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Pat Stafford

@staffo

Secondary Maths teacher, UK trained but working overseas. Also interested in Python programming, recreational maths, cricket, board games, and other stuff too nerdy to admit to in public.

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21.10.2024
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Latest posts by Pat Stafford @staffo

Does true randomness even exist?

12.03.2026 12:28 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Have Spurs been trialling that this season?

10.03.2026 23:50 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

And I believe the UK did the same thing with billions of dollars of Venezuela's sovereign wealth that had been deposited in UK banks.

06.03.2026 23:33 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

DivorcΓ©, rather than divorcΓ©e, I assume?

20.01.2026 07:25 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Perhaps a non-stationary point of inflection, assuming I've understood the original statement correctly? (Just been teaching about concavity to my Year 13 students)

18.12.2025 21:47 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Have we just passed a point of inflection?

18.12.2025 15:16 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Nicely put! I'd say I'm increasingly introverted (but not "increasingly more") and have learnt to embrace it, too.

09.12.2025 22:40 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I've heard that you can put things called "pictures" or "photographs" on the grey walls to make them less boring. Not sure how that works but might give it a go.

05.12.2025 23:25 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I'm not sure that the mode would be all that helpful

04.12.2025 08:59 πŸ‘ 10 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

Have you met women?

02.12.2025 22:40 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Have you listened to her stuff with theaudience? It's very good

19.11.2025 03:28 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

And you can't park on the road? The bit that's for cars?

14.11.2025 15:28 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

You do know that the path outside your house isn't your path, don't you?

14.11.2025 10:05 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

The dictionary is responding to current usage, but that current usage is illogical (as your link acknowledges) which is why so many people think it's wrong. And let's face it, it is clearly wrong.

01.11.2025 12:01 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I hope "worse" was just an innocent typing mistake!

01.11.2025 01:24 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

It's up there with "I could care less", and "it's not that big of a deal" πŸ˜”

20.10.2025 22:48 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

"Set foot" or "step", but never "step foot". Never.

20.10.2025 22:41 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

:)

16.10.2025 19:54 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Also, I feel that clarity is more important than length. In fact I might go so far as to say I'd put elegance above length. "Obligated" adds length but does nothing for clarity, and reduces elegance. But always good to stay imformated on what other people think!

16.10.2025 19:53 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

If used universally there are some (not many) situations where it could introduce ambiguity. I've seen far more cases where omitting it causes a problem, which is why I became an Oxford Comma Cult Member several years ago.

16.10.2025 19:51 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

:) Yeah, sorry about that! Why on earth would I include an extra punctuation mark if all it did was remove ambiguity? (I'm talking about a general approach, not this specific example)

16.10.2025 19:40 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

They could use "obliged", which would be correct, shorter, and more elegant.

16.10.2025 19:30 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Anyone know why some people insist on adding an extra 'a' and 't' to the word 'obliged'?

16.10.2025 19:03 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0

A year 11 girl I once taught came up with her own. She got as far as "Sit on his..." when I thought it best she stopped

18.09.2025 22:48 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I work in an international school in Asia. First day back yesterday. Big drop in the number of students going to US universities this year. Principal shared stories of staff holiday travel; nothing from the US (lots of US citizens among the teaching staff).

12.08.2025 09:33 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Leave it in a nearby woods that dog walkers use

08.07.2025 14:43 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Nice. But should it be Bathgate (14) and Kigali (15)?

19.04.2025 16:41 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Not entirely true. Both China (PRC) and Taiwan (RoC) consider Taiwan and mainland China to be two parts of the same country. They disagree on who is the legitimate government.

11.04.2025 20:21 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

(b), most likely
If they were arrested it would be because there was sufficient evidence that they had committed crimes

31.03.2025 08:22 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

If you (or others) are interested in knowing more, can I suggest reading The Other Side of the Story, by Nury Vittachi.

31.03.2025 06:08 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0