Wednesday, May 28, 2014

376.Que Língua falava Jesus Christ

Cartesiano linguísta

O Papa Francis teve mais ou menos um pequeno desacordo com o PM Israelita quanto à língua que Jusus falava. O PM disse Hebraico e o Papa disse Aramaico.

Chegou-se à conclusão de que Jesus falava Aramaico, a língua do povo, embora também falasse Hebraico, língua erudita. Também teria, segundo o artigo seguinte, alguns conhecimentos em Latim e ainda mais em Grego, língua franca naqueles tempos por aquelas bandas e outras.

27 May 2014 Last updated at 12:58

Who, What, Why: What language would Jesus have spoken?

Who, What, WhyThe Magazine answers the questions behind the news

More from the Monitor

Israel's prime minister has verbally sparred with the Pope over which language Christ might have spoken. Several languages were used in the places where Jesus lived - so which would he have known, asks Tom de Castella.

Benjamin Netanyahu and Pope Francis appeared to have a momentary disagreement. "Jesus was here, in this land. He spoke Hebrew," Netanyahu told the Pope at a public meeting in Jerusalem. "Aramaic," interjected the Pope. "He spoke Aramaic, but he knew Hebrew," Netanyahu shot back.

It's broadly accepted that Jesus existed, although the historicity of the events of his life is still hotly debated. But language historians can shed light on what language a carpenter's son from Galilee who became a spiritual leader would have spoken.

The answer

Aramaic would have been his first language
Hebrew for scholarly questions
May have known some Greek but unlikely to have been proficient

Both the Pope and the Israeli prime minister are right, says Dr Sebastian Brock, emeritus reader in Aramaic at Oxford University, but it was important for Netanyahu to clarify. Hebrew was the language of scholars and the scriptures. But Jesus's "everyday" spoken language would have been Aramaic.

And it is Aramaic that most biblical scholars say he spoke in the Bible. This is the language that Mel Gibson used for The Passion of the Christ, although not all the words could be found from 1st Century Aramaic, and some of the script used words from later centuries.

Arabic did not arrive until later in Palestine. But Latin and Greek were common at the time of Jesus. It's unlikely Jesus would have known Latin beyond a few words, says Jonathan Katz, stipendiary lecturer in Classics at Oxford University. It was the language of law and the Roman military and Jesus was unlikely to be familiar with the vocabulary of these worlds.

Greek is a little more likely. It was the lingua franca of the Roman Empire - used by the civilian administrators. And there were the cities of the Decapolis, mostly in Jordan, where Greek language and culture dominated. So Jesus would probably have known some Greek, although the balance of probability is that he was not proficient in it, Katz says.

There's no clear evidence that Jesus could write in any language, says Brock. In John's gospel he writes in the dust, but that is only one account. And we don't know what language it was in. Jesus might even have been drawing rather than writing, Brock says.

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375. Os seus filhos e filhas não ouvem mesmo!

Cartesiano na psicologia infantil

Saiba a razão por que os seus filhos e filhas não ligam nenhuma àquilo que você diz. Não lhes grite nem se zangue, porque é mesmo verdade que as suas progenituras têm mesmo problemas de concentração.

Não se preocupe porque isso não é deficiência nenhuma, é um facto da natureza e nem você nem ninguém consegue mudar as Leis da Natureza.

As crianças por lei natural têm dificuldades de concentração sobre o meio envolvente quando estão concentrados noutro assunto.

Nem a ouvem a si nem por vezes ouvem os combóios e ficam debaixo deles nos carris. São distraídos por natureza.

Portanto seja paciente, dê esse desconto e aborde-os de modo inteligente. Não lhe dê porrada nem lhes cause stress e traumatize para a vida inteira. Dê-lhes liberdade condicional e mantenha-os sempre monitorizados porque é vosso dever de os proteger e levar a bom porto.

25 May 2014 Last updated at 01:54

Why children can't see what's right in front of them

By Philippa RoxbyHealth reporter, BBC News

Daughter ignoring her mother while looking at her phone

Scientists say there is an explanation for (most) children ignoring their parents when they're busy

It is an experience as familiar as it is frustrating to many parents and teachers - getting children to pay attention to simple instructions while they are engrossed in watching television, playing a game or reading a book.

