You recognise the statue in the picture above, right? It’s the statue of (the Biblical hero) David. It’s a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created between 1501-1504 by the Italian artist Michelangelo. The statue was originally placed in a public square, outside the Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of the civic government in Florence. Because of the […]
How many of you remember (or are even old enough to remember) the film Uncle Buck? It came out 30 years ago and starred John Candy as Uncle Buck and McCauley Culkin as Miles – the nephew he needs to look after. There is one sequence in the film where Miles asks Uncle Buck a […]
On January 7th 1990 Manchester United played Nottingham Forest away in the FA Cup 3rd round. Alex Ferguson had been United’s manager for 3 years. Things hadn’t been going well. United had yet to win a trophy in that time. They were on a winless run of 7 games. Just a couple of weeks before […]
Let’s start with a joke. A successful lawyer buys himself a brand new Porsche Carrera. The following day he parks it right in front of the office ready to show it off to his colleagues. As he gets out of the vehicle, a truck speeds past. It hits the car completely tearing off the driver’s […]
Let’s start with another question from the Factfulness Test that we talked about last time. In all low-income countries across the world today, how many girls finish primary school…(a) 20% (b) 40% (c) 60%? The correct answer is 60%. Those of you who got this right have learned the lesson from last time. Pick the […]
Let’s start with a short quiz. Question 1: In the last 20 years, has the proportion of the world’s population living in extreme poverty… (a) almost doubled (b) remained more or less the same (c) almost halved? Question 2: How many of the world’s 1 year old children today have been vaccinated against some disease…(a) […]
Let’s start with a fable about the invention of chess. The game of chess was presented to a great King. The King absolutely loved the game and offered the inventor any reward that he wanted. The inventor asked that a single grain of rice be placed on the first square of a chessboard. Then two […]
Fill in the blanks… “There are only two types of people in the world. Those that _________ and those that _________. How did you fill in the blanks? Maybe you went political “those that voted leave and those that voted remain”. Maybe you went more everyday “those who put cream on the scone first and […]
What was your first car? A 5 year old Nissan Micra? An 8 year old Ford Fiesta? A 10 year old Mini Metro? Most of you will have started on a low rung of the ladder. From there the goal was to slowly move up the ladder – a rung or two at a time, […]
How many of you have played the game Guess Who? The original had a great cast of characters. There was Bill. He looked like a jolly farmer. Pointy bald head, ginger goatee and incredibly red cheeks. There was Sam. He looked like a librarian. Very round head, round glasses and a tiny set of pursed […]