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Initially hailed as a solution to the biggest question in computer science, the latest attempt to prove P ≠ NP – otherwise known as the "P vs NP" problem – seems to be running into trouble. Two prominent computer scientists have pointed out potentially "fatal flaws" in the draft proof by Vinay Deolalikar of Hewlett-Packard Labs in Palo Alto, California. Since the 100-page proof exploded onto the internet a week ago, mathematicians and computer scientists have been racing to make sense of it. The problem concerns the speed at which a computer can accomplish a task such as factorising a...

Date Debt Held by the Public Intragovernmental Holdings Total Public Debt Outstanding 01/20/2009 6,307,310,739,681.66 4,319,566,309,231.42 10,626,877,048,913.08 10/01/2009 7,505,894,097,177.82 4,414,625,067,141.60 11,920,519,164,319.42 08/31/2010 8,927,061,238,060.48 4,522,591,298,974.57 13,449,652,537,035.05

"Following days of increased activity, the Russian numbers station UVB-76 has sent out a new voice transmission. The transmission, sent out on August 23, 2010 at 9:35AM PST, recited the following in Russian: 'UVB-76, UVB-76 — 93 882 naimina 74 14 35 74 — 9 3 8 8 2 nikolai, anna, ivan, michail, ivan, nikolai, anna, 7, 4, 1, 4, 3, 5, 7, 4' The station, believed to be a part of the former Soviet Union's dead man's switch system, has been continually broadcasting for over twenty years, and its purpose has never been fully explained."

Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 25% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-five percent (45%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -20

Running the Numbers on the SpillJune 16, 2010 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: "White House spokesman Robert Gibbs billed the speech as an 'inflection point,' where the President's initial response would be replaced by more decisive action. But this is now day 57. Where has the decisive action been up to this point? The Obama [regime] has not been working in a coordinated fashion. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of the Interior, the Department of Homeland Security, and the White House, as well as the Coast Guard, have been putting out confusing and contradictory statements since the disaster began. Federal...

TOKYO - Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama has said he intends to resign, a media report said Wednesday. Public broadcaster NHK said that Hatoyama told his party executives he intended to step down over his broken campaign promise to move a U.S. Marine base off the southern island of Okinawa.

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What follows is just a short review of a book nobody would think of reading, a paperback published in 1964 to help parents understand New Math. But if you've been wondering how our Education Establishment has managed to sabotage math skills in this country, this review will be helpful:---------------- "New Math was one of the silliest, most pretentious, and finally most unsuccessful educational gimmicks ever devised; and this book perfectly captures the idiocy of it all. In fairness, the authors were trying to do a good job but their mission is to explain the preposterous. Prefatory copy in this book...

The American economy appears to be in a cyclical recovery that is gaining strength. Firms have begun to hire and consumer spending seems to be accelerating. That is what usually happens after particularly sharp recessions, so it is surprising that many commentators, whether economists or politicians, seem to doubt that such a thing could possibly be happening.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: State-Controlled Media can only talk about how great is the unemployment rate. "Lower than expected." Let's go to the audiotape. VARNEY: The unemployment rate falling to 9.7%. That is an improvement from the previous month. It's better than expected. TODD: The unemployment rate surprisingly dropped below 10% to 9.7%. That's the good news. LEE: ...falling to 9.7%, and that's an improvement from last month and better than expected. JOHNSON: That headline number is absolutely huge. You can't underestimate that. ELAM: We haven't seen unemployment that low since last summer. RUSH: Yeah, except the problem is it's not...

Listen to Coach every Tuesday at 8:30 AM Eastern Time. The Wakeup Call, with Ken Walsh. WFTW 1260 AM from Fort Walton Beach, Florida. WFTW listen live. Ken Walsh is a retired Air Force Jag Officer. Every Wednesday at 8:30 AM Eastern Time. The Captain’s America with Matt Bruce. WSRQ 1220 AM from Sarasota Florida. The Captain’s America Matt Bruce is a Viet Nam veteran who is a retired Fire Rescue Captain. Real Americans will love the give and take on both of these shows. They’re both Coach Approved and two thumbs up! The latest Cook Report has the 13th...

The Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray (D) has released the concealed handgun license (CHL) statistics for the third quarter of 2009. The demand for licenses to conceal carry firearms remained strong last quarter, marking an unprecedented ten quarters in a row with an increased demand compared to the same year over year period. Concealed carry continues to be something both long-time and new gun owners are interested in. If you buy a handgun for self defense, it makes sense to get the license needed to carry it with you. The third quarter in 2009 saw a whopping 54% increase over...

We've all seen reports that Barack Obama's job approval rating has recently fallen below 50 percent in the Gallup poll for the first time since the president took office in January. A look inside those numbers -- Gallup publishes a weekly breakdown of its results by demographic groups -- shows that there are a lot of other firsts in the polling: Among age groups: For the first time in the White House, Obama is below 50 percent with every age group of Americans except those between 18 and 29. He's at 48 percent with people in the 30-49 range; 46...

"White House Defends Stimulus Act Despite Government Audit Questioning the Job Numbers" SNIPPET: "(CNSNews.com) - The White House defended the effectiveness of the economic stimulus act on Monday after a government audit last week called many of the reported job numbers into question. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that $173 billion of the $787 billion stimulus package had been paid out by the federal government as of Sept. 30. That’s about 22 percent of the total, and it indicates that 78 percent of the stimulus funds have not been paid out – at a time when unemployment was rising."

When Michelle Obama moved into the White House, she instantly became one of the most famous first ladies in history, a symbol of racial pride, a victor in the battle of the sexes and the picture of a modern woman, mother and wife. But from her days on the campaign trail to her residency in the White House, Obama’s favorability rating has been in flux, from a low of 48 percent in June 2008 to a peak of 72 percent last March to a slide to 61 percent in a recent Gallup Poll. That 11-point stumble – some might call...

I'll start the ball rolling. 16 Tons

“Oh, That We Had Meat to Eat!” (Numbers 11:4-6, 10-15)“Oh, That We Had Meat to Eat!” Well, we certainly did have meat to eat yesterday, didn’t we? We had pork steak and bratwurst and hot dogs--all kinds of delicious meat to eat at our Men’s Club barbecue. But as you might guess, that is not what I am referring to when I say, “Oh that we had meat to eat!” No, rather, this line comes from our Old Testament text for today, from Numbers 11. And instead of being a positive recollection of a nice thing like our barbecue, this...

By carefully analyzing brain activity, scientists can tell what number a person has just seen, research now reveals. They can similarly tell how many dots a person was presented with. Past investigations had uncovered brain cells in monkeys that were linked with numbers. Although scientists had found brain regions linked with numerical tasks in humans - the frontal and parietal lobes, to be exact - until now patterns of brain activity linked with specific numbers had proven elusive. Scientists had 10 volunteers watch either numerals or dots on a screen while a part of their brain known as the intraparietal...

How big is it?” is certainly one of the world’s most dreaded questions. In fact, after the Million Man March in 1995, Congress restricted the National Park Service from even making estimates — a restriction that was maintained for 14 years and then quietly rescinded this January for the Obama inauguration. I’m talking about crowds, of course. I can’t take you people anywhere. There have been a lot of estimates, from the “official” one of 60 to 70 thousand, up to the rumored 2 million. Let’s see if we can make a plausible estimate with some rigor and some idea...

A North Carolina man who allegedly cracked the code to mentally calculate any multiplication problem is now offering to reveal his secret - for the bargain price of $33. Albert Clay said he came up with his system as a high school junior, but never showed anyone aside from a high school math teacher who shrugged off the achievement, the News & Observer reported. Now 75 years old, the retired pharmacist has copyrighted the formula, "How to Multiply Any Number by Any Number in Your Head," and hopes to demonstrate it in schools, books or even personal mailings to anyone...