Archive: May 16, 2007

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Wednesday,  05/16/07  10:44 PM

Why Mathematicians now care about their hat color.  "Three players enter a room and a red or blue hat is placed on each person's head.  The color of each hat is determined by a coin toss, with the outcome of one coin toss having no effect on the others. Each person can see the other players' hats but not his own.  The general problem is to find a strategy for the group that maximizes its chances of knowing who has which color hat."  Yes, you have to read it to find out, sorry.  Kind of interesting actually, sort of reminds me of the two switches... 

The New Yorker: Unstrung. "It is the best of times in physics.  Physicists are on the verge of obtaining the long-sought Theory of Everything...  It is the worst of times in physics.  For more than a generation, physicists have been chasing a will-o’-the-wisp called string theory."  This emperor is not wearing any clothes.  Paging Richard Feynman!  [ via slashdot, where many commenters agree with me... ] 

The greatest movie line of all time?  Could be :)  [ via Brutally Honest, via American Digest

The Waterfalls of Iguassu.  Amazing and beautiful. 

Because it is cool and so I can find it later: the Color Scheme Generator.  You really can find everything on the Internet, absolutely everything. 

You will be happy to know, there is a new land speed record for sofas.  92mph.  I am not making this up. 

Kind of like the Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan.  I know their cars will be all-electric, beautiful, and fast, but I wonder if their seats will be as comfortable? 

Remember "backward masking"?  Playing records backwards and listening to the sounds in reverse time.  So at Jeff Milner's Backmasking Site you can hear Stairway to Heaven, Imagine, Hotel California, and of course, I'm So Tired, aka "Paul is dead"...  Way cool. 

Wired reports: Every species will have an entry in the Encyclopedia of Life.  Sounds awesome, a kind of Wikipedia for scientific knowledge about life.  I've volunteered Aperio's services to scan slides and provide viewing software, haven't heard back yet... 

Finally, you MUST see this image in full resolution, please click to load, and then zoom in with your browser.  

Really remarkable :)

 

(New Yorker - 10/29/06)

Wednesday,  05/16/07  10:55 PM

 


 
 

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