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A real number is called $b$-normal iff its
base-$b$ digits are "truly random" in a certain technical sense.
Until now, every explicit normal number has been of artificial
construction; e.g., created by brute-force concatenation of digits.
But the situation has changed; now there are normal
numbers you can ``point to" in an algebraic sense. Whereas suspected
normality of the celebrated constant
$\log 2 = \sum_{n \in Z^{+}} 1/(n 2^n)$ remains unresolved
to this day,
the lecturer---and colleague D.~Bailey---discovered a
restricted sum ($n$ running over an explicit subset of $Z^{+}$) that is
provably $2$-normal. This work is interdisciplinary,
touching upon random generators, number theory, chaotic maps, exponential
sums, and discrepancy theory.
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