Exciting times - I now have a copy of my book!

What we have on our hands is a species problem - fascinating story from Arundhati Roy

We have news: willerby.substack.com/p/a-year-in-...

If the discussion with @lessoncopy.bsky.social left you wanting more enthusiasm & your copy hasn’t turned up yet: here I am talking to the library at @hachettelearning.bsky.social HQ. It seems I look at the ceiling when thinking (or that’s where the teleprompter is…) m.youtube.com/watch?v=55tR...

“He got off that camel like Marlon Brando getting off a motorbike.” This can only be one person, one event.

the only instance in recorded history of a traffic collision between a car and a u-boat!

somebody at the Clarion wrote an explainer of how to beat the Oxford congestion charge and i'm crying, help oxfordclarion.uk/twelve-easy-...

I have spent my Saturday lunchtime wisely and well and have the definitive ordering on the tracks of Simon and Garfunkel’s third studio album: Pardley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. 11. Obviously Silent Night. Sorry, Paul, this one doesn’t quite work 10. The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine (meh)

Tomorrow we lay wreaths for Magdalen members who died in both World Wars. I am deeply conscious of the terrible effects of war on a college like this. Imagine what it was like for the President to see so many students full of promise graduate, to die only months later. We will remember them.

I had dinner with old friends this week and learned that one of them had taken a sabbatical to learn bee-keeping. I, meanwhile, am reading Daniel Deronda and am here to tell you that Gwendolen’s main problem (apart from her name) is a lack of purpose. Night school - that’s what she needs.

These are the brilliant questions. Kindness and Scholarship in equilibrium. Purposeful understanding as well as Mechanical ability. Leadership is often tightrope walking.

Underappreciated

New version of Girl Yelling In Guy's Ear at Concert Dropped:

This game is fun! catfishing.net/game/today Guess the Wikipedia article from its categories: particularly enjoyed this one

If the discussion with @lessoncopy.bsky.social left you wanting more enthusiasm & your copy hasn’t turned up yet: here I am talking to the library at @hachettelearning.bsky.social HQ. It seems I look at the ceiling when thinking (or that’s where the teleprompter is…) m.youtube.com/watch?v=55tR...

It’s out! The Cabinet of Curiosity should be in the hands of readers today. If you know it all already you can correct my mistakes, if not then there may be a new fascination for you lurking in its pages. #EdSky #UkEd #Curiosity @hachettelearning.bsky.social

Chapter Nine is a miscellany of curious ideas that have been in the cabinet and not made it to chapters 2-8 because they haven’t worked or worked but are similar to other sessions or simply don’t illustrate the points I’m making about finding curiosity (except to point out that there‘a always more).

Oh how terrible, I can see why renewables are so unpopular...

You can make a case that, in government terms, Lammy had a worse time of it, overseeing a Justice department in chaos. But in parliamentary terms, there's simply nothing worse than accidentally failing to ask the question you've come along to ask. thecritic.co.uk/out-...

Chapter Eight is American politics and government and centres on the joys of being able to react to world events. The great thing about teaching curiosity is that there are so many reasons to be curious - and significant American elections come up every two years (plus yesterday!).

Make being smart-with-humility-and-empathy and articulate-with-authenticity a sine qua non for the complex job of political leadership again

In my interview for @ttradioofficial.bsky.social last night: m.youtube.com/watch?v=3q6V... I talked about the surprising fact that inside every atom (except hydrogen) there are a collection of positively charged protons not pushing apart. Chapter 7 is Quantum Chromodynamics & the Subatomic Octopus.

Unfortunately, my children are wonderful liabilities and won't be asleep. Hopefully you don't have the same issue and can listen into @jameshandscombe.bsky.social talking about cool stuff.

I worked as a bartender, lifeguard, and as a waiter in an Indian restaurant before being discovered as a teacher…

I am left pondering what I would include in my own Cabinet of Curiosity series of lessons Definitely toponyms Possibly body language So many interesting things left out of the curriculum that could inspire curiosity

Chapter Six is turning and turning in a widening gyre and introduces a tough beast slouching towards Bethlehem to be born. Poetry is not my natural home but curiosity means the numbers guy has to put some brain into finding out what beautiful words are all about. The Second Coming by WB Yeats.

