h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

oh, I don't know... what's there to say? I could talk about RL first, H2G2 second, ok?

RL: Life is alright lately... I'm writing from the Part Time Faculty Office at the Community College, where I've got night classes to teach in a couple of hours. The classes are going fine. I've got make-up tests to write... Uh, Daria... yeah, Daria... I'm not getting into it here (), but, um... I went to a concert with Daria yesterday. We saw the Santa Fe Orchestra perform Mahler and Holzt, and a Finnish dude whose name escapes me.... Let's see... been talking to Kierkegaardvark a lot, and I see PoorTomOBedlam every now and then... I'm getting excited about leaving Santa Fe in six weeks! The circles are getting wider and higher.

H2G2: Um... got an entry in the works on Special Relativity, and I'll soon do a write up of a critique of the idea of "belief," not for the Edited Guide, but for the FFFF libraries anyway. Speaking of FFFF, Twophlag Gargleblap was just moderated there for expressing something like that he thinks Christians are stupid. I'm a little peeved that I didn't have a chance to respond to the offending remark. It could have sparked a conversation about intelligence and religion, but insead it just added to the seething bitterness. I posted a mention to Peta, and I hope she doesn't hate me now. I'm not trying to be an a**, I just think it was a bad idea..

Still no word from Anna about getting a batch of subedits, or an e-group invitation that I've been expecting. I'll bet she waits until there's a few people in the queue and then does them all at once. Seems fair.

Ok, I gotta go be a good teacher now and write and grade tests.

Greetings, Bacchus...*hopes she spelt it right*
I'm flitting around and greeting new peeps on h2g2, since everybody I know seems to be asleep
Anyway, I'm glad I dropped in, cos since you're a math teacher maybe you can explain to me what factors are?? It came up in another conversation, and I feel a bit daft 'cos I can't remember, never having been that good at maths!!

-stoop, flying by, and comes-bearing-

Greetings, Stu! Thanks for dropping by. It's a pleasure to meet you!

mmmm... (Note to self: buy some!)

Factors, huh? Sure, I can tell you what factors are. A factor is something that goes evenly into something else. Like: 2 is a factor of 12 because it goes into 12 six times. 3 is also a factor of 12, and so are 4 and 6, but 5 isn't.

Factors can get kind of complicated when you're talking about objects more complicated than just numbers. Like, you can have a whole messy bit of algebra that's a factor of another, even messier bit of algebra. That just means the first messy bit goes evenly into the second messy bit.

I hope that answers your question!

So, maybe I'll catch you online sometime, eh? I hang around here far too much, and now that I'm starting to sub-edit, it'll only get worse, I'm sure . Anyway, Cheers!

GTB