Such is their ability to ignore what is happening outside their immediate focus that even talking through a megaphone would have little effect on their responsiveness.

But scientists believe there is actually a reason for their lack of awareness, which is linked to how the brain develops.

“Start Quote

A child trying to zip up their coat while crossing the road may not be able to notice oncoming traffic, whereas a developed adult mind would have no problem ”

Prof Nilli LavieUniversity College London

They say children are not intentionally ignoring us; in fact, they are experiencing inattentional blindness.

This blindness is the difference between looking and seeing what is actually there, between hearing and registering what is really said. The result is a lack of awareness, especially outside the immediate focus of attention.

According to Prof Nilli Lavie, from University College London's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, children have much less peripheral awareness than adults.

"Parents and carers should know that even focusing on something simple will make children less aware of their surroundings, compared to adults.

"For example, a child trying to zip up their coat while crossing the road may not be able to notice oncoming traffic, whereas a developed adult mind would have no problem with this.

"The capacity for awareness outside the focus of attention develops with age, so younger children are at higher risk of inattentional blindness."

Prof Lavie's views are based on an experiment she carried out recently to test levels of inattentional blindness in children and adults. She asked more than 200 visitors to the Science Museum, in London, to judge which line on a screen was the longest in seven different examples.

Don't try and engage us in conversation, we're concentrating

On one screen a black square flashed up and participants were asked whether they noticed it or not.

While 90% of the adults were able to spot the black square most of the time, children performed far worse, with fewer than 10% of seven to 10-year-olds spotting the square.

Eleven to 14-year-olds also showed lower awareness and that awareness decreased as the difficulty of the task increased.

“Start Quote

I didn't expect the older children would also suffer from inattentional blindness”

Prof Nillie LavieUniversity College London

This was a finding that surprised Prof Lavie.

She says: "In children, the primary visual cortex wasn't responding to the object on the screen and this appears to develop with age, until 14 and beyond. But I didn't expect the older children would also suffer from inattentional blindness. It would be interesting to see at what point they fully develop."

Previous research in adult brains suggests that the primary visual cortex is the part of the brain responsible for perceiving things, because if this area is damaged then people tend to experience less peripheral awareness.

There are obvious safety implications to this delayed development. Something as simple as texting while crossing the road becomes much more dangerous if awareness is impaired, for example.

But there are upsides to inattentional blindness too.

Who wants to be distracted by anything and everything around us? Surely a lack of peripheral awareness means we can retain our focus and concentrate.

Children's attention is not on their homework

Is anyone listening to me?

Psychologists argue that we all have a limited capacity for attention, to some degree, and when carrying out very demanding tasks, it's a trait that is necessary.

Richard Wiseman, professor of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, has studied human visual processing in great detail and describes it as "enormously complicated".

"Big parts of the brain are dedicated to it. It's very difficult, so we don't want to be processing stuff that's not important.

Test your peripheral awareness

Try out a couple of psychologist Prof Richard Wiseman's tests to see what you can spot.

"That's why you need inattentional blindness, otherwise you'd not be able to focus - and that's not a good way of getting through the world."

Because the brain gives us the illusion it is constantly monitoring everything, he says, we are surprised when we don't notice something obvious.

Prof Wiseman has used and refashioned the now famous selective attention test, first created by Daniel Simons, to demonstrate how easy it is to miss the presence of a gorilla in a video.

While watching the video, people are asked to concentrate on something else, in this instance on the number of times a ball is passed between people playing basketball.

“Start Quote

As an adult we are constantly learning what is not important, so maybe we are more likely to get tripped up”

Prof Richard WisemanUniversity of Hertfordshire

In another test, he asks people to concentrate on a card trick. During the trick, certain background items change colour, but few people notice because they are focused on the cards.

Prof Wiseman says creative people are likely to be better at spotting things than others, whereas individuals who feel anxious or worried about the task are less likely to notice the gorilla in the room.

He says there are many occasions in life when we miss the blindingly obvious just because we are totally focused on another problem. Car drivers have said they didn't see the pedestrian because they were looking out for other hazards, for example, and airline pilots have missed warning lights in the cockpit because they were busy dealing with other issues.

"As an adult we are constantly learning what is not important, so maybe we are more likely to get tripped up," Prof Wiseman surmises.

