Tongue in cheek, from Israel

From Ynews

The good news: We're becoming more Italian. The bad news: We're becoming more Italian.

In fact, we were always a bit like the Italians and that's why we loved them more than all other Europeans. For a long time now we don't hold a grudge against the Romans.

After all, they were enlightened occupiers and handled with the appropriate proportionality both the far Right (those who barricaded themselves at the Masada settlement and refused to evacuate) and that leftist (the bleeding heart from Nazareth who preached for restraining violence and for loving everyone.)

Inspiration from Archimedes

Not particularly relevant to our teaching, but I liked this story from The Hindu:

Childhood passion

DR. T. V. PADMA

Sophie was intrigued by the story of Archimedes and this led her to find out more about maths.

Sophie Germain was a mathematical genius who lived between 1776 and 1831. She was born in France before the social upheaval of the French Revolution. Her father, Ambroze Francois, was a silk merchant. He and her mother, Marie Germain, were intellectuals who were active in the French Revolution.

At the time, in France, daughters of wealthy people were given private tuition, in reading and writing, but not maths, which they were never expected to use. Only boys went to school.

Sophie spent a lot of time in her father's library, reading. There she came across a story about Archimedes, an ancient scientist, who was killed by the Romans because he was so engrossed in working out a math problem that he didn't notice their arrival. What was it about mathematics that could have so captivated a man's mind? Sophie wondered. To find out, she began to read books on mathematics.

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