π Day

As you may well be aware today is a historical day in itself. As it is March 14 2015. Now in a numerical form we would see that as 3.14.15 and at 9:26:53 am or pm will be the closest we get to a full pi day in a long time, with the first ten digits laid out.

Pi is a very long number that is the ratio of the circle’s circumference to the diameter. There are an infinite amount of decimal places. With it currently at ” 13 trillion digits” according to wral.com. This is held by Alexander Yee.

Pi (π) day has been an “official” holiday in the US since March 2009. It is celebrated by some who, eat pie, wear mathematical shirts, and make “geeky” jokes. There are even schools that hold competitions to see who can recite the most decimal places. Take a look for yourself on Youtube.

It is even suspected that the Great pyramid of Giza was built using Pi,well actually 2π. Which is the double of pie and also the fraction 22/7. It also just happens that there are some people who celebrate July 22 (US) 22 July (basically everywhere else) which is 22/7, and in turn have two times the pie that day. Although it hasn’t caught on nearly quite as much.

In 1897,/ a House Bill in Indiana (No. 246) attempted to redefine pi as 3.2 based on a “new mathematical truth” formulated by Dr. Edwin Goodwin. Luckily the bill was not approved by the senate.

So get out there, eat some pie and get your π on!!

Taking it back to 1065

Happy 950th birthday Westminster Abbey! The Abbey was quite the accomplishment, taking initial work in 1065 and only being completed, with many additions and remodeling in 1745. The last phase of building was the completion  of the West Towers in Portland stone, to a design by Nicholas Hawksmoor, the Abbey’s Surveyor. The present building dates mainly from the reign of King Henry III. In 1245 he pulled down the eastern part of the 11th century Abbey, which was dedicated and designed by Edward the Confessor.

According to Westminster-abbey.org the abbey is, “a work of architectural genius, a place of daily worship, deploying the resources of high musical expertise, a burial place of kings, statesmen, poets, scientists, warriors and musicians, is the result of a process of development across the centuries, which represents the response of a monastery and later a post-Reformation church to the stimulus and challenge of its environment.”

Many people have been coronated at the Abbey beginning with William the Conqueror who chose to be crowned in the Abbey on 25 December 1066. With the most recent being Queen Elizabeth II. On another notable person of interest,  His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI and His Grace The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revered and Rt Hon Dr Rowan Williams, attended a Service of Evening Prayer at Westminster Abbey on Friday 17 September 2010.

Among those buried/honored at Westminster Abbey include:

Jane Austen, William Blair, Robert Blake, William Blake, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte,  Robert Burns, Lord Byron, Lewis Carroll, Geoffrey Chaucer, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Winston Churchill, William Shakespeare among  1, 081 others totaling 1,096.

 

A Serious Truth

So if you’ve read my blog before you probably wouldn’t have wanted to continue.  But I wanted to get real. To share about something close to not only me but thousands of others out there. Today’s blog won’t be much more than a simple start. We need to be educated about things around us.

Depression.

What is it?

According to dictionary.com Depression is “a condition of general emotional dejection and withdrawal;sadness greater and more prolonged than that warranted by any objective reason.” As someone who suffers from a form of depression I know how hard it can be. I want this blog to be a place where you can learn about depression. We all know someone who needs us to understand and be there for them. 

What happened on January 22???

What happened today in history?

1889: Columbia Phonograph is formed in Washington, D.C.

1901: Queen Victoria passed away

1905: Bloody Sunday in Saint Petersburg, beginning of the 1905 revolution

1940: Actor John Hurt was born (Aka the War Doctor)

1947: KTLA, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, begins operation in Hollywood

1968:Apollo 5 lifts off carrying the first Lunar module into space

1968: TV presence and chef Guy Fieri was born

1970: Boeing 747 went into service

1973: Supreme Court made its decision in Roe vs. Wade and Doe vs. Bolton, legalizing elective abortion in all 50 states

1973: Former 36th President of the U.S.A. Lyndon B. Johnson passed away

1984: The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, is introduced during Super Bowl XVIII with its famous “1984” television commercial

1998: Theodore Kaczynski plead guilty to bombings that killed 3 and injured 20 more

2002: Kmart becomes the largest retailer in United States history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection

2008: Actor Heath Ledger found dead

2009: US President Barack Obama ordered the terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay closed within a year and banned harsh interrogation  of terror suspects. The prison remains open.