When it comes to inattentional blindness, we are all prone to it, we all complain about it and yet it is essential to everyday life.

Just don't expect your children to be happy when your focus on the television renders them invisible.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

374. A EUROPA FASCISTA

CARTESIANO NADA SURPREENDIDO

O Hitler está de regresso! Essa gente que vota no partidos nazis valia mais darem um tiro na moca para irem ter com esse passado morto aos infernos em vez de quererem trazer essa nojice de partidos para enojarem toda a gente.

Grande parte do eleitorado Europeu votou nos partidos fascistas. A pior vergonha vem do eleitorado francês ao votarem em maioria no Partido Nazi de Le PEN.

Cuidado com a populaça, porque esta não vê mais longe do que o seu nariz. Com o seu voto podem causar problemas graves sobretudo a eles próprios. Vejam onde Hitler e Mussolini conduziram os seus próprios povos: ao sofrimento, humilhação e uma vergonha incrível.

Este voto, por exemplo, no UKIP de Nigel Farage no Reino Unido é o voto da ralé, possuída por um instinto animalesco de inveja contra os imigrantes, contra a solidariedade extra-fronteiras. É o voto do individualismo, dos falhados, dos nulos. Nenhum partido político poderá fazer algo por esta gente: lost generation.

Votando nos partidos reacinários, de ultra-direita, é como uma uma birrinha de criança às caneladas na mãe: para mostrar descontentamento por outra coisa. Isso não vai ajudar nada essa gente falhada porque esses partidos são a favor do grande capital e dos milionários.

Portanto os Partidos reaças de N Farage e de Le Pen são a favor da imigração porque quantos mais trabalhadores houver no mercado de trabalho mais os salários descem. Também esses partidos não causarão nehuma arranhadela no Bilderberg Group e associados. Para estes nada muda com a extrema direita: business as usual.

São dinausauros nostálgicos de tempos passados, os quais nunca voltarão. Muitos deles não trabalham nem querem trabalhar. Em geral têm um nível educacional muito baixo, um cérebro com uma capacidade neurónica limitada, galináceo, cujas conexões são muito básicas e rígidas -- uma massa muito inerte e dura.

Essa gente fazem parte de uma geração perdida em vias de desaparecimento, porque o nível educacional das populações Europeias não pára de subir.

Digamos também que o Partido vencedor foi o da maioria silenciosa das pessoas que não votam (mais de 60%) . Ao fim e ao cabo, é partido dos não votantes que elegem esses partidos extremistas que vêm com ideias radicais vigilantistas do tipo mata e esfola, e depois são eles próprios esfolados por aqueles que os elegeram.

É uma forma de expressão de descontentamento contra a desregulação internacional dos mercados, incluindo o do trabalho, pelos agentes do capitalismo selvagem. Não é este voto contestatário que vai parar a globalização, e não é certamente nem o UKIP nem o Front Nacional Nazi que vão resolver o assunto.

No mundo da Aldeia Global, o nacionalismo estreito anacrónico morreu. O mundo internacionalizou-se e ninguém conseguirá fechar a circulação virtual nem a física entre os povos que habitam o planeta. As pessoas sempre se deslocaram ao longo dos séculos e continuarão a movimentar-se enfrentando perigos de vária natureza, incluindo o populismo dos baffoons Nigel Farage e a Marina Le Pen.

Porém, esta descarga caiu em cima da Europa por efeito de tabela, de conjetura, quando esta tem sido uma força de bem e reguladora de harmonia em prol do bem-estar dos cidadãos.

E Davida Cameron continua a vociferar slogans anti-Europa para caçar os votos da ralé Inglesa UKIP. O PM Inglês só tem um único problema com a Europa: teme interferência Europeia na Square Mile (na área da alta finança). Nunca este homem disse nada de positivo sobre a Europa. O homenzinho lançou-se numa campanha de lavagem de cérebro massiva da população do Reino Unido.

Por bater diariamente nessa tecla, o povo Britânico sofre agora de fobia aguda logo que o a palavra Europa é pronunciada. Até paarece bem falar contra a Europa, mesmo esses pacóvios saberem o que estão a dizer.

