...a companion blog to "Math-Frolic," specifically for interviews, book reviews, weekly-linkfests, and longer posts or commentary than usually found at the Math-Frolic site.

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"Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty – a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show." ---Bertrand Russell (1907) Rob Gluck

"I have come to believe, though very reluctantly, that it [mathematics] consists of tautologies. I fear that, to a mind of sufficient intellectual power, the whole of mathematics would appear trivial, as trivial as the statement that a four-legged animal is an animal." ---Bertrand Russell (1957)

******************************************************************** Rob Gluck

Friday, April 25, 2014

Weekly Roundup of Extra Links


1)  Jo Boaler's "How To Learn Math: For Teachers and Parents" Stanford OpenEdX MOOC course offered here:
http://scpd.stanford.edu/instanford/how-to-learn-math.jsp

2)  And about that pee in the Portland drinking water… from a mathematical standpoint:
http://tinyurl.com/p6wcagt

3)  Evelyn Lamb pointed me to this page, I'd never seen before (though it's been around for awhile) honoring the great Gauss:  http://www.gaussfacts.com/top
It's one of the funniest math pages I've ever run across… IF you like Gauss or math… if you prefer Euler, well, then start your own page! ;-)

4)  More interesting probably than David Brooks' personal angst over the community angst over Common Core, is the range and passion of the 400+ who responded with comments:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/opinion/brooks-when-the-circus-descends.html

5)  "Gödel's Last Letter" explains why open-mindedness to even unconventional proofs (re: P vs. NP) is a good thing:
https://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2014/04/19/in-praise-of-pnp-proofs/

6)  NPR reports on Amir Alexander's new book, "Infinitesimal":
http://tinyurl.com/msxhyvv

7)  Mind Your Decisions blog offered an interesting Monday puzzle regarding some famous numbers:   http://tinyurl.com/ll7bkoq

8)  And an informative history lesson from Evelyn Lamb on Euclid's 4th postulate (…you read that right, 4th postulate):  http://tinyurl.com/myw8tpd

and a couple of non-mathy links:

9) A few years back, Fields Medalist Tim Gowers inspired an academic boycott of publisher Elsevier for a host of reasons. In a very long post he updates where things stand today:
https://gowers.wordpress.com/2014/04/24/elsevier-journals-some-facts/

10) Finally, Cathy O'Neil ("MathBabe") links to cool stuff, so ICYMI I have to pass along this 5-minute clip she tweeted a week ago, of Neil deGrassi Tyson talking about obstructions to becoming a scientist:   http://tinyurl.com/klvzucu


 (p.s. sometime Sunday or Monday morning I should have another interview posted here)


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