Happy Birthday To Christopher Clavius (March 25, 1538-February 6, 1612), The German Jesuit Mathematician

Happy birthday to Christopher Clavius (March 25, 1538-February 6, 1612), the German Jesuit mathematician and astronomer. And now, ladies and gents, here are some fun facts:

History doesn’t know his actual German name. It could be Christoph Clau or Klau. It might be Schlüssel, which is German for “key”, which in turn is “clavis” in Latin. But really, it’s all speculation.

At the age of 17, Clavius joined the Jesuit Order, which was founded when he was a child.

While studying at a Jesuit college in Portugal, he excelled in math. Upon observing a total solar eclipse in 1560, he decided that astronomy would be his life’s work.

As a professor at the Collegio Romano in (you guessed it!) Rome, Clavius taught mathematics and wrote textbooks, including works on algebra, the astrolabe, and practical arithmetic and geometry. He also did his own version of Euclid’s Elements; that probably contributed to him being called “the Euclid of the sixteenth century.”

Clavius was the senior math guy on the commission that reformed the calendar in 1582. This gave us the Gregorian calendar that most of the Western world uses to this day. Check out my previous post on this subject.

In his astronomical works, Clavius was geocentric in his opposition to the Copernican model of the universe for reasons both scientific and scriptural. He remained an everything-rotates-around-the-Earth guy until near the end of his life.

He budged on the matter. A little. Well, not quite, maybe. Clavius and Galileo had a mutually respectful relationship, and Clavius was rather thrilled (in his cautiously Jesuit way) with Galileo’s groundbreaking observations of Jupiter’s moons and other wonders. In 1610, during Galileo’s visit to Rome, Clavius and other scientists confirmed the existence of Jovian satellites and the phases of Venus, which contradicted the Ptolemaic view of the cosmos. But the geocentrism-vs-heliocentrism debate raged on.

Clavius also seemed to take this skeptical-but-delighted approach to Galileo’s telescopic observations of the Moon’s rough surface. He wrote that “when the Moon is a crescent or half full, it appears so remarkably fractured and rough that I cannot marvel enough that there is such unevenness in the lunar body.”

Speaking of the lunar body, Clavius was honored with his own crater formation on the Moon, as you can see above. Largest to smallest, the craters are designated Clavius D, C, N, J, and JA. Fans of 2001: A Space Odyssey might recognize this lunar location as the setting for Clavius Base, a human colony featured in both the film and book.

Feel free to contact me if I’m getting any of this wrong. I’m no Clavius.

(Rice University/Wikipedia)

Imagine paying $40 extra a month for Tumblr

That’s what is going to happen if we let Ajit Pai, the FCC chairman, go through with repealing Title II (AKA Net Neutrality).

Simply put, without Net Neutrality, Internet Service Providers like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T will be able to “bundle” websites much like cable ON TOP OF paying for internet connection. “Want access to Netflix AND Tumblr? Get the Entertainment Package! $40 a month. What about Amazon and Ebay? Add an extra $20 a month to get the Shopping Package.”

Not only will they be able to bundle websites and charge more, they will also be able to censor and block websites that they don’t agree with entirely.

THIS WILL BE THE END OF INTERNET AS WE KNOW IT.

For business owners, it will be even worse. Ex: Comcast will ask Amazon to pay high fees to be available in a low-cost package, fees that websites like Poshmark or Etsy will not be able to pay. Therefore, only Fortune 500’s will be available to web users at a low cost. Say goodbye to Etsy (unless you’re willing to shell out $70 a month for the “All-Inclusive” package).

To learn about Net Neutrality, why it’s important, and/or want tools to help you fight for Net Neutrality, visit BattleForTheNet (https://www.battleforthenet.com)

There are five people deciding the future of the internet, three men (Rep) and two women (Dem). The two women have come out as No votes. We need only to convince ONE of the other members to flip to a NO vote to save Net Neutrality.

There are many ways you can help:

WHAT TO DO IF YOU’RE A LAZY TUMBLR USER WITH ANXIETY WHO TRIES TO HELP WITH JUST REBLOGS / LIKES:

Here are 2 petitions to sign, one international and one exclusively US.

International: https://www.savetheinternet.com/sti-home

US: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/do-not-repeal-net-neutrality

(After you sign make sure to verify via email, it may take up to 30 mins to receive the email).

Text “resist” to 504-09. It’s a bot that will send a formal email, fax, and letter to your representatives. It also finds your representatives for you. All you have to do is text it and it holds your hand the whole way.

HERE ARE MORE STRAIGHTFORWARD ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE:

These are the emails of the 5 people on the FCC roster.

Blow up their inboxes!

Ajit Pai - Ajit.Pai@fcc.gov

Mignon Clyburn - Mignon.Clyburn@fcc.gov

Michael O'Rielly - Mike.O'Rielly@fcc.gov

Brendan Carr - Brendan.Carr@fcc.gov

Jessica Rosenworcel - Jessica.Rosenworcel@fcc.gov

You can support groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU and Free Press who are fighting to keep Net Neutrality:

• https://www.eff.org/

• https://www.aclu.org/

• https://www.freepress.net/

• https://www.fightforthefuture.org/

• https://www.publicknowledge.org/

• https://www.demandprogress.org/

Set them as your charity on Amazon Smile here (https://smile.amazon.com/)

Write to your House Representative here

(http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/)

And Senators here: https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?OrderBy=state)

Write to the FCC here (https://www.fcc.gov/about/contact)

Add a comment to the repeal here (https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/search/filings?proceedings_name=17-108&sort=date_disseminated,DESC)

Here’s an easier URL you can use thanks to John Oliver (http://www.gofccyourself.com)

Also check this out, which was made by the EFF and is a low transaction cost tool for writing all your reps in one fell swoop.

(https://democracy.io/#!/)

Most importantly, VOTE. This should not be something that is so clearly split between the political parties as it affects all Americans, but unfortunately it is.

83K notes View Post

thebryanscout

10 years ago

Little did they know.

The launch of the Columbia for the STS-107 mission. She would burn up during re-entry resulting in the loss of the crew.

beautifulwarbirds@gmail.com Twitter: @thomasguettler

Beautiful Warbirds Full Afterburner The Test Pilots P-38 Lightning Nasa History Science Fiction World Fantasy Literature & Art

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thebryanscout

9 years ago

Leap Day…Why Does It Exist?

Once every four years, an extra calendar day is added: a leap day. But why?

The reason for adding leap days to the calendar is to align the calendar year with the actual year – which is defined by the time it takes Earth to circle the sun. It is equal to 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds, or 365.24219 days.

If all calendar years contained exactly 365 days, they would drift from the actual year by about 1 day every 4 years. Eventually, July would occur during the northern hemisphere winter! Wouldn’t that be weird?

To correct (approximately), we add 1 day every 4 years…resulting in a leap year.