Archive for the ‘Science’ Category

memrise updates….

Sunday, April 25th, 2021

A bit on the late side but….

December 2020 was the month where I scored incredible 3 million points in month… The screenshot only show 2.9 million points. Either I’ve forgotten the 3m screenshot or I’ve deleted it by mistake. Anyway, it’s not the kind of thing foolishly brag about. Believe it or leave it 🙂

Unfortunately, that took quite a toll… I’ve had a real dip in performance after that for two months but it’s gotten better in the meantime.

Regarding the level, I’m less than 2 million points away from level 18 as of today (20210425) and although I’m still a far cry away from my previous longest streak (1394 as per screenshot above), I’ve dragged most of my enrolled across the 500 day streak threshold again

A new monthly record-high memrise score

Saturday, June 1st, 2019

In May 2019 I accumulated a cool two million points on memrise. A screenshot will follow later. This is the first time I crossed that particular threshold, usually I end a month between 1.5m and 1.8m points.

According to the stats (I’m a premium member for the time being), I spent 31h in May learning – which is probably correct but this is the “learning” stat. A big chunk of those points come from repetitions which are not included in that stat. So the overall time spent on memrise in May was between two and three times that much (31 days multiplied by on average 1.8h).

Actually, the same goes for the streak stat – the streak only counts learning events – but only on the website. If one day you do only repetitions (even if you do 10’000 of them), your streak is gone.
The app on the other hand adds to your streak if you reach your daily goal.

For this reason, my streak on the website if around 270 now but in the app it’s around 1210.

Update 20190611: I promised you a screenshot, here it is:

a cool two million points in one month ^_^

Books I’m reading at the moment… October 2018

Tuesday, October 9th, 2018

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_History_of_Nearly_Everything) – finished

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant part I by Stephen R. Donaldson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Thomas_Covenant) – finished

攻殻機動隊 1.5 Human Error Processor by Masamune Shirow

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant part II by Stephen R. Donaldson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Thomas_Covenant) – finished

The Last Ringbearer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Ringbearer)

Scientific experiments I’d be interested in (I) – coffee

Tuesday, October 9th, 2018

Recently, I’ve been thinking about some experiments which I can’t do by myself but would very much like to know the results… therefor, a new series on this blog.

First up the question “can you trick the body into reacting to caffeine with a non-caffeinated fluid”?

Evidently, the body reacts to the chemical caffeine when coffee is drunk. What I would like to know is if it’s possible to trigger the same reaction by drinking a non-caffeinated fluid that tastes and looks the same as coffee.

Cons that it’s not possible:
-If the fluid does not contain caffeine, there will be no reaction because it’s a physical reaction triggered by the intake of such a fluid

Pros that it’s possible:
-There is such a thing as a placebo effect
-If you can quicken your beard growth by thinking about sex, why not invoke a bodily reaction to caffeine intake?

Pending further research…