Can't wait for this!

Chapter Five: Art Appreciation through the lens of British landscape painters of the early 19th Century (or Turner and Constable: same guy or different guys). Culminating in this amazing abstraction:

Chapter Four: British Politics from the first election I remember to the first one I could vote in covering a small boy’s growing interest in what was going on in the world from the Falklands and the miner’s strike to the fall of Thatcher.

In Northern France (Noyelles-sur-mer) there’s a medium sized war grave mainly filled with Chinese labourers who were brought over to dig trenches and then died of flu in 1918/19. Truly was a world war.

So many war graves in the Wiltshire countryside. Not repatriated (only three bodies from WW1 were brought home) - so I think it must be killed on exercise on Salisbury plain? Does anyone know?

Atmospherically lit for Hallowe’en

Chapter Three is the Paleolithic. Less whimsy, more three million years of human(ish) history starting with Olduvai Gorge and finishing with the Venus of Hohle Fels. Fans of the Flintstones will be disappointed to learn that there are no dinosaurs to be seen (except for birds).

The relevant page isn't quite hidden in a locked filing cabinet behind a door labelled "Beware of the leopard", but it's not going to win a Plain English award either.

#MathsToday #UkEd Calling Maths Teachers! I'm doing a project on transition to university. Two questions 1) Do you do anything to address the differences in competences students have post 18 (so not trying to get them better for exams, but getting them to fix gaps they had in those exams)?

Chapter Two introduces the geographical regions of Switzenstein and San Italican but focuses on the ideas of Leonhard Euler in classifying orientable two-dimensional surfaces. The reader is invited to grab a sharpie and get involved (always seek parental permission before drawing on the furniture).

In other news, I really don’t understand the housing market: www.ft.com/content/9080...

Chapter One contains the first of five great mathematical jokes and the overarching structure of modeling curiosity, inspiring curiosity, expecting curiosity (I elide the introduction and its comparison of Toynbee and Rudge mostly because I like to elide things).

Just over a week until publication of my new book on the joys and power of curiosity - the perfect gift for someone interested in maths or politics or archaeology or physics or art or poetry - also ideal for anyone not yet interested in those things who should be.

Jack likes you as much as he likes anyone. We think. Hard to tell.

Jack’s Pool is excellent (Jack is my favourite, though he doesn’t care for me). Nicely put together and the Willerby bounce sounding on point.

On In Our Time today, Melvyn is examining the foundations of mathematics and one of the experts has claimed that the Egyptians must have had infinite summation to find the volume of pyramids (something equivalent to integration). Is this true? Can it not be done geometrically? #mathstoday

One of the young has been watching Rivals and the review at the end of season 1 is: - Lizzie and Freddie are cute - Rupert and Declan should Indulge their obvious mutual crush - Everyone else would be better off single - Especially Taggie, obvs.

When I am old enough to wear purple and learn how to spit I shall go into this place every morning and ask “how many piano tuners are there in Greater Chicago?” “What does the Elizabeth Tower weigh?” “How much quicker is a car journey to Wembley due to the traffic lost to the Elizabeth line?”

Maybe, but Susan is in the company of other people who also experienced it and are telling her it's real. I think TLTWATW is a great children's book, however you read it. You can be a Christian or not, you can understand the allegory or not, it's a cracking story. All that TLB has is the allegory.

Silver Chair sticks with me because of what aslan teaches Jill and all of us about why it's unwise to snoop on our friends.

Ben, who is right about so many things, seems to have forgotten the theology of the night time walk with Aslan as Shasta sets out alone to find help and the crucial insight that Bree could have continued for another hour with a Calormenese warrior on his back.

...slightly worried now, as that was very similar to my thought process whilst reading the story in the morning press.....

Just putting it out here - perhaps Sarah Mullally could agree to delegate all those aspects of archbishoping that actively require a penis to someone else and we could see how inconvenient that actually turns out to be? We might find that it doesn’t come up as often as you’d think day to day.