Category Archives: 4e-3e

May
01
2015

Protests in New York over Freddie Gray’s death in Baltimore

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Freddy Gray, a young African American from Baltimore, died last week from serious injuries that he got while being transported in a police van.

There have been protest marches in Baltimore, some turning violent as rioters broke shop windows, attacked the police and burnt cars. Other members of the Baltimore community have called for peace.

Marches have now been led in memory of Freddie Gray, demanding justice, in other American cities.

▶ Protests in New York over Freddie Gray’s death in Baltimore – YouTube.

Mar
14
2015

Pi: 3,14… a magical number put into music

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As you might recall from math class, pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. This irrational number—approximately 3.14159—shows up quite frequently in many mathematical applications, including geometry and trigonometry.

The first attempts to calculate pi can be traced back to ancient Babylonians, who calculated the area of a circle as three times the square of its radius, making the value of pi equal to 3. One Babylonian tablet indicated they got as close as 3.125 and later calculations by the ancient Egyptians (ca. 1650 BC) approximated pi as 3.1605.

The number today is celebrated around the world on March 14, which when written out numerically is 3.14.

On YouTube, Michael Blake decided to pay tribute to Pi. By assigning a number to each musical note, he was able to create a composition by playing out the digits of pi. View the video of his piece below.

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Mar
07
2015

50th anniversary of historic civil rights march

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50 years ago, brave people marched across a bridge to demand equal rights for Black people in the USA. This weekend we honor their action gratefully. See President Obama speak in Selma, Alabama.

▶ Selma to mark 50th anniversary of historic civil rights march, ‘Bloody Sunday’ – YouTube.

Mar
07
2015

Bullied “dancing man” is to have the party of a lifetime with Pharrell Williams and Moby

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A man who was mocked for dancing, with his picture uploaded online, will be the center of a VIP dance party with nearly 2,000 women – thanks to the internet.

Someone posted a split-screen image to an online forum, with one side showing a picture of the man dancing, the other with him standing there looking down at the ground. The poster captioned it “Spotted this specimen trying to dance the other week. He stopped when he saw us laughing.”

That’s when an online group of women in LA decided they wanted to reach out to the so-called “Dancing Man.” One of the women, known as Cassandra, tweeted out the picture asking for help identifying the man, saying the group of women wanted to throw him a special dance party.

Several hours later, someone tweeted them a picture of what appeared to be Dancing Man. Cassandra wrote she was able to get a message to him online, and he sent a photo to confirm his identity  and his real name, Sean. He also said he’d gladly accept their invitation to a dance party.

“My conversation with Sean has restored my faith in humanity,” Cassandra wrote. “Despite this cruel attempt to shame an innocent man, at the end of our talk, he said ‘Big-hearted people far outweight the small minded, every day of the week.”

The search for Dancing Man quickly went viral online, with many people joining the effort to help fund the party or offer services. Musician Moby tweeted he would DJ the party for free. And even pop star Pharell tweeted him and said he would attempt the party.

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