Possible mistake in Donald Knuth's Talk (or) I am stupid

Donald Knuth recently gave a talk in Google titled "All questions answered" I think either I have found a mistake in it or I am making myself a stupid in the internet. Latter is of high probability.

In his talk, Donald Knuth says (at 14:30) that:

Ron Graham tells me about the following problem: take any integer write it in binary, so you've got; basically any sequence of 0s and 1s. You can always cut it into substrings. Consider each substring as a binary number, the sum of those binary numbers is a power of two.

When I listened this, I thought, it must be wrong. Consider the following sequence of binary numbers:

100101

I make a cut in the middle of the above number, so that the two individual binary numbers are:

100 & 101 

The sum of these numbers is 1001, which is 9, is not a power of 2. It is a bit difficult for my Indian ears to understand his accent, so there is a high probability that I am misunderstanding something. Also, this issue looks too straightforward to me that one of the most brilliant mathematicians on the planet may not say so. What am I missing ? Any help is appreciated.

P.S: In the unlikely event that (pigs flew) Knuth mentioned something wrong about this mathematical problem, I should write to him to send a signed cheque (check) for 0$ (anyway I won't encash it) :-)

Madras Anti-Hindi Protests & Karunanidhi's Speech

When India got independence from the British, English and Hindi were adopted as the official languages of India. After a series of hot debates, a Munshi-Ayyangar formula (after K.M. Munshi and Gopalaswamy Ayyangar) was devised to confirm that No language will be called the National language of India, but English and Hindi will continue to be used as the official language of the country atleast until 1965.

The congress Government of the Madras presidency led by Rajagoplachari (who tried to woo the North Indian heads of his party) tried to impose Hindi as a mandatory subject in the state. This was met with opposition by the natives as they felt it undermined the rich cultural heritage of Tamil, the language which is more than 2000 years old and still in use. This law to make Hindi mandatory was revoked.

As the 1965 deadline approached, situation became intense in the Madras state. Student protests, mass riots changed the political situation of the Madras state drastically, kicking the Congress Government out of power (till date). Two students Thalamuthu and Nadarasan were killed and a sense of frustration and anger spread throughout the state. There was a blackout of every educational institution and Government office for almost 2 months in the state. The central Government was taken back by the resilience of the Madras state and announced that English will not be removed from the official language status of India, until the southern states agree. In 1967, Indira Gandhi announced that English language will have official status in India indefinitely.

The current constitution (iiuc) says: English will be used as the official central Government language for the region C of India. This region C composes of the four south Indian states. Regions A and B consists of the North Indian states where English or Hindi will be used as the official language. 

The entire Madras Anti-Hindi protests are nicely documented in the wikipedia . During these anti-Hindi protests, as mentioned earlier, the congress Government was kicked out of power and led to the raise of the DMK party. A truly charismatic leader C.N. Annadurai rose to fame and establishing the ideologies of equality, atheism and fighting against casteism and religion. He was ably supported by a groups of talented public speakers who kindled emotions among the students. The most popular and the charismatic of his subordinates is M. Karunanidhi. It is a pity that Karunanidhi lost track in the last years of his life and succumbed to family pressure and started believing in God and superstitious practices. It is sad to see what senility does to some Atheists.

I stumbled accidentally onto an audio of Karunanidhi's speech during the Anti-Hindi protests in 1965. It's truly mesmerizing. If I were a student listening to him at a testosteroney age, I am sure I would have followed him blindly. You can listen to the audio in this youtube link. The text of his speech is:

---

கேடு வந்ததடா இந்தி மொழியால் தமிழருக்கு என்றவுடன்
எழடா தம்பி எடடா போர்வாள் !

