Pi Day Friday, 3/14

It's Pi Day!  In Pi Month!

Pi Rav patterns!

Pi Day Sudoku!

Ten Pies for Pi Day!

Geek of the Week: Bill Peet

Here we honor Muggle geeks who embody Ravenclaw spirit...when they succeed, they soar, and when they fail, they fail spectacularly!

Bill Peet (1915 - 2002) 
"I always kept a small tablet in my desk and at every chance I would sneak a drawing into it. Often I'd be surprised to find the teacher standing over me and my tablet would be taken away."

Happy birthday to the late Bill Peet, an artist who began drawing as a child and never looked back.  Leave it to a creative geek to take what was around him in his youth -- farm life, a circus parade, trips to the zoo -- and turn it into full-blown pictorial narratives with his imagination.

artist self-portrait

Many know him from his award-winning work as a children's lit author and illustrator who expected the young readers to gain an extensive vocabulary through context (his books began as bedtime stories for his children).  Peet also produced scads of story sketch and character development animation while working at Walt Disney Studios for thirty years.

Find out more about Bill Peet on Wikipedia.

Geek of the Week: Hedy Lamarr

Here we honor Muggle geeks who embody Ravenclaw spirit...
when they succeed, they soar, and when they fail, they fail spectacularly!

Hedy Lamarr (1914 - 2000)
"I can excuse everything but boredom. Boring people don't have to stay that way."

**brought to you by a request from MyIzumi 

and from Cyp's mama**

Hedy Lamarr led a double life: the erstwhile Hedwig Kiesler married six times, owned the Sound of Music mansion, and swanned around Hollywood as "The Most Beautiful Woman In Films" -- but there's so much more. 

So she tinkered with engineering equipment at home. And she worked with her neighbor to develop a "Secret Communications System." And people used it during World War II and the Cuban Missile Crisis.  AND her invention set the groundwork for Bluetooth and wifi. BOOM she's awesome.

FUN FACT: Lamarr was the inspiration for Anne Hathway's portrayal of Catwoman and the namesake for Dr. Kleiner's pet in Half-Life 2.

Check out the US Patent issued to Lamarr and her co-inventor, avant garde composer George Antheil.
Find out more about Hedy Lamarr on Wikipedia.