Weekly Selections

Some of the stuff I've been reading this week:

ADDENDUM:  After posting all of the below this morning, discovered this new piece on Terry Tao  that is just too, too good to hold over 'til next week!:
http://www.smh.com.au/good-weekend/terence-tao-the-mozart-of-maths-20150306-13fwcv.html

1)  Cedric Villani and his new volume, "Birth of a Theorem," covered in The Guardian:
http://tinyurl.com/n7m57z4

2)  Something for the musically-inclined:
http://tinyurl.com/knz2tvr

3)  Yet another interesting interview with Ed Frenkel, this time on mathematics and our financial system (and crises):
http://www.thinkadvisor.com/2015/03/02/how-math-will-shape-wall-streets-future?page_all=1
And I learned from the piece that Dr. Frenkel now has his own website:
http://www.edwardfrenkel.com/

4)  Andrew Gelman voices a contrarian viewpoint because "A key part of science is to learn what we don’t know" and we ought "embrace" variation and uncertainty:
http://andrewgelman.com/2015/03/02/what-hypothesis-testing-is-all-about-hint-its-not-what-you-think/

5)  I got my undergraduate college alumni magazine in the mail this week and it included a brief piece by 'inspiringly stubborn' math professor Ami Radunskaya on "How To Become a Role Model For Women In Math":
http://magazine.pomona.edu/2015/spring/how-to-become-a-role-model-for-women-in-math/

6)  I just knew, with ~95% confidence level ;-), that Wm. Briggs would be beside himself with joy at recent news that the journal Basic and Applied Social Psychology was dropping p-values or the “null hypothesis significance testing procedure” from its articles: 
http://wmbriggs.com/post/15465/
Meanwhile, Deborah Mayo covered the same development here:
http://errorstatistics.com/2015/03/05/a-puzzle-about-the-latest-test-ban-or-dont-ask-dont-tell/

7)  Another review of Michael Harris's book, "Mathematics Without Apologies" (which I reviewed HERE) is in SIAM News:
http://sinews.siam.org/DetailsPage/tabid/607/ArticleID/415/Last-Bastion-of-Purity-in-a-Corrupt-World.aspx
...and Harris responds to it here at his own new blog:
https://mathematicswithoutapologies.wordpress.com/2015/03/03/how-to-read-a-bad-review/#respond
(h/t to Jordan Ellenberg for these)

8)  A new, packed "Math Teachers At Play" blog carnival here:
https://cavmaths.wordpress.com/2015/03/03/maths-teachers-at-play-83rd-edition/

9)  Fawn Nguyen as insightful/instructive as always with her 6th graders (where were the Fawn Nguyens when I was in 6th grade!):
http://fawnnguyen.com/reversing-the-question/

10)  Ian Stewart's latest book, "Professor Stewart's Incredible Numbers," should be showing up in bookstores any day now:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Professor-Stewarts-Incredible-Numbers-Stewart/dp/1781254109/

11)  Just noticed (and haven't had a chance to listen myself) that the very latest (today) NPR TEDRadioHour is all math-related (looks good):
http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/388518439/solve-for-x

12)  And hey, it's March Madness time (in USA) so have to include this article (chance of a perfect bracket):
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-march-madness-probability-met-20150303-story.html 

13)  Mike Lawler has been busy as always:  https://mikesmathpage.wordpress.com/


Potpourri BONUS! (extra NON-mathematical links of interest):

1)  First bonus from last week was just a great repeat segment from NPR's TEDRadioHour on "dirty jobs" -- about jobs and happiness (not what one might think):
http://www.npr.org/2013/11/01/240780579/are-people-with-dirty-jobs-the-most-successful

2)  And, off my usual beaten track, but for all the animal lovers out there (me included), this feel-good story from the week, to end with:
https://www.thedodo.com/puppy-and-kitten-rescued-1023829384.html