Another Week's-worth of Schtuff...

See which of these you've missed...:

1)  A Marcus du Sautoy "In Our Time" podcast on the work of Kurt Gödel:
https://soundcloud.com/marcusdusautoy/in-our-time-godels-incompleteness-theorem

2)  "Medical research is in bad shape" -- that's the first line in this interesting retrospective of John Ioannidis' crusading work since he first noted 10 years ago that "...most published research findings are false":
http://www.vox.com/2015/2/16/8034143/john-ioannidis-interview

3)  Alex Bellos profiles Fields Medalist Cedric Villani and his work here (H/T to Egan Chernoff for this one):
https://cosmosmagazine.com/mathematics/seduced-calculus

4)  Patrick Honner carried on a Google+ conversation this week over the question of why there is so much more editorial criticism of K-12 math education in the U.S. than there is of college math education (several viewpoints expressed):
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+PatrickHonner/posts/8akbT2M9jec

5)  Interesting history and tribute to R.A. Fisher ("father of modern statistics") here:
http://errorstatistics.com/2015/02/17/r-a-fisher-how-an-outsider-revolutionized-statistics-aris-spanos/

6)  Keith Devlin on R.L. Moore and the "Moore Method" of teaching (better known today as "inquiry-based learning" or IBL):
http://devlinsangle.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-greatest-math-teacher-ever.html

7)  Cathy O'Neil summarizing some of the problems in the "practices of 'big data'":
http://mathbabe.org/2015/02/18/aapor-big-data-report/

8)  A brief summary from MAA of the annual joint math meetings held in San Antonio last month:
http://www.maa.org/news/feasting-on-mathematics-at-the-joint-meetings

9)  New "Wild Cool Math" from James Tanton:
http://tinyurl.com/pzml7pw

10)  The latest "opinion" from Doron Zeilberger relates to the future of mathematical proofs:
http://www.math.rutgers.edu/~zeilberg/Opinion141.html

11)  "Ask A Mathematician..." site offers a nice tutorial on quaternions, octonions, and beyond:
http://www.askamathematician.com/2015/02/q-quaternions-and-octonions-what/

12)  Nautilus Magazine has been putting out consistently GREAT stuff of late, including now, this fabulous interview (both video and transcribed) with computer scientist Scott Aaronson (of the blog "Shtetl-Optimized"):
http://nautil.us/issue/21/information/ingenious-scott-aaronson

13)  Over at AMS blogs Evelyn Lamb introduces us to a blog, "Social Mathematics," that looks good, that I'm ashamed to say I was unfamiliar with even though it's been around since 2007! Check out Evelyn's post and the blog itself:
http://blogs.ams.org/blogonmathblogs/#sthash.cVfAVMKr.WDIxxyjX.dpbs
http://socialmathematics.net/

14)  Keep an eye on what Mike Lawler is up to:  https://mikesmathpage.wordpress.com/

15)  Not mathematics, but a fascinating geeky, historical piece from Amanda Gefter for Nautilus about William Pitts (previously unknown to me and apparently many other readers):
http://m.nautil.us/issue/21/information/the-man-who-tried-to-redeem-the-world-with-logic

16)  Finally, last Sunday, over at MathTango, I reviewed the new book from Michael Harris, "Mathematics Without Apologies" (...I kinda liked it):
http://mathtango.blogspot.com/2015/02/a-review-without-apologies.html

Meanwhile, THIS Sunday MathTango will have a new interview with another delightful instructor from the math blogosphere. Stay tuned....
[p.s. -- I think I've now repaired links to ALL the other interviews as well, in case anyone had tried those recently only to find several broken.]

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

1)   Another incredible podcast from NPR's RadioLab last week... amazing segments on surviving rabies, and on what major medical procedures DOCTORS choose to have carried out on THEMSELVES (almost none) toward the end of life:
http://www.radiolab.org/story/dead-reckoning/

2)  Speaking of end-of-life, ICYMI, in this NY Times piece Oliver Sacks, who has entertained and enlightened people for so long with his writings and talks, faces the same subject with his usual thoughtful perspective:
http://tinyurl.com/or8e39y

A Review Without Apologies

 "Mathematics Without Apologies" by Michael Harris....



 "Insofar as the present book is about anything, it is about how it feels to live a mathematician's double life: one life within this framework of professional autonomy, answerable only to our colleagues, and the other life in the world at large."
-- Michael Harris

"...the only way somebody can be a scientist is that somehow their personality gets frozen at an early age... at the playful stage."
 -- Andrei Kolmogorov (as quoted in Harris's book)


For starters, I'll say that this will be among my favorite math volumes for all of 2015... to which I'll add, your mileage may vary! (it won't suit everyone's taste). This is a volume that almost defies adequate review, so vast, variegated, and tangled is its content.  It is as odd, eclectic, even intractable a piece of mathematical writing as I have ever come across. Peculiar, dense, trenchant, hopscotchy, sometimes turgid, verbose, hard-to-follow, even inscrutable... but also interesting, rich, quirky, creative, original, a tad enigmatic, unpredictable, curious, cerebral and thought-provoking, sprawling across the landscape of ideas and interests. Gregory Chaitin, in his blurb for the book, writes, "Mathematical high culture collides with pop culture and all hell breaks loose! Harris takes us on a wild ride -- never a dull moment!" I couldn't agree more (and how often can you say 'all hell breaks loose' in a math book!). A press release for it states that it is for "intellectually curious readers" -- that is a colossal understatement! The same press release calls the volume "post-post-modern" -- I understand where the description comes from, but as someone who isn't a fan of post-modernism I prefer to avoid that terminology (even though it clearly fits some passages in the book); but, if not post-modern, it's certainly post-1950s! ;-)

The author says at some point that this is a book he always felt needed to be written... and only when no one else did it, did he take the task upon himself. And he writes: "My original aim in writing this book was to suggest new and more plausible answers to the 'why' question; but since it's pointless to say why one does something without saying what that something is, much of the book is devoted to the 'what' question [what is mathematics]."
I'll say up front that much of the technical math in this book (which is not the bulk of the content, but it does exist) is beyond my ability to even judge, though given the author's credentials I certainly assume it credible and valid. I'll be dealing here more with the style/approach/presentation than with the technical aspects.

