received widespread publicity when it featured in Parade Magazine in 1990. (Monty Hall was the original host of the US “Let’s Make a Deal”. He was therefore their version of our own Bob Dyer)

Here’s a clue. The correct answer is famously counter-intuitive. 90% of people answer incorrectly. 10000 people wrote to Parade magazine saying that the author of the article had made a mistake, and 1000 of these had a PhD. Yet the solution is simple.

One of the options gives double the chance of the other!

When you’re ready to decide, read the explanation on Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem

The Sydney University Football Club Puzzle is a variation on the Monty Hall Problem, but remains unexplained by mathematicians and scientists. Australia’s oldest Rugby club has been raffling the same bottle of Scotch at home games for at least 30 years, and possibly since the formation of the club in 1863. Yet despite the hundreds of tickets that are sold every week, no one ever seems to hold the winning number. Perhaps the current custodian of the bottle, Andrew C, can explain this mystery.

Pick-A-Box started on Sydney radio 2GB in 1948, and made the transition to television in 1957. It was a stalwart of Australian viewing until 1971!

I’ve always wondered why Barry Jones became famous as a contestant on the show. It turns out that he was more than just a contestant – he won 208 episodes between 1960 and 1967! Of course, he went on to become a minister in the Hawke government and president of the Australian Labor Party.

You can watch Episode 170, featuring Barry Jones, in the Australian screen archives

Take the money, Barry

Add a comment

Working out which mobile phone plan is best for you is not rocket science – its much more complicated than that.

Australian site WhistleOut has taken out their slide rules and produced this ‘infogram’ demonstrating how many minutes of call time you get with each of the various deals available. They have assumed an average call time of 3 minutes, and ignored SMS for this graph.

If you want a more individualised comparison you can check out the other tools on their site, or ask your nearest boy genius.

Source WhistleOut

Add a comment