What is the significance of the shape of the pentagon

They undoubtedly get their exercise as they traverse the acre structure and its But the Pentagon has also one of the more unique shapes ever assigned to an office building.

So how did it come to be that way? Brehon Burke Somervell. He, in turn, tasked the chief of the design section, Lt. Hugh J. Casey , to come up with a building that would fit a five-sided parcel of land that had been hastily purchased just below Arlington National Cemetery, on the Virginia side of the Potomac River, almost adjacent to the current site. A courtyard would sit at the center of the complex. But after a pitched battle with conservationists, who were concerned the building would block the sweeping vistas of Washington from the cemetery, President Franklin D.

Roosevelt decided the new headquarters should instead be erected on the current site, which is at the foot of the Virginia side of the 14th Street bridge over the Potomac. The government eventually evicted the occupants to make way for the Pentagon. Mahan, chief historian in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. The assassinations, you see, establish the need for such laws in the public mind. Instead of realizing that there is a conspiracy, conducted by a handful of men, the people reason--or are manipulated into reasoning--that the entire populace must have its freedom restricted in order to protect the leaders.

The people agree that they themselves can't be trusted. Unfortunately, it looks like he did. That's a pretty good cover story. Really they had to radiation-shield the pentagram that locks down the devil at its center, with lots of authoritarian human bodies to absorb the extremely high frequencies that scorch souls.

What a bunch of superstitious bullshit. Everyone knows it is a captured shoggoth from the s Miskatonic University Antarctic expedition There was definitely corruption and inefficiency on the part of the U. However, there were people in government dedicated to finding such corruption, exposing it, and resolving it. That's specifically how Harry Truman came to public fame.

If only our current administration allowed such a thing! He gained fame and respect when his preparedness committee popularly known as the "Truman Committee" investigated the scandal of military wastefulness by exposing fraud and. IIRC, after that tragedy the Canadians amended their constitution to say that only volunteers could be sent overseas. Canada didn't actually get a constitution until During WWI, there was talk of implementing conscription to fill the war need, and there actually was some conscription going on in Quebec and parts of the prairies, but there was a huge backlash against that.

Thankfully, the war ended before any of those conscripts were sent overseas. After the war, we didn't update our constitution, becaus. Tactics simply hadn't caught up with weapons. Modern infantry tactics are all about mobility and flanking. America learned that in the Civil War. England and France had not learned it in WWI.

General Pershing was a hero for telling the English and the French that there was no way in hell American troops would be put under the incompetent English and French officer corps. In the rush to complete the project, there was simply no time to change the design. Where could it have been?

Ah, never mind, I'm sure they'll get it right in rev 2. Share twitter facebook Pentagon is traditional for military buildings Score: 4 , Informative by mfriedma writes: on Monday May 28, AM I thought everyone knew this, but I guess not A pentagon is a very traditional shape for fortifications.

Reason is very simple. If you have a pentagon shaped fort then each side of the fort can provide supporting fire to its two adjacent sides. A sides on a square fort cannot provide supporting fire at all. This basic fact makes a pentagon the most effective shape for a fortification, assuming no terrain features to change the situation.

It would be an amazing coincidence if The Pentagon was pentagonal for any reason but this. Share twitter facebook Re:Pentagon is traditional for military buildings Score: 5 , Insightful by ScentCone writes: on Monday May 28, PM It would be an amazing coincidence if The Pentagon was pentagonal for any reason but this. It could be a bit of an homage to the old fort designs, but in the middle of WWII, they weren't feeling particularly arty at the time.

Occam's Razor goes to the story in the article: the very rushed designs were drafted around a roughly pentagonal plot of land in Arlington, and construction was quickly moved a bit at the last minute, without time or inclination to redesign it. It's hard for people today to even begin to know what it felt like to be truly wrapped up in a period like WWII Parent Share twitter facebook Re: Score: 3 , Insightful by Headw1nd writes: I'd say the important point of the grandparent poster is that military architects would have been familiar with what would have been to them a traditional five sided design.

And while the pentagon is not a fortress, per se, I think it would be remiss to overlook its very fortress-like qualities. We are talking about a building that was hit by what was essentially a gigantic cruise missle hold a massive fuel air payload, that resulted in fewer than total casualties in the facility. Anyway, if you read at least the first page of the article you would have learned that the Pentagon was originally sited close to Arlington National Cemetery on an oddly shaped tract of land bounded on five sides, thus necessitating the five-sided nature of the building.

When members of Congress and other officials protested that the monolithic design would obscure the vi This is not true. Share twitter facebook Re:Screw the pentagon Score: 5 , Informative by rubycodez writes: on Monday May 28, PM usually swastikas are called "right-facing" or "left-facing", what a person means by clockwise or counterclockwise can vary. But if one is talking about the bend, then Buddhist is bent counter-clockwise, or to the left. The Hindu swastika is also usually right-facing, although you can sometimes see right and left facing mirror image swastikas in Hindu art.

The Jain in India also use that right-facing bend usually. WWII was already in full blown force by July the Battle of Britain had already finished 8 months earlier 2 months if you talk to German historians , Germany had just invaded the Soviet Union, with occupied territories spanning France to Greece, North Africa to Norway, and the Holocaust was already moving along frighteningly quickly, with ten of thousands already killed and hundreds of thousands already rounded up into camps.

