Everything around you is made of elements that scientists have studied in quite some detail over the last 200 years. But all that understanding breaks down when these elements are subjected to high pressure and temperature. Now, using an advanced theoretical understanding and extreme conditions, researchers have converted table salt into exotic chemicals. Salt is made from one part sodium (Na) and one part chlorine … Continue reading Table salt under pressure
Link to files used in my video. Excelisfun’s one of the several formula based methods to retrieve records from a list based on a criteria – Video. It is much faster than the array formulas which can produce the same result. Cameron Crest’s video on query function in google spreadsheets is a missing manual for on query functions. His blog lists the spreadsheet employed in … Continue reading Databases – retrieving records
This video explains how one can create a mail merged document from form submissions. A simple mail merged document will give one report per record. This video employs excel formulas to accomplish individualised report per student when there are multiple records for the same student. The source files can be downloaded here. Videos on incrementing cells can be viewed in the two videos from Mike … Continue reading Individualised reports from Google forms
Recently, I came across three videos on calculating sub totals in Excel. According to Mr Excel, “You have random chunks of data and need to add a total to each chunk”. The first one is a VBA based solution by Bob Umlas, an Excel MVP. The second one is from Kevin Lehrbrass, a former EFL teacher. In his own words: “Teaching English as a foreign language has taught me … Continue reading Calculating Subtotals
Stamps: My interest in collecting stamps began when I was six or seven. After moving houses with my parents, I was unable to locate the album I had as a child. However after coming to the UK 8 years ago, I renewed my hobby. I have stamps from 55 different countries and I noticed that that I do not have any from the middle-east. The stamps … Continue reading On Collecting…
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. Ring out the grief that saps the … Continue reading New Year Greetings
On the night of January 7, 1610, Galileo Galilei, a resident of Padua, walked onto his balcony and tipped his telescope toward space. He spotted three stars near Jupiter and graphed their positions in a notebook. Six days later, he looked through his telescope again and found the same stars—but their positions had shifted. They were, he realized, moons orbiting Jupiter. Galileo had long believed … Continue reading Recreating a 400 year old book
One of the chapters in the A level (final year of high school) Salters Chemistry in the UK was drug discovery and clinical trials. The story line book covered this topic in 5 or so pages. What was not mentioned were the actual difficulties and the hurdles that the scientists underwent to discover a new drug. This article published in ‘The New Yorker‘ takes us … Continue reading The life and times of a pharmaceutical drug
My colleague and friend, Ana, kindly allowed me to record a poem read by her of the noted Portuguese poet, Fernando Pessoa. He makes us speechless, when he utters: To love is eternal innocence, And the only innocence is not to think… Krishnamurti uses the word “thought” a lot and it was interesting to see that there are some parallels between their works. “In the … Continue reading Pessoa – The keeper of sheep
Some similarities with Robert Browning’s ‘Incident of the French Camp’: You know, we French stormed Ratisbon: A mile or so away On a little mound, Napoleon Stood on our storming-day; With neck out-thrust, you fancy how, Legs wide, arms locked behind, As if to balance the prone brow Oppressive with its mind. Just as perhaps he mused, “My plans That soar, to earth may fall, … Continue reading Arthur Rimbaud dormeur du val
Perpetual Motion of Thought 