Interesting Links for 27-09-2017

[andrewducker]

Rise in household waste being recycled in Scotland (tags: scotland recycling GoodNews ) Over 2,500 products have shrunk in size over the last five years. Now including Jaffa cakes (tags: food inflation uk viaSwampers ) Game of Thrones’ first Assistant Director on the challenges of Eastwatch, and how Jon Snow almost ‘turned into a human kite’ (

Comments

[steer]

re: product shrinkage -- this phenomenon is decades old.

You need to read the brilliant essay by the biologist Steven Jay Gould on chocolate bar evolution. I can't remember if he takes his data from Hershey or Twinkies (it's a US brand). His observed chocolate bars (and he speculates most similar products) shrink continually while keeping the same price as inflation makes ingredients more costly. At some point the chocolate bar "speciates" introducing a new "king size" version at a higher price point. After a while the "king size" version becomes the regular version and the smaller version dies out. The king size version begins to shrink and the process begins again. I'm not sure how much modern products follow this trend but I imagine it's fairly common.

Fractions and language

[anna_wing]

I have some doubts about this, mostly because Singaporean children, who score well on mathematical skill by global standards, are taught in English.

Re: Fractions and language

[andrewducker]

Totally fair point. I'd like to see some deeper research there.