But sitting here it occurs to me that blogging is one of the most effective ways to avoid doing anything with any real purpose. I can also simultaneously look very purposeful whilst I'm typing - just in case someone comes over and asks what it is exactly I'm doing (I'm in an IT room busy Not Understanding Maths. At All.)
The highlight of the week so far: Giant Snap.
The rules are this;
1. In order to play Giant Snap you must gather as many people as humanly possible to play. The minimum we decided on was 10.
2. Sit these people down in a circle and grab at least two packs of cards. Shuffley them together.
3. Deal your cards (no looking, bending or chewing, please.)
4. Go around the circle in a clockwise direction, starting with the person to the left of the dealer, each person placing one card face up on a pile in the middle.
5. When you see two matching numbers come up next to each other, throw as much of your anatomy as you can on top of the pile, screaming 'SNAP!!!' and injuring as many other players as you can in the proces..
6. No biting, scratching, licking, chewing, rings, watches, long nails (bit of a problem, this), kicking, pointed weapons, blunt weapons, coughing, sneezing, willy waving, wedgies or verbal abuse.
There were eleven of us sitting in a large circle on the common room floor during a free period, freaking out the rest of the occupants of the room by our frequent screams of 'SNAP!!!HAHAHAAA!OWMYHAND'
We limped to chemistry and most of us had trouble writing properly.
In an attempt to make myself seem more attractive to universities of the future (and thinking uncharacteristically far ahead) I've joined a course at the university in town. It's called 'The Brain' and looks at a mix of biology and psychology, and I love it! Last week I got to fiddle around with a human brain (not as pink or as squidgy as you'd think) and we've looked at our perception of things and whether we have control over it.
I didn't understand most of what the (really rather too intelligent) German lecturer was saying because of the long words he was using to say it with, but my basic understanding was this; perception is largely based on context.
I have no idea whether this picture will be seeable or not, but it's worth a try.
Now, this isn't the greatest example but it's the best I could find and it'll serve the purpose. Take a couple of seconds to see what you can see. Make a note of it if you wish, there may be a test later. I saw an Eskimo (politically correct? I don't know. Eskimo'll do for now) . The reson for this, according to my German friend, is that I was concentrating to the right of the picture, where the darkness is. Because of this I naturally saw the Eskimo because it is what your brain would expect to see, it makes sense. Eskimos look into caves all the time, right? And if you did concentrate on the darkness -like I did- then it wouldn't be very likely for your brain to construct the second image (the face of the Indian) because why would there be a face in the middle of darkness? So if you were concentrating on the lighter side you would see an Indian face looking into the light rather than an Eskimo with his back to the light. That simply wouldn't make as much sense.
Making sense? I thought so. There was another thing like it where there was a picture that could be seen as either a duck or a rabbit, it depends on how you saw it. But one half of our group saw this picture next to a chick, so you'd make the link between a duck and a chick and the majority of the group saw a duck. The second freaky duck/chick hybrid was shown next to a more hare-like creature so the second half of the group saw a larger amount of rabbits, simply because your brain goes 'There's a hare there. Ah, so that must be a rabbit, I've made the linky.'
Simple.
Oh, and if there's anyone out there on the beautiful world wide watsit who can explain the intricacies of binomial distribution to me it'd be much appreciated, since my maths teacher's currently engrossed in eBay and is really quite ineffectual.
x
Making sense? I thought so. There was another thing like it where there was a picture that could be seen as either a duck or a rabbit, it depends on how you saw it. But one half of our group saw this picture next to a chick, so you'd make the link between a duck and a chick and the majority of the group saw a duck. The second freaky duck/chick hybrid was shown next to a more hare-like creature so the second half of the group saw a larger amount of rabbits, simply because your brain goes 'There's a hare there. Ah, so that must be a rabbit, I've made the linky.'
Simple.
Oh, and if there's anyone out there on the beautiful world wide watsit who can explain the intricacies of binomial distribution to me it'd be much appreciated, since my maths teacher's currently engrossed in eBay and is really quite ineffectual.
x
