Linkfest

In case you missed them,  another week's worth of miscellaneous links:

1) First off, April is "Math Awareness" month, and if you weren't already aware of that, then check out these pages:
http://www.mathaware.org/index.html

http://www.ams.org/samplings/math-awareness-month/mam

2) With April 14th approaching, timely (humor) piece making the rounds last week hypothesizing how the IRS might approach the quadratic formula:
http://www.cs.amherst.edu/~djv/irs.pdf

3) AMS is promoting a new book from Richard Evan Schwartz, "Really Big Numbers," for kids (of all ages):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEOY9UAsCFM&feature=youtu.be&hd=1

4) Indiana State University professors are putting "a new spin on… the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS)" (started in 1996):
http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2014/03/computer-project-searches-prime-numbers

5) GREAT discussion of the "Traveling Salesman Problem" with animated example using US state capital cities:
http://mathgifs.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-traveling-salesman.html

6) Another article (The Atlantic) on Maria Droujkova's "Natural Math":
http://tinyurl.com/kebtbjk

7) A little summary of the recent 'Gathering 4 Gardner' in Atlanta, from Gardner's official biographer, Dana Richards:
http://tinyurl.com/krcyyn8

8) Speaking of Martin, link to a YouTube promotion for a Martin Gardner-inspired analytical hand-held puzzle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AECElyEyZBQ

9) In words and pictures, Ben Orlin contends that mathematics is "Big ideas from many angles":
http://mathwithbaddrawings.com/2014/03/31/a-teaching-philosophy-im-not-ashamed-of/#more-2156

10) Though I can't be certain, Matt Briggs appears to be writing a statistics/philosophy/epistemology book (sort of):
http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=12021 

11) Mark Chu-Carroll tackles manifolds and topology here:
http://www.goodmath.org/blog/2014/04/02/manifold-are-the-manifolds/

12) An introduction to Python programming here:
http://learninglover.com/blog/?p=819

13) Lastly, @Pickover and @WWMGT pass along this bit on a Chinese man who has "re-invented the wheel" for bicyclists:
http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/reuleaux_bike/reuleaux_bike.html


now get thee to reading these... because on Sunday I'll have a new longish post up (education-related), with plenty more links...