Baltimore is the biggest city close to our correspondants’ school in Towson.
Some parts of Baltimore are rich, some are a great tourist destination, but some parts of the city are poor and know many social problems. This explains part of some citizens’ reactions after Freddie Gray’s death under police custody last week.
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.
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.
▶ Banksy paints graffiti on remains of Gaza home – YouTube.
Here is a link to the ironic, fake tourist video Banksy made about Gaza.
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.
New York City mayor Bill De Blasio annouces that, as promised, New York public schools will now have 2 Muslim holidays added to their calendar, starting next school year.
New York Public Schools Add Two Muslim Holidays in Their Calender: Mayor Bill de Blasio – YouTube.
After being fitted with a “bionic eye,” a blind man has been able to see his wife again for the first time in a decade, and they are both pretty overwhelmed…
The device needs further adjustment alongside some physical therapy. However, Mr Zderad can already see things like human forms and outlines of objects in intermittent flashes, and is even able to see his own reflection as a silhouette. He will probably never be able to see the details of faces, but he will be able to navigate his way around without a cane, which is a big boost to his quality of life.
“What an exciting, emotional thing to say: ‘Yes, that is my wife,’” Zderad said. “I am grateful they made this as much about the person as the technology.”
via Mayo Clinic patient’s first impressions with bionic eye – YouTube.
Many women are attacked, harmed or killed in Turkey. A 17-year-old and a 20-yer-old were recently raped and killed. Some brave men wanted to show support and demand protection for their sisters, daughters, mothers and friends. They wore skirts in a big march in Istambul to show there should be no difference in the way women and men are treated in their country. They want Turkey to be a safer place for the women in their lives.
▶ Men In Skirts Protest Violence Against Women In Turkey – YouTube.