Weekly Roundup...

More math news from the week:

1)  Another piece on the popularity of 'math circles':
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/time_and_learning/2016/03/so_what_exactly_is_a_math_circle.html?cmp=SOC-SHR-TW

2)  Jason Rosenhouse on the hoopla over Andrew Hacker:
http://scienceblogs.com/evolutionblog/2016/03/07/on-teaching-math/

3)  Ben Orlin explains, as only he might, why you need math (though I'm not sure Andrew Hacker will be persuaded):
http://mathwithbaddrawings.com/2016/03/09/why-you-need-math-a-guide/

4)  "An Interesting Approach to Logarithms" via Stephen Cavadino:
https://cavmaths.wordpress.com/2016/03/07/an-interesting-approach-to-logarithms/

5)  Writing on music, mathematics, sewing... or whatever, Evelyn Lamb is consistently good:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/roots-of-unity/how-to-sew-like-a-mathematician/

6)  With NCAA 'March Madness' rapidly approaching, Davidson's Tim Chartier will again be much in demand:
http://tinyurl.com/jjmv3b4
...and a bit directly from Tim here:
 https://wallethub.com/blog/march-madness-big-data/19869/

7)  A short primer on Peano axioms and their translation into music here!:
http://thatsmaths.com/2016/03/10/peano-music/

8)  In conjunction with upcoming Pi Day (3/14), Pizza Hut is doing a special promotion that pizza-loving mathematicians ought check out:
http://tinyurl.com/gn7o6wy

...speaking of pi, Numberphile just tweeted out its pi video collection:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4870492ACBDC2E7C

9)  New book from Stephen Stigler, "The Seven Pillars of Statistical Wisdom," seems to be getting some good buzz lately (and it certainly couldn't be more timely; see #11 below):
http://tinyurl.com/zlvrv2b

10)  If these aren't enough links for ya, MathMama has plenty more to recommend:
http://mathmamawrites.blogspot.com/2016/03/a-huge-bunch-of-lovely-links.html

11)  and ICYMI, I gave a series of links on the current statistical "crisis" in psychology in an earlier post at Math-Frolic this week -- I really DO hope most readers will take the time to read these links (preferably in the order I've listed them), on a topic of high importance:
http://math-frolic.blogspot.com/2016/03/lies-damned-lies-and.html

12)  ADDENDUM:  yet another great posting from Gelman today on the question, "how can I be so sure that statistical incompetence is the norm, not an aberration?":
http://andrewgelman.com/2016/03/11/statistics-is-like-basketball-or-knitting/


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

1)  Maria Popova ("Brainpickings") focuses on the views of Freeman Dyson:
http://tinyurl.com/gnp8vpd

2)  And just to get your pulse going for the weekend... it's old footage, but I only recently saw this dog-dressed-as-a-giant-spider prank when someone newly-tweeted it:
https://twitter.com/TheWorldOfFunny/status/703277064850432000

...sweet dreams