There is a lot of focus in these pages on Galois, Grothendieck, and Robert Langlands as initiators of grand, sweeping programs in mathematics. I mention that just to indicate the level of mathematics that is often addressed in these pages, even though the discussion is more general, and intended for a broader audience. This is not the typical popular math book written at the level of high school or early college math.  Even without including a lot of technical, computational mathematics, Harris's subjects are deep and abstract and, depending on your background, may be difficult for a lay reader to follow. I like that sort of challenge, but some may find it off-putting, if they get lost in Harris's commentary or occasional technical jargon.

The book ranges all over the place: math, literature, science, psychology, history, music, culture, film... it's all here in bites. I'm sure the author had some idea how it was organized in his own mind, but I can't offer a clue! And that's not said as a criticism, just a warning to readers, and for me it gave the book a rollicking, unpredictable style that made it spirited. The writing is sometimes less-than-scintillating... because the subject matter is sometimes less-than-scintillating. It is a strange mix of dense, heavy, at times convoluted or rambly stuff, that is yet made scintillating and engaging by its very originality.
So even though I sometimes found myself lost reading these pages, it was lost in an exciting, challenging way... not in a dark, foreboding forest, so much as in a sunny, expansive, amusement-filled park!

Along the way, the author intersperses conversations between an imagined "performing artist" and a "number theorist" to make various points -- it is reminiscent of a technique used by Douglas Hofstadter in the past. I think Harris does an even better (less tedious) job of it than Hofstadter did, and doesn't overdue it as Hofstadter may have.

If you like puzzles, equations, computations, proofs, etc., this is NOT the math book for you. It's hard to describe WHO this book IS for!... certainly someone more interested in the contemplation of, and philosophy underlying, math, and its role in society, more than in doing or learning mathematics.  On the other hand, only those with an already deep background in math will fully appreciate the ideas Harris eagerly romps about in.

I've tried to think of any other book I've read with a similar feel to this volume. Perhaps William Byers' "How Mathematicians Think," but only very slightly so. Harris references Jeremy Gray a number of times, so I wonder if Gray's volume, "Plato's Ghost," might bear some similarity, but I've not read it and can't say. The writing style reminds me a tad of David Foster Wallace (who also gets an occasional nod in the volume), but that too is a stretch. The author cites Thomas Pynchon from time to time, and mentions Pynchon's "non-linear" writing style -- again, I've not read Pynchon myself, but "non-linear" or "Pynchon-esque" just may be an apt descriptor for Harris's prose. Finally, there's a slight similarity here to Ed Frenkel's "Love and Math," but only in so much as both volumes turn some attention to the Langlands program, and both touch on subjects well outside the perimeter of mathematics, but Harris scampers MUCH farther afield than Frenkel. Essentially, I'm doubtful this work can be readily compared to any other math volume.

And I'd love to have been a fly-on-the-wall for the editorial sessions that produced this book! I could be completely wrong, but I imagine much give-and-take, with the editor requesting lots of changes, and the author unwilling to assent to them. To my ear, the writing just seems less edited, less clean, more disjointed, than what's customary in a popular math book -- it's more like the unvarnished author coming through. I also imagine the author making changes/additions right up to the very last moment, as this volume could never really be finished. ...But these are all just idle (and perhaps wrong) impressions on my part. Again, not intended as criticism, but rather a sign of the uniqueness of this multifaceted effort.

I'll only touch upon a few highlights from the volume:

Early on, somewhat oddly, the author discusses "charisma" (and competition) in mathematics --  both in the field of math study, as well as in the practitioners who do math. The discussion revolves around the "sociology" of mathematics, which, unlike either the logic, philosophy, or computations of math, doesn't usually get wide play. Harris also ends up touching on the Elsevier boycott that was spearheaded by Fields Medalist Timothy Gowers, and the "fascinating questions about the possibility of reconciling the goals of science with the material organization of society."

Chapter 4 presents an interesting treatment of the 2008 financial collapse, the Black-Scholes equation, and failures of mathematicians... there's a good reason that economics has been called "the dismal science" and this chapter exposes it.

Chapter 6 on the "mind-body problem" covers a lot of mostly non-mathematical ground. Harris spends some significant time discussing Ed Frenkel's independent film "Rites of Love and Math." Though both men work on the Langlands program, Harris actually spends more time considering, not Frenkel's mathematical work, but rather his popular short film that replaces the geeky mathematician stereotype with a loving (even nude!) mathematician in an uncompromising search for truth. The chapter feels like something written by a devotee of the humanities, moreso than the product of an academic mathematician.

There are a couple of chapters focused on number theory (Harris's main field), parts of which may be hard to follow without a firm grounding in that subject, but I think I found chapters 7 and 8 the most difficult to follow of the more general chapters. One interesting segment in chapter 7 though, recounts the use of drugs by many who were successful mathematicians (Erdös and his amphetamines being a classic case). And then, Harris writes, "Pharmaceutical enhancement may be redundant if mathematics is itself the drug." Next he quotes several mathematicians who make reference to how doing mathematics is like being on a drug. It's an interesting notion that helps explain the addictive quality that math has for so many practitioners, that non-mathematicians often find inexplicable.
In chapter 8 he looks at "tricks" in mathematics, but these aren't the simple or quick tricks you might learn in a YouTube mathy presentation, but much higher-level or abstract tricks that may not be easily grasped. Later in the chapter the always-interesting relationship between math and music is discussed.

Chapter 10 is on the "math-is-beauty" and "math's-unreasonable-effectiveness-in-science" themes.  Even in dealing with such oft-treated matter, Harris's presentation is fresh and thoughtful. And it is also in this chapter that he comes full circle back to G.H. Hardy's "A Mathematician's Apology," in order to reiterate that he makes NO apologies for the beauty and usefulness of pure mathematics in our lives.

