Friday Helping of Potpourri

It’s August 2017 and I’m being distracted by Nazis in America… who’d-a-thunk-it! 

Anyway, a little bit of math, after week 29 under our Aryan President:

1)  Another new mathy podcast:

https://www.benbenandblue.com

2) Of ants and math… who knew!:

https://lifethroughamathematicianseyes.wordpress.com/2017/08/16/learning-mathematics-from-ants/

3)  Fawn Nguyen talks classroom management:

http://fawnnguyen.com/all-i-got-on-classroom-management/

4)  John Baez’s initial comments on a new P vs. NP proof (that's not expected to survive scrutiny):

https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2017/08/15/norbert-blum-on-p-versus-np/

…a longer take on it here:

https://lucatrevisan.wordpress.com/2017/08/15/on-norbert-blums-claimed-proof-that-p-does-not-equal-np/
...and RJ Lipton weighing in here:
https://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2017/08/17/on-the-edge-of-eclipses-and-pnp/
...and finally even heavier going here (debunking the proof?):
https://cstheory.stackexchange.com/questions/38803/is-norbert-blums-2017-proof-that-p-ne-np-correct

5)  At least two new popular math books worth a mention:

“Significant Figures” from Ian Stewart

http://amzn.to/2wRpwwY

…and “Arithmetic” from Paul Lockhart

http://amzn.to/2i7Rwtb

6)  Brand-spanking new from James Propp, in case your knowledge of Arthur Engel and ‘chip firings’ is a bit shallow: 

https://mathenchant.wordpress.com/2017/08/16/prof-engels-marvelously-improbable-machines/

…see also his ‘Barefoot Math’ YouTube site:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4UgErdTL-k

7)  Patrick Honner offers a primer on symmetry via Quanta Magazine:

https://www.quantamagazine.org/symmetry-algebra-and-the-monster-20170817/

8)  Need more to read?… Peter Cameron recently pointed out the latest edition (June) of the European Mathematical Society’s newsletter:

http://www.ems-ph.org/journals/newsletter/pdf/2017-06-104.pdf
(...includes a longish, somewhat different take on "Mathematics and Music" beginning on pg. 41)

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

1)  Timely: folks have been passing around Annie Dillard’s 1982 essay, “Total Eclipse”:

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/08/annie-dillards-total-eclipse/536148/

2)  I don’t generally read older philosophers anymore, but Scott Aaronson recently recommended that everyone read John Stuart Mill’s “The Subjection of Women” (60 pgs.), saying  “Everyone should read it carefully and reflect on it if they haven’t already.” So maybe I’ll try to get to it this weekend:

http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/mill1869.pdf

HAPPY eclipse-watching everybody!, and ohh, maybe just one last thing for the week: