What Would Jimmy Do?

Today, July 22, is Pi Approximation Day. Another day dedicated to the mathematical constant pi (∏)

I know there seems to be a lot of pi days — people who write their date in month/date format celebrate Pi Day on March 14 (3/14 or 3-14) because the first three digits of the date correspond to the first three digits of pi — 3.14. Those that live in countries that write their dates in the date/month format celebrate today on 22 July or 22/7, and they often refer to it as casual Pi Day. And then there’s the group that argue for the replacement of Pi with Tau and to celebrate Tau Day on June 28 instead of celebrating Pi Day or Pi Approximation Day. 

But anyhow, no matter if you’re a mathematician or a baker, pi or pie, today is a good day to celebrate. 
In case you’re more of a baker than a math guy, pi denotes the relationship between a circle’s circumference and its diameter and can be expressed by the fraction 22/7 which calculates approximately to 3.14 — thus Pi Approximation Day. 

Pi (∏) is the ratio of any circle — amazingly, for all circles of any size, pi will always be the same. It is an “irrational number,” meaning its exact value is, and will always be, unknown.

If math class didn’t make much sense to you in school, or even why it mattered, pi is the answer. It’s one of the things that links math to real-world uses. Because pi is linked to circles, it’s also linked to cycles and things like calculating waves, ebb and flow, ocean tides, electromagnetic waves, etc. 
So Pi deserves its day, and it also deserves its approximation day.
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I listened to a conversation a while back that I really couldn’t believe was even happening. The subject was distress signals. Specifically — SOS. The two participants that started the discussion disagreed as to what SOS meant… one said it meant “Save Our Ship,” the other was sure it meant “Save our Souls.”

I guess I just pretty much assumed that everyone knew that it doesn’t mean anything. I suppose because it’s made up of three letters, it’s natural to assume SOS is an acronym. However it was never meant to stand for anything. 
In Morse code, SOS is made up of three dots, three dashes, and three more dots (••• – – – •••) 

The Marconi Yearbook of Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony, published in 1918, gives an explanation of the meaning, or really the lack of meaning, behind the letter choices: “The signal [SOS] was adopted simply on account of its easy radiation and its unmistakable character ‚ and — it could not be misinterpreted as being a message for anything else. There is no special significance in the letters themselves….”

So SOS was chosen as a distress signal because it was easy to understand in Morse code and not likely to be confused with other signals. It also has the added benefit that it is a series of letters that reads the same backwards and forwards. And — SOS looks the same upside down as it does right side up, making it an ideal series of letters to view from the air if written on a beach or in the snow.

The SOS signal was established as an International Distress Signal on October 3, 1906 by an agreement made between the British Marconi Society and the German Telefunk organization at the Berlin Radio Conference. The signal was formally introduced on July 1, 1908.

The first time the ‘SOS’ signal was used in an emergency was on June 10, 1909 when the Cunard liner SS Slavonia was wrecked off the Azores. Two steamers received her signals and went to the rescue. 

Prior to the introduction of the ’SOS’ signal, the CQD signal was devised by the Marconi Company and was intended to mean “All Station — Urgent,” but was popularly misinterpreted as “Come Quick — Danger” or “Come Quickly Down.” Even though “SOS” was formally put into use in 1908, it’s adoption by maritime stations was very slow. So slow, in fact that at time of the sinking of the Titanic on April 15, 1912, her radio operator (Harold Bride) used both the old “CQDistress’ and the then newer SOS signals.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, Morse code was the only way ships could communicate with one another while at sea. Wireless operators could send messages from one ship to another using the telegraph and Morse code, and they all used shorthand ways to communicate important messages quickly.

In the early days of telegraphs, each country had its own distress signal. As we discussed, the new international signal, SOS, was agreed to in 1906, with the explanation that it seemed necessary to specify that indications concerning a case of distress should be given by means of conventional signals in order that they be understood by all stations. The problem was that many telegraph operators refused to adopt the new universal signal and stuck with their own signals for several years after SOS was adopted. That all changed with the sinking of the Titanic. 

Because of the advancement in modern telecommunications, SOS and Morse code aren’t used often today. In 2007, the Federal Communications Commission eliminated the requirement that radio operators must know Morse code. The Navy and a few other agencies still use it, but it’s not their primary method of signaling distress anymore.

I guess I should mention that SOS isn’t universally used as a distress signal. For instance, if your pharmacist is filling a prescription from your doctor and the doctor has written s.o.s. or sos, he isn’t warning the pharmacist that you’re in dire trouble. In the medical field, sos is used when writing a prescription by indicating when his patient should take the drug or medication. Usually it means “as required,” or “as needed.” In case you’re interested, it’s derived from the Latin — “Si Opus Sit.”

My intent was to just discuss SOS signals, but one of the most famous SOS signals in history came from the RMS Titanic after it struck an iceberg in the Atlantic that ultimately led to its sinking. The ship struck the iceberg at 11:40 pm on the night of 14 April, 1912 and at around 2:20 am on the morning of 15 April, the Titanic disappeared beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. The Titanic was the first transatlantic ship to send an SOS signal via radio. 

Lloyd Detmer, who worked as a radio operator on USS Theodore Roosevelt received a strange SOS signal on April 15, 1972. Detmer hears on his headphones, an almost unintelligible voice asking for help for the passengers and crew of the sinking Titanic. When Detmer reported this to his superiors, he was ordered not to respond to the signal because it was believed to be someone’s joke. 

But out of curiosity Detmer searched the military records of SOS signals and he discovered that other radio operator colleagues have received this SOS signal from the Titanic in 1918, 1924, 1930, 1936, 1942, 1948, and so on — every six years. Reading the radiograms of his colleagues he discovered that all of them have heard the voice of the first, and last, captain of the Titanic, Captain Edward Smith, asking for help. When this news became public, people started to ask questions. The mystery grew and many questions are unanswered. Many people believe the wireless telegraph machine on board the Titanic has been broadcasting distress calls. And in 2020, a federal judge in Virginia ruled that a salvage firm can retrieve the Marconi wireless telegraph machine that was used to broadcast distress calls from the sinking Titanic. The judge agreed that the telegraph is historically and culturally important and could soon be lost within the rapidly decaying wreck site. But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which represents the public’s interest in the wreck site, fiercely opposes the mission. NOAA argued in court documents that the telegraph is likely surrounded “by the mortal remains of more than 1,500 people,” and should be left alone. The last I had heard, the expedition had been suspended awaiting resolution of some legal battles.

So if the issues are resolved and the telegraph is actually recovered, maybe we’ll have at least a partial answer to this mystery by 2026…
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A number of years ago, during my working years, it became necessary for me to spend quite a bit of time in Philadelphia. The trips were usually short — 2 to 3 days at most. Back then it was only about a two to three hour trip so I usually drove. I also usually took a government car rather than drive my own. As you probably know, government cars have US Government license plates — it doesn’t matter what government agency, the plates are all the same — Dept. of Agriculture, FBI, IRS, State Dept,, etc. — doesn’t matter — all the plates are the same. 

Anyhow, most of the trip from Washington to Philadelphia involved traveling on Interstate 95 and portions of I-95 required a toll.
I usually made these trips alone, only occasionally traveling with someone else. Two to three hours in a car alone gets a little boring, so I had this game I used to play. When I pulled up to the toll booth, I paid the toll for the car behind me — I usually did this when there was only one person in the car behind. 

Invariably, I’d get a lot of entertainment out of this “act of kindness.” Usually the car would closely follow me, wondering why someone in a government car would be paying their toll. They would often creep up beside me in the passing land and stare — I would always smile at them and give them a little wave. Then they’d drop back and follow again. I don’t remember anyone ever passing me. 

