Here's something you can try at home

I think I mentioned the two '50 ideas...' books I bought at the fête a while ago. I've been working through the Maths one – Chris has the Physics book; I'll be looking at that later so watch out. The sections on number sequences were fascinating but yesterday I got to non-Euclidean geometry. This was equally intriguing. Until I had read this, I thought that  the angles of any triangle always added up to 180°. But that's only in Euclidean geometry. You can make a triangle with three right angles! You'll need an orange. Another spherical fruit will do, I suppose, but an orange is best. You'll also need a sharp knife. I guess at this point I should warn you about the dangers... so be careful! Hold the orange upright. Now cut a horizontal line around the centre of the orange – the equator – and go a quarter of the way round. Now make two cuts at right-angles to this cut towards the top of the orange, one at each end, and continue these till they meet. They will meet at right angles, too. So you have made a triangle with three 90° angles – the total is now 270° not 180.

More communications

The morning after I blogged about modern communications, the Thought for the Day on Today resonated with my theme. I've copied the text below (probably in contravention to the BBC copyright – sorry about that!) and you can hear John Bell by going to the BBC web site and searching on the date 11/08/2010. If you'd like a copy of the podcast, e-mail me.

I'm sorry if I'm an avid BBC R4 listener – but things are getting worse: my son-in-law now reluctantly admits to listening to it in the car (he says 'occasionally')

John Bell's Thought:

After hearing the news yesterday I realised that I possibly broke the law last Friday.

I managed to spy on someone else's mobile phone.

It's now an increasingly frequent phenomenon. Fraudsters can tap into the range of information stored on mobiles and then run amok with the owner's credit facilities. Or they may choose to interfere with private correspondence. Or, via satellite communication, they may be able to identify the location of the owner at any given time.

In my defence, I didn't do anything so devious. I just observed data. And I did it in the comfort of the Royal Albert Hall during a stunning performance of Beethoven's 3rd Piano Concerto.

Other people were doing it too: my friend on my right and a woman on my left were equally distracted by the mobile in the row in front. We saw family photographs and text messages. Then we watched the phone's owner type in the word WASTED, enlarge it and show his handiwork to his two companions; this during the slow movement.

Had these been teenagers, it might have been excusable. But they were affluent young business types besotted, I suggest, with self-importance - a phenomenon greatly aided and abetted by the possession of this type of technology.

For if my diary, my address book, my emails, my text messages, my credit facilities are all available at the flick of a switch anywhere and at any time I want, my self-esteem is bound to rise. I must be an important person... so important that if I wish, in a public place like a concert hall, to see who has texted me in the past ten minutes, then I should do so, irrespective of whether my miniature lit screen and murmurs of approval annoy or distract those around me.

There is no denying the abundant advantages of a mobile phone, but who is in charge - it or me?

In one of his books, the late Metropolitan Anthony Bloom commented that if the telephone rang when he was praying, he simply asked God to get the caller to phone back if it was important.

What his Russian Orthodox faith did - in common with other religious and ethical beliefs - was to convince him that he was not the indispensable centre of the universe. A fulfilled life is not one where we are constantly wired up. It is one in which there is a time to disengage, to stand and stare, to relate face to face with others, to be taken in by great music... and thus to be taken out of ourselves.

I sometimes wonder whether, were Jesus around today, he might slightly amend one of his most famous observations and say, "You cannot serve God (or humanity) and Narcissus."

copyright 2010 BBC

Communications – more is less

Are communications getting better or worse? There's no doubt that technically communications have improved significantly over the last years. I can remember the time when we had to book a telephone call to Paris to tell our friends that their son, who was spending some time with us to improve his English, had arrived safely. Today, I received an e-mail from a friend who was “adrift in the Andaman Sea, west of Malaysia” but my PC noted that he was logged on and I could chat to him immediately. No doubt, I could have spoken to him via his mobile or Skype.

But have these improvements in the underlying technology actually improved information flow?

Why is this? Is it information overload? Are we confused by the various ways of recording information? Most people still rely on the calendar on the kitchen wall – which isn't integrated with the internet yet  fortunately. So we still have to remember to write the appointment down in the kitchen – not very easy when the invitation is received on the train. Are e-mails, once very significant, now so trivial or so common, now not treated seriously? Are they too impersonal? A year or two ago the Young Enterprise students I worked with seemed to communicate through Facebook but I hear that they have moved on – I haven't discovered where to – and left Facebook for their parents. Incidentally I have one Facebook friend who regularly has entries on her Facebook about her daughter “Xxx is the bestest daughter i could wish for i really do love her she is amazing! She blows me away!” We all suspect she leaves her PC logged on!

Maybe the youngsters have something to teach us. I remember being with a Young Enterprise group a few years ago with a potential new adviser who was used to working with adults but not teenagers. The YE company was trying to decide about Christmas cards: which of three designs should they chose to sell, should they do one only or two or all three. I said to the new adviser that the group would discuss this for ten minutes or so and would then come to a decision; they would all be committed to the decision and it would be clear to all what the decision was – but we would have no idea of how they came to the decision. And sure enough, the decision was arrived at, the were all fairly happy with the decision – or at least would go along with it – but how it all worked was a mystery.

