Friday-the-13th Math Potpourri

Your guess is as good as mine as to who Cult-leader Donald might fire first this weekend, but I plan to stay busy catching up on some math morsels:

1)  5 book recommendations for philosophy of mathematics:

http://www.logicmatters.net/2018/04/06/five-books-philosophy-maths/

2)   A little math history (of the “when-will-I-ever-use-this” form) about Huygens and Leibniz (h/t Evelyn Lamb):

http://intellectualmathematics.com/blog/learn-calculus-like-huygens/

3)  Math, physics, geometry, symmetry… via Kevin Hartnett:

https://www.quantamagazine.org/mathematicians-explore-mirror-link-between-two-geometric-worlds-20180409/

4)  Wonderful interview with Cathy O’Neil on the need for “a hippocratic oath with teeth” in data science; very timely with current Facebook woes (unfortunately, at end, I don’t feel, and she does’t sound, all that optimistic :-/ ):

http://www.wired.co.uk/article/data-ai-ethics-hippocratic-oath-cathy-o-neil-weapons-of-math-destruction

5)  A follow-up to John Cook’s earlier post that every positive integer is the sum of 3 palindromic numbers (I don’t know, is it a stretch to say this almost has a Fourier transform ‘feel’ to it?):

https://mathlesstraveled.com/2018/04/09/every-positive-integer-is-a-sum-of-three-palindromes/

6)  Natalie Wolchover interviews statistician Donald Richards:

https://www.quantamagazine.org/donald-richards-seeks-patterns-in-the-data-of-life-and-the-universe-20180411/

7)  Scott Aaronson on some recent progress regarding a couple of open problems:

https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=3697

8)  Andrew Gelman takes a social psychology study to task over ‘truth versus inference’:

http://andrewgelman.com/2018/04/06/important-distinction-truth-evidence/

9)  For more math-reads, a wonderful new “Carnival of Mathematics” from Theorem of the Day:

http://www.theoremoftheday.org/SpecialEvents/CoM156.html

side-note... am currently reading "The Calculus Story" by David Acheson -- new, slim little volume, bought on a whim, but halfway in am enjoying it more than expected as a succinct, clear introduction to basic calculus concepts for the right student or layperson.

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

1)  Last weekend Krista Tippett replayed her delightful “On Being” episode (from a few years back) with Helen Fisher on love, sex, relationships, the human brain:

https://onbeing.org/programs/this-is-your-brain-on-sex-apr2018/

2)  Occasionally, believe-it-or-not, Twitter can help restore one's hope in humanity:

https://twitter.com/dodo/status/982709094267076608