Defeating Insurgent Wars with Math

So I know that at the very least Lorenzo is going to love this, but this may trip out the rest of you as well. These guys have taken data about conflicts around the world and come up with a constant that represents the organizational structure of terrorist forces in an ongoing campaign. The magic number is 2.5 apparently. If that number can be pushed up, the forces get fragmented and can potentially be left alone to fall apart. If that number can be pushed down, then their organization becomes more robust, but small enough that they can potentially be negotiated with to end fighting. Watch the vid, the main speaker will clarify this stuff far better than I.

Wooo, math! Kinda.

More random equationness at New Math.

Sometimes Elephants are in the Way

When taking a test involving curved frictionless ramps, one must take several things into consideration:
1) Is air resistance negligible?
2) Do I remember how to apply the spring constant in a formula?
3) Did I study for this test?
4) Is there perhaps an elephant in the way?