Wednesday 7 May 2014

Jigsawn

The beginning
The world record for solving a previously unknown 500 piece jigsaw is 54 minutes and 10 seconds (this is a link to a records site that quotes the source not an hour long video of a man solving a jigsaw puzzle). This one took three of us a little over five hours. Spike said he wouldn't help unless it was a Doctor Who puzzle. He loves Dr Who. 

My favourite jigsaw record-breaking story features craftsman and fellow Weymuffian,Dave Evans' attempt to build the world's largest jigsaw. He made the 40,000 piece giant puzzle only to see it collapse a week before it was to be presented to the Queen for her Golden Jubilee. The experts claim the time to complete a puzzle quadruples as it doubles in size. So if Evans had brought in me, Charlie and Spike to reassemble his puzzle it would have taken us:
The end!

5 = 5
10 = 20
20 = 80
40 = 320
80 = 1280
160 = 5120
320 = 20480
640 = 81920

Let's be generous and say it would have taken us 30,000 hours or a little over three and a half years!





Thursday 1 May 2014

Election Blues and Clerihews

It's coming up to European election time. Lacking the glamour of the general election and the relevance of the local election, the European election can come across as a bit faceless and boring. You don't even get to vote for a person. Just a party (not the good kind). Here in the East, there are seven seats that are distributed to the parties according to the proportion of the vote received. Asleep yet?

Honestly, I am boring myself just writing this. Vote Green. Here are some Clerihews of three of the party leaders:

Nigel Farage's
Party's the largest
Bunch of xenophobics.
(That's Greek for racist pricks!)

David Cameron
Lives in a mansion
Surrounded by Nitwits
Cutting workers' rights and disability benefits.

Nick Clegg
Is a chocolate egg
That likes to lie to you.
(One part of the sentence above is not true.)

If you think you can do better, why not write one for Edward Miliband and whoever is leading the Green Party this week? A small prize will be awarded for the best one in the comments below...