It's Pi Day... again

I didn’t intend to make anything for Pi Day 2022 - feels like I’ve already done my bit for the Pi cause.

However a few serendipitous opportunities arose.

First, Matt Parker was working on his own epic Pi video - and we helped him film some things at the Royal Society.

With Matt there, it seemed like an opportunity to make some extra videos for Objectivity and Numberphile… so we did.

The above videos obviously tie-in nicely with Matt’s own video on Stand Up Maths.

I’ve also made a “last-minute” podcast for Numberphile about some music released by Pi enthusiast Martin Krzywinski. (You’ll find the Numberphile Podcast on most players and apps)

For more Pi videos from over the years, here’s the Numberphile Pi Playlist: http://bit.ly/PiPlaylist

It includes our classic Mile of Pi and Pi with Pies. Which also feature Matt, funnily enough.

Twos-Day

Well it is 22-2-22 - depending on your favoured dating system.

It also happens to fall on a Tuesday.

Matt Parker from Stand-up Maths devised an epic collaboration between various educational YouTubers - 22 of them, in fact.

The journey starts with a video on Matt’s own channel.

While continuing on his own channel, the saga then forks out to a video on Steve Mould’s Shorts channel and my own Numberphile2 channel.

It’s deliciously convoluted but great fun - the material on Numberphile2 is totally different to what is happening on Stand-Up Maths.

Various people share a story or factoid relating to the number two.

Well done to Matt and his team, including editor Alex Genn-Bash.

And if you enjoyed it, perhaps make a donation to WaterAid!?

Investiture at Windsor Castle

In January I wrote about the Medal of the Order of Australia - you can read about it here.

Because I live in the UK, it was not possible to receive the medal in my homeland.

Instead - about nine months later - I received it from Prince Charles at Windsor Castle.

Below is a video about the medal on the Objectivity channel - it includes footage from the investiture.

You can also hear more detail during this episode of the Unmade Podcast.

Stuff from Iceland

I’ve created a stand-alone blog series from a trip to Iceland in July 2021.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE (including volcanoes, glaciers and whale penises)

Medal of the Order of Australia

This Australia Day I was fortunate to receive the Medal of the Order of Australia.

The citation says it is “for services to broadcast and online media”.

It was a big surprise when the notification arrived last month and I feel very honoured.

(The initial email went to my junk folder and I thought it may be a prank!)

Despite living in the UK for many years now, I’m immensely proud to be Australian.

If you’d like to hear more, I talk about the award in the latest episode of The Unmade Podcast (sometimes seriously, sometimes jokingly).

I do not have the physical medal yet.

The investiture ceremonies take place in a few months and I’m not sure I’ll be able to travel back to Australia in the current environment.

I’d just like to mention (if not by name) the hundreds of people who help make my videos and podcasts. I’m under no illusion that my work is a solo effort.

And also thanks to the people who watch the videos and listen to the podcasts - I wouldn’t be able to make them if there was not such a loyal and engaged audience.

The Sofa Shop

The Sofa Shop was an Adelaide store with a jingle that was played A LOT on TV and radio when I was growing up.

Many years later, on The Unmade Podcast, light-hearted memories of the jingle became something of a running joke.

When The Sofa Shop finally closed in recent times, this was a major development on our podcast.

In the subsequent months, podcast listeners starting making their own renditions of the jingle and we featured them on the show.

We have a list of many of them here, so do have a listen.

During a trip to Adelaide earlier this year, I tracked down the jingle’s composer (Quentin Eyres) and singer (Carmine Scalsi) for a couple of interviews.

But then we went further, and got Quentin and Carmine back in the studio for this grand finale.

Is "The Lecture" Dead?

The forced closure of most university facilities has, in some minds, ignited debate about the future of “traditional lectures”.

I spoke with professors Phil Moriarty and Mike Merrifield - both from the University of Nottingham School of Physics.

They had different views:

You can also watch the full length interviews with each of them. Here’s Mike Merrifield:

And here’s the long version with Phil:

Both have also written articles in the past - you can read Mike here and Phil here.