I've barely scratched the surface here of this volume's contents -- I won't apologize for that or for the large chunks that fell beyond my comprehension. Nor can I fully communicate the oddity and freshness of this uncommon effort. Along with a regular index, at the end there is a separate "Index of Mathematicians" of those mentioned by name in the text -- this index includes well over 250 individuals within a book body of 325 pages!  And as for others (non-mathematicians) who get more than a passing mention in the book, here are some of those names: Aquinas, Goethe, Huizinga, Kant, Kuhn, Mehrtens, Pynchon, Wittgenstein... to give a sense of the breadth of material here (what the publisher, Princeton University Press, calls "a ridiculously diverse assortment of... sources"). Indeed! Additionally, there are ~70 pages of 'notes,' and a wide-ranging 20+ page bibliography -- much of it technical (indeed, I was surprised that several "popular" math works I looked for weren't even included).

I've read through this book once... which doesn't do it justice -- it's the sort of volume you can pick up, randomly turn to any page, begin reading, and gain more insight than was bestowed by the first read-through. The professional mathematician will no doubt get more from these pages than the lay reader can... and, probably find more to disagree with as well. Having said that, I also suspect people will, Rorschach-like, read into many of Harris's passages what they think or want him to mean, rather than what he intended. Doug Hofstadter has written in the past, that despite the praise (and awards) lavished upon his first book, "Gödel, Escher, Bach," most reviewers got the book wrong. The same may happen for much of Harris's content.

Still, I love that this volume reveals a mathematician who breaks out of the nerdy math stereotype to talk philosophy, humanities, arts, culture, literature, and other subjects too often missing from the public's image of the professional mathematician. I can appreciate Harris's discussion... even when I don't fully comprehend it, because I value seeing the inner mathematician turned loose for public consumption. I don't recommend you all read this book once... I recommend you read it, indeed savor it, 2-3 times. It will certainly be re-appearing on the Christmas list I compile at the end of the year for readers. It stands, perhaps, in a category of its own.

Peter Woit reviewed the volume here:
http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=7479

...and there is an interview with the author here:
http://blog.press.princeton.edu/2015/02/04/qa-with-michael-harris/

'nother Week's Cornucopia of Math

A non-spooky Friday-the-13th! edition of potpourri:

1)  A summary of some recent math events from "Math Drudge":
http://experimentalmath.info/blog/2015/02/is-the-nature-of-mathematical-proof-changing/

2)  Peter Woit gives this interview with Ed Witten a big thumbs-up (covers some thoughts on number theory, Langlands program, dualities, and other recent advances at the interface of math and physics):
http://www.ipmu.jp/webfm_send/1053

3)  A bit about thinking 'fast and slow' in this post on the "cognitive reflection test" and creativity:
https://fivetwelvethirteen.wordpress.com/2015/02/07/cognitive-reflection-test/

4)  Analyzing the long-and-the-short of crossword puzzles... an interesting (as always) tidbit from "Futility Closet":
http://www.futilitycloset.com/2015/02/09/cross-purposes-3/

By the way, on a side-note, if you've never seen what some consider the cleverest NYT crossword puzzle of all time ('predicting' the 1996 U.S. Presidential election) you should check that out:

http://www.dailydot.com/lol/clinton-1996-election-nyt-crossword-gif/

5)  A longread:  in this, a further year of Alan Turing remembrances, Neil Gershenfeld reminds us why Claude Shannon also deserves much recognition:
http://edge.org/conversation/neil_gershenfeld-digital-reality

6)  The latest incarnation of Keith Devlin's "Introduction to Mathematical Thinking" course starts up this weekend:
https://www.coursera.org/course/maththink

7)  The newest "Carnival of Mathematics" up here:
http://www.whitegroupmaths.com/2015/02/119th-carnival-of-mathematics.html

8)  Khan Academy is launching "LearnStorm" a new initiative in math skills learning/competition, initially for 3rd through 12th graders in some California counties (to be broadened out if successful):
http://edsource.org/2015/khan-academy-launches-ambitious-math-challenge/74454#.VNpyqcZDTLV

9)  Game theory via Freeman Dyson and William Press in Quanta Magazine:
https://www.quantamagazine.org/20150212-game-theory-calls-cooperation-into-question/

10)  H/T to John Golden for pointing out this Boston Globe opinion piece by a math teacher weighing in on the education debates:
http://tinyurl.com/mohz59n

11)  Pick-and-choose from MikesMathPage here :
http://mikesmathpage.wordpress.com/

12)  And with tomorrow being Valentine's Day, MathMunch offers an appropriate posting:
http://mathmunch.org/2013/02/11/the-sierpinski-valentine-cardioids-and-mobius-hearts/

...and for Math-Frolic, I once had a semi-Valentine's tradition of referencing this old Jennifer Ouellette post... I'll do so again:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cocktail-party-physics/2011/09/29/love-among-the-equations/


P.S. --  Sunday, here at MathTango, I'll be reviewing Michael Harris's remarkable new book "Mathematics Without Apologies."

-------------------------------------------------

Potpourri BONUS (just extra NON-math links for your enjoyment) :

1)  If you love the poetry of Mary Oliver you'll want to hear last week's podcast episode of Krista Tippett's "On Being" in which she interviews Mary for an hour (...and if you don't love the poetry of Mary Oliver, well, what... is... friggin' WRONG... with you!? ;-):
http://onbeing.org/program/mary-oliver-listening-to-the-world/7267

2)  And from NPR another fantastic "Invisibilia" episode this week on the encroachment of computers in our lives, cool or creepy?:
http://www.npr.org/programs/invisibilia/385792677/our-computers-ourselves


[...please let me know ASAP of any broken/bad links]

Another Week in the Math Blogosphere & Beyond

ICYM any of these:

1)  Having fun teaching calculus to non-calculus people:
https://napmath.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/delicious-lessons-in-calculus/

2)  Evelyn Lamb covered the current measles outbreak this week with emphasis on a key number:
http://tinyurl.com/qffnzyk