É uma lavagem de cérebro do tipo Brave New World de endoutrinamento, de separação e criar ódeo enteo os "Ypslones e os Alphas". Até ele próprio acabou por se auto-convencer por auto-sugestão de que a Europa é má coisa, quando ele sabe bem que a Pequena Bretanha tem todo o interesse em permanecer na Europa.

Tanto faz o PM berrar como não, o sistema financeiro Inglês --- quem sabe o que ali se passa? --- está entre a espada e a parede: ou se submete à inspeção da Europa ou então mecanismos serão colocados para mudar as transações bancárias para Frankfurt. Isto não é rocket science! Quem não vê isto anda a leste. Tudo quanto quanto o Primeiro Ministro Inglês diz é retórica, palha, a fim de esconder esta verdade, a sua única preocupação.

A Europa deveria utilizar a Lei Anti-Hatred (Lei Anti-Ódeo) feita pelo Governo de David Cameron e fazê-lo sentar o trazeiro no banco do réu por andar a vociferar e criar ódeo contra a Europa, só porque a Comissão Europeia anda a ameaçar Cameron com multas caso não limpe os cobres da City o ar de Londres. E o ar não ficará limpo só com os camiões do Bóris a chupar a poluição em volta dos medidores poluição para enganar os aparelhos!

Se a Ukrânia fosse neste momento membro da União Europeia e da Nato, a Rússia não se teria metido naquela pouca vergonha de querer rebentar o país. O que seria a Inglaterra fora da Europa quando a Escócia tiver voltado as costas ao Reino Unido: uma nação fraquita, isolacionista e pária, talvez um estado falhado caído na pirataria financeira.

A Europa está no bom caminho e precisa ainda de muito mais integração num mundo onde as superpotências,velhas e novas não páram de evoluir: um mundo em evolução constante, não visível ao olho da populaça. Esta gente não mais longe do que o seu umbigo.

A Europa continua a não ter músculo e se não fosse a poteção dos Estados Unidos da América do Norte através da Nato, o presidente Putin já teria escavacado a Ukcrânia aos bocados e avançado por ali fora em velocidade cruzeiro para admirarem a paisagem. Só teria parado em Portugal.

Vocês aí nas Europas já seriam agoras todos ursinhos Russyos putinos, salvos os recalcitrantes, os quais seriam metidos em campos de concentração transitórios até serem enviados de férias para as instâncias balneares a funcionar nos antigos gulags da Sea-béria. Que corja de palhaços!

Last but not least, A fraude descarada moral, política e aquela que se infiltrou e alastrou nos bancos e empresas privadas a trabalhar para o Estado também provocou e ainda está provocando uma onda de indignação nos cidadãos, sobretudo quando o Estado diz que está falido e a efetuar cortes escandalosos no setor social.

Esta pouca vergonha de alguns membros da classe política e da alta finança têm afastado os cidadãos das suas obrigações societais, sobretudo do exercicio do voto.

Mas isto é apenas uma desculpa, porque essa gente é politicamente analfabeta, iletrada e já não votava antes. Essa ausência das urnas de voto ajuda essa corja de fascistas e reacinários de vários tipos a elegerem os seus representantes fascistas.

Deus nos libre da ira da ralé, e do veneno dos populistas. Amen!

Thursday, May 22, 2014

373: O SHARD ATINGIDO POR FAÍSCA

CARTESIANO LIGHTNING ROD

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CEAQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.standard.co.uk%2Fnews%2Flondon%2Fwatch-the-incredible-moment-the-shard-is-hit-by-lightning-during-london-electrical-storm-9419291.html&ei=ym5-U_reEIWd0AXj-YHIAg&usg=AFQjCNGCfQEIAdgDCRjHA005sc3dmIFobQ&sig2=62NwpdN39MMYvOCHVqA_vA&bvm=bv.67229260,d.d2k

A TORRE MAIS ALTA DA EUROPA ATRAIU UMA FAÍSCA HOJE DURANTE UMA TROVOADA.

TERIA ISTO TER ALGUM EFEITO NAS ELEIÇOES MUNICIPAIS E EUROPEIAS, CUJOS RESULTADOS SERÃO PUBLICADOS PELA NOITE FORA. aS URNAS ABRIRAM ÀS 7 HORAS DA MANHÃ E FECHARAM ÀS 10 DA NOITE.

