Monday, March 28, 2016

Poetry (part 2) - The Fool's Prayer

Polski/Wikipedia.com
April Fools' Day.

Also known as All Fools' Day is observed on April 1st.  It's become a day of practical jokes. It's origin and history is a bit hazy, as seen here:  infoplease: April Fools' Day: Origin and History

A poem for this day

In high school literature, one of the poems we studied resonated with me. So much so, it was one I choose to memorize it.  The Fool's Prayer.  And it's recited beautifully in this clip below:




The text can be found here:  The Fool's Prayer, by Edward Rowland Sill (1841 - 1887) and a good interpretation: here

As for literature, Shakespeare made great use of the fool, the King's jester, who was one court member who spoke the truth behind the mask of comedy. [reference: Shakespeare's Clowns and Fools ]

Same is true today, as it seems all great comedy has its roots in a truth or it really isn't funny. But Shakespeare said it first:

A fool thinks himself to be wise, 
but a wise man knows himself to be a fool. 

William Shakespeare


Wise or foolish!  It's our day!
Lord have mercy.


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Previous Post in this series:
   

Poetry (part 1) - Snow (2016) 


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Photo: Polski/Wikipedia.com

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Tech (part 1) - The Gospel and Tech

Gospel/wikipedia.com
Twitter is one of the popular networks in social media. It can connect us to countless people across the world. Through it, we can quickly share information. And that can be vital during disasters.

Tweets can also divide us, incite mob rule to pile on a hapless twitterer of an unpopular opinion. And it's so easy to snipe from the anonymity of a keyboard.

Likewise, the words and action of public figures can divide us. As we approach Easter, we have a perfect example of that, 2000 years ago.  That is Jesus, of course. And the mob had Him crucified. Only He did not stay dead. That's why we celebrate Easter.

How Jesus divided people is recorded in the Gospels. And there is a good booklet (in pdf format) describing this, provided via the modern marvels of computers and hyperlinks:  The Cross Divides Men

The Gospel and 21st century tech 

If you are reading this blog, it is a marvel of our social media, like blogging. And I most likely tweeted the link you are reading, or posted it on Facebook, or you googled it on your browser.

How would the Gospel be told via twitter in our times? Below is a video embedded from YouTube (another modern marvel) showing that:



So in the 21st century, tweets and posts with hyperlinks can quickly spread the Gospels across the world.

The Gospel and 1st century tech 

During the first Easter, the tech of the times also prepared the world to spread the Gospel.

Alexander the Great conquered the known world and made Greek the universal language of its time. They also translated the Jewish Torah (Old Testament) into Greek, known as the Septuagint.

Later the Romans conquered most of the known world.  They built roads, brought law and order, and peace and security to most of its denizens, known as the Pax Romana.

The New Testament was written mostly in Greek, the universal language of the known world. And the apostles like St. Paul, spreading the Gospel, traveled down the Roman roads in the relative safety provided by the Pax Romana,

So these military and technological feats paved the way to spread the Gospel.

[Reference:  Preparation of the World for Christianity ]

The Great Commission

So to this day, the disciples followed one of Jesus' last commands before leaving this earth, using the tech of the times-whether the 1st or the 21st century:

Then Jesus came to them and said, 
“All authority in heaven and on earth 
has been given to me. 

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, 
baptizing them in the name 
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 
and teaching them to obey 
everything I have commanded you. 

And surely I am with you always, 
to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV)

So on this note begins another thread - Tech.

From 20 centuries of tech of the times, may readers continue to receive the blessing this Easter.

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Related articles:

Popular Science

Thru the Bible

Blogs - Entcon 2009

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Photos:  Gospel/wikipedia.com

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Physics (part 4) - Einstein and Pi

Einstein_1921/Wikipedia
Pie takes the cake

When I turned 7 years-old, I picked a scrumptious birthday cake with a ton of delicious looking icing on it. It was so sugary sweet that it made me sick. Ever since, I preferred pie over cake for my birthday. Or you could say, in my world, pie takes the cake.

Here's another story about birthdays and pie. Or should I say...

One special birthday and Pi

Pi_pie/wikipedia.com
Pi, the Greek letter (shown to the left), denotes the irrational number resulting from the ratio of the circumference of a circle divided by its diameter.
[reference: Pi ]

And it appears in more complex mathematical equations, such as:

*  math.com: Pi
*  wikipedia.com: Pi
*  livescience.vom: What Makes Pi So Special

And numerous sites calculate Pi's never ending digits.

This one displays it out to one million digits:  one million digits of Pi   Another site went for over 12 trillion digits: Pi - 12.1 Trillion Digits

Pi and the edge of the universe

But let's be practical. You only need 39 digits of Pi to measure the circumference of the known universe within the width of a single hydrogen atom:  How Many Digits of Pi Do You Really Need?

Pi on earth

For accuracy good enough for macro purposes, Pi is rounded to 3.14 or 3.1416.

Now, this last number, 3.1416, correlates to our 2016 calendar: 3/14/16. Otherwise,

March 14, 2016

And Pi Day (March 14th) has become a big tradition as well as many teachable moments.

*  Pi Day
*  7 Classroom Resources for Pi Day
*  Pi Day 2016: Events, Activities, & History

But I like the video below that celebrates Pi by calculating Pi with Pie:



Now, we covered Pi Day, what about birthdays?

It just so happens, Pi Day shares a birthday with a famous scientist, Albert Einstein!

Einstein's Birthday is March 14, 1879

And the short video below celebrates Einstein's life, his remarkable achievements, and his birthday that ends with Pi!



As a 7 year-old girl, who knew? I would be celebrating my birthday, like Einstein's birthday, not with cake - but with Pi ... I mean Pie!


Sweet!


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Previous posts in this series:

Physics (part 1) - Picking Feynman's Brain (2013)

Physics (part 2) - Flat Earth? It depends ...  (2015)

Physics (part 3) - 100 years of Einstein (2015) 

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Photo: Einstein_1921/Wikipedia
           Pi_pie/wikipedia.com