3)  Cathy O'Neil on math and medals:
http://horizonsaftermath.blogspot.com/2015/02/i-love-math-and-i-hate-fields-medal.html

4)  "Futility Closet" offers up a paradox very reminiscent of Aristotle's "wheel paradox":
http://www.futilitycloset.com/2015/02/01/the-coin-paradox/

5)  If you're into some of the critical names and issues surrounding applied statistics (especially in the social sciences) then this longish Deborah Mayo post is sure to entertain:
http://errorstatistics.com/2015/01/31/2015-saturday-night-brainstorming-and-task-forces-1st-draft/
...also at Deborah's blog this week a guest post from Stephen Senn on statistically pooled data:
http://errorstatistics.com/2015/02/05/stephen-senn-is-pooling-fooling-guest-post/

6)  And a piece from the Washington Post also outlining two big issues for science: 1) explaining its findings to the public and 2) reproducibility:
http://tinyurl.com/n2sc3ek

7)  I suspect these logic tasks/puzzles (Wason Selection Task) are familiar to most readers here, but if they're not, you should work through them, or perhaps try them out on some friends:
http://www.philosophyexperiments.com/wason/Default.aspx
...and many more conundrums from this site listed here:
http://www.philosophyexperiments.com/

8)  Not math, but just some nutty, ongoing fun from Andrew Gelman this week:
http://andrewgelman.com/2015/01/15/picking-ideal-seminar-speaker-ultimate-bracket/
http://andrewgelman.com/2015/02/02/deciding-ultimate-seminar-speaker-rules/

9)  H/T to John Allen Paulos for pointing me to this interview ("The Stuff of Proof") with philosopher/writer Penelope Maddy on foundational aspects of mathematics; it's pretty 'meta' and philosophical, but if you like that sort of thing, quite interesting:
http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/the-stuff-of-proof/

10)  An intro to some topology ideas from "ThatsMaths":
http://thatsmaths.com/2015/02/05/perelmans-theorem-who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire/

11)  A quick note that Max Tegmark's "Our Mathematical Universe" and Nate Silver's "The Signal and the Noise" are both newly-out in paperback.

12)  pick and choose from MikesMathPage weekly entries:
http://mikesmathpage.wordpress.com/
...By the way, at the end of a number theory post today, Mike especially recommends the following 3-min. video of award-winner Manjul Bhargava, for young people interested in math:
https://www.quantamagazine.org/20140812-the-musical-magical-number-theorist/ 


The Potpourri BONUS (just extra NON-math links for your enjoyment) :

FOUR-for-the-price-of-1... I love bird nestcam websites of which there are now a large selection on the internet... a few current favorites:

a.  Two Great Horned Owl sites:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/57878544
http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/channel/46/Great_Horned_Owls/

b.  California hummingbird nestcam:
http://www.bellahummingbird.com/

c.  Albatross nestcam (Hawaii):
http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/channel/41/Laysan_Albatross/

(CAUTION: these live webcams can prove hopelessly addictive, rendering the viewer incapable of proceeding with work or other activities!)

'nother Week, 'nother Potpourri

I collected these, so you wouldn't have to ;-):

1)  "Reflections on Paul Erdös" from AMS in this his centenary year:
http://www.ams.org/notices/201502/rnoti-p121.pdf

2)   A film made based on the Twin Prime conjecture work of Subway sandwich maker, and mathematician ;-) Yitang Zhang:
http://aperiodical.com/2015/01/counting-from-infinity-a-film-about-yitang-zhang/

http://www.zalafilms.com/films/countingindex.html

also, another wonderful popular press piece (from the New Yorker) on the 59-year-old, sudden-celebrity Dr. Zhang and his work here:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/02/pursuit-beauty

3)  Still another commentary on the roiling that has followed Mochizuki's claimed ABC conjecture proof:
http://tinyurl.com/ouwbqxb

...and Mark Chu-Carroll attempts to explain the ABC conjecture to the rest of us... before concluding that "...mathematicians are crazy people!" ;-):
http://tinyurl.com/nd3scqd

4)  Here's some fun with "deflategate," if you followed the sports story of the New England Patriots' deflated balls ;-):
http://flowingdata.com/2015/01/28/questionable-fumble-statistics-for-deflate-gate/

5)  Need an introductory post on Cantor and infinity for some young person? Nice, longish one here (gets heavier as it goes along), including several videos:
http://www.science4all.org/le-nguyen-hoang/cantors-infinite/

6)  A really fun read, newly-posted at AMS blogs, from Evelyn Lamb, on some different aspects of 'sucking at math' (with links to A.K. Whitney's writings on "Mathochism" over at Medium that I need to further check out):
http://blogs.ams.org/blogonmathblogs/#sthash.Q9DMgkiM.wLJHa8Yr.dpbs

7)  A couple of tweeted lines this week from Steven Strogatz (who is doing one flipped classroom this term) that just seem worth repeating:

"The students are so alive and engaged in my flipped class (nonlinear dynamics & chaos)."
"My other class this term is not flipped. Feels flat, almost inhumane..."

8)  And an article on math educator Jo Boaler here:
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2015/january/math-learning-boaler-012915.html 

9)  The increasing tension between U.S. mathematicians and the NSA gets some new coverage from Science Magazine:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6221/495.full.pdf

10)  Meanwhile, for your funnybone, SolveMyMaths posted some Dave Gorman comedy about perfect, friendly, and sociable numbers:
http://solvemymaths.com/2015/01/27/perfect-numbers/