I told someone that I did this one day and they said it was cruel — I said I thought it was an act of kindness.
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When our daughter was young she had a number of Barbie dolls and I’m pretty sure that all our granddaughters have Barbie dolls. I read somewhere that Barbie is the most popular fashion doll ever produced, and the most diverse fashion doll on the market. Every minute, there are more that 100 dolls sold — that means that 58 million are sold every year. Barbie is sold in 150 countries worldwide. 

Barbie has had more than 200 inspirational careers — including astronaut, firefighter, entrepreneur, journalist, and pilot — just to name a few. 
Barbie traveled into space in 1965 — four years before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. 
In 1992, Barbie ran for president for the first time and has run in every election year since — and — in 2016 she ran with the first all-female ticket.

I guess I thought Barbie was one of those people that just had one name, like Madonna or Cher, but it turns out that Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. Barbie was “invented” by Ruth Handler in 1959 and named her invention after her real daughter, Barbara. Later on, Barbie was given a boyfriend — Ken. You may have guessed, Ken was named after Handler’s son, Kenneth.

Barbie’s official birthday is March 9, 1959 — the day she was introduced to the toy industry during the New York Toy Fair.
Barbie has fictional parents — George (an engineer) and Margaret (a housewife) and they live in a fictional town, Willows — in Wisconsin. Barbie also has three younger siblings — a sister, Skipper and twins, Tutti and Todd.

I guess since Barbie was given a full name and family, it was only proper that her boyfriend Ken should get the same treatment. Barbie met Ken in 1961 — Ken’s full name is Kenneth Carson and his parents are Dr. Carl and Edna Carson. Ken also has a younger brother — Tommy.

Barbie stands 11.5 inches tall and the first Barbie doll sold for $3.00. The first Barbie TV commercial aired during the Mickey Mouse Club in 1959.

The reason I chose to blog about Barbie today is because I read a news article that the manufacturer of Barbie dolls (Mattel) had announced a new ad reflecting an “ongoing brand evolution” to make Barbie a more positive image for young girls. Mattel executives apparently thought that in the past, Barbie was looked upon as a standard for young girls to compare themselves against. The new ad campaign includes a great message for little girls — you can be anything you want to be!

The article went on to explain that Mattel wanted to remind the world what Barbie represents. Founded by a female entrepreneur and mother  in 1959, the Barbie brand has always represented the fact that women have choices. The “ongoing brand evolution” is designed to remind today’s parents that through the power of imagination, Barbie allows girls to explore their limitless potential. 

That seems like an admirable goal, but apparently the company must have been doing something right over the years — Barbie is still a best selling toy…. and she doesn’t have a video screen, or require batteries.
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Today, the 14th of July, France will celebrate Fête Nationale — or better know to the rest of the world as Bastille Day. Bastille Day is celebrated not only in France, but recognized in other countries by French descendants.

A number of years ago, we attended a Bastille Day event At Wolf Trap in Vienna. It was a regular show with a French theme and afterwards, there was a fireworks display. The fireworks were unique in that they mostly were on, or near, the ground — much like fireworks used to be in Colonial America. At Wolf Trap, there was a ravine near the theater and everyone went outside and stood around the ravine and looked down on the fireworks. The fireworks were all red, white and blue and very impressive…. very different than the modern-day aerial fireworks shows.

But back to today — what exactly does Bastille Day celebrate?
In France, no one calls it Bastille Day — in France it’s called Fête Nationale, or “The National Holiday.” Bastille Day is an English term for the day.
It commemorates the storming of the Bastille that took place in 1789. At the time tensions were at an all-time high between the people and royalty and the day they revolted and stormed the bastille is seen as the beginning of the French revolution.

The Bastille was a Royal Fortress Prison and was stormed because it became a symbol of the people’s dislike of the monarchy. It was originally used as a fortress in the Hundred Years War but became a royal prison in 1417. It housed anyone who revolted against the king — that’s why storming it felt like a liberation for the people.

