Potpourri

Of course you want to read some math over the July 4th holiday, don't you...:

1)  A simple, but interesting function:

https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2016/06/25/a-quirky-function/

2)  If you're not tired of reading explanations of Bayesian stats, here's a simple post from Brian Clegg:

http://brianclegg.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/pots-balls-and-reverend-bayes.html

3)  Deborah Mayo re-blogged a post from a few years ago:

https://errorstatistics.com/2016/06/25/what-do-these-share-in-common-mms-limbo-stick-ovulation-dale-carnegie-are-we-lowering-the-bar/

4) The truth is out there... Samantha Oestreicher speculates on alien life:

https://socialmathematics.net/2016/06/27/the-mathematics-of-aliens/

5)  In an imperfect world you have (thus far) 49 perfect numbers to choose from:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/roots-of-unity/49-ways-to-celebrate-the-most-perfect-day-of-the-year/

...and also from Evelyn Lamb, another of her "favorite spaces," the empty set:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/roots-of-unity/a-few-of-my-favorite-spaces-the-empty-set/

6)  Nice essay on the Axiom of Choice (h/t John Golden):

https://dva495.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-axiom-of-choice-communicating-math.html

7)  To retract or not to retract? a longish post from Andrew Gelman:

http://andrewgelman.com/2016/06/28/khkhkj/

8)  Jordan Ellenberg on this week's Numberplay (NY Times); includes interesting "chat" with him at end:

http://wordplay.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/06/27/jordan-ellenberg-the-lottery-scheme/?smid=tw-share&_r=0

9)  Very good (and fun)... Adam Kucharski talking about gambling and math (video: 36-min. talk + question period):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6OXuTENvXc

10)  Great, long John Baez post on "large countable ordinals" (h/t John Golden):

https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2016/06/29/large-countable-ordinals-part-1/

11)  A new Twitter account, @Team_Maths1 started "for sharing maths teaching resources, developments, research, blog posts, and ideas." 

12)  A little portrait of "puzzle master" Scott Kim:
http://blogs.ams.org/mathgradblog/2016/06/29/scott-kim-power-puzzle-creation/#sthash.lQfvdoAu.dpbs

13)  Winners of the "best Illusion of the year 2016":
http://illusionoftheyear.com

p.s. -- I wrote a couple days ago here about my on-off relationship with Gödel over the years, and sometime this weekend I'll have a new interview up here... with one of the finest science writers around.

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

1)  "Slate Money podcast" is one of my favorite podcasts outside of NPR (I've even grown fond of that Felix Salmon fellow, or at least his accent). If you're not familiar with it, last week's "Brexit" edition is as good as any place to start:

http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/slate_money/2016/06/slate_money_on_britain_s_exit_from_the_european_union.html

2) ...and, I just listened to the new Invisibilia episode ("The Problem With the Solution"); another gem: http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510307/invisibilia