1, 2, 3, 4, __

What's the missing number?

Admit it, you think it's 5, don't you? Occam's Razor and all that.

Stop thinking so linearly. I'm all for keeping things simple, but you need to let your hair down once in a while.

The answer I'm looking for is 17.

Why? I'd have thought that much was obvious: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 17 are the five solutions to the polynomial equation:

x5 - 27x4 + 205x3 - 645x2 +874x - 408 = 0

Like all good puzzles, it's obvious when you know the answer.

Good job that didn't come up in an IQ test, eh?

Reds ahead

What the hell is going on? Liverpool FC are actually winning matches at the start of the season. Haven't they read the script? Don't they realise they're not supposed to do that?

BBC: Liverpool 6-0 Derby

Liverpool outclassed Derby to move to the top of the Premier League table for the first time under Rafa Benitez…

It was an utterly dominant performance from the Reds, who have now won five out of their six games in all competitions this season - but none as easily as this.

Yes, and it would have been six out of six, had it not been for a certain visually challenged referee, who was almost certainly wearing Chelsea underpants at the time.

Yes, that's right, referee Ron Styles is the only person to have deprived Liverpool of points so far this season. As things stand, that puts him one point above Derby County.

Lucille

True story: on my way into work yesterday, I couldn't get the Kenny Rogers song (You Picked a Fine Time to Leave Me,) Lucille out of my head. It was really infuriating. Especially as I only knew two of the lines.

The song is the punchline to a crap, old joke about a man whose heel falls off his shoe: "You picked a fine time to leave me, loose heel" (geddit?).

Yesterday afternoon, the heel fell off my shoe. It had not been loose until that point.

Spooky!

This morning, I will be mostly singing The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo.

See also: Shoe-Repair Tagline Challenge.

Are Euclid-ing me?

New Scientist (21-Jul-2007): Interview: Why mathematics is beautiful

Christopher Zeeman is a British mathematician who inspired generations of young people, built a world-class maths department from scratch and still manages to find time to correct theorems developed by Euclid in ancient Greece…

You built a world-class mathematics department from scratch at the University of Warwick when it was founded in the 1960s. How?

I wrote to the six best topologists in the world asking them to join me. They all said no. So I wrote again saying the other five had agreed, and all replied to say yes.

That's the way to do it.

See also: Here's looking at Euclid

Sectarianism

A nice example of the lunacy of so-called faith schools:

BBC: Sikh girl in Catholic school row

The parents of a Teesside Sikh girl say they will convert her to Catholicism in order to get her into the best school in the area…

The Roman Catholic diocese of Hexham and Newcastle, which oversees admissions policy at the school, said it was following correct procedures.

But Mr Singh said: "At the moment she has not got a religion. She follows Sikhism because we are Sikhs."

Exactly!

Mr Singh's daughter is four years old. How in the name of God, Buddha, Allah, Waheguru or Tinkerbell is she supposed to know which ridiculous belief system she might one day adopt? Or not, as I hope the case turns out to be.

What hope is there that kids from different cultural backgrounds will ever get on together if their parents are allowed to keep sending them to sectarian schools?

People's religious belief, like which soccer team they support, is a highly heritable cultural trait: they tend to inherit it from their parents. To endorse religious sectarian schools makes as much sense as saying that we should have schools for the children of Manchester United fans.

Or special needs schools, as we call them in Liverpool.

Eight-hundred years ago today

King John, 28-Aug-1207: Johannes, dei gratia, Rex Anglie, Dominus Hibernie, Dux Normannie, Aquitanie, Comes Andegauie, Omnibus fidelibus suis qui Burgagia apud Villam de Liuerpul habere uoluerint Salutem. Sciatis quod concessimus omnibus fidelibus nostris qui Burgagia apud Liverpul ceperint quod habeant omnes libertates et liberas consuetudines in Villa de Liuerpul quas aliquis Liber Burgus super mare habet in terra nostra. Et ideo uobis mandamus quod secure et in pace nostra illuc ueniatis ad Burgagia nostra recipienda et hospitanda. Et in huius rei testimonium has litteras nostras patentes uobis transmittimus. Teste Simone de Pateshill apud Wintoniam xxviii die Augusti anno regni nostri ix.

or, to put it another way:

King John, 28-Aug-1207: John, by the grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, Count of Anjou, to all his faithful people who have desired to have Burgages in the township of Liverpool, greeting. Know ye that we have granted to all our faithful people who have taken Burgages in Liverpool that they may have all the liberties and free customs in the township of Liverpool which any Free Borough on the sea has in our land. And therefore we command you that securely and in our peace you come there to receive and inhabit our Burgages. And in witness hereof we transmit to you these our Letters Patent. Witness Simon de Pateshill at Winchester on the twenty-eighth day of August in the ninth year of our reign.

or, to put it another way:

HAPPY 800TH BIRTHDAY, LIVERPOOL!

Liverpool Just Before Dawn
800 not out.

Ignore the stupid, ill-informed stereotypes. Liverpool is a bloody brilliant city. And tonight they're gonna party like it's 1207.

Break like the wind

Spiegel: Wuthering Heights: The Dangers of Wind Power

… After the industry's recent boom years, wind power providers and experts are now concerned. The facilities may not be as reliable and durable as producers claim. Indeed, with thousands of mishaps, breakdowns and accidents having been reported in recent years, the difficulties seem to be mounting. Gearboxes hiding inside the casings perched on top of the towering masts have short shelf lives, often crapping out before even five years is up. In some cases, fractures form along the rotors, or even in the foundation, after only limited operation. Short circuits or overheated propellers have been known to cause fires. All this despite manufacturers' promises that the turbines would last at least 20 years.