Today there is a large military parade on the Champs Elysees in Paris. The parade was first held in 1880 and it’s not only the oldest, but also the largest regular military parade in Europe. 
Although the first celebration took place a year after the storming of the bastille, it wasn’t until 1880 that a law was passed making Bastile Day a national celebration. 
During the storming of the Bastille, King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette (“…let them eat cake.”) fled 14 miles outside Paris to Versailles, but it didn’t save them.

One of the largest Bastille Day celebrations in the US is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It lasts four days and features a 43 foot tall replica of the Eiffel Tower. 
So Viva la France ‚ Happy bastille Day — I think I should see if we have a bottle of French wine….
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A few days ago the subject here was hats and how people used to wear them all the time , but now — not so much. Today, I thought it might be interesting to think about some of the “famous” hats from over the years.

Throughout history, hats have been used to convey some meaning — a status symbol, political statement, or maybe just a style of dress. In fact, some styles have become popular or recognizable because of one particular individual. 

Abraham Lincoln made the stovepipe popular — and famous. Lincoln was 6 feet 4 inches tall and his stovepipe hat accentuated his height even further. He used to keep papers and speeches tucked inside his hat and work on them at a later time, so his hat wasn’t just his headgear, but a repository for his working papers. Lincoln wore a stovepipe hat to Ford’s Theater on the night of his assassination. The hat was on the floor by his seat during the performance when he was shot. The chair he sat in and the hat were retrieved by the War Department as evidence in the trial of John Wilkes Booth. They were later given to the Smithsonian. 

Winston Churchill was renowned for his hats. Churchill wore a lot of styles of hats, from top hats to bowler hats, but he is most famous for his homburg. The homburg is a felt hat with a curved brim and a dent that runs from front to back, and a grosgrain ribbon that forms a band. The hat was popularized in Britain by Prince Edward VII, who first discovered it on a visit to Bad Homburg in Germany in the 1880s.

Thomas More was Lord High Chancellor of England under Henry VIII and was a prominent Catholic intellectual. However, after refusing to recognize Henry VIII as the head of the Church of England, he sealed his fall from grace and was beheaded for treason in 1535. More was subsequently venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church, and his belongings — including his famous hat —have become saintly relics. His hat was a black velvet Tudor bonnet. At President Obama’s inauguration Justice Antonian Scalia wore a copy of Thomas More’s hat (given to him by the Thomas More Society.) St. Thomas More’s actual hat is on display at the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington D.C.

Napoleon always used imagery and clothing to convey power and status. He made the black-felted beaver fur bicorne (two-cornered) hat famous. Traditionally, the bicorne was worn with the corners facing to the front and back, but Napoleon, to make himself distinct on the battlefield, wore the hat sideways so that anyone scanning the crowds instantly knew it was him. 

Coonskin caps are fur hats made from the skin of a raccoon — with the animal’s tail hanging down the back. Native Americans wore the caps, but by the 18th century, frontiersmen wore them as hunting caps. Davy Crockett, once a politician, had returned to Texas and became famous for his activities at the Alamo and made the coonskin cap famous. He was, in fact, wearing a coonskin cap when he was killed at the Alamo.

On November 16, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt was photographed while on an inspection visit to the Panama Canal excavation. The picture showed Roosevelt at the controls of a steam-shovel and sporting a light straw hat with a black band. The newspapers called it Roosevelt’s “Panama” hat. The style that is now known as a Panama hat is actually traditionally made in Ecuador. The toquilla palm plant is used to weave it. These type of hats have been woven in Ecuador since the time of the Incas, but during the 1850s, many people travelled through Panama up to the United States for the gold rush, and Ecuadorian hat-sellers exported their wares to sell in Panama. The hats became even more popular during the building of the Panama Canal. The hats were popular because they shielded the workers faces from the sun. So because of Theodore Roosevelt, the Ecuadorian sombreros de papa toquilla forever became the Panama hat.

