Some Math Bits

Week #28 of the Trumpocalypse came and went, and so far not a single nuclear exchange has transpired… so on with some math:

1) Explaining Gödel to lay folks:

https://infinityplusonemath.wordpress.com/2017/08/04/godels-incompleteness-theorems/

2)  From Will Gervais one of the more fun, entertaining, and thoughtful reads I’ve come across since the whole psychology-replication issue hit the fan:

http://willgervais.com/blog/2017/8/3/tone-vs-tactics

3)  If you love baseball… and Paul Erdös, you’ll love this Numberphile episode from a few days back:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCq04N9it8U

4)  Kevin Hartnett reports on two new ‘rare mathematical jewels’:

https://www.quantamagazine.org/new-shapes-solve-infinite-pool-table-problem-20170808/

5)  An interview with always-exuberant James Grime:

https://mathblog.com/james-grime-fool-maths/

(…it reminded me of one of my earliest interviews which was also with James:

https://math-frolic.blogspot.com/2012/10/james-grime-singingbanana.html )

6)  A rough year for a math teacher:

https://ispeakmath.org/2017/08/08/last-year-was-rough-but-im-back-mtbos/

…I wish I felt more confident that the next 3 will be any better :(

7)  Slate reports on the p-value debate:
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2017/08/how_will_changing_the_p_value_threshold_affect_the_reproducibility_crisis.html

8)  I offered up a quick list of my favorite books for a desert isle… or, more likely a Trump-induced exile:

https://math-frolic.blogspot.com/2017/08/in-case-im-banished-to-gulag.html

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

1) Last weekend, NPR’s RadioLab re-ran their incredible story of Lucy… the chimp… but by the end have some kleenex ready:

http://www.radiolab.org/story/91705-lucy/

2) Peter Woit worries over the current state of physics/cosmology/science:

http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=9469