I spent a couple of hours preparing my front lawn for the winter: mowing, raking, mowing and will add the dressing on Wednesday or Thursday. Let me advise you all now that my lawn is the best lawn on our estate and the best that I've seen in our town this summer bar none. The secret has been constant and careful watering and proper feeding and weed control. It's not the best lawn there is since there are about 10 different types of grass in it but it looks a lot better than most and vastly better than some! I close cropped the back lawn too but didn't have the strength to rake and double mow it! By the way the second raking, to get rid of the thatch, produces a shocking amount of materials that would otherwise lie there undiscovered and anyone who is serious about their lawn should do what I did: advice comes courtesy of a wise gardener on BBC Radio Oxford that I tuned into accidentally yesterday around midday. DW

I am spending a bit of time in the Birmingham area at the moment and last week actually spent a night there! My business takes me to the Solihull area but I stayed right in the heart of Birmingham: Broad Street to be precise. I followed detailed directions to get from Solihull to Broad Street but got lost and it took me around an hour and a half to drive the 12 or so miles from door to door. I found my own way back the following morning and took only 45 minutes to accomplish what was a really simple journey by a totally different route. I stopped off in Solihull on Friday morning and relived part of my youth at their market: Eccles cakes, custard tarts, lemon curd ... I had to buy them all. I also invested in some nice Cox's Pippins and Bramley apples, marvellous. Broad Street is a cultural centre: bars, cafes restaurants and hotels abound. I had a decent Indian meal for around £20 in the evening: not especially good value and not the best meal I ever had but decent decor, good service so it wasn't bad. In the morning I needed to go to an internet cafe since I knew someone needed an email response urgently. Hooked up, logged on to the slowest connection since around 1995 in Almaty! I had been there for about 20 minutes when a cheery chappie from BT rocked up and started larging it into his mobile ... switched us all off! I didn't achieve my objectives in full but at least they didn't charge me either! Good business that! DW

Ever heard of Glist? It's a product that you can use in your dishwasher to get your dishes clean ... unless you speak Russian, in which case you think that glist relates to a worm that crawls out of a certain orifice located in the nether regions of your own fair anatomy! You choose!! You might remember that I returned from Ireland last year via Stranraer in Scotland to make sure I could buy some Scottish bread … I have just pulled the second loaf from the freezer and it’s providing more breakfasts of delight! I think it’s survived pretty well and I’ll miss it now as it filled a tidy corner or our small freezer! That’s the last of the Scottish bread in this household but I did notice that Tesco were stocking the self same source of carbohydrates the other week. Trouble is, or it it good news, I’m the only one who likes it chez moi! You'll be fascinated to learn that I painted our front and back doorsteps yesterday: second coats today. An instant hit as it made such a big difference. If only my digital camera weren't at the repair shop again you could have seen the fruits of my labours. DW

Here's a hot tip: if Mike Tomlinson calls and tells you about a guaranteed way to make huge money by investing in Information Biometrics or any other such nonsense, ask him why his company Dunhill Capital is well known as a gang of criminals. He might be able to blether for 5 or 10 minutes about how your money is safe with him. Keep pressing, however, and he'll hang up on you and probably never bother you again! If you are worried about Dunhill Capital, about which I know little, for whom I have never worked and with whom I have never invested ... I can send you a couple of internet links. Alternatively go to www.google.co.uk and do a search for them and see what you find. Don't send them any money under any circumstances is my advice! DW

I wrote this to a Business/Economics discussion list that I'm a member of: Just in case it's slipped everyone's attention, the Enterprise Act that came into force beginning in April of this year contains new powers that Business Studies and Economics teachers and students need to be aware of. The Enterprise Act "works alongside the Competition Act of 1988 and various pieces of consumer legislation, largely replacing the Fair Trade Act 1973": see the PDF file link below for the source of this quotation. This page highlights the major changes to relate to: Mergers Cartels Direct Disqualification Enforcement of Consumer Law Super complaints Market investigation There are also new insolvency rules that this page chooses not to highlight for some reason; and Accountancy Age reports that at least three companies have already fallen foul of the insolvency rules contained within the Enterprise Act even though they only came into force last week: Ciro Cittero, Sentry Box (graphic designers) and MAL Holdings (Mayflower Group). There are several PDF files relating to the various parts of the Act including this general overview. As you might expect, the DTI also has pages devoted to this Act. There is an email alert service available for this Act ... when I tried to sign up, however, I was given an error message so only time will tell whether I was successful! I hope this is of use to everyone. DW

