This just in …

On Nov. 1, 2009, 30 students from University Preparatory School in Redding, Calif., in conjunction with Blownapart Studios, a small group of filmmakers based in Redding, shot a video entry for a Doritos Super Bowl Contest. It was filmed entirely on the school campus and used students as actors. The entry was titled “Battlestations!” and featured a group of nerds building the world’s largest Sierpinski triangle (a fractal), completely out of tortilla chips. Hungry football players see and smell the Doritos and decide to charge the field in order to eat it. The nerds successfully defend the triangle using their “nerd superpowers” only to have a group of cheerleaders sneak up and eat the chips.

The Sierpinski triangle featured in the commercial was built completely by the students out of approximately 12,000 tortilla chips under the guidance of their math teacher, Cory Poole. The triangle measured 64 feet on a side and as far as is known, could have been the largest Sierpinski triangle ever made. Guinness editors were contacted to verify, but responded that they do not currently have that as a record category and suggested the students break the record for world’s largest nachos instead.

The students are trying to send this video into orbit, so feel free to repost and tweet at will…

Kelly Brewer is a career journalist and co-publisher of anewscafe.com. You can also find her at Pink Hollyhock, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.