Sixth W2N Newsletter
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Welcome
to the sixth 5th
September 2008 Two Weeks! Yep, in just two weeks and two days, I’ll be setting
off on an extraordinary adventure… gulp! I’d love to tell you that I am completely prepared, utterly
confident and anxious to get going. I’d love to tell you that the website
has been inundated with people eager to cast their vote for the first
destination and I’d love to report that Industry Leaders and
Entrepreneurs have been falling over themselves to sponsor the W2N
project… I’d love to, but I can’t! As I write, a gale-force
wind is howling through the rigging and waves are crashing against the
hull… and I’m moored up on the pontoon at Wicormarine! Votes are
starting to trickle in and currently favour a route around the coast of
So, you could argue that the weather in Media Interest Explodes… well, pops a
bit! On Tuesday, I issued a statement to the Press Association.
The Southern Daily Echo, a local south coast newspaper had covered the story of
my single-handed dice adventure with a full page (page 3!) article and it
became clear that there might be some mainstream media interest. Yachting
Monthly had covered the story back in April and again in May but besides that,
nobody from the yachting press had really got terribly excited about the
concept. Well, the result was spectacular. In just two days, I have appeared
live on a number of radio stations from Watch the South Today clip here… http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7599101.stm By the way, if you were wondering, when I threw the dice to
decide how Tom would get ashore (dinghy or swimming!), it really was the first
‘take’ in which the dice revealed a ‘five’ to secure
his place on the tender… honest! So, it’s all just a bit of fun and I’m enjoying
my 15 minutes of fame but with any luck this exposure will, at the very least,
introduce a few more people to the project. If it attracts a sponsorship offer
then that would of course be a huge boost but by coincidence (he couldn’t
possibly have seen the BBC news article), I had an email from Luke
Rhinehart’s PR Agent last night! If you don’t know already, Luke
Rhinehart wrote several best-selling books including The Dice Man which, besides enjoying massive international
success, was the inspiration for my own Dice adventure. We’ll see where
that goes but I am honoured to have received best wishes not just from Luke and
his team but from the presenter of Discovery Channel’s Diceman Travel Show; Russell Harris. Luke
and Russell are both keen sailors and are following the W2N project with
interest. Check out… http://www.lukerhinehart.net/New-Home.html Minoru Saito ‘Challenge 8’ Oh, and while you’re at it, one week after my
departure from Portsmouth, 74 year old Minoru Saito will be setting off on his
eighth… yes, eighth single-handed non-stop circumnavigation. Follow his
incredible adventure here… http://www.saito8.com/index.htm ‘Live’ Position Reports and
Blog Keep your eyes on the website (www.w2n.co.uk) for a new and exciting addition
coming very soon. I’ve subscribed to a package designed by www.MailASail.com specifically for
circumnavigators and I’m just waiting for my Web Designer to see if it
can be embedded into the W2N pages. Basically, with my new Iridium Satellite
Telephone, I will be able to submit regular blog updates to the website from
anywhere in the world. Even in middle of the oceans, by submitting a blog
entry, my position, illustrated using Google Maps, will be updated
automatically. The package also works as an email compression software and provides
essential weather information so it really is quite a useful tool. As I say, it’s currently being developed so if
it’s not yet on the W2N website, you can follow the link here… http://blog.mailasail.com/w2n. Why not
click on ‘List All Users’ and have a read of a few blog entries
from other cruising yachts. Actually, it’s not related but reminds of a website
that Tom Hepworth, the BBC reporter told me about yesterday. Take a look at http://www.shipais.com/index.php.
It
uses the same AIS technology that I’ve installed on Canasta but it’s interesting to see,
at a glance, the incredible number of ships lurking about out there! ‘Dice’ or ‘Die’? A dice is just a dice, right? Well you could be forgiven for
thinking that it is simply a tiny cube with the numbers one to six printed or
embossed on each of its six sides. And that’s what I thought too until
the question arose regarding the correct use of ‘dice’ or
‘die’ which prompted what I thought would be a quick glance at
Wikipedia to clarify the issue. Well, a ‘dice’ is in fact a
‘die’ and the plural of ‘die’ is ‘dice’!
Still with me? This is something I shall ignore completely for reasons
I’ll explain shortly but the humble dice are polyhedral, opposite numbers
will usually total seven and the sequence of dots forming the five is known as
a quincunx. There’s more of
course. If you’re interested (I was until I saw the formulas), Wikipedia
goes into infinite detail about probability
but you need to be a boffin to understand it. Apparently, and I’m
certainly not qualified to question it, for a single roll of the dice, the
probability is 1/s. Simple. For three or more die rolls, the curve becomes more
bell-shaped with each additional die (according to the central limit theorem). The exact probability
distribution Fs,i of a sum of i s-sided
dice can be calculated as the repeated convolution
of the single-die probability distribution with itself.
A fastest algorithm would adapt the exponentiation by squaring algorithm,
using For example, in the triangular curve described above,
Equivalently, one can calculate the probability using combinations: So there you go. Simple! Sadly, there are no algebraic formulae to explain why
I’m going to call a ‘die’ a ‘dice’. In fact most
of my dice decisions will use just one die but I think, like most people,
I’ve managed to survive thirty six years of using the term
‘dice’ erroneously without too much confusion. Perhaps I’ve
avoided associating with such pedantry people who would draw attention to such
a trivial oversight but I don’t think too many people will mind if, for
continuity, I stick to the generic term ‘dice’ to describe the
singular and the plural. VOTE NOW! The first serious vote that’ll determine in which
direction I’ll be circumnavigating the world is now online. This one is
for real so log into the forum at http://www.w2n.co.uk/forum.html,
take a look at the options and use your vote carefully! Put simply, there are
only four options to choose from and they are the two canals ( So, from Option 1 Option 2 Option 3 Option 4
THE DICE PARTY You’ll know by now that the ‘Where to Next?’ circumnavigation
starts on September 21st 2008 – not long now. Well, you would
of course be very welcome to come and wave me off from Wicormarine in Portchester but
I’d like to invite you to a ‘Dice Party’ on September 20th.
I don’t know yet where it’ll be or how many people will turn up but
let me know if you’re interested and I can start thinking of some
suitably random ways of introducing you to the Dice Life! Email me at rob {CHANGE TO AT} w2n {DOT} co {DOT} uk if you think you might be able to
come and I’ll post more information on the next newsletter. That’s all for now. Thanks for your interest in the
w2n project and please don’t hesitate to contact me with your comments
and thoughts. Please feel free to participate in the forum on the w2n website (www.w2n.co.uk) and introduce your friends to
the project. All my very best, Rob (Bee) You are receiving this newsletter because
you have either registered an interest or because you haven’t – and
I think you should! If you are receiving it in error, please let me know by
simply replying to the email with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line.
W2N Global Ltd. 4 Hampshire House Liphook Hampshire GU30 7SP +44 (0)7967 661157 rob {CHANGE TO AT} w2n {DOT} co {DOT} uk |
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