@FenixOK: Well an interesting experiment would be to throw some logic word problems at you and see how you do, but that would make me feel like a douche :).

@Tim Gee: And every so often there's a comment which restores my faith in humanity :P.

@gizgizgiz: Researchers often come up with these kinds of examples to help people understand their work, and science journalism is usually quite poor. In this case the magic trick is an example of a mathematical problem from an active field of research.

@cody2000: Ususally. My fiancée is especially fond of me.

@CatalanoPUNCH: You think saying that James Maxwell was more important than Tesla is being ironic in some hipster fashion?

@DoubtedBeef: Meh. Math is easier than people think. The only reason most people have a problem with it is that the quality of math education is abysmally poor, combined with a general lack of interest.

@Gene: True, but if you take any compression program, I can guarantee a compression algorithm exists which can recompress its output for almost all input files.

A clever approach, although I feel obliged to point out that it's highly unlikely that a magic trick was the source of inspiration. Nonrepetitive sequences have been around a long time, and they sit snugly in the intersection of combinatorics and formal language theory (the combinatorics of words). (Combinatorics is…

Meh, Tesla.

Meh, WoW sucks. It didn't used to, but in pandering to the playerbase they've turned it into an unenjoyable grindfest.

The difference in price between new and used isn't a lot. About $5, in my experience. There isn't a lot of advantage you get buying new... but the profit goes to the developer rather than some retail corporation getting rich off of arbitrage.

Unfortunately, Russia has a history of announcing ambitious, long-term space projects, then never following through.

@ament001: While the 4th amendment provides no protection against private searches (e.g., a private security firm employed by an airline or an airport), it does provide protection from such searches when they are done at the behest of the government. So yes, the TSA can be replaced by private security firms, but they…

@ament001: That flight is privately operated is irrelevant; the rules and restrictions are not ones imposed by the airlines.

@leptonette: Well, if I recall my rough estimates of solar insolation, you've got about 1kW of power per 3 square meters of surface area.

@wagedomain: Calling modern scanners just "x-ray machines" is an understatement. Modern airport x-ray machines are able to detect both density and atomic composition, and can analyze all that information themselves to detect potential explosive compositions.

@Bwehngamun: Heart click.

@wagedomain: In the TSA's defence, and I defend them in this instance because I believe in truth, justice and a fantastic apple pie, I'm fairly confident that the same scanners that detect bombs in luggage aren't deterred by a bit of pie crust.

@nigma.ed: Unfortunately, politics in America has turned into some twisted sport, where it's more important whose side you're on, then whether you're right or wrong.

@Kirkaiya: Not everything is a partisan issue, but don't be an idiot. Bush is not controlling the TSA from beyond the metaphorical grave. It operates under a mandate from Congress, but it is a part of the executive branch and how it implements that mandate is under the full control of Obama and his appointees.