ESPERA-SE QUE O PARTIDO LABOUR TERÁ ÓPTIMO RESULTADO, OS TORIES NO GOVERNO TERÃO UM RESUTADO DESATROSO E O PARTIDO LIBERAL SERÁ QUASE VARRIDO DA GEOGRAFIA POLÍTICA.

ESPERA-SE TODAVIA O APARECIMENTO DO PARTIDO FASCITA UKIP COMO UMA NOVA DOMINANTE DA VIDA POLÍTICA DO REINO UNIDO.

22 May 2014 Last updated at 18:43

Lightning strikes the Shard during London storm

Several bolts of lightning hit London during a brief thunderstorm earlier, including one captured over the Shard in south London.

The 87-storey building is western Europe's tallest building standing at 310m (1,016ft) and is located next to London Bridge station.

The storm also affected phone lines in Hillingdon and Breakspear Crematorium in west London was struck by lighting.

Cable car services were suspended for an hour because of high winds.

The lightning strike was also captured in a video

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

372. Combóios Franceses engordaram: não cabem nas estações

Cartesiano irracional,

Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah! De partir a moca de rir!

Então Renatus Cartesius, já te esqueceste que é a dúvida que conduz à verdade!

Os combóios novos não cabem nas estações e agora têm três opções: despejar as carruagens novas -- 15 biliões de euros -- na sucata, impor uma dieta rigorosa às carruagens para emagrecerem ou mandar os ratos roer uns bocados das platforms das estações.

Os nossos amigos Franceses já fizeram mais asneirada quando os serviços de radiologia de uma clínica dava doses de radiações 100 vezes mais do que os tecidos humanos podiam suportar. Aquilo deu uma super-bronca dos diabos, e os degraçados dos pacientes é que sofreram. Certamente que enviaram alguns para o estaleiro.

Em Inglaterra também se enganaram na conversão das medidas imperiais para métricas nos contadores de gás e andava para ali muita gente a queimar gás de graça.

É de admirar como eles não têm uma equipa para estas funções em vez de colocaram estes trabahos nas mãos talvez de uma pessoa. E com tanta gente no desemprego!

No caso da dosagem das radiações no tratamento do cancro, isso foi mesmo criminoso. O assunto mantem-se reativo. Nós no Cartesiano não conseguimos compreender tanta asneirada, sobretudo em assuntos muito sérios em que a vida de pessoas está em jogo.

Também um aviador, pensamos canadiano, pousou a aeronave na Portela, Lisboa, só a planar, porque os reatores embebedaram-se, beberam o querozene todo no ar, e não guardaram nada para pousar. Nao mergulhou no Tejo por milage. Aquilo foi mesmo uma proeza do capitão ter pousado o aeroplano sem descer em parafuso e marrar com o bico e as asas no solo e chegar fogo a tudo!

O Renatus até teria dado reviravoltas na tomba lá para as Suécias, ao ter conhecimento destes cálculos não cartesianos. Também não foi devido a um desafio visual porque o René Descates também nos legou as dioptrias das lentes dos óculos. Só não vê quem não quer e há para aí muita gente bornée, tunnel-vision. Pardieu!

Lembrem-se que a milha tem mais de quilómerto e meio e a Jarda tem menos de um metro. Cuidado com as Pints no Pub down the corner porque elas tem cerca de 600 mililitros.

Os técnicos que tiraram as medidas às carrugens e às estações talvez tivessem metido uma boas pints no buxo.

O facto de isto acontecer em França, terra do Renatus, é tanto mais caricato.

Valha-nos Deus e todos os santos!

21 May 2014 Last updated at 00:00

French red faces over trains that are 'too wide'

Bombardier Transportation in France head Jean Berge stands in front of a giant model of the "Regio 2N" regional double-deck train developed for the French SNCF railway network

The platform edges are too close to the tracks in some stations which means the trains cannot get in

The French train operator SNCF has discovered that 2,000 new trains it ordered at a cost of 15bn euros ($20.5bn; £12.1bn) are too wide for many regional platforms.

The BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris says that it is an embarrassing blunder that has so far cost the rail operator over 50m euros ($68.4m; £40.6m).

Our correspondent says that the cost is likely to rise even further.

Construction work has already started to reconfigure station platforms.

