[QUOTE=Xyzzy;324086][url]http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2012/12/19/167539764/the-landfill-harmonic-an-orchestra-built-from-trash[/url][/QUOTE]

This makes the 3rd different venue that I have seen this story pop up (spread out over a month or so). The first was on Linked In (it was relevant to the group), second on facebook about 2 1/2 weeks later, now here 2 1/2 weeks later.

"What would a billion (or a trillion) pennies look like?"
 

[url]http://www.kokogiak.com/megapenny/default.asp[/url]

[URL="http://www.livescience.com/26153-einstein-space-time-smooth.html"]Einstein was right, space-time is smooth, not foamy[/URL]

[URL="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/01/keeping-kilogram-constant/"]Standard Kilogram gaining weight[/URL]

Where to post?
 

I genuinely don't know where to post this one. It also fits in the Science and Technology fora and the Mystery Economic areas. I'll let you decide on a report about [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21043693"]a guy outsourcing his own job[/URL].

[QUOTE=xilman;324955]I genuinely don't know where to post this one. It also fits in the Science and Technology fora and the Mystery Economic areas. I'll let you decide on a report about [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21043693"]a guy outsourcing his own job[/URL].[/QUOTE]

That is brilliant! My partner says, "Someone so innovative should have gotten a raise!" My response is that once the company realized that his job could be outsourced, they eliminated the middle man.

[URL="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/01/how-newegg-crushed-the-shopping-cart-patent-and-saved-online-retail/1/"]Newegg crushed a patent troll[/URL] :smile:

[QUOTE=Dubslow;326267][URL="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/01/how-newegg-crushed-the-shopping-cart-patent-and-saved-online-retail/1/"]Newegg crushed a patent troll[/URL] :smile:[/QUOTE]

I was just about to post that here, too.

[URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21091066"]'Quadruple helix' DNA seen in human cells[/URL]

[URL="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/347775/description/Protons_radius_revised_downward"]Proton's radius revised downward[/URL]

[QUOTE=Dubslow;326267][URL="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/01/how-newegg-crushed-the-shopping-cart-patent-and-saved-online-retail/1/"]Newegg crushed a patent troll[/URL] :smile:[/QUOTE]

This is a remarkable and truly welcome development. I wish that someone could successfully take on Monsanto and its claims of patented GE crops which contaminate non-GE farmers' fields. Unfortunately, the average farmer does not have the legal firepower of NewEgg.

5 Seriously Mind-Boggling Math Facts
 

This turned up as an "also interesting" link on the page with a news report of the new Mersenne Prime discovery.

[url]http://www.livescience.com/26584-5-mind-boggling-math-facts.html[/url]

Perhaps these are not boggling to the mathematicians here, but they do the job for me. I am curious about the "only 17 wallpaper patterns" item's proof or justification. Prime, or "Ulam spirals" are also pretty neat, especially in light of all the "proposed and disposed of" conjectures about patterns of M Primes.

[QUOTE=kladner;327782]This turned up as an "also interesting" link on the page with a news report of the new Mersenne Prime discovery.

[url]http://www.livescience.com/26584-5-mind-boggling-math-facts.html[/url]

Perhaps these are not boggling to the mathematicians here, but they do the job for me. I am curious about the "only 17 wallpaper patterns" item's proof or justification. Prime, or "Ulam spirals" are also pretty neat, especially in light of all the "proposed and disposed of" conjectures about patterns of M Primes.[/QUOTE]

Number 5 (the first) is completely misworded. There is a grain of truth hidden by charades of improper use of the word "random". (To be clear, in a set of random numbers, there is no "more common" first digit. However, in a set of numbers n[sub]i[/sub] where [i]log[/i](n[sub]i[/sub]) is randomly distributed, then the first digits of the n[sub]i[/sub] are skewed lower, simply because of the log. [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benford's_law[/url])

[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallpaper_group"]Wiki on the wallpaper thing[/URL]