Friday Potpourri

Another week's mix of mathy selections:

1)  Evelyn Lamb reviews "Really Big Numbers" by Richard Schwartz (children's book):
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/roots-of-unity/2014/06/30/really-big-numbers-book-review/

2)  You undoubtedly heard this week of Facebook's mass study in emotion-manipulation; be sure you've read Jordan Ellenberg's take:
http://tinyurl.com/phaw53m
And several more links re: the Facebook study here:
http://tinyurl.com/q358cza

3)  A little introduction to the quaternions:
http://cp4space.wordpress.com/2014/06/30/applications-of-quaternions/

4)  Another teacher weighs in on the new volume, "Playing With Math," from Sue VanHattum:
http://samjshah.com/2014/07/01/playing-with-math/

5)  Doing calculus employing masses instead of area:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prLIBnQeMME

6)  Statistics as an underpinning of science and society:
http://tinyurl.com/q6kab36
But then, this non-confidence-instilling piece on confidence intervals:
http://tinyurl.com/oklvw2g

7)  I blog-posted this one but it's so much fun I'll re-link to the "Painter's Paradox" of Gabriel's Horn, in case you missed it:
http://fouriestseries.tumblr.com/post/90296337418/gabriels-horn-and-the-painters-paradox

8) Look Ma, no numbers!... a pictorial geomagic square from the ever-inventive Lee Sallows (via Futility Closet):
http://www.futilitycloset.com/2014/07/03/saving-face/

9) Anyone know if a P vs. NP proof that appeared this week is being taken seriously??? I'm certainly in no position to judge, though just the fact that it concludes that P = NP, and does so in essentially just 3 pages, gives me cause for doubt:
http://www.academia.edu/7518078/P_NP_The_Collapse_of_Hierarchies

10) And just up from Sol Lederman another new "Inspired By Math" podcast, with Richard Rusczyk and a focus on math competitions:
http://wildaboutmath.com/2014/07/03/richard-rusczyk-inspired-by-math-39/

11)  Lastly, my own take on Alex Bellos' latest book, "The Grapes of Math":
http://mathtango.blogspot.com/2014/06/apologies-to-john-steinbeck.html