The work will allow new trains room to pass through. But officials say that there are still 1,000 platforms to be adjusted.

The new SNCF Regiolis Regional Express Train (TER) during its presentation at the Vaugirard railway station in Paris (April 2014)

The blunder has cost the rail operator a substantial sum of money

The error seems to have happened because the national rail operator RFF gave the wrong dimensions to train company SNCF.

Our correspondent says that they measured platforms built less than 30 years ago, overlooking the fact that many of France's regional platforms were built more than 50 years ago when trains were a little slimmer.

The platform edges are too close to the tracks in some stations which means the trains cannot get in, officials say.

A spokesman for the RFF confirmed they had "discovered the problem a bit late".

Transport Minister Frederic Cuvillier blamed an "absurd rail system" for the problems.

"When you separate the rail operator from the train company," he said, "this is what happens."

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22 May 2014 Last updated at 11:11

Great miscalculations: The French railway error and 10 others

The discovery by the French state-owned railway company SNCF that 2,000 new trains are too wide for many station platforms is embarrassing, but far from the first time a small mis-measurement or miscalculation has had serious repercussions.

The French fiasco has been blamed by SNCF on the national rail operator RFF. But sometimes there is no-one else to share responsibility. Here are 10 examples where a little error has proved very expensive, or even fatal.

1. The Mars Climate Orbiter

Designed to orbit Mars as the first interplanetary weather satellite, the Mars Orbiter was lost in 1999 because the Nasa team used imperial units while a contractor used metric. The $125m probe came too close to Mars as it tried to manoeuvre into orbit, and is thought to have been destroyed by the planet's atmosphere. An investigation said the "root cause" of the loss was the "failed translation of English units into metric units" in a piece of ground software.

2. The Vasa warship

File photo: Swedish Royal warship Vasa on show at a museum in Stockholm on 24 April 2011

In 1628, crowds in Sweden watched in horror as a new warship, Vasa, sank less than a mile into her maiden voyage, with the death of 30 people on board. Armed with 64 bronze cannons, it was considered by some to be the most powerful warship in the world. Experts who have studied it since it was raised in 1961 say it is asymmetrical, being thicker on the port side than the starboard side. One reason for this could be that theworkmen were using different systems of measurement. Archaeologists have found four rulers used by the workmen who built the ship. Two were calibrated in Swedish feet, which had 12 inches, while the other two measured Amsterdam feet, which had 11 inches.

3. The "Gimli Glider"

In 1983, an Air Canada flight ran out of fuel above Gimli, Manitoba. Canada had switched to the metric system in 1970, and the plane is reported to have been Air Canada's first aircraft to use metric measurements. The plane's on-board fuel gauge was not working, so the crew used measuring "dripsticks" to check how much fuel the plane took on during refuelling. Things went wrong when they converted this measurement of volume into one of weight. They got the number right, but the unit wrong - mistaking pounds of fuel for kilograms. As a result the plane was carrying about half as much fuel as they thought. Luckily, the pilot was able to land the plane safely on the Gimli runway, giving the plane the nickname "Gimli Glider".

4. The Hubble Space Telescope

File photo: The Hubble Space Telescope 19 February 1997

File photo: This photo taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the Monkey Head Nebula or NGC2174, 17 March 2014

The Hubble telescope is famous for its beautiful space images, and is considered a great success for Nasa. However, it got off to a very rocky start. The first images sent back by the telescope were fuzzy because the telescope's main mirror was too flat. It wasn't out by much - only 2.2 microns, or about 1/50th the thickness of a human hair - but this was enough to put the project in jeopardy. One theory is that a speck of paint on a device used to test the mirror resulted in distorted measurements. Luckily, scientists manage to fix the problem in 1993, using an instrument called the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (Costar). This cancelled out the error in the main mirror, by matching it in reverse.

5. Big Ben

The Big Ben bell at the Houses of Parliament in London cracked during testing in 1857 and was melted down to be recast. But the new bell, winched into position over three days in 1859, also quickly cracked. Disputes raged over who was at fault - there was even a libel case. One theory is that the massive hammer, at 6.5 hundredweight, was too heavy - at least for the particular alloy the bell was made from (seven parts tin to 22 of copper). The foundries which cast the bells had always argued this material was too brittle. The second bell was not replaced (it is still cracked), just rotated by an eighth of a turn. The hammer, however, was replaced by a lighter one.

