...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, May 9, 2014

Happy Math Links... and... Mother's Day!


A host of links to catch up on, if missed:

1) New books!!
Some philosophy websites are recommending: "Philosophy of Mathematics in the Twentieth Century" by Charles Parsons:
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674728066&content=toc

New, slender volume from Oscar Fernandez entitled "Everyday Calculus" (Princeton University Press), looks good:
http://tinyurl.com/n5s8nhq
(link includes 1 hour interview with the author)

And also from Princeton U.P.  notice of a new paperback version of "The Recursive Mind: The Origins of Human Language, Thought, and Civilization" (more philosophy/psychology than math) by Michael Corbaliss:
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10297.html

2) A 6-minute interview with math professor/educator Jo Boaler:
http://tinyurl.com/kut2amh

3) In the category of "some-things-never-change," this (re: math education):
http://thescamdog.wordpress.com/2014/05/06/letter-to-a-science-journal/

4) Nice Nautilus piece on Penrose tiles and quasicrystals:
 go.nautil.us/penrosetriumphs

5) Peter Woit reports a bit on the work of mathematician Daniel Quillen, bordering math and physics:
http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=6861

If Peter calls Quillen's stuff "pretty mind-blowing" (and he does) then I suspect others will find it so.

6) From Scientific American, another piece on the neuroscience of mathematics and beauty:
http://tinyurl.com/myqhxq6

7) New (36-min.) "MathEd" podcast with Canadian Egan Chernoff (aka MatthewMaddux):
http://mathed.podomatic.com/entry/2014-05-03T05_37_31-07_00

If, like me, you've missed most of these podcasts you may want to go back and check out some of the prior offerings (they look GOOD!):
http://mathed.podomatic.com/

8)  Really nice graphical representation of different math-related paradoxes broken into categories (h/t to Gary Davis):
http://wikibrains.com/map/53621d86e4b017c9fdee45c2

9) Dan and Katherine at "Math For Love" have produced a new board game called "Primo" based on arithmetic use of prime numbers:

http://mathforlove.com/2014/05/primo-the-beautiful-colorful-mathematical-board-game/

They need help via Kickstarter to put the game into production, so check it out.

10) If you're in the mood to have your mind stretched, then h/t to Patrick Honner for pointing out this Numberphile video explaining "Ricci Flow":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwOCqA9Xw6A 

11) I hope to interview popular teacher/blogger Fawn Nguyen in the near future for this blog, so am hesitant to even link to this wonderful 5-min. clip of her (a bit PG-rated), because it answers several of the questions I had posed to her... BUT, it's too delicious not to pass along!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1P6AA_IEd4&feature=youtu.be

12) So MUCH rich stuff here --> the interviews of Martin Gardner collected online:
http://martin-gardner.org/Interviews.html 

13) And when you're finished with my link offerings, you can go savor the diverse collection of the (110th) "Carnival of Math" freshly-up at "Flying Colours Math" blog:
http://www.flyingcoloursmaths.co.uk/carnival-mathematics-110/

14) Finally, after causing some to fear for her sanity with videos of microwave countdowns, Vi Hart is back demonstrating again why people anxiously anticipate her videos, with a doodling explanation (her inimitable style), of "net neutrality" and the evils of Comcast, Verizon, etc. (uhhh, Comcast merging with Time-Warner??... is somebody in the Government NUTS!!!):



....enjoy the weekend! (...and let me know ASAP of any broken links)


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