11)  As always, MikesMathPage: http://mikesmathpage.wordpress.com/


...NEW feature! (potpourri bonus): Last week's grab-bag ended with a side-note, recommending David Pogue's new "Pogue's Basics" book. I may now try to incorporate a "potpourri BONUS" each week, pointing to 1 or 2 non-math links I simply found especially interesting during the week.  Here are this week's selections:

a)  One of the most jaw-dropping science stories I've heard (out of SO MANY from NPR), about blindness, echolocation, expectations (the story of Daniel Kish)... an hour-long episode; if you haven't heard it try to make time for it and see if you find it as flabbergasting as I did:
http://www.npr.org/programs/invisibilia/378577902/how-to-become-batman

b) ...I could probably fill these "bonuses" with just NPR programs!! Anyway, the 2nd selection is the first (21-min.) segment from last week's "This American Life" -- perhaps the most phenomenal (almost bizarre) story I've ever heard of a misogynist internet troll experiencing a change-of-heart:
http://tinyurl.com/pkx4mq5

The Friday Wrap-up

This Week's Grab-bag:

1)  An overview of the recent JMM meetings in San Antonio from Jordan Ellenberg: 
http://tinyurl.com/oyh9lq4

2)  This is a bit involved, but if set theory, logic, and paradoxes are your things than this post from Matt Baker may keep you occupied for awhile:
http://tinyurl.com/pw24nxg

3)  Another convert/enthusiast to the "flipped classroom":
http://fliplearnshare.blogspot.com/2015/01/in-love-with-flipping-again.html

meanwhile, Robert Talbert shared some of his evolving thoughts about the flipped classroom here:
http://tinyurl.com/nezn3h4

4)  A long statistical read from Deborah Mayo on questionable research practices (using a specific case as an example) and statistical power analysis:
http://tinyurl.com/mav9szg

also this week, Deborah re-ran a 2013 "statistical dirty laundry" post (more on research methodology than technical statistics):
http://errorstatistics.com/2015/01/21/some-statistical-dirty-laundry-2/

5)  Presh Talwalkar shows multiple solutions to a geometric puzzle he had previously posed:
http://tinyurl.com/n8mxdy3

6)  Interesting little discussion of math grading (and a Robert Talbert approach):
https://symmetricblog.wordpress.com/2015/01/21/talbert-was-right-i-was-wrong/

7)  Fun with "Plateau's Laws," surfaces, and bubbles:
http://thatsmaths.com/2015/01/22/plateaus-problem-and-double-bubbles/

8) And having fun with sequences here:
http://tinyurl.com/mf4tvv2

9)   A little overview of the Polymath Project from Peter Cameron:
https://cameroncounts.wordpress.com/2015/01/22/polymath/

10)   Patrick Honner tells how we can (and should) learn from technology failures, in this recently-uploaded YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRT3QIt7w20

11)  MikesMathPage, always worth checking out:  http://mikesmathpage.wordpress.com/


...lastly,  a book-note: usually I just recommend popular math books here, but once-in-awhile come across a book I like so much or believe so useful I want to be sure readers are aware of it. Recently out, "Pogue's Basics," is one such volume. David Pogue has long been a favorite tech writer and this new volume of helpful hints -- what he terms "essential tips and shortcuts that no one bothers to tell you" -- is just a great little compilation of handy computer tips. It covers both Macs and Windows (not other systems directly), and while computer pros may not learn too much from it, I imagine most average computer users, and certainly newbies, will gain plenty of pointers. I turned down page corners, as I quickly read through it, to mark all the tips I wanted to go back and try out, and ended up with around 40 dog-eared corners.

Thinking Machines?

The (2015) annual Edge question (which essentially asks if you believe machines will ever be able to think) and responses have been posted; a lot of good reading here, though I've only scanned a handful of responses thus far:
http://edge.org/contributors/q2015

Very few mathematicians included, but I do especially like Keith Devlin's answer (apologies if readers are sick of hearing me say that, but I genuinely do!):
http://edge.org/response-detail/26099

Keith sees "no evidence to suggest that such [machine-thinking] may even be possible," noting that just "because something waddles like a duck and quacks, does not make it a duck." Machines can make decisions, but that doesn't mean they think. But he does worry about "the increasing degree to which we are giving up aspects of our lives to machines that decide, often much more effectively and reliably than people can, but very definitely do not think."

Another writer I enjoy, William Poundstone, takes a different tack from Devlin, accepting the possibility more seriously:
http://edge.org/response-detail/26043

A couple of other responses (out of ~180) I've liked so far:
Roger Schank:  http://edge.org/response-detail/26037   [corrected link]

Frank Wilczek:  http://edge.org/response-detail/26039  [corrected link]

A number of writers make the same point that "thinking machines" already exist on Earth: they're called "humans" (although I think this merely highlights the semantic variability in how people interpret the word "machine").

I also love Freeman Dyson's simple, succinct response... leave it to Freeman to reply to a deep Edge question in 3 sentences... 'nuf said:  http://edge.org/response-detail/26254

Can't help but notice that Ray Kurzweil isn't included among the respondents... not sure which, if any, of the responders are associated with him or his work???

Seems roughly like an even split between those who believe thinking machines are impossible or at least unlikely, and those who think them possible, if not inevitable (but I haven't done a careful tally, so could be wrong). More encouraging, is what seemed a predominant view, that even if thinking machines develop they will not be prone to malevolence, and will either remain under human control, or have ethics built in.

I presume these essays (per usual) will soon be available in paperback book form, but haven't seen the volume yet.

It's interesting, by the way, that just recently, Google announced they will discontinue making the current version of their much-ballyhooed Google Glass, a product that many of us, without even trying it, could see little market enthusiasm for. Similarly, I won't be surprised if Google cars totally flop in the near-future (even though, longer-range, there's no doubt a place for something like them). Much of the wild speculation about machine-thinking likewise seems wholly premature... just as Arthur C. Clarke's HAL of 2001 was waaay ahead of its time. As a student 40 years ago, I remember so many musings and predictions of coming advances that have yet to transpire. We're often quite inept at predicting the usefulness and timetable of new technology. Heck, I'm still waiting for my commuting battery-powered jetpack that the Jetsons had in 1962. C'mon Google (actually, one of my favorite companies), get with the program ;-)

Bountiful Potpourri + a Special Note

Another very mathy week gone by... some things that caught my attention, AND a special note below:

1)  This was different... from Futility Closet a post about math, poetry, the Fibonacci sequence, and Zeckendorf’s theorem:
http://www.futilitycloset.com/2015/01/11/math-and-poetry/

2)  Jason Rosenhouse offers up an "especially clever and elegant proof" of the Pythagorean Theorem":
http://tinyurl.com/pyjy4f5

3)  Last weekend, NPR's RadioLab re-ran their wonderful episode on "Numbers":
http://www.radiolab.org/story/91697-numbers/

...definitely worth a listen if you've never heard it, or worthy of a second listen if you have! (covers some cognitive psychology, Benford's Law, Erdös numbers, and Steven Strogatz's "Calculus of Friendship").

