It is too scientific to explain

 I'm really bad at explaining my clever thought processes. I'm trying to describe the optimum way to solve the puzzles from that maths contest back in May, but find it hard to phrase it better than "Well, I just sort of worked out that this is the answer."

It makes me sound like a bit of a fraud, but I can always take comfort from the fact that Superman would believe me, as shown in Action Comics #236, in 1957:

The scientist is, of course, Lex Luthor in disguise, but Superman isn't at all suspicious of his motives.

Jabba the Hutt is coming to town

 Redditch is the premier venue for Star Wars figure collectors, you know. There's a big festival here a couple of times a year, and the theme of the latest one is particularly cool - Jabba's Palace! Just look at this guest list! I'll certainly be there on October 7th!

You have to be my exact age to appreciate how cool Return of the Jedi, and particularly Jabba and his monsters in their toy incarnations, were! We had the Jabba playset, Sy Snootles and the Rebo Band, the Rancor Monster and indeed the mail-away offer Rancor Keeper, who'll be there to sign autographs in a fortnight! Return of the Jedi was actually the best and coolest Star Wars film, despite what anyone says.

Nothing But Eyes

 I've had this book of poems since time immemorial. The title is a little creepy...

And it comes from this poem, translated from the Japanese by someone who cares nothing for preserving the rules of haikus.

But it's this squirrel-themed page that particularly interests me - I really like squirrels, and wholeheartedly agree with William Butler Yeats (except perhaps for his rhyming 'do' with 'go'.

But this Humbert Wolfe person is just horrid! Grey squirrels are great, and much maligned. I should write a poem about Humbert Wolfe killing trees, eating his relatives and being shot. See how he likes it!

Twenty in a row

 This whole 'daily blog' thing is going very well, although I do seem to be running short of things to write about...

What the L?

 I would never dream of listening to Radio 1 normally. It's for dreadful young people who listen to awful modern music. But having got a lift today with someone who listens to it, I was actually quite impressed. Not only is "I Used To Be Young" by Miley Cyrus really quite catchy, but one of the presenters on the afternoon show (who may or may not be called Vick, but I had to look it up) came out with some great trivia that I didn't know!

There are only five countries in the world that end with L, you know. And (having been provided with Nepal as the one which prompted this apparently unscripted challenge) I did manage to think of them by the end of the song they played, though it was a close-run thing. I won't spoil it for you if you want to try it yourself, but the coolest thing about these five countries is that they're all a hugely long way away from each other! If you live in a country that ends with L, you're well over a thousand miles away from any other country that ends with L! I think that's very cool, and I might have to listen to awful radio stations more often now.

Yellow Cliffjumper

 I think that a blog post looks better if there's a picture to illustrate it. So here's a yellow Cliffjumper, showing Transformers comic readers what they can win if they just send their name and address on the back of a postcard or sealed envelope. Although you'll need to go back to 1984 if you want to do that.

Looking at the descriptions of the mini-Autobots, I'm not sure in what way "force" is an attribute of Windcharger's. I can see how his speed and magnetic arms can come in handy in all kinds of ways, but force is more of an ambiguous quality.

Simple maths

 Far too many people in the world have no idea what to do if you ask them what's fifty-three times forty-seven. Anyone who can't say "two thousand, four hundred and ninety-one" after a couple of seconds' thought is missing the very basic trick that can make people think you're some kind of genius.

Everyone probably did learn at school that (x+y)(x-y)=x²-y², but they don't know that it has practical applications far beyond getting the right answer in an algebra test and then forgetting it forever. It means that if you want to multiply something that's a bit more than a nice round number, by something that's the same bit less than that nice round number, the answer is the nice round number times the nice round number, minus the bit times the bit.

So while 53x47 sounds like you'd have to get a pencil and paper and try to remember how to do long multiplication, it's actually just 3 times 3 (which everyone knows) less than 50 times 50 (which nearly everyone knows; but if you don't, it's just five times five and then add the two noughts on to the end). So it's 2500 minus 9, and it's not too much of a strain to see that that makes 2491.

Try it with other numbers, and check it on your calculator if you don't believe me. Then you'll be able to show off the next time a strange man is roaming the streets asking "What's seventy-two times sixty-eight?" and jeering at anyone who doesn't know.