Expressing today's date in the concise numerical method preferred here in the US, we come up with the interesting quantity: 11/11/10. Note that I have only utilized the numerals zero and one in my enumeration, hence I will call today's date and others like it a binary date. Note that yesterday was 11/10/10, also a binary date! So why did I wait until now to mention it? Because this is the last such date this year (you should be able to convince yourself of this)! Perhaps we can ask more about binary dates, like how many were there this year? Nine in fact:
January 1st, 10th, and 11th; October 1st, 10th and 11th; and November 1st, 10th and today. I have marked them on a chart of the 365 days in this year:

But of course this plot does not hold for every year. We conclude that a year will have nine binary days if its last two digits are 00, 01, 10 or 11 and that it will have none otherwise. I have plotted such years in a century below:

Hence, each century will have but 4*9 = 36 binary days. Next year in particular make sure to treasure each such day, as one year from now will be the last binary day for more than 88 years! I think some interesting math could be done with a generalized version of this problem (why single out 0 and 1?) or better yet the frequency of more complex days, such as those containing only one digit (like March 3rd, 2033, written 3/3/33) or those that have strictly increasing numerals. 

My roommate and I hosted a party last night for fellow first year physics students. Those who have never been in such a group before cannot begin to imagine the sheer madness of our conversations. 

Although works begins to beckon again, having Veteran's Day off has given me time to race past the halfway point in my reading marathon. Racquetball too is planned for later tonight. 

It's time now for the ever popular villain of the post to rear his ugly head! Prostrate your feeble mortal bodies before the might of Ommadon!

Archvillain of the movie Flight of Dragons, the Red Wizard Ommadon represents the evil that infests the human heart. Voiced by the magnificent James Earl Jones (who we heard from earlier this week), his very presence exudes ruthless malevolence. I have high standards for villainous laughs, but the depth of Ommadon's mocking guffaws has been known to bring even the strongest of heroes to their knees. He incorporates this weapon into several fantastic speeches in the movie, each more chilling than the last. Of course, oratory is but the least of his powers. From the top of his skull-capped mountainous lair Ommadon exerts his vile will upon the world through his mastery of sorcery and dominance over the world's dragons, commanding the fiery creatures to battle at his whim. "I...am the World...and the World...is Ommadon."