I always find it interesting that the British and even the occupied Dutch declared war on Japan the same day the Americans did, but not only did the Americans take two years to declare war on Germany, they didn't even declare war on Germany first--Germany declared war on the US [wikipedia.

Looming indeed! Many countries were involved, Germany was on the move, the Pacific was looking to heat up, and here in the U. We weren't directly involved yet, so for us it did still LOOM in I expect someone in Russia would describe it much differently, with different dates. It's the old "three blind men describe an elephant" problem. Parent Share twitter facebook July ?! WWII started in with pre-war practice in China starting in By it was well under way.

Share twitter facebook Re:July ?! Vice President, Mr. Speaker, members of the Senate and the House of Representatives: yesterday, December 7th, - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that nation, and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its Government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message.

And while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack.

It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time the Japanese Government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace. The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost.

In addition American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu. Yesterday the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Malaya. Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong. Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam.

Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands. Last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island. And this morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island.

Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves.

The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation. As Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. But always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.

I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us. Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger. With confidence in our armed forces - with the unbounded determination of our people - we will gain the inevitable triumph - so help us God.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, , a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire. Score: 3 , Interesting by moosesocks writes: on Monday May 28, PM Homepage The easiest solution, a tall building, was out because of pre-war restrictions on steel usage and the desire not to ruin Washington's skyline.

Hold up What skyline? DC has laws stating that no buildings may be over 20 feet taller than the width of the street they face. Poor urban planning and laws like this have, of course, caused many of the city's problems.

The sprawl around DC is absolutely unbelievable. Share twitter facebook bad shape for aerial attack Score: 3 , Interesting by wikinerd writes: on Monday May 28, PM Journal I actually think that the Pentagon is beautiful. However, I think its shape is too distinct, and is prone to aerial attack. A pilot would easily find it even without a map.

Shouldn't such an important building have an ordinary shape, be camouflaged, or lie completely underground? I totally agree.

Like all open source ventures, the quality just isn't there. The proprietary masons would have done it properly. If you are in IT, construction, or just about any other business where one has to deal with stringent project deadlines, you know exactly how true this situation is. But simple truth is way too mundane when compared to the rich fantasy available with conspiracy theories, Freemason plotting, The New World Order, Zionist global domination, Extraterrestrial influence, etc.

Most of the Slashdot community? Most of Americans? Most of Government? Most of humanity? Earlier up this thread you said "The symbols are important, only because our population is comprised mainly of poor fools who know how to respond to nothing else. Setting aside your hubris and arrogance, the point that you have failed to grasp is that the Pentagon's shape may not be as "Symbolic" as previously surmised.

But plea. If the full-time professional army was allowed to fight like their enemies in Iraq do, then the situation there would be different. If we were actually fighting a War of Conquest, as people seem to insist that we are, then the situation would be different. We aren't fighting a War of Conquest though. We are fighting some sort of wet-dream nation-building exercise created by the Neo-Cons that assumed we'd be welcomed as liberators and only planned on being there for six months or so after the war.

We are fighting Dubya's war because he had to one-up his Dad and go to Baghdad. If the occupying power is free from any political constraints then the guerrillas are screwed. Guerrilla warfare never worked against Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia. It also never really worked against the early Romans. They were only too happy to slaughter entire villages. Kill every male of military age and sell the women and children into slavery.

Yeah, it's not pretty, but by the rules of the day it worked quite well. Lay down your arms and you can join the empire, resist us and we will crush you utterly and enslave any survivors. People who accuse the United States of trying to "conquer" Iraq or Afghanistan don't know what true conquest is.

Only those here in the US; those abroad and especially local to those areas do know what it is, but don't think we have the balls to outrage the whole world by doing it.

The complaints are a political [quotationspage. Perhaps you aren't old enough to remember the Vietnam war, but I do. They dropped a few million tons of bombs in North Vietnam, for sure, just like they did on the Viet Cong supply routes in Laos and Cambodia, but they never attempted to invade North Vietnam. The five pointed star pointing downward represents witchcraft, and it is used in black magic. Noted: There is a very broad difference between witchcraft and black magic. If we believe that every pattern has some underlying explanation, can there be a more mundane explanation?

I have a possible hypothesis of what lies behind this phenomena… but what do you think? Where did this pattern come from? There is a reason your intuition highlighted this image to you — a message for YOU to head.

A message, a sign, take it as you will. And that is crucially where the importance of this lies. If you look at the shape of single lentil seeds, most of them have signs of a faceted pentagon. When they are being boiled in water or other liquid the chaotic motion make them agglomerate get together and agglomerated groups take a shape of a pentagon as the single seeds are pushed toward each other and cannot rotate anymore as a result of the motion.

Similar things happen during a single crystalline substance growth in material science. Nice explanation of the pattern though. The question that immediately pops to mind is if this is a one time event just a coincident or does it repeat itself over and over again.

It is quite a strange shape shape but the idea that the heat source has the same kind of shape is probably the reason for it. If I were to look at your picture without the suggestion that there is a pentagon, I would see boiling lentils clumped together through some sort of microthermal attraction.

The space in between the lentils is there because someone stirred the boiling mixture. Visit Pentagon Tours to learn more about the building and how to get a guided tour. The Department of Defense provides the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation's security.

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