Sunday, July 25, 2010

Calculus, who needs it?

Here is a mathematician with a different concept on how we should teach math.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Memories are made of this . . . Beatlemania!

An interesting question was posed as our first blogging assignment of this Globaloria academy - who is my favorite Beatle? This one certainly brings back some memories. I can still, perhaps somewhat vaguely, remember sitting with my parents and sister in front of our small black & white TV on that Sunday night in Feb 1964 (I was of course just a little tyke) when the Beatles made their U.S. debut on the Ed Sullivan show:



What's the significance of the Beatles? In 1994 Dan Rather of CBS did a news story on the 30th anniversary of that first appearance:



Let me leave you with some Beatles' trivia:
  • There were originally five members of the Beatles and included Stuart Sutcliffe (bass) and Pete Best (drums). Stuart and Pete would leave the group and be replaced by Ringo Starr (Paul would play bass).
  • Their original name was the 'Quarrymen'
  • In 1962 Decca records rejected the Beatles by explaining "guitar groups are on the way out"
  • The audience for their initial Ed Sullivan performance was 74 million, which represented 40% of the U.S. population at the time.
  • They are the most popular and best selling musical group, ever.
  • They stopped touring in 1966 and did only studio albums until their breakup in 1970.
My favorite? Not possible. They were the Beatles, a group of four that was one for a brief, magical moment.

As the song says " I believe in yesterday"

We begin again . . . yea!!!

It's great to be here at the summer academy that marks the beginnings of a new Globaloria year! Lots of familiar faces, but even more new ones. Looking forward to a great year, which is certainly getting off to a great start!!