Ben and Katrina were strolling through the Mt. Auburn Cemetery the other day when Katrina noticed something moving.

It was a Huge Coyote! Check out the picture here.

I just learned of a little math fact today. A Mersenne number is a number that is one less than a power of two. (*see source 1)

2^n – 1

Examples:
1, 3, 7, 15, 31, 63, etc.

A prime number is a number that is only divisible by itself and the number one.

Examples:
2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17… etc

By putting these two bad boys together we get the Mersenne Prime. A number that is one less than a power of two that is ALSO a prime number.

Examples:
1, 3, 7, 31, 127, 8191, etc.

These Mersenne numbers are very tricky to figure out. In fact, there are only 44 that have ever been discovered; the largest having over 9.8 million digits in the number (2^32,582,657 – 1). One cool thing about Mersenne Primes is that always is the case where two must be raised to the power of a prime number. That makes hunting Mersenne Primes a heck of a lot easier though still way too hard for Windows Calculator. Also cool is that the 44th Mersenne number is currently the largest prime number known. (*see source 2)

Anyway, the exciting news of the day is that the 45th Mersenne Prime number may have been discovered!!! Hot Diggidy! Get out your party pants!! If the number confirms in September we should have a Prime Party. This one will most certainly be more than 10 million digits long which means that the GIMPS folks may win the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s prize of $100,000. And if you’re feeling ambitious, try and grab the next prime number in the list to win $150,000 or $200,000!!!! (*see source 3)

A couple sources:
1. The fast, the easy, the wikipedia
2. GIMPS – with lots of history and fun facts.
3. The Electronic Frontier Organization

The Mythbusters paint a pixelated* Mona Lisa in 80 milliseconds with 1,100 paint balls, 1,100 paint ball barrels, and a lot of pressurized air.

Video

*for lack of a better word

I’m learning a new form at Kung Fu: the Five Animal form.

Throughout the form, we Kung Fu-ists imitate five different animals in the midst of our flurry of attacks. Your job… is to guess which animals we imitate. I was going to give you a list of animals to choose from, but I think it’d be far more entertaining to just let you have at it.

Good luck. (also: don’t cheat)

One of my favorite rock climbing routes in Connecticut is Thor’s Hammer. It’s up at East Peak in Meriden and reliably delivers chills and thrills at each ascent. I’ve talked of its majesty in the past. It’s just great in every way.

I hit up Thor’s hammer a few weekends ago with Pete and Ben. We got out there reasonably early, set up our rappel lines and then zipped down to try our luck. Other than some heavy heat, the day was successful.

As an added bonus, I got to do some ascending with Pete’s equipment as well. Ascending requires using special equipment to quickly ‘climb’ ropes. Here’s a picture of some of the equipment that hovered above me as I ascended.

The advantage of setting up an ascending line adjacent to the climbing route is that it allows us to get a unique perspective for taking climbing photographs. Pete has a beautiful Canon 10d camera, so it’s always worthwhile to spend some time setting equipment to help with photos.

We each climbed Thor’s Hammer twice. This route is unique in that it has two roofs that require either stretched lean backs or furious fist jams.

Here’s a picture of Pete working his way to the first roof.

Here’s Pete again working the second roof.

It was a great day and a gorgeous climb. I hope that I’ll be able to climb it a few more times before the season ends. I desperately want to lead the route.

Sometimes it seems we’re at the brink of war with the entire world.

side note: Did you know that Brink! is a 1998 Disney Channel Original Movie set in the backdrop of competitive inline skating? It is.

a Gummy Bear meets its violent end.

Video

My attempts to escape to Portland trip this weekend to visit my sister have failed.

I am very disappointed.