Mad as a Hatter
It refers to the effects of mercury poisoning to hat makers in the 1800s. A mercury solution was commonly used to turn fur into felt so they were constantly inhaling the fumes. Some of the symptoms included the shakes, loss of coordination, loss of memory, and anxiety which made people seem crazy. The term grew in popularity through the Alice in Wonderland story with the Mad Hatter.
Longest Pi Sequence
Pi is that “magic” number that helps you find the circumference of circles. It is an irrational number that goes on to infinity. In 2002 a team of Japanese scientist managed to calculate over a trillion (that’s 1,000,000,000,000+) of its digits. I can’t even remember more than 10 digits (3.1415926535), I used to know up to 30 or something but I am not that much of a geek anymore (I know I’m a liar). From what I gather the last digit they came up with was an 8. (http://www.super-computing.org/pi-decimal_current.html)
Miasma
Is defined as a poisonous or toxic atmosphere, smells of decomposing material that were believed to cause disease, pollution, defilement (murder or other crimes), taint of guilt
It’s a noun that stems from the Greek word miainein: to pollute.
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