As English English slides into Americanese at an alarming rate, good news. In a report in the Business Today journal there is a small article entitled Communicating: Business bugged by buzzwords. Here are a couple of snippets: 60% of company directors feel annoyed or irritated when people use jargon or buzzwords in business conversation ... buzzwords annoy female directors more than male directors (65% and 57% respectively). The worst offender was 'let's touch base' ... followed by 'no brainer' ... 'synergy' ... 'outside the box' ... 'let's take this offline' ... 'playing hardball'. The author of the original report says that While buzzwords can create an illusion of understanding for those who use them, they often signal just the opposite to others on the receiving end ... Thankfully, good communicators are not born but made, which is good news for those that usually opt for meaningless phrases to paper over the cracks in their knowledge. DW

For disciplinarians here's a great story. I was reading a potted history of a school in the South of England and came across the fact that the headmaster of this school for part of the 18th century was known as Flogging Tom. Thought you might enjoy that! DW

Another helpful visitor pointed out where some of my 404 File Not Found Errors are coming from. Thank you Emma Dicks. Here's what I said to Emma: Thanks Emma, Not only there but in a couple of the linked pages too. Kind of you to take the time to help me out. Best wishes Some good and helpful people on this earth! DW

For only the second time in 16 years I think it was, I managed to be able to watch the Last Night of the Proms on the television last night: this programme marks the end of the Henry Wood Promenade musical concerts that have been held over the summer at the Royal Albert Hall in London for 109 years or so now. It all felt a bit flat I have to say. They had the old favourites in there with our rousing, rattling sing along tunes and songs: Land of Hope and Glory, Rule Britannia and so on; but there was something not quite right. I think it was down to what appeared to be a lack of sponteneity in the audience and some poor camera direction. In the old days the audience at the last night always seemed to be manned (or should that be personed?) by lunatics with a love of music. Now I think that the audience comprises some of those lunatics and some people who are joiners in for the experience and they seem to lack that je ne said quoi that the old timers had. Do you remember that tall chap who always managed to get himself in the middle of the front row and who used to conduct the orchestra and chorus along with the real conductor? He never seemed to be a full shilling to me but he added character. Remember when the singer soloist was a friendly chap or chapess who had some rapport and badinage with the audience or who used to do something wacky during his or her performance? There was no soloist during the mass sing along last night. Do you remember when the conductor used to berate the audience in pantomimic style with something like "Henry can't hear you"! when he felt the sing along element could have been improved on? Leonard Slatkin simply applauded last night's audience after their efforts last night: even though there were the usual encores, there was no real pantomime. There is a new element, too, the Proms in the Park. The Proms in the Park are a good idea in that they set up stages in Hyde Park, Swansea, Belfast and Glasgow and thousands of people flock to them to join in with their own programmes and with the main event in the Albert Hall. All good stuff and there were 40,000 in Hyde park and many thousands of people elsewhere. This is a good and interesting initiative but I think it detracts from the main event. Could be that I've reached an age, a sense of detachment and a level of deafness that militates against my enjoyment of this event now. Either I have to become more intimately involved in the whole process by going to the Last Night or I have to buy a CD of the last night of 1987 or something similar. Ah nostalgia: it's not what it used to be! DW

On my main site I have a 404 (Page not found) message that says something like "If you have arrived at this page, it's because ... please let me know where you were trying to ..." A few visitors have very kindly written to me of late with guidance as to where some of my links problems are: all of a sudden I have been getting HUNDREDS of 404 errors and whilst I've found a lot myself, I obviously haven't found them all. Jennifer wrote this week and helped me to solve one problem. Jim wrote today and helped me to solve several problems. I thanked Jennifer personally of course and this is what I wrote to Jim: Thanks for taking the time to reply, Jim. I had a random look at my home page links and found a batch of problematic ones in the statistics part of the site: I’m very grateful to you for helping me to spot them. On the other hand when I create a new page I tend to copy and paste a link from place to place or use a template: hence, it always comes as a shock when there is such a problem! This is why this problem never comes alone: I must have copied and pasted the home page link in the statistics section three or four times without fully checking. Best wishes and keep reading! Thanks for your help, everyone! DW

