29 June: 180

Today is the 180^th day of the year. Here are 10 fun facts about the number 180:

1. 180 is the number of degrees in half a circle. It's also the number of degrees which represent a reversal of the direction of travel or U-turn or the rotation of a picture so that it is upside down. It also gives rise to the term 180 for a trick in extreme sports in which a rider rotates half a turn while airborne.

2. The Transport for London Bus route 180 runs between Crabtree Manorway North and Molesworth Street.

3. The Roman numeral for 180 is CLXXX. In in Binary it is 1011010.

4. In darts, 180 is the highest possible score possible with three darts, when all three darts land in the triple 20. It's also known as a "ton 80" and is usually announced by commentators in a particularly exuberant way.

5. The 180 rule in film making is to do with the positioning of the camera when filming a scene involving two characters or a character and an object. If you imagine a line or axis between the characters the 180 rule means keeping the camera on one side of that axis so that one character is always on the right. If the camera crosses the axis it's called jumping the line or crossing the line; breaking the 180-degree rule by shooting on all sides is known as shooting in the round.

6. The 180th meridian, also known as the antimeridian is 180° both east and west of the Prime Meridian (the one that passes through Greenwich). Together these two meridians form the divide between the Western and Eastern Hemispheres. Most of the antimeridian passes through the Pacific Ocean, but passes across land in Russia, Fiji and Antarctica. This meridian is used as the basis for the International Date Line.

7. The M180 is a 25.5 miles (41.0 km)long motorway in England which runs from junction 5 on the M18 motorway in Doncaster to Barnetby, close to Humberside Airport. At that point it becomes the A180 which continues to Cleethorpes. The A180 has the dubious honour of being the noisiest road in the United Kingdom, because parts of it have a ribbed concrete surface which can cause a sound level of 92 decibels inside a car driving along it. There are plans afoot to resurface it, however.

8. 180 Garumna is a main belt asteroid discovered by Henri Joseph Perrotin in 1878. Its name comes from the ancient Latin name for the Garonne River in France.

9. The Year 180 was a leap year starting on Friday known as the Year of the Consulship of Rusticus and Condianus. In this year Emperor Marcus Aurelius died at his camp in Vindobona and was succeeded by his 18 year old son son Commodus. Commodus created an official cult of the Zoroastrian god Mithra. Lake Taupo in New Zealand erupted, forming ash clouds as far as China and Europe; and the Greek physician Galen described the connection between paralysis and spinal cord injuries.

10. In numerology 180 is an inclusive energy which embraces all that is. It's also an independent number, preferring to be alone most of the time. The person affected by the number is likely to have concerns which focus on humanity as a whole rather than individual relationships. There's also good business sense.

Character birthday

Flare, a member of the G-Men with a light based power used to dazzle and disorientate. She can also fly. Use of her emerging power as a teen, witnessed by her mother, led to her mother being thought delusional and admitted to hospital. Ultra Grav, an old college friend, stepped in to prove his old friend was not mad and that such powers were possible. Later on, Flare left the G Men to join the Constellations when one of their light-based warriors was killed.

Running in the Family

An alien craft approaches Earth. The alien on board is a fugitive, fleeing from an arranged marriage to freedom on our world. She befriends James, a genetics student, and shares her knowledge about the future of the human race with him. 

A science experiment gone wrong gifts James with superhuman abilities; but they come at a price, leading him to mentor others like himself. He founds a group of amateur heroes called the Freedom League.

The Freedom League suffers a string of losses and tragedies; it seems doomed to failure; but one of its members, Peter Mayfield, has vowed to form a group of his own. He is determined to keep his vow, despite having lost Rosemary, the one person he wanted by his side to help him.

Lizzie Hopkins is a talented young athlete and dancer. Peter sees her in action and guesses her exceptional abilities are far more than they seem. He offers to train and mentor Lizzie - but her mother is violently opposed to his suggestion.

As soon as she is old enough, Lizzie takes matters into her own hands; she seeks out Peter and his group for herself. She soon makes a discovery which shakes her world at its very foundations. Her search for the truth will resolve many unanswered questions, but it will also stir up old heartbreaks dating back to the Freedom League's early days.

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