Friday Wrap-Up

ICYM any of these:

1)  Wonderful Atlantic piece on Steven Strogatz's introductory course for those who think they hate math:
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/10/teaching-math-to-people-who-think-they-hate-it/381125/

2)  For your statistics entree this week I need only offer up this smorgasbord from William Briggs that gives links to pieces he does, or does NOT, find enlightening:
http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=14126

3) Also, statistically-speaking, this rant about Washington Post coverage of a certain journal study, once again indicating why correlation is so much more fun than causation ;-):
http://hotair.com/archives/2014/10/08/study-shows-people-dont-know-difference-between-correlation-and-causation/

4)  Finally, before leaving statistics aside, this blog post, "Randomness: the Ghost in the Machine?" makes for some good reading:
http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2014/09/randomness-the-ghost-in-the-machine.html

5)  Part of Mike Lawler's week revolved around the Koch snowflake, area, and infinity, ohh my!:
http://tinyurl.com/qasmz3f

and in another (l-l-longish) posting, with LOTS of links, Mike spells out some of the real-world topics that ought make math interesting for the average person (plenty to chew on here):
http://mikesmathpage.wordpress.com/2014/10/10/responding-to-david-coffeys-challenge/

6)  This week's entry (…well, one of them) in the Common Core debate:
http://www.vox.com/2014/4/20/5625086/the-common-core-makes-simple-math-more-complicated-heres-why

7)  I've never had the least bit of interest in the Zombie craze, but if you do, Alexander Bogomolny reviews a volume that might suit your taste -- "Zombies and Calculus":
http://www.mathteacherctk.com/blog/2014/10/review-of-zombies-and-calculus-by-colin-adams/

8)  Keith Devlin's latest post defending Common Core:
http://devlinsangle.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-straw-teacher.html

From my perhaps-objective(?) perch outside the whole education system it seems that the opponents of Common Core are more organized, more unified, and more vocal than the supporters, and that will be a difficult combination to overcome in the current political climate (education being highly politicized) -- so, while I think supporters of Common Core will win this war (such as it is) in the long-run, in the shorter run, I suspect they'll be losing many battles.

9)  And moving from primary/secondary education on to adult learning, NPR reports on the Pathways Project from the Carnegie Foundation and its new approach for adult math learners:
http://tinyurl.com/kwav98c

10)  Jordan Ellenberg reviews Christian Rudder's new book, "Dataclysm" here:
http://tinyurl.com/pzycv2y

11)  New version of Euclid's Elements in scrumptious color:
http://www.studio360.org/story/sideshow-seeing-math-new-language-geometry-euclid-oliver-byrne/

And one last piece of book news... Ian Stewart has yet another compendium of math puzzles out: "Professor Stewart's Casebook of Mathematical Mysteries"... looks like a good collection, some classic and some fresher, or at least newly-rendered. If you've enjoyed his other volumes, or like math puzzlers more generally, give a look; or, if you're thinking ahead to Christmas, might be a good choice for some math lovers on your list!

...these should keep you busy for awhile.