Let n be an odd number. For what values of k is 2kn-1 divisible by 3?
Edited to add: Of course, this post is inspired by the recent xkcd #710 on the Collatz Problem :-)
Suppose that we find a counterexample: a number C1 such that the Collatz iterates {Ck}k>0 starting from C1 does not include 1. Note that the iterates must have a minimum value ( Read more... )

Pies
It has been a few years since I made homemade pie crusts. No, that's not true: I keep *trying* but failing. I think it's something about this new house, and the countertops in the kitchen. I never had much trouble at our condo, and I've never had a lick of trouble back in Fairbanks. But I've had miserable failures since we moved in our ( Read more... )

Last week I learned a couple new interesting things about anatomy (yay happy anatomy!) and I thought I'd share them with ya'll.

YES THIS IS SAFE FOR WORK BUT THANKS FOR CHECKING ANYWAYS.

First, the word you always used but never had: "acnestis". It means (I kid you not) "the part of the body where one cannot reach to scratch". Tell me this is ( Read more... )

Jen spent much of today sorting out 14 boxes of bones1. She found they had sent enough spare bones to construct almost the whole right side of a skeleton --- but hardly any spare bones from the left side, nor any spare kneecaps to speak of.
Where the heck are the left bones and the kneecaps??
1Plastic replicas of bones, to be specific; real ones ( Read more... )

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/08/aig200908
... also interesting is that it's in the politics section...

It's not often I run across jokes about lexical scoping: Schoolmaster: "Suppose that x is the number of sheep in the problem."
Pupil: "But, Sir, suppose that x is not the number of sheep."
(source)

http://www.billionairesforwealthcare.com/
From their website: Billionaires for Wealthcare is a grassroots network of health insurance CEOs, industry lobbyists, talk-show hosts, and others profiting off of our broken health care system.
Basically they dress up in tuxedos, gowns and pearl necklaces, then go to anti-healthcare-reform rallies to shout ( Read more... )

http://www.christiananswers.net/kids/clr-cow.html -- The Cow
We get milk from cows who live on dairy farms.
God made cows to give lots of milk.
I'm not sure what this means for the centuries of animal husbandry aimed at breeding cows that give lots of milk. HOLSTEINS ON ( Read more... )

Why is that, on the Monday morning when I can answer, "Played some soccer, went to see the Transformers movie, helped hot-glue a motion-capture suit to a goat for dodging experiments --- and I scored two goals, me, can ya believe it??"
nobody at the office asks how my weekend went?

Is it no longer politically correct to ask leading, insinuating questions about why there isn't a "misternomer"?