More importantly, what can be done about this? At a practical level, I'm seeing people missing their slots on rotas – not a major concern but a worry but a symptom of the problem. Using more personal communications seems to help – although it appears to be more time-consuming. A face-to-face meeting is much more efficient than a phone call which itself is better than an e-mail, text or voicemail message. Research suggests that in a face-to-face interaction the majority of the communication is non-verbal. I hear this research is misquoted, nevertheless body language adds much to the interaction. When I was managing an international team, we worked very hard on ensuring that we could communicate effectively on the telephone, and in another situation, the introduction of videoconferencing was a significant improvement over the telephone. And although these calls were across the world, talking to people in Little Kingshill, South Heath and Ballinger is actually no different.

So – cut down on e-mails, phone more and meet in the pub often?

Captions

So far for the Cream Teas:

“Phew Rog.   Will Mrs Green and Mrs Harris ever bring us cake and tea...?”

“Don't worry, they're far too busy to notice us”

“If only the others could multi task”

The Little Hampden organ is on it's way

Our new (or restored) organ is nearly here! Ten days or so ago, I phoned John the restorer and was rather concerned to hear that he had a bad ankle and was not able to complete the last few tasks in the restoration of the organ. With a wedding on 27th August and plans afoot for a dedication service on the 29th, this was not the news I wanted to hear. Contingency plans were necessary – at least for the wedding. However another phone call last Friday brought better news: John was on his feet again and the organ would be ready in a few days.

After looking at various options, I've opted for a 'man with a van' and I'll go with them to Warminster to help collect the organ on Monday next week. John will come up to Little Hampden to install and tune the organ. So although there is still lots to be done, the outlook is positive.

The process of gaining permission for the new organ has been quite prolonged – but not too difficult. The first stage was to meet the Diocesan Organ Adviser. Fortunately, he was very positive about our plans and the organ itself – which had been found by our Director of Music. Armed with a supportive letter from the Adviser, the next stage was to apply to the Diocesan Advisory Committee for the Care of Churches (the DAC) for a Certificate. Members of the DAC have a wide range of expertise in all aspects of church conservation work, reordering, furnishings, textiles and repairs. The Certificate is a statement by the DAC that they approve of the proposed change to the building. We were fortunate to have a Certificate issued fairly promptly with no conditions. The Certificate is dated 20 July 2009.

The next stage was to petition for a Faculty. This is issued by the Diocesan Registrar. The process involves a significant amount of paperwork but, most importantly, requires public notices to displayed for a period so that members of the Church can make their feelings known. I don't believe there were any formal objections and we received the Faculty in December 2009.  At this stage we could commit to the restoration of the organ – and get stuck into fundraising!


I'll keep you posted on activities of the next few weeks.

Meanwhile – I've quoted him before but it's appropriate here:

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Behind the scenes at Cream Teas

We've been running Cream Teas at St Peter & St Paul, Gt Missenden since 1985. They were started by the bellringers to pay for repairs but now are a significant contribution to Church funds. But it's not only a money spinner – it brings people into the Church, some of whom eventually join us.


Brenda and I were in the team today and I took some photos of the volunteers – and the customers. We had the Celtic Guitarists providing music today, too.

And finally, one snap of the workers taking a short break – any suggestions for a caption?

Pews out, more birthday coincidences and more maths

You may remember I blogged about the coincident birthday chance a while ago (6th July.) Today four coincided: grandson Jack, neighbour Geoff, friend Alan and Brenda’s friend Gay. Not only that, two of them are significant birthdays. Have you checked your facebook friends yet?

I’ve been going through my maths book (Chris has borrowed the Physics one) and just read about the Fibonacci sequence. This is very simple: it starts with 0 and 1 and each subsequent number in the sequence is the sum of the previous two:

0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34....

This simple sequence has all sorts of properties – amongst them explaining the distribution of sunflower seeds:

I’ve never really paid much attention to the relationships of numbers in sequences but having seen this – and the other things that Fibonacci can explain – I’m hooked!

Little Hampden Organ

John and Brian finished the pew removal today: they’ve done a fantastic job and the Chancel is ready for the arrival of the organ.

I said yesterday that work had just started – not really the case. We started on this project in November 2008. The Diocesan Organ Adviser visited us just over a year ago. More of the steps we’ve had to go through later.

Little Hampden Organ – work starts

Work started today – at last – on the Church at Little Hampden in preparation for the new organ which we hope will be installed next month. I say new organ – it’s actually an old organ which is being restored. But it’s a real pipe organ, not a modern electronic one. Digital technology is advancing rapidly and I’m sure we’ll be able to log on to itunes in the service to get the hymns in a few years but at the moment I don’t think there’s anything to match real air blown through real pipes.

The organ is much larger than the old electronic one it replaces so we have had to locate it in a different position in the Church. So phase one of the works is to remove the old choir pews which are in the space that the new organ will occupy. We had no idea what would be the state of the walls and floor revealed when the pews were removed.

John and Brian started work this morning.