Frank runs a web site that shows the history of the UK National Lottery. Frank has lots of interesting tables, charts and analyses on his site and I got involved. I suggested a couple of revisions to his Chi Squared analysis and last I heard he was working on my ideas. Let me point out that Frank's site is unofficial and at the end of his home page you will read this disclaimer: These pages are not in any way associated with the Camelot Group plc. The draw results on which the presented information is based has been checked thoroughly but can not be treated as an official source. Analysis methods are subject to my personal interpretation and shared with you for interest only. Past lottery results cannot predict future results and this site is intended to indicate trends only. Because this site is operated by an individual there may be occasions when information has not been updated to include the latest draw. Furthermore, I will not be held accountable for any winnings or loss of winnings or monies spent through the use of the information provided. Sensible disclaimer, Frank! DW

Cabell wrote, too, with an interesting spreadsheeting/statistical question that I am in the middle of exploring. Cabell offered me a solution to a problem and I offered her a revised solution. We're talking! This could become a page, too! DW

Looks like I've made another friend in a far flung place! Jaunita wrote again with another few questions on statistics and definitions. I worked through them line by line and turned my answers into a new page on my web site. Well worth a look! DW

Back to Yorkshire! I drove up on Friday afternoon and took it easy, enjoying the facility of cruise control. It's a breeze to take your foot off the accelerator and be able to stretch one's legs and so forth. Being so tall is a problem for me and I normally get a jippy hip on long drives. So cruise control gets rid of that then. Brother Angus has a Beemer too but he never uses his cruise control as (a) he's an erratic driver I think so (b) he never gets into a position for his speed to settle and (c) he's not that tall. Anyway arrived, had a bite to eat and then off to one of Halifax's finest hostelries wherein libations ensued and blether, swearing and gay badinage were all the rage. Back for a nightcap, more blether and then some fitful sleep as the pay back was that I caught a case of the hiccups at some unearthly hour. Woke up to a slightly thick head for some reason and feeling a bit the worse for wear. Not understandable as we didn't drink that much. Age at the root of it all, perhaps? Went for a walk round Halifax with Neville the brother in law as sister Susan went to the hairdresser's. It lashed it down as we toured the Piece Hall so we had to invest in an umbrella apiece: cost me all of £1.99 for the pleasure! Then it stopped raining and became sunny. Still, one needs about five umbrellas doesn't one? Took a walk round Ogden Water, a couple of miles out of Halifax and that's a nice place as you can see from the photographs I uploaded realier. Time pressures meant we couldn't ramble for very long but I'd liked to have. I recommend a walk there if you're ever in the area: lots of birds, trees, tranquility and the vista is more than acceptable. Tootled off to Hebden Bridge to collect son Daniel and his partner Max. Another hostelry experience ensued but as I was driving I stuck to lemonade whilst they all drank dirty beer and wine! Susan rustled up a more than adequate lasagne for supper and once we had been joined by sister Fiona and hubby Danny we went to yet another hostelry where I enjoyed only a small amount of beer due to the hangover from last night. A good loud blethering session followed as we braved a large bar in the centre of Halifax where at one stage I was afraid of being the "oldest swinger in town" but there were older!! The sight of the night was that of two young ladies squatting in doorways opposite with knickers round their knees as they partook of a micturition session ... all over the place ... in public, in full view of at least a dozen people: have they no shame? Still a good time was had by all and a little bit of red wine helped the land of Nod to beckon readily. Up and about in time to do the Tod Rag's cryptic crossword and finished it all but for one and a half clues: Susan and Neville provided the answers to those. Left Halifax at just after 1 pm and got home three hours later, allowing for a short stop half way back. I have a sneaking suspicion that I might have been caught speeding by one of those wretched cameras that they have on all our roads these days. Only one or two mph in it, mind ... I'm waiting for the postman to announce the verdict in a few days' time. Here endeth the weekend's report. DW