4)  Another piece this week on the frustrations surrounding Mochizuki's asserted proof of the ABC conjecture:
http://www.zmescience.com/science/math/mathematician-numbers-12012014/

5)  As she often does, Joselle Kehoe connects up the neuroscience of mathematics, cognition, and abstraction in a post earlier in the week:
http://mathrising.com/?p=1230

6)  Presh Talwalkar goes over the "game theory" of airfare pricing (as highlighted by a recent airline lawsuit against a consumer website):
http://tinyurl.com/o3o5t89

7)  Alex Bellos reports on the newly-discovered "Harriss spiral," stemming from earlier golden-ratio work:
http://tinyurl.com/lnlxnsz
The latest "MathMunch" also looks at the Harriss spiral:
http://mathmunch.org/2015/01/15/harriss-spiral-math-snacks-and-set/

8)  The latest "Carnival of Mathematics" has been posted:
http://www.andrewt.net/blog/posts/carnival-of-mathematics-118

9)  Cathy O'Neil offered a link to her Prezi talk on data journalism at the recent JMM meeting in San Antonio:
http://tinyurl.com/pkrjptl

10)  Another episode of "avoiding thinking in math class" from Ben Orlin:
http://mathwithbaddrawings.com/2015/01/14/mmm-strawberry-rhuburb-root-2/

11)  Manifolds, triangulation, and weird topology conjectures, from Quanta Magazine (interesting, if you can follow along the topology!):
https://www.quantamagazine.org/20150113-a-proof-that-some-spaces-cant-be-cut/

12)  As many already know, the obituary of Alexander Grothendieck (by Mumford and Tate) that drew some controversy weeks ago, has now been published in Nature (and is freely accessible for another 10 days or so):
http://tinyurl.com/nx9l2xf

13)  More on designing the "flipped classroom" from Crystal Kirch:
http://flippingwithkirch.blogspot.com/2015/01/flipping-with-kirch-designing-flipped.html

14)  An old 'birds in a lorry' physics puzzle solved, supposedly:
http://tinyurl.com/pj3m2wv

and another fascinating physics-related piece (by Tom Siegfried) here, on "quantum math":
http://tinyurl.com/otfgkzc

15)  Per usual, check out MikesMathPage to see what Mike Lawler and the boys have been up to this week (I haven't had time to follow him much this week :-( :
http://mikesmathpage.wordpress.com/

16)  And earlier in the week I re-looked at an older Ian Stewart book that I now recommend to all math fans:
http://mathtango.blogspot.com/2015/01/letters-from-mathematician.html

Closing Note:  

Lastly, a bit unusual... but a shoutout or tip-of-the-hat to Ed Frenkel who this last week (in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo killings) conducted an amazing Twitter dialogue with at least 2 Islamic adherents who I believe were trying to account for what gives rise to such violence (I hope that's a fair-enough statement of what their goal was?).  I've never much believed that intelligent, meaningful discussion (let alone debate), can even take place on Twitter (without quickly degenerating), but I really respect Dr. Frenkel's patient, passionate, resolute attempt to do so. Despite some heated moments, both sides I think ultimately maintained decorum while expressing very different views, through dozens of tweets back-and-forth. Mathematicians are NOT all about equations and formulas only! 
You don't need to go back and read through the long Twitter threads, but I do recommend if you're not already following Dr. Frenkel (@EdFrenkel) you should be. He is interesting enough when talking mathematics... and even more interesting and remarkable when he's talking about other matters! We're lucky to have him here (dang, Ed, Keith Devlin, and Fawn Nguyen, all from other countries, and all now in California -- that state needs to share the wealth a little better!! ;-))
Some of the essence of what Dr. Frenkel tweeted is covered in this talk he gave a few months back regarding 'no easy answers' and 'life is not a paragraph' (no technical math here):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnqQ-BWMHrE

The last 15 minutes-or-so (it's a 38-min. talk) are among the 15 most evocative minutes you may ever encounter from a professional mathematician -- try to find time for this video if you've not already viewed it.

[And on Sunday morning, in light of Charlie Hebdo, in light of Ed Frenkel, in light of the MLK Holiday (U.S.) on Monday, and in light of so much going on in our world today, the Math-Frolic 'Sunday reflection' will stray a little from the usual fare.]

Letters From a Mathematician

Several years ago I skimmed through Ian Stewart's little book, "Letters To A Young Mathematician," and it didn't register much with me, not really being a fan of "Letters to..." sorts of books. But I just re-read it, with the benefit of a few more years immersion in mathematical debates, and especially Keith Devlin's notion of "mathematical thinking," and suddenly enjoyed it immensely! Indeed, I now wonder if any of Keith's thinking was influenced by Stewart's ideas, or was the influence in the opposite direction(?), from Devlin to Stewart, so similar are many of the viewpoints expressed (Stewart's discussion of "proofs" especially mirrors a recent view voiced by Keith).

I won't review this instructive (and surprisingly rich) little volume, since it's from 2006, but will note that I think every prospective math major should ponder it before they get too far along their path. In a quick 200 pages it covers a lot of backdrop to a mathematics career.  And even though it was written almost a decade ago, it includes discussion that is pertinent to the ongoing debates in math education right now. It also contains more thoughtful passages I'll be considering for "Sunday Reflections" than almost any other book on my shelf! I especially like the whole second half of the volume.

