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So I get in my mail from the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) that the GIMPS organization has found a *12 million digit* prime number, which EFF awarded $100,000 bucks and Time magazine awarded it as the 29th "best" computer invention of 2008 (or something like that)...

So...f'ing....what... It's like trying to map out pi to the bazillionth-kazillionth-quadrillionth degree of how far past the decimal we can go without finding a pattern. Who really cares?

Probably only a handful...the rest of us wouldn't care.

I remember in grade 9 our Science teacher says to us one day ' OK, listen up, according to the curriculum I have to teach you this...but you'll only ever use it if you plan on becoming an Astronaut...so, pretend to listen or pretend you need to go to the bathroom ' ( not exact words but close )

About half of the class left, including me, so I have no idea what it was he had to teach us.

Hah! Priceless, man....major props to the teacher for that! At least he knew what to expect in teaching said topic. It just really pisses me off how we waste so much money on bullshit stuff like that. Oh, and on the astronaut bit, yeah...NASA spent millions of dollars on inventing a pen that can write in zero-G upside-down environments or anything else like rocketing into the earth's gravity well at 25,000 mp/h...great...I have a better idea...let's use the ever infamously known #2 pencil?

Actually, Eg, the teacher went on about sex and the female anatomy. Too bad you missed that ...

Don't think I'd want someone using a #2 pencil in the space station. Graphite dust gets into the works and makes a mess.

Given today's technology and touchscreens and such, actual writing I'd imagine is a very small small portion of their tasks. It's not like Apollo 13 when the astronauts are trying to figure out what their new degree variables need to be/etc.