Google knows how many horns are on a unicorn, and how to convert acres into tea spoons (US) per light year: Google does dimensional analysis

Because I’m a bit of a geek, I found this. It’s a project that creates a series of challenging mathematical/programming problems to help people develop some interesting mathematical insights (i.e. not simply solve the problem, but notice some interesting mathematical property which may be useful both for subsequent problems, and maybe even in real ( Read more... )

Over on Embedded.com there's a rather amusing article that looks at a possible nightmare scenario should Congress decide that the software world needs a little more oversight to prevent bugs cropping up everywhere that can cause massive problems with things like air traffic control, financial transactions, personal security online, etc. While it's ( Read more... )

Meng Wong (of SPF fame) has an interesting writeup on spam, global relations, social problems, and how we try to deal with them. An interesting read.