Category Archives: sciences

as we suspected

Ellipsoids can be packed denser than spheres can. (Cited by Oliver Xymoron.) One of these days I must make a doodle of this result.

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that gun gave up smoking

Dave Muse thinks the Michigan state lottery has a mechanical bias favoring smaller intervals. (Cited by Jon Handler.) So I wrote a short program that generates all C(50,6) = 1589 0700 possible lottery draws and counts the resulting intervals. The distribution … Continue reading

Posted in mathematics | Leave a comment

the royal philatelic service moves with the times

Tanaqui Weaver, cited here recently, reports: the UK issued a neat 2nd-class stamp with an atom of c60 illustrated. It’s thermochromic black, and a hot thumb on the stamp whitens it out to reveal a captive atom of carbon in … Continue reading

Posted in eye-candy, sciences | Leave a comment

alone?

Data from the Infrared Astronomy Satellite have been used to search for Dyson spheres; no luck. (pdf; cited at Sharp Blue)

Posted in astronomy | Leave a comment

grab-bag

Wanting to learn about database programming, it occurred to me to resume work on my fullerene search code. I’m a bit surprised to find that I haven’t touched it in two years. Speaking of surprises – Angel the vampire had … Continue reading

Posted in cinema, mathematics, me!me!me! | 2 Comments

cui bono?

Debra of Wolfesblog reports: the federal government (you know, the guys who swear they’re doing ‘everything possible’ to protect the beef supply) does not allow such private testing for mad cow disease. Perhaps that should read “to protect the beef … Continue reading

Posted in medicine, politics | Leave a comment

rounding error

Well what d’ya know. You make a casual post to alt.language.artificial about leap-seconds and before you know it someone sends links on the subject: The Future of Leap Seconds; Extrapolations of the difference ( TI – UT1 ); Time Scales. Thanks Steve!

Posted in calendars | Leave a comment