மந்தி இந்தி தமிழ் மலர் சோலையிலே தாவி வருதல் கண்டோம்
ஆவி பிரினும் அஞ்ச மாட்டோம்
அடடா யாரங்கே,
அடித்திடுக முரசம் என்போம்
அணிவகுத்து கிளம்பிடுவோம்; மொழிப்போரில் நம்
பணிமுடித்து திரும்பிடிவோம்; அல்லால்
தாளமுத்து நடராசன் வரிசையிலே
தமிழராய் பிறந்தோர்க்கெல்லாம் அமையட்டும் கல்லறை என்று
தடந்தோளை குலுக்கிடுவோம்

மலை எலாம் வளத்தைப் பாடும்; தமிழர்
கலை எலாம் பண்பைப் பாடும்; கடல்
அலை எலாம் நடனம் ஆடும்; பகைமை
குலை எலாம் நடுங்கி ஓடும்!!!

கூடு வளர் காடுதனில்
ஓடி விளையாடுகின்ற
பீடு மிகு மானினமும்
பாடும் இசை ஜோடிக் குயில் தாளமொடு
பாவமிடு கான மயில் புள்ளினமும்

பட்டுக் கொடி
கொற்றக் குடை
சுற்றிச் சுழல்
வெற்றித் திரு
முத்துத் தமிழ்
கற்றுச் சுடர்
பெற்றுக் குல

(குல) மானம் காக்க புறப்படுக மறவர் சேனை
மானம் காக்க புறப்படுக மறவர் சேனை

எங்குற்றான் என் தமிழன் !?
இங்கு வரும் இந்திதனை எதிர்ப்பதற்கு துணிவை இன்றி !?
செங்குத்துத் தூணைப் போல் நிற்கின்றானா !?

அங்கத்தில் துடிப்பின்றிக் கிடக்கின்றானா !?
அய்யோ பாவம்;
அவனுக்கு சங்கத்தில் பாட்டெழுதி அரங்கேற்றுங்கள்!
தங்கத்தில் சிலையொன்று அமைத்திடுங்கள்!

உளி இரண்டை உதட்டின் மேல் வைத்தாற் போல்
ஒளி மிகுந்த பாண்டியர்க்கு மீசையுண்டு

இழி வந்ததில்லையென்று இன முழக்கம் செய்வதுபோல்; காதின்
வெளி வரையில் படர்ந்திருக்கும் சோழன் மீசை

களிர் ஆட்டும் துதிக்கை போன்று
கண் நோக்கி வளர்ந்திருக்கும்
சற்று நெளி காட்டும் நீளமீசை
சேரன் மீசை

அன்றந்த மீசை எலாம் துடித்ததனால்
பகைக் குன்றங்கள் பொடியான கதைகள் உண்டு
இன்றந்த வீரம் வேண்டும் மிகவும் வேண்டும்
இன்செயல் வீரம் தேக்கி
வன்செயல்கள் அறவே போக்கி
முன்பிருந்த தமிழர்கள் உணர்வைப் பெறுக !!!

Srilankan Army Warcrimes - Killing Fields Video

The nation of Srilanka has people of Sinhalese and Tamil origin. Ethnic fights between these two have been happening for decades. Tamils have been living in Srilanka for centuries as well. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (shortly LTTE ) is a group of Tamils who are fighting for the creation of a separate land for Tamils by the name of Eelam. The Srilankan Government and the LTTE are involved in a brutal civil war in the Tamil areas resulting in tragic deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, over the last few decades. Numerous complaints have been raised during the final phase of this Srilankan Civil War in 2009, about a large number of war crimes by the Srilankan Army.

Channel 4 has published a highly disturbing video which talks about some of the inhuman atrocities of the Srilankan army. People from UN are also interviewed in the video. The video footage is available at: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/sri-lankas-killing-fields/4od#3200170 

The video is highly disturbing, contains very vulgar scenes of mass rape and mass killings. I do not recommend you to watch this video if you are weak-hearted. It is the most disturbing thing one can see. I am sharing this video only to share the news to the international audience of my blog. It is a pity that even in this century when we have organizations like United Nations, crimes of such scale happen. I wonder how Ban ki Moon can sleep peacefully after failing so badly at his job as the head of the United Nations.

The Srilankan Government, as expected, has claimed that the video is unauthentic. However, it is yet to be seen if there will be a international panel analyzing the video. I also read that this video will be aired in some of the western world televisions this week.