They say that clothes make the man, but in some cases, the man makes the hat. And those hats are famous because of these men… Napoleon used the bicorne to bring attention to himself on the battlefield, Lincoln wore the stovepipe hat to keep his speeches and add to his tall, powerful image and the homburg will always be associated with Winston Churchill and the values he stood for. Over the years hats have been more than a clothing accessory or a fashion statement — some were used to send certain messages… I guess that’s the power of a good hat.
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There are a number of things that I’ve wondered about off and on for many years. A lot of these have been mentioned on this blog. If you go back several years, you’ll probably find an entry about the same thing that I’ve decided to puzzle over today. 

I’m talking about those two holes in all (or most) of the electrical plugs in your house. I’ve always wondered what they were for — it must take some effort to make the holes, so they must have some specific purpose, right?

The number one reason I’ve been given over a lot of years is that they enable the outlet to get a better grip on the plug. I’ve been told that if you look inside an electrical outlet, you’d see that the contact wipers used to transfer electricity to the plug have little “bumps” on them and that these round bits fit snugly into the holes in the plug so the plug won’t fall out of the outlet. Well, I can’t speak for all electrical outlets, but I’ve taken many apart and none of them have little “bumps” that fit into the holes of the electrical plug. 

Every time this particular puzzlement of mine pops up, I get about as far as the old “grip” theory and don’t get much further until my mind wanters off to another subject. But today, I thought I’d dig a little deeper….
The first electrical plug in the United States was patented on June 17, 1913 by Harvey Hubbell. Turns out that Hubbell’s design had no holes. His design had little semi-circle indents on both sides of the plug’s prongs. These indents, according to the patent were designed to hook the plug to the socket and prevent it from falling out.

According to my extensive research, a lot of people tried to modify Hubbell’s design and make it their own. “Inventors” came up with plugs with square holes and round holes, but none of them copied Hubbell’s semi-circular indents for fear of being sued for patent infringement. But Hubbell sued them anyway — he lost the case, but all the publicity created a movement that determined, because electricity was becoming so wide-spread, there needed to be a single, universal (standardized) plug in the U.S.

So when all the dust settled, all the designs, including Hubbell’s, converged and resulted in electrical plugs sporting holes in the middle of the prongs and not Hubbell’s semi-circular indents on the sides.

So why are the holes there? In my limited experiment of taking apart electrical outlets, none of them contained anything special to take advantage of an electrical plug’s design, and I couldn’t find anything that fit into the holes of the plug. 

Besides the “grip” theory, there are a lot of myths about the “holes.” One such theory is that sometimes manufacturers have important messages they want to convey to their customers about their electrical device and they put that message on a tag that’s attached with a tie-wrap through the holes in the prongs. When you cut or undo that tie, that serves as an acknowledgement that you’ve read the “terms and conditions.” Slipping a zip tie or other material through the holes is also a way to ensure the equipment isn’t being used.

Another theory is that the holes ultimately save the manufacturers money — if you’re mass producing thousands of those little prongs, there’s a lot of metal that comes from those little punch-outs. That metal can be melted down and used to make more plugs….

So — my answer is that those holes do nothing. Maybe people are just so use to seeing the holes, they’d be upset if the plugs didn’t have them. I guess until someone comes up with an explanation that satisfies me, I’ll just continue to ponder….
— 30 —

My dad, and my granddads always wore hats — I don’t think they hardly ever left the house without their hats. In fact most men wore hats when I was a kid. And the women almost alway wore some kind of hat for any kind of dress-up occasion, like going to church.
When you look at old photos, or even watch old movies, most of the people are wearing hats, especially the men. 

Today, you rarely see anyone wearing a hat — what changed? If you look through history books, it seems like hats have been around forever. I guess that makes sense if you think about it — it’s only natural that the first thing you shield from the elements or falling objects is your head. 

