The Ultimate Bean Counter

Maybe the feds should consider hiring this guy. If you've never seen someone square a random, five-digit number in under a couple of minutes in his head, check our Professor Arthur Benjamin's "mathemagic" show below. If you haven't already seen this clip, watch all of it as Benjamin shares his process out loud in his finale.

Happy Pi Day

It's Pi Day. And if that weren't enough for science geeks, it is also the anniversary of Albert Einstein's birthday. Now that's convergence. So today, 3.14, at 1:59 we well have the first six digits of the magical number line up. Forums are already ablaze with an a.m. or p.m. discussion, military time vs. a 12-hour clock, nuance after nuance. Isn't science fun? No, seriously... it is good to celebrate math - especially in the face of the concerted attack on science and even individual thought by authoritarian fundamentalists of all stripes. I'm thinking that the occasion deserves a couple of toasts: To Pi, and all magical numbers; and, To Einstein, for proving that geeks can be sexy. Give the Sergeant a Hoo-Yah.