In which John laments the nerdfighters' loss to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the DARPA Red Balloon Challenge. (Teams had to find 10 balloons that were flying at undisclosed public locations around the United States.) We'll get you yet MIT! About Tycho Brahe: Tycho Brahe and Manderup Parsbjerg got in a duel over a question of mathematics, and Parsjberg chopped off Brahe's nose. Brahe wore a prosthetic nose made of precious metals for much of his life. -John