USO Canteen FReeper Style ~ Pancakes on Wednesday ~ 26 November 2003

Pancakes on Wednesdays

Welcome to Pancakes on Wednesdays.

Wednesday, November 26, 2003

Here is an amalgamation of trivial facts and seemingly useless data.

Do not forget to hit the hyperlinks.

We have links, lots of them.

TAUTOCHRONE

A curve on which an object falling under gravity will reach the bottom in the same amount of time, no matter from where it starts.

This may seem like the most abstruse of mathematical ideas, but it makes accurate pendulum clocks possible. It goes back to the seventeenth century Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens, who knew that the pendulum is not quite the perfect keeper of time that one would like. It works well enough if its movements are kept small, but as the size of the pendulum’s swing varies, so does the time it takes—only slightly, but it’s a serious problem if you’re trying to make your clock precise.

Huygens discovered that there is one curved shape, and only one, which is perfect in this respect: the cycloid, the curve traced out when a point on the edge of a wheel rolls along a road. If you position a cycloidal curve like an inverted arch, and release a marble from any point on it, it will always take exactly the same time to reach the bottom, no matter where on the curve you start from. So the cycloid is said to be a tautochrone. Huygens used this discovery to construct curved jaws from the point of support of the pendulum; these forced its string to follow the right curve no matter how large or small the swing.

The word comes from the Greek tauto, “the same” (which we have inherited in words like tautology) and chronos, “time” (as in chronometer); so the word means a curve of equal time.

Happy Birthday

1731 - English poet William Cowper

Cowper's name will always be associated with that of John Newton, his friend and pastor. Together they wrote many hymns familiar to us today.

His poetry was quite influential. Many people who scorned evangelicals as "Methodists" would read Cowper's poems. He addressed many social issues, such as African slavery, as well as spreading the Gospel.

Peace After a Storm

1 When darkness long has veil'd my mind,
And smiling day once more appears;
Then, my Redeemer, then I find
The folly of my doubts and fears.

2 Straight I upbraid my wand'ring heart,
And blush that I should ever be
Thus prone to act so base a part,
Or harbour one hard thought of thee!

3 Oh ! let me then at length be taught
What I am still so slow to learn;
That God is love, and changes not,
Nor knows the shadow of a turn.

4 Sweet truth, and easy to repeat!
But when my faith is sharply try'd,
I find myself a learner yet,
Unskilful, weak, and apt to slide.

5 But, O my Lord, one look from thee
Subdues the disobedient will;
Drives doubt and discontent away,
And thy rebellious worm is still.

6 Thou art as ready to forgive,
As I am ready to repine;
Thou, therefore, all the praise receive;
Be shame and self-abhorrence mine.

What is your vector Victor?

Happy Birthday

eugene ionesco 1912

"It's not a certain society that seems ridiculous to me, it's mankind."

Eugene Ionesco and the Theatre of the Absurd

The Theatre of the Absurd surfaced in the 1950s with a group of playwrights who included Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Jean Genet and Harold Pinter. Their avant garde plays expressed the belief in a godless universe where human existence has no meaning or purpose so therefore all communication breaks down. Logical construction and argument gives way to both irrational and illogical speech. The Theatre of the Absurd reached it's ultimate conclusion in Beckett's play 'Breathe' in 1970 - this play consisted of noise rather than dialogue.

Turkey pancakes

Happy Birthday

Charles M. Schulz 1922

Pancakes and potato pancakes, together again.

Happy Birthday

Rich Little 1938

I am an excellent prestidigitator.

Happy Birthday

Tina Turner (Anna Mae Bullock) 1938

A CHANGE IS GONNA COME

I was born by the river in a little tent
Oh, and like that river I've been running ever since
It's been a long, long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come
Oh yes it is

It's been too hard living and I'm affraid to die
I don't know what's up there beyond the sky
It's been a long, long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come
Oh yes it is

I go to the movies and I go around in town
Everybody there keeps telling me "don't hang around"
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come
Oh yes it is

Then I go to my brother
And I say "Brother, please"
But he just winds up, knocking me
Back down on my knees

Sometimes I thought I wouldn't last for long
But now I think I'm able to carry on
It's been a long, long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come
Oh yes it is

Isometrical.

Would you like some Triangulation with your pancakes?

We are counting cards!

On this day:

1789 - U.S. President Washington set aside this day to observe the adoption of the Constitution of the United States.

1832 - Public streetcar service began in New York City.

The first railroad system in New York, owned by the New York and Harlem Railroad company, begins operating approximately nine blocks between Union Square and 23rd Street.

1861 - West Virginia was created (out of Virginia) over a dispute of slavery. West Virginia was against slavery.

Happy Thanksgiving

1940 - The Nazis forced 500,000 Jews of Warsaw, Poland to live within a walled ghetto

1942 - The motion picture "Casablanca" had its world premiere at the Hollywood Theater in New York City.

1983 - A Brinks Mat Ltd. vault at London's Heathrow Airport was robbed by gunmen. The men made off with 6,800 gold bars worth nearly $40 million. Only a fraction of the gold has ever been recovered and only two men have been convicted in the heist.

About a hundred Dollars

1998 - Hulk Hogan announced that he was retiring from pro wrestling and would run for president in 2000.

We are counting votes.

Todays Wednesday field trip takes us to an animation show

Pancakes Wednesdays

Definitely

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