6. Stonehenge model

File photo: (Left to right) David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) and Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) from Spinal Tap at the 2009 Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset

In the 1984 mockumentary This is Spinal Tap, the members of a fictional rock group order a model of a Stonehenge megalith for their stage show - but the note written on a napkin mistakenly asks for a model 18 inches tall, instead of 18 feet. Curiously, and probably coincidentally, the British rock band Black Sabbath had experienced the opposite problem during its Born Again tour in 1983. Its replica of Stonehenge was so big, it got in the way of the band, and very few of the "stones" would fit on the stage. One version of the story says there was a mix-up between metres and feet.

7. The Laufenburg bridge

What is sea level? It varies from one place to another, and different countries use different benchmarks. "For example, Britain has measured height in relation to mean sea levels in Cornwall, while France measures height in relation to sea levels in Marseille," says Dr Philip Woodworth, of the National Oceanography Centre Liverpool. Germany, for its part, measures height in relation to the North Sea, while Switzerland, like France, opts for the Mediterranean Sea. This caused a problem in Laufenburg, a town that straddles Germany and Switzerland. As two halves of a new bridge grew closer to one another in 2003, it became clear that, instead of being at the same height "above sea level", one side was 54cm higher than the other. Builders knew that there was a 27cm difference between the two versions of sea level - but somehow it was doubled, rather than cancelled out. The German side reportedly had to be lowered before the bridge could be completed.

8. Scott's diet

File photo: Robert Falcon Scott's sledge party, which reached the furthest southern latitude on his national Antarctic expedition, celebrating Christmas. Lieutenant Ernest Shackleton, left, Captain Robert Falcon Scott, centre, and Dr Edward Adrian Wilson, right. Photo published 1903

The polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott made a fatal miscalculation about the amount of food his men would need on their 1910-1912 expedition to the South Pole. They were given rations of 4,500 calories per day, which is now known to be insufficient when hauling sledges, and especially at higher altitudes. According to Dr Mike Stroud, a polar veteran and expert in nutrition, the explorers were getting some 3,000 calories per day less than their bodies needed, and would have lost about 25kg of body weight before they reached their destination and started the return journey. Scott and his companions on the trek to the pole are now assumed to have died of starvation.

9. The Sochi biathlon track

File photo: Russia's Anton Shipulin (bottom) crosses the finish line ahead of Germany's Simon Schempp in the Men's Biathlon 4x7.5 km Relay at the Laura Cross-Country Ski and Biathlon Center during the Sochi Winter Olympics on in Rosa Khutor, near Sochi, 22 February 2014

The day before the opening of the Sochi Winter Olympics, it was discovered that the biathlon track - which should be a loop of 2.5km (1.6 miles) - was 40m (130ft) short. Competitors in 7.5km events would have covered less than 7.4km, while those in 12.5km events would have done 12.3km. Some hasty repair work ensured the track was the right length for the first event three days later. Lengthening a biathlon track is clearly easier than lengthening a swimming pool. It's often been reported that 50m swimming pools at Crystal Palace in London and Leeds were made a few centimetres too short - sometimes, it's said, because the designers forgot about the thickness of the tiles. These stories, however, appear to be urban myths. A similar report about Portsmouth's Olympic pool in 2011 also turned out to be incorrect.

10. The Millennium Bridge

File photo: Thousands of people cross the Millennium Bridge for the first time after it reopens, 22 February 2002

To mark the new millennium, London got a new footbridge in June 2000, linking the newly opened Tate Modern art gallery, on the south bank of the Thames, with the north bank near St Paul's cathedral. But people noticed that the 350m-long structure wobbled alarmingly as they walked across. One of the difficulties of designing a footbridge is the "synchronised footfall" effect - as the bridge begins to bounce or sway people adjust their footsteps to the rhythm of the bridge's movements, inadvertently magnifying them. In this case, the designers took account of the up-and-down synchronised footfall, but not the side-to-side effect. The following year, work began to install dampers, like car shock absorbers, to reduce the rocking. It was reopened in February 2002.

Reporting by Helier Cheung and Stephen Mulvey

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