ktheory.com

I’ve half-written two weblog entries; a stream-of-conscious, emotionally introspective reflection of my summer, in which my father embarks on his doctorate of ministry program; and an explanation of a fascinating mathematical property involving the powers of three, which was inspired by a less-than-optimal answer in a Mind Benders book.
So it goes.
As an aside, my Windows […]

My sister’s “uncommon application” to the University of Chicago arrived in the mail today. I waxed nostalgic recalling my excitement about applying to college. She intends to apply early action to U of C, just like me. If she attends, she would be a freshman when I’m a senior.
I loved helping her with (i.e. doing) […]

I have recently come to appreciate the writing of Kevin Guilfoile. He’s from Chicago, which gives him a leg up on other writers striving for my appreciation.

Today, while avoiding work, I came across a paper (PDF format) proving that the primality of a number can be determined in polynomial computing time. As the Slashdot thread emphasizes, this does not weaken current cryptography schemes, since the algorithms merely determines if a number is prime, but not what the actual factors are.
I didn’t […]

Earlier tonight, I was watching a Law & Order rerun (Doubles) on TNT. In the episode, a tennis star is attacked seemingly by her rival (a la Nancy Kerrigan and Tanya Harding). The victim has a broken wrist and a bloody nose from the assault. Although there was no rape, murder or attempted murder, detectives […]