Weekend Reads, if you missed them...

A short list of picks from the week:

1)  A few frequently asked questions/answers from John Cook:

http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2016/11/27/some-frequently-asked-questions/

2)  Alex Bellos presents one of the all-time greatest, most contentious paradoxes (Newcomb’s):

https://www.theguardian.com/science/alexs-adventures-in-numberland/2016/nov/30/newcombs-problem-which-side-won-the-guardians-philosophy-poll

3)  A newly-discovered prime number:

http://www.sciencealert.com/this-new-prime-number-could-help-solve-a-decades-old-puzzle

4)  Interesting piece on (mathematician) Jim Simon’s incredible Medallion Fund (h/t Steven Strogatz):

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-21/how-renaissance-s-medallion-fund-became-finance-s-blackest-box

5)  Evelyn Lamb suggests some possible videos for generating math discussion at the secondary level:

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/roots-of-unity/math-with-ok-go/

…and in one of her more complex/weird “favorite spaces,” Dr. Lamb explains “lexicographic ordering on the unit square”:

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/roots-of-unity/a-few-of-my-favorite-spaces-lexicographic-ordering-on-the-unit-square/

  

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

1)  My own interests in philosophy are fairly narrow, but the five (2016) books recommended in this long post look interesting (h/t Graham Farmelo):

http://fivebooks.com/interview/best-philosophy-books-2016/

2)  A paper called (by it’s AUTHOR) “a steaming pile of dung from start to meaningless finish” is retracted from a journal:

http://retractionwatch.com/2016/11/30/surprise-paper-retracted-author-tells-journal-pile-dung/

(folks, you can’t make this stuff up… or, maybe in a sense, you can!)