Lest it not be clear to people, I should mention that these "letters" are fictitious missives written to a fictitious niece; which gives Stewart a lot of freedom to say what he wants in the way he wants to say it.  In fact, Stewart sees the book as a sort of update to G.H. Hardy's "A Mathematician's Apology."

For fuller reviews here are a couple of old ones from AMS and from American Scientist:
http://www.ams.org/notices/200705/rev-carberry-web.pdf
http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/port-and-walnuts

As one of the reviewers sums up, "'Letters to a Young Mathematician' succeeds well in opening a door into the world of mathematics and enticing the reader inside."

Ian Stewart is yet another Brit who has a knack for communicating mathematics to a public that is often resistant to it. I've enjoyed several of his past works. And funny how time changes perspectives... as this particular volume springs from being completely off my radar to now being one of my favorites from him -- at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'll credit Keith Devlin for that, since reading him made me so much more receptive to Stewart's thoughts here.

The last chapter isn't necessarily representative of the book, but it is the most poignant chapter... I'd almost like to quote it in entirety, but will settle for some words from the final two pages:

"Our minds may indeed be just swirls of electrons in nerve cells; but those cells are part of the universe, they evolved within it, and they have been molded by Nature's deep love affair with symmetry. The swirls of electrons in our heads are not random, not arbitrary, and not -- even in a godless universe, if that is what it is -- an accident. They are patterns that have survived millions of years of Darwinian selection for congruence with reality....

"Perhaps we have created a geometer God in our own image, but we have done it by exploiting the basic simplicities that nature supplied when our brains were evolving. Only a mathematical universe can develop brains that do mathematics. Only a geometer God can create a mind that has the capacity to delude itself that a geometer God exists.
"In that sense, God is a mathematician; and She's a lot better at it than we are. Every so often, She lets us peek over her shoulder."

[On a side-note, Sol Lederman interviewed Stewart almost exactly two years ago for his "Inspired By Math" podcast series (just one of a jillion Stewart appearances on the Web!):
http://wildaboutmath.com/2013/01/11/ian-stewart-inspired-by-math-14/ ]

Br-r-rimming-over Potpourri

Biggest potpourri I've yet done for your weekend catching-up, if you missed many of these:

1)  Nice extended (and fun) discussion of correlation and causation here:
http://statswithcats.wordpress.com/2015/01/01/how-to-tell-if-correlation-implies-causation/
(HT to Patrick Honner for this one, and a blog that was new to me)

2)  I suspect every long-time teacher out there has a story to tell similar to Fawn Nguyen's in "Let's Not." I just don't know if they can tell it as well as she does:
http://fawnnguyen.com/lets-not/
...and in another post she challenges her students to go beyond the book:
http://fawnnguyen.com/rigid-transformations/

3)  An interesting entry from Jeremy Kun looking at math authenticity in the entertainment industry... and thusly, finding for himself, a niche business opportunity!:
http://j2kun.svbtle.com/authenticity-of-background-math

4)  Interesting and fun first-of-year posting from "Gödel's Lost Letter" on the Breakthrough Prizes, a new book, and yearly predictions:
http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2015/01/04/mathematics-its-about-the-future/

5)  No younguns (or video) in this one, as Mike Lawler explains how financial bonds can yield a surprisingly high return in a falling interest environment:
http://mikesmathpage.wordpress.com/2015/01/05/an-interesting-math-example-coming-from-finance/
(And as usual there is still more interesting stuff up at Mike's page from the week.)

6)  A basic introduction to prime numbers (with plenty of basic links) from "Solve My Maths" here:
http://solvemymaths.com/2015/01/04/complements-4-prime-numbers/

7)  Another (transcribed) Ed Frenkel interview, on AI, math education, and the future:
https://math.berkeley.edu/~frenkel/interview-VEJA.pdf

8)  John Baez has an interesting, if pessimistic, piece about Google giving up on their search for cheap renewable energy (the comments are as interesting as the post):
http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2015/01/05/why-google-gave-up/

9)  I've previously pointed out this long, rich Lior Pachter post on mathematics and biology, and was a bit surprised it didn't draw even more comments than the ~30+ it had at last check -- but perhaps it's so long and complex that it scared readers off!? Anyway, I did recently discover (h/t to Gerald Thurman) a lot of additional comments, or at least chatter, over at this aggregator site, for anyone wanting to peruse more discussion:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8819811

10)  In his latest piece for Huffington Post, Keith Devlin asks, "How badly do we want 21st-century, relevant, first-class education for the nation's children?," and offers an update on what's happening with educational technology in K-12:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-keith-devlin/edtech-investment-is-at-record-levels_b_6405226.html
In the end he says that "revolutionizing K-12 education within a decade requires a transformative, national, public-private initiative, perhaps reminiscent of, but much less expensive than, the NASA Apollo Project to put a man on the Moon"!

11)  If you thought donuts were just for breakfast, you were wrong -- donuts are for math class (and fun blog posts):
http://lifethroughamathematicianseyes.wordpress.com/2015/01/06/donuts-make-it-better/
(...perhaps, best to read this with a nice hot cube of coffee!)

12)  Ben Orlin has started a series of posts addressing 'thinking in math class' -- the introductory one is here:
http://mathwithbaddrawings.com/2015/01/07/how-to-avoid-thinking-in-math-class/

13)  "MathTechbook" from Discovery Education (for online math learning) is coming. Read about it here:
  http://tinyurl.com/menyjqt and http://tinyurl.com/mwxm9hw

14)  Dana Ernst on IBL (inquiry based learning)... must-reading if you're a teacher and not already familiar with IBL:
http://maamathedmatters.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-twin-pillars-of-ibl.html

15)  Another little geometry beauty from Futility Closet; and it falls under the equally-beautiful heading of "sangaku":
http://www.futilitycloset.com/2015/01/08/cutting-up/

16)  Interesting New Scientist update on frustrations surrounding Shinichi Mochizuki's "proof" of the ABC conjecture:
http://tinyurl.com/ofhv9br

17) Princeton University Press has put up a pdf of their current math-related offerings, including several forthcoming works:
http://press.princeton.edu/catalogs/math15.pdf

18)  Lastly, just this morning I've posted over at Math-Frolic James Tanton's first video offering in support of Common Core. Must-viewing for all involved in that debate.

