Short Potpourri

Week #23 of the hijacking of America…

…sorry, a short potpourri this week, as I’ve had too much summer busy-ness this week, while also remaining glued to the Yingying Zhang case in Illinois, where the accused has now been imprisoned, not in Champaign-Urbana, but in my own original hometown of Decatur!

1)  Plenty more math to read in latest “Math Teachers At Play” blog:

http://mathmamawrites.blogspot.com/2017/06/math-teachers-at-play-109-blog-carnival.html

2)  I’ve already instructed all of you to subscribe to Evelyn Lamb’s monthly “TinyLetter,” so I’m not even going to inform you that this month’s edition is here. ;)

3)  The best way to play “Hangman” (h/t Dave Richeson):

http://www.datagenetics.com/blog/april12012/

4)  Alex Bellos’ Monday puzzle (he knows you always get more hits if you put a cat in the puzzle ;):

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jul/03/can-you-solve-it-are-you-smarter-than-a-cat

5)  More math gems from Jo Morgan:

http://www.resourceaholic.com/2017/07/gems74.html

6)  And to take up the rest of your time, another wonderful post from Brian Hayes, this time exploring the pecking-chickens-in-a-circle problem that went around recently:
http://bit-player.org/2017/counting-your-chickens-before-theyre-pecked

ADDENDUM:  The newest "Carnival of Mathematics" came out after I posted the potpourri, so don't mind adding it here:
http://www.cambridgemaths.org/news/view/carnival-of-maths-147/

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

1)  Last week’s TED Radio Hour was all about space (with Brian Greene, Phil Plait, and Jill Tarter):

http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/

2) …and keeping with a sciencey theme, plenty of cool essays from the FQXi Essay Contest winners:

http://fqxi.org/community/essay/winners/2016.2