Jaunita wrote, I think from Namibia with this question, that elicited that answer! Could you please give and explain to m the arithmetic formula to work out Mean, Mode and Median. I'm study at the moment but can't understand the formula. Thanks Jaunita Hello Jaunita, The arithmetic formula for each of the mean, the median and the mode are fairly simple and with a bit of practice they will be easy for you. The mean is the same as the arithmetic mean and is what we normally use when we calculate an average figure add together all the numbers you have and divide them by the total number of numbers For example, find the arithmetic mean of 6,9,2,6,3,8,9,2,4,6: 6+9+2+6+3+8+9+2+4+6 ÷ 10 (because there are 10 numbers altogether) = 55 ÷ 10 = 5.5 The mode is the number in a set of numbers that occurs most often: that is, in a set of numbers we might find that some numbers occur more than once and the mode is the one that there are most of. For example, from the list we just saw 6,9,2,6,3,8,9,2,4,6 the frequencies of each number are 2 = 2 3 = 1 4 = 1 6 = 3 8 = 1 9 = 2 Since there are more of number 6 than any other number, the mode is number 6 The median is the middle value in a set, or list, of values. To find the median we need to put the list in order and then find the number in the middle. For example, using the list we have already used, we find: 2 2 3 4 6 6 6 8 9 9 It’s best when there is an odd number of numbers as we can see here when we have 10 numbers and really there is no number in the middle. What we do now is to take the numbers on either side of the middle, add them together and divide them by 2 … easy in this case: (6 + 6)/2 = 6 So the median number is 6. I hope that’s clear Juanita. Try finding the mean, median and mode from these lists, Juanita and confirm the answers I have given below. 6 8 5 4 8 8 3 7 7 6 mean 6.2 median 6.5 mode 8 And again: 9 6 12 9 6 7 6 12 17 20 17 mean 11 median 9 mode 6 Where in the world are you Jaunita? Just interested. DW

Another trip back up to Yorkshire over the weekend. The car behaved itself very well and a good time was had by all even though it got a bit nippy at night. I went to a place called Ogden Water with sister Susan and her husband Neville: here are a couple of snaps thereof. Notice how low the water is: hosepipe bans next year unless I'm much mistaken! There'll be more about that trip before long. DW

Forgot to tell you about Monday morning. Remember my broken sleep from last week? Well, at 5 am on Monday Mrs W's mobile phone rang and it took her yonks to answer the thing. 'twas a friend of hers from Germany who just wanted to say hello on his way to work ... thinking about coming over for a visit!! At least Mrs W was able to set off back to the land of Nod! Unlike yours truly, of course. Cursed or what? DW

Dima started back at school yesterday. A new school as I felt his old school was just too mediocre: poorly led and staffed by lazy teachers. A levels now, four of them: French, Economics, Ancient History and Government& Politics. What a mouthful! Did I tell you that daughter Fran has passed her driving test at the tender age of 18? 17 years ahead of me. Fran has an automatic car now and was fraught when her mother decided to drive it and, having set off in 1st gear, was puzzled when she couldn't find the clutch to change up to 2nd gear!! Complete lack of mechanical empathy or what?! DW

So I've driven the car around town now, I went to Southampton and back and I've been to Oxford and back. I washed it and waxed the thing too: never waxed a car before in my life! I have to say that the seats are very comfortable; the arm rest is a boon; but what I like most of all at this stage is the cruise control feature: I can just set the thing to tootle along the motorways at 70 mph and relax. Given the comfort and the cruise control, this car is a pleasure to drive. Off to Yorkshire for the weekend, after going to the shops with Mrs W! DW

Here's that long awaited picture of my car: If you have eyesight the equivalent of the Hubble Telescope you will see the reflection of a window in the rear window of the car; and if you squint a huge amount you'll see a reflection of me in it. Bonus, bonus! Can't afford to put a full frontal up here can I? After all, someone who didn't quite like my page on Zero Base Budgeting or my review of Legally Blonde could feel the need for road rage vengence! By the way, history repeated itself with this car. When I bought my first ever car, it got a puncture wiithin its first 24 hours ... so did this Beemer: a slow puncture in this case. So for the first time since goodness knows when, I changed the wheel on a car yesterday. Will get it repaired on Monday all being well. I did a bit of idle Blog surfing just now and the third Blog I looked at was called American Culture ... this is the honest truth [isn't that tautology, Ed?] is that it has daily entries but the entries I saw were all blank pages! What conclusion can we draw about American Culture then? Answers on a postcard! DW