Trivia 

We Must All Be Related

How so? Well we each have two parents - and each of those two parents have two parents etc - i.e. for each generation of ancestors we go back - the number doubles. 1 - 2 - 4 - 8 - 16 - 32 ... and so on.    By the time you have gone back 23 generations - the number is 8,388,608. This takes you back to the 13th century (allowing a 25 year gap between generations). Now the population of Britain was about 5,000,00 at that time.   QED.

NOTE: The numbers of ancestors assumes that no cousins have married - an impossible senario!.

The Name of this Site

You may have wondered where the spelling - connexions came from.  Well it is in fact a perfectly valid alternative English  spelling - along with deflexion and reflexion .  Those of us interested in photograph happily use SLR (Single Lens Reflex) - the only one our American cousins will find in Webster's.  I'm sure you feel better for knowing that!My guess is that it comes from Latin.  I'm sure that if any scholars read this they will quickly correct me should I be wrong!

Gender Bender

A professor was pondering the question - as to if a computer should be referred to in the masculine or feminine gender.  To this end he set up two working groups of computer experts,  the first comprised all women - and the second all men. The brief of each group was to recommend whether computers should be referred to in the feminine gender, or the masculine gender. They were asked to give 4 reasons for their recommendation.

After a lot of deliberation - the group of women decided that a computer should definitely be regarded as male - citing the following reasons:

1. In order to get their attention, you have to turn them on;
2. They have a lot of data, but are still clue less;
3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they are the problem;
4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that, if you had  waited a little longer you could have had a better model.

1. No one but the creator understands their internal logic - and even that's doubtful;
2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers  is incomprehensible to everyone else;
3. Even your smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for  later retrieval;
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheque on accessories for it.