MathTango... : Mathy Things From the Week

For your reading weekend:

1) Looking for distraction, Brian Hayes took on a James Tanton problem here:

2) Latest video from Grant Sanderson on fractals:

3) A review of Daniel Levitan’s book, “A Field Guide to Lies,” which I highly recommended awhile back:

4) Latest “Math Teachers At Play” blog carnival here, with plenty of links:

5) As if I hadn’t been seeing enough evil this week, Ben Orlin chimed in with ‘evil mathematicians’… and, cracked me up:

https://mathwithbaddrawings.com/2017/02/01/historys-most-evil-mathematicians/

(p.s... I think Ben should join up with whoever does the @TrumpDraws account -- would be the greatest cartoon collaboration in world history, BELIEVE ME ;)

6) Joselle crosses various boundaries (math, biology, physics, information theory), as she often does, in a new post, “Life in the Inanimate”:

…You may also want to check out Philip Ball’s first piece for Quanta on life’s complexity:

7) I’ve covered it a bit previously, but another good piece on the Libratus poker-playing program that just walloped human pros:

8) New President announced for MAA:

9) A shame we even need to be thinking about such things, but we do, and Evelyn Lamb presents “A Math Lesson From Hitler’s Germany”:

...I'll also reiterate from earlier in week ICYMI, Dr. Lamb is offering a new email newsletter you can subscribe to by going here:

https://tinyletter.com/evelynjlamb

10) The latest (Jan.) “Journal of Humanistic Mathematics” online here:

11) Timing is everything... I was hoping to have an interview up with Francis Su in a few weeks, and now Quanta has beat me to the punch with this wonderful offering:
https://www.quantamagazine.org/20170202-math-and-the-best-life-francis-su-interview/

12) Another editorial on why mathematical reasoning is a skill worth striving for (h/t Anthony Bonato):
http://swarthmorephoenix.com/2017/02/02/why-mathematical-reasoning-should-be-a-part-of-civic-education/

13) In a largely humor-challenged week, I'll toss in this bit of humor from a tweet and its comments:
https://twitter.com/juliagalef/status/826813945084145665

14) Keep up with news of the April 22 "March For Science" here:
https://marchforscience.com

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

1) This week’s This American Life episode was another re-run of a classic, fun show, this time on ‘coincidences’:

2) There is a nationwide coffeehouse fundraiser for the ACLU this weekend. Check for participants in your area:
http://sprudge.com/a-nationwide-coffee-fundraiser-for-the-aclu-115163.html
And an online petition calling for the impeachment of Emperor Trump:

MathTango...