From the BBC, “Sex I.D.: The Brain-Sex Test“– complete a series of exercises, and discover whether your brain functions more like most men’s or most women’s.

As we ponder the mysteries of gender, we might recall that it was on this date in 1776 that South Carolina became the first American colony to declare its independence from Great Britain and set up its own government.

The Palmetto State clearly has an itchy trigger finger:  your correspondent’s ancestral seat was also the first state to declare its secession from the Union. On April 12, 1861, Confederate batteries began shelling Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, and the American Civil War began.

Revolutionaries fighting the forces of the Crown, Charleston, 1776
(U.S. Army Center for Military History)

While most dictionaries define “tessellate” simply as arranging tiles or squares into a regular, mosaic pattern, mathematicians understand it to mean the repeating of any shape– the more irregular, the more challenging– to cover a surface leaving no gaps.

Bailey shares examples of his own work (as above), essays and reviews at www.tess-elation.co.uk.

As we rethink our bathroom floors, we might send tasty birthday greetings to S. Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-A; he was born on this date in 1921.  Mr. Cathy’s creation is considered by many to be the “In-N-Out Burger of chicken sandwich outlets” for both of two reasons: It’s offerings are considered by connoisseurs to be the class of their class, and it’s culture is deeply influenced by Mr. Cathy’s religious convictions (as is In-N-Out’s by the founding Snyder family’s beliefs).

source: Georgia Encyclopedia

Stumped by what to give your egomaniac boyfriend on his birthday? Consider Sean John’s (Sean Combs, a.k.a. P. Diddy) “I Am King” cologne, bursting with notes of sandalwood, orange and self-congratulation. And there’s plenty more where that came from: “I Am King of the Night” is another Sean John scent available for narcissistic insomniacs. Photo courtesy of FragranceNet.com.

From the good folks at Women’s Day, “The 10 Worst Celebrity Fragrance Names.”

As we ponder preposterous perfume, we might recall that it was on this date in 1639 that New College in Cambridge, MA was renamed Harvard College, in honor of clergyman John Harvard, who had bequeathed the school half his estate and his 400-volume library. (Harvard was first known as a “University” in 1780.)

The Daniel Chester French statue of Harvard that stands in Harvard Yard is inscribed “John Harvard, Founder, 1638.”  But it’s referred to by students as “the statue of three lies,” as the institution was actually established in 1636 by the General Court of the Massachusetts Colony– and the person depicted isn’t Harvard (who was unavailable, by reason of death, for sittings), but a College student.

That said, Harvard Bridge, which was also named for John Harvard, is reputed to be a pretty fair likeness.

Not John Harvard

From the admirable Tonya Khovanova, everything one could want to know about a number– any number:  Number Gossip.

Consider the results returned for your correspondent’s favorite pair of digits, 27:

- 27 is the only number which is thrice the sum of its digits
- 27 is the first composite number not divisible by any of its digits
- 27 is the largest number that is the sum of the digits of its cube
- 27 is the only 2-digit number in which the sum of digits is equal to the sum of prime factors (27 = 3 * 3 * 3 and 2 + 7 = 3 + 3 + 3 = 9)
- A 10,000-day-old person is 27 years old
- 27 is the smallest cube out of two known with only prime digits (the other cube is 3375)
- A web page about 27: <http://27.chrismore.com/>The Mystery of the number 27
- 27 is the smallest evil cube

As Tonya suggests, “Enter a number and I’ll tell you everything you wanted to know about it but were afraid to ask.”

As we worry about running out of fingers and toes, we might recall that it was on this date in 1912 that The Girl Scouts were born in the U.S., as Juliette “Daisy” Gordon Low (who’d met and been deeply influenced by Scouting founder Robert Baden-Powell in London) organized the first Girl Scout troop meeting of 18 girls in Savannah, Georgia.  The annual sale of cookies as a fund-raiser began in 1917.

Ms. Low, flanked by two Scouts

]]> http://roughlydaily.com/2010/03/12/your-number-is-up/feed/ 0 LW A box of the Mint-Chocolate Wafers, please... http://roughlydaily.com/2010/03/11/loving-godzilla-17-syllables-at-a-time/ http://roughlydaily.com/2010/03/11/loving-godzilla-17-syllables-at-a-time/#comments Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:02:19 +0000 LW http://roughlydaily.com/?p=2400 ]]>

From SamuraiFrog, an arresting (and very amusing) collection of Godzilla Haiku.

“Monsters are born too tall, too strong, too heavy, they are not evil by choice; that is their tragedy”
- Ishiro Honda (Kurosawa friend, Toho director, and creator of Godzilla)

Honda on the set of the original Godzilla

As we rethink our attraction to urban centers, we might compose a birthday rhyme for Torquato Tasso, the 16th Century Italian poet; he was born on this date in 1544.  Tasso was a giant in his own time– he died in 1595, a few days before the Pope was to crown him “King of the Poets”– but had fallen out the core of the Western Canon by the end of the 19th century.  But he resonates still in the poems (Spencer, Milton, Byron), plays (Goethe), madrigals (Monteverdi), operas (Lully, Vivaldi, Handel, Haydn, Rossini, Dvorak) , and art work (Tintoretto, the Carracci, Guercino, Pietro da Cortona, Domenichino, Van Dyck, Poussin, Claude Lorrain, Tiepolo, Fragonard, Delacroix) that his life and work inspired.

Tasso