Happy weekend everyone!

(as always, let me know of any broken or misdirected links ASAP)

Proverbial Look Back

Wasn't planning any sort of (2014) year-end review post, but have read so many from other blogs got inspired to do one (same thing happened last year). Way too many posts at Math-Frolic though to sort through, so initially picked out 7 from here (MathTango had fewer than 30 postings for the year, if "Potpourri" posts aren't included), and then I've added a few "Sunday Reflections" from Math-Frolic at the end.
Without further adieu...

1)  In June I reviewed (like a zillion other people) Jordan Ellenberg's "How Not To Be Wrong" and already realized it would likely be my favorite volume for all of 2014:
http://mathtango.blogspot.com/2014/06/how-not-to-go-wrong.html

2)  Will just mention one other book review from 2014 because the volume didn't get the attention it deserved. That was Jason Rosenhouse's tribute book to Raymond Smullyan (both Jason and Raymond are deserving of more attention, as well). I covered it in April:
http://mathtango.blogspot.com/2014/04/master-of-logical-legerdemain.html

3)  I interviewed several wonderful people in 2014 for the blog, but one especially stood out, by her "passion personified"....learning why Fawn Nguyen is a rock star in the math education blogosphere was a joy:
http://mathtango.blogspot.com/2014/05/fawn-nguyen-passion-personified.html

4)  In March I got a few things off my chest with this cathartic harangue about the ills of 'big data':
http://mathtango.blogspot.com/2014/03/annuities-annuities-annuities.html

5)  Keith Devlin frequently appears in posts here, as he did when I wrote somewhat philosophically about "proofiness" in November:
http://mathtango.blogspot.com/2014/11/proofiness.html

6)  And Keith was also there for what (for some reason?) was by far my most trafficked post of the year in April, dealing with education:
http://mathtango.blogspot.com/2014/04/keith-devlin-explains-my-past-maybe.html

7)  The post I most enjoyed writing, oddly, was a sort of stream of consciousness elegy to author David Foster Wallace in July:
http://mathtango.blogspot.com/2014/07/infinity-and-angst-david-foster-wallace.html

This last one was actually the lone "Sunday Reflection" that appeared at MathTango (because of its length), instead of Math-Frolic (where all others reside). Five of my other favorite "Sun. reflection" passages from the prior year are below:

1)  http://math-frolic.blogspot.com/2014/12/an-epiphany.html   (Steven Strogatz on the epiphany of mathematics)

2)  http://math-frolic.blogspot.com/2014/08/prime-synchrony.html   (Dan Rockmore on an intersection of Freeman Dyson and Hugh Montgomery)

3)  http://math-frolic.blogspot.com/2014/08/somethings-going-on-here.html   (William Byers on the intuition behind mathematics)

4)  http://math-frolic.blogspot.com/2014/06/proofs-as-artifacts.html    (an odd, self-reflexive passage from David Berlinski I just happen to enjoy)

5) http://math-frolic.blogspot.com/2014/06/math-as-monasticism-math-as-dynamite.html   (Jordan Ellenberg on how mathematics is practiced )

Hope you'll peruse/enjoy some of these, if you missed them.

New Year Potpourri

Happy 2015, all... and with no further adieu, some of the surprisingly full week of math posts that were out there:

1)  Yet another remembrance of Alexander Grothendieck:
http://education.lms.ac.uk/2014/12/alexander-grothendieck-some-recollections/

Also, a reminder, if you haven't already read Lior Pachter's incredible longread post (inspired in part by a Grothendieck obituary) about the disparate "two cultures" of math and biology, DO IT:
https://liorpachter.wordpress.com/2014/12/30/the-two-cultures-of-mathematics-and-biology/

2)  IF you're deep into chess, specifically machine-chess, you won't want to miss this Ken Regan post:
http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2014/12/28/the-new-chess-world-champion/

3)  Blogger Kristin tries to analyze the meaning and role of "intuition" in math-learning in a post that was inspired by a Twitter "conversation":
http://mathmindsblog.wordpress.com/2014/12/28/intuition-in-learning-math/

4)  Presh Talwalkar solves an infinite exponential in less than 60 seconds (video)... be sure to read the comments as well:  http://ow.ly/GwcV9

5)  Deborah Mayo goes down memory lane with a post on power in error statistics:
http://tinyurl.com/jwffkan

6)  Mike Lawler reviewed his blogging year (although he's posted so much great stuff, I think he barely scratches the surface here):
http://mikesmathpage.wordpress.com/2014/12/29/blogging-year-in-review/
(...and of course check out Mike's other posts from the week, as well)

And Evelyn Lamb likewise did a year-in-review for her blog:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/roots-of-unity/2014/12/31/year-in-review/

7)  Another "Cavmaths" geometry problem:
https://cavmaths.wordpress.com/2014/12/29/a-nice-area-puzzle/

8)  This recent analysis of a year-old Marilyn vos Savant puzzle is a bit hard to follow, but perhaps interesting if you can follow it:
http://gottwurfelt.com/2014/12/29/one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-others/

...and for some entertainment read the comments at one of the forums where this was originally discussed:
http://usa.rightwingamerica.com/index.php?topic=6458.0

9)  Longish-read: some backstory on Common Core (h/t to Frank Noschese for this one):
http://tinyurl.com/pghy5nf

10)  Keith Devlin's latest post on the need for "radical changes" in education here:
http://devlinsangle.blogspot.com/2015/01/your-fathers-mathematics-teaching-no.html
...and I've just posted a response to it at Math-Frolic as well:
http://math-frolic.blogspot.com/2015/01/teach-children-well.html

11)  I'll end with a fun post from M.C. Burke closing out last year:
http://mrburkemath.blogspot.com/2014/12/two-taylor-swifts-and-sliding-yardstick.html