Once the South wall was revealed, it became apparent that there was little damage and we wouldn’t have any significant work to make it good before the organ arrives. The wooden flooring, too, is in good condition – rather a surprise because it is laid on the old paving stones which themselves are resting on the earth – damp-proof courses had not been thought of when the Church was built.

So we now have a large open space ready for the organ.

Use both lanes

Great new signs at the RC Church – the Immaculate Heart of Mary – in Great Missenden.

It reminded me of the ‘Use both lanes’ sign you see all over the place: a great example of communication for the sender not the recipient. ‘Use either lane’ would be much better – and would be what the highway department actually meant. There used to be a sign outside Gloucester ‘Use all three lanes’ – while one can straddle two lanes, using all three is quite a challenge.

I used to put a copy of this on my office wall as a reminder to people to think of the recipient when communicating – particularly when e-mailing. I remember working on a project at the Bank of Scotland [should I own up to that? It was a few years ago] I would get e-mails with the title ‘Bank of Scotland’ – probably meaningful to the sender but when I was getting 50-odd e-mails a day, it wasn’t very helpful. It’s even more important for CVs – sending a file called ‘CV’ might be meaningful to the sender but would get lost on the receiving PC.

These thoughts sent me looking for funny signs on the internet. There are lots: a few copied below.

We have fun with parking at St Peter & St Paul – any suggestions for signage that would compete with the one at the Immaculate Heart of Mary? A bottle for a really good one!

Three days afloat

After Wednesday on the canals, we had two more days afloat. This morning as we were motoring towards the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour, the navy came out to welcome us. The RFA Argus came in to port with crew standing to attention.

Royal Fleet Auxiliaries (RFAs) provide support to the Royal Navy – tankers and stores ships. RFA Argus is an Aviation Training and Casualty Receiving ship: she is used to train helicopter pilots – there is space for 5 aircraft on her after deck. She is also a medical base. Because she can be armed, she doesn’t count as a hospital ship under the Geneva Convention. It appears that in this role she was operating this week: a five-day exercise to familiarise MOD medical staff with the facilities onboard – more info on the BBC web site here. More about RFA Argus here.

When we got back to the moorings, one of the swans that live in the harbour, together with two cygnets, approached us for food. 

More pictures here.

Canal trip

Another good day on the cut

Birthday conundrum and holding crosses

You may remember a while ago I talked about probability. Perhaps I should warn you that I bought two books at Neta’s mini fete on Sunday: 50 Physics Ideas you Really Need to Know and 50 Maths ditto. I believe I pipped Neta’s husband to them so I’ll have to let him borrow them. But be warned: there may be some scientific blogs over the next few weeks. One of the statistical mysteries I mentioned a month ago (5th June) was the birthday conundrum: the chances of two people in a group of 25 having a birthday on the same day (not the year) is greater than 50%. I was prompted today to look at the birthdays of my facebook friends. I’m not going to own up to how many I have but it’s more than the 3 I had a while ago – I thought that was rather sad so I linked up with some more. However, going through the list there are 3 dates on which two people in this random group have the same birthday (in one case it’s three people but as two are twins I don’t think that counts.) So, statistics wins again.

Today Tricia, Wendy and I visited the Young Enterprise company at Stony Dean school.

This group in the special needs school is incredibly enterprising, helped by some very supportive staff. They make the holding crosses we give to newly-baptised children at Church and Wendy is going to write an article about them for the Parish Magazine. Juliet the lead teacher is leaving at the end of term but we met her replacement who is keen to continue the company – and producing our crosses. They have a number of activities, horticulture being probably the most profitable. They have a polytunnel in which they grow a range of plants to sell to staff and the public. They also made and sold a range of products around the World Cup – including flag keyrings of participating countries. They have a small residual stock of England items but are confident that they will sell them eventually.

Visiting Stony Dean and seeing how these youngsters are developing is inspirational.

Changes for the good

A good day for change: first the new copier has arrived in the office. At last we’ll be able to read what’s been copied now!

And this evening I had a call from John Budgen who is restoring the organ for Little Hampden Church. Work is well advanced and we have a date in early August when John will install the organ.

The story of Daniel and Neta's mini fete

This morning the theme of the family service was the story of Daniel. Elizabeth, Martin and Brenda had a gang of children either as fire or lions – the latter had their faces painted and were very frightening.

Then we went to Neta’s fete. This was the first major rundraising event for our Emergency Repair and Improvements Appeal. The weather held, thetakings were good and one of the stars was 9-year-old Mark who has only been learning the trumpet for less than a year.

Poppies and Union Jack

The wheatfield in front of our house had a band of poppies earlier in the week – but I missed them. However, there were a few this evening. And the wheat is starting to ripen. Don the farmer has been servicing his combine harvester – won’t be long now.

Earlier in the week I had a sail. The navy were playing again – they have a pair of cranes in the middle of Portsmouth harbour to which they tow their warships to fuel and arm them – presumably to be away from the centre of population in the event of accident. The ships carry the Union Jack (yes, it really is a Union Jack when on the jackstaff of one of HM ships) when moored at the cranes, but as soon as the tug takes control the flag is lowered – the navy is not in command at that time!