I suppose there are other reasons, besides protection, that people wear hats — a fashion statement, to show association with a group, or maybe to show social status or class. Old pictures and movies seem to show upper class people wearing top hats and the lower classes wearing flat caps.

There has been all sorts of types or styles of hats that have been popular over the years, but why have they all mostly disappeared?

I obviously don’t know why people don’t wear hats like they used to — maybe its because things just change over time. But I’d guess it has something to do with the weather and better heating and air conditioning in our homes and offices. I’m sure one reason everyone had a hat was to keep their head warm. Today, if it’s cold out, you leave your heated office and go to your heated car, drive home and go into your heated house. For those few minutes (or seconds) you’re outside, most people don’t go to the trouble of wearing overcoats, gloves, and hats. Most people just kind of dress for room temperature, because they spend so little time out in the elements.

Another reason is probably what I mentioned before — the notion of social class. Years ago, social class was very important and people were expected to know their place. I’ve heard that maybe one of the good things about the World Wars was that they brought the social classes a bit closer and the focus shifted more to the individual rather than on their class. That’s probably when people’s dress as part of a distinct group stated to change.

Another reason, I think, is the modern cars. I remember in the mid to late 1950s cars coming out with smaller wheels and designs that made them lower (and supposedly “sleeker”) and I remember that my parents got one of the newer models and my dad took off his hat when he got in because the top of the car was so low, his hat wouldn’t fit. 

So as I said, I really have no idea why hats aren’t popular, but it seems that, in general, clothing has become more casual over time and society seems to have accepted it — looking “respectable” was apparently more important in the past. I was looking at some old World Series pictures not long ago and it looks like every man in the stands was wearing suit and tie — and there were lots of hats. I’m trying to remember if I ever attended a baseball game and saw someone wearing a suit.

There’s an old saying, “Home is where you hang your hat.” Someone also said, A hat should be taken off when you greet a lady and left off for the rest of your life. Nothing looks more stupid than a hat.
Maybe that’s where all the hats have gone….
— 30 —

When you get old, you remember a lot of things that some younger people don’t — or have never even heard of. 
I threw out a really old electrical tool that no longer worked a few days ago. I noticed by the tag on it that it was designed for 110 volt, 60 cycle operation. Our daughter, who has a degree in electrical engineering, never used “cycle” in her courses — she used “hertz.”

When I went to school, cycle was the term used for the unit of frequency. I never heard the term hertz associated with frequency until I was a senior in college. Frequency was described as cycles per second. That term came from the fact that sound waves have a frequency measurable in their number of oscillations, or “cycles” per second. 

In 1960, the International System of Units was organized at the General Conference on Weights and Measures (GCPM) and officially changed “cycles per second” to “hertz.” I first read about this change in a Hewlett-Packard Journal I received in the mail. When I told people about the change they didn’t believe it and pretty much just wrote it off as another “Jimmy-ism.”
It took awhile, but cycles per second was largely replaced by hertz by the 1970s. So where did the name hertz come from?

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz was a German physicist who was the first person to irrefutable prove the existence of electromagnetic waves —the foundation of understanding the behavior of light and all things wireless. Hertz’s greatest accomplishment was proving Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetism. Maxwell’s theory predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves, that electromagnetic waves move at the speed of light, and light itself was just such a wave.

Hertz’s work and experiments showed that light and “Maxwell waves” are both forms of electromagnetic radiation obeying James Clerk Maxwell’s equations. And he is the man whose peers honored him by attaching his name to the unit of frequency. Now all us old guys have to remember that a cycle per second is one hertz.
— 30 —

This is a bit of a sad day around here — the last part of June and first part of July every year we get to enjoy the sight of the porta-potty when we go out our front door. But today, the porta-potty is gone… we’ll have to wait for next year and anticipate its annual arrival.

I might add that this year is the shortest amount of time we’ve had to enjoy it  — it was only here less than ten days. We can only hope for more next year. 
Now we’ll have to be content to just see green grass and trees when we go out…. sigh.
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