Dan McNeil's Blog

I'm not ashamed of it - I love maths. Well more specificially I love numbers. Ever since I was a kid, I've loved asking questions about numbers. I remember from any early age being irked by the fact that 2 is the only even prime number. Of course, my adult mind can rationalise that even means "is divisible by 2" and hence 2 is no different to any other prime number - the difference is a semantic one because we've given a label to the concept "divisible by 2". It's trivial, of course, that every prime is the only prime divisible by itself. There are a lot of prime numbers. An awful lot. In fact, there's an infinity of them. Even at school we were taught an easy proof that there are an infinite number of prime numbers. It went like this... Presume there's a largest prime number and call it P. Take all of the prime numbers up-to and including P and multiply them together and add one. Voila - another prime which is bigger than P. Hence a...

Isn't it funny, that you tend to find references to your own life in to things you see and read. The other day, I was doing a crossword and almost every other answer in the grid seemed to refer to something happening in my life at the time. It's almost spooky. Except it's not, of course. Unlikely things happen all the time, of course. You just can't predict exactly which unlikely thing is going to happen. I can be certain that something statistically unlikely will happen to me in the next hour - but I can't predict what it will be. For instance, if I go out for a walk (which I am considering doing, as it happens) then I could count the number of people I see out walking. If that number was zero, then I could come back and write "it was so weird, nobody was out there today, spooky eh?". If the number was exactly 100 I could write the same thing - except with some waffle about seeing exactly 100 people. I am currently digging into my family tree again,...

There's a strange behaviour here in the UK just before midnight on 31st December, and I don't know whether it's something which infects other nations too. But there's a strange desire to go outside. Whether it's freezing cold or raining or snowing or whatever, one MUST go outside and say "Happy New Year" then come back in again. This isn't the old tradition of bringing coal in and going out the back door and in through the window or whatever that tradition says, it's just an in-built programme which fires off around quarter to midnight and before you know it, everyone in the room is wrapped up in miles of scarfing and wearing thick coats trying to marshall each other outside into the garden in time for midnight. 2009 doesn't feel any different to 2008 so far. Well, we do have a new kitchen bin, but that hardly makes the year feel special. There's a sense of optimism at midnight when the New Year arrives but then you wake up the following...

I do have resolutions this New Year, but I'm not going to put them all in here for obvious reasons :-) 2008 has been a bit of a funny year. I've changed jobs for the first time in nearly a decade and taken up coaching in a sport for the first time in my life. They're both good things, btw. I've watched the Sydney fireworks online, and they do look rather spectacular and made me wish I were in Sydney this New Year. We were there a few years ago for New Year, and I've just decided here and now that I want to be there again this time next year. That's one resolution I shall put in here... I've also decided I need to read more. There are some beautiful books out there which I've never read, and I intend to change that. I shall try to read 50 books next year, at least! The weather here in London is rather misty today, so I don't think there's much chance of spectacular views of fireworks this evening, but maybe it'll clear up as the evening ...

I am really rather enjoying a nice relaxing Christmas holiday. With the change in job and various other things, it's been quite a year this year, and so it's nice to be sitting at home not doing very much at all... Yesterday, I took this photo from the garden at home of the night sky, which I thought I may share with you... The thing about winter is that it may be cold, but it is rather photogenic!

Last night, I was fortunate enough to witness an evening of utter enlightenment. And all in the name of atheism. Jarvis Cocker even put an appearance to sing an old Pulp song and a Christmas song :-) For me, though, the true highlight of the evening was the opportunity to hear Richard Dawkins talking. Despite finding "The God Delusion" a little bit hypocritical in being so preachy, some of his other books are well worth reading - for all those who are interested in learning about evolution. I'd never seen Richard Dawkins speak before, and his prose, his language and his voice made listening to him a true pleasure. Another highlight for me was Dara O'Briain shouting out to the audience "what's e to the i pi?" and being genuinely delighted at the number of people who immediately shouted "minus one" back at him. The central theme of the evening was the beauty of the universe and a celebration of the things which make the world so wonderful - the...

If you're anything like me, then in this modern world of email and texting most of your friends will be reduced to single letters when signing (mostly electronic) communications. I tend to sign most of my informal emails with "D." rather than writing "Dan" at the bottom of them. But the problem is, I know too many people whose names begin with the same letter. J and M are particularly troublesome. I've one friend for whom "M" became almost her official name. Even when referring to her in emails, we'd call her "M" rather than typing out her full name. But now I have a couple of other people who sign themselves "M" and it just doesn't feel right. "J" is even more of a problem. My significant other signs things with a "J" but I also have other friends who sign things with a "J" too. When they do it on Christmas cards (for the single letter signing is not always limited to electronic media...