Confusing Covid Claims/Hospitalizations....

 Jordan Ellenberg points to this posting for those confused by recent covid statistics/claims:

https://www.covid-datascience.com/post/israeli-data-how-can-efficacy-vs-severe-disease-be-strong-when-60-of-hospitalized-are-vaccinated

...and Ellenberg himself is in Washington Post today on same topic:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/08/31/covid-israel-hospitalization-rates-simpsons-paradox/

Analysis With Norman J. Wildberger

 Yesterday’s post with Joel David Hamkins led me in turn to Daniel Rubin’s hour-long similar interview a month ago with math iconoclast Norman J. Wildberger:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edh5bbgSKqo

Philosophizing With J. D. Hawkins

 IF you can find the time for it, a 2+ hour new interview (podcast) with mathematician/philosopher Joel David Hamkins:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acjJ5-OSuZM

AI, Language, Translation, Go

AlphaGo success, language-correction not-so-much:

https://rjlipton.wpcomstaging.com/2021/08/26/great-go-glitchy-grammar/

Logic of the Chessboard

 From Futility Closet, another checkerboard problem:

https://www.futilitycloset.com/2021/08/26/paint-job/

Compilation of Statistics News

New issue/compilation of "Statistical Thinking News" via Frank Harrell out:

https://paper.li/stn

 

To Retract Or Not To Retract (...is that the question)

 An example of Journal 'expression of concern' vs. retraction, via Retraction Watch:

https://retractionwatch.com/2021/08/23/readers-puzzle-over-marketing-journals-failures-to-retract/

Revving Up The Brain on Monday

 A few logic problems (via Alex Bellos) to start your week:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/aug/23/can-you-solve-it-logical-philosophers

I Think Therefore I Am....

 Ambling a bit further from mathematics, an extensive listing of philosophy podcasts:

https://truesciphi.org/phipod_series.html

A Stripey Triangle

 From Presh Talwalkar yet another triangle geometry problem to end the week:

https://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/2021/08/16/triangle-stripes-problem/

Great Review of "The Creativity Code"

 Fascinating review by Michael Harris of Marcus du Sautoy's latest, "The Creativity Code":

 https://siliconreckoner.substack.com/p/book-review-the-creativity-code-by

...and somewhat related, this recent piece on "common sense" and AI:

https://theconversation.com/an-ai-expert-explains-why-its-hard-to-give-computers-something-you-take-for-granted-common-sense-165600

Null Hypothesis Testing... Thumbs Down

 A little introduction to the history and basics of significance testing in "squishy" psychology:

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/statistical-significance-p-value-null-hypothesis-origins

Funny Dice....

 Funny dice (and probabilities) via John Cook (…and Donald Knuth… and, Garrison Keillor):

https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2021/08/16/lake-wobegon-dice/

Reasoning, Induction, Math Stories...

 The latest essay from Jim Propp:

https://mathenchant.wordpress.com/2021/08/16/reckoning-and-reasoning/

More Geometry Whilst Re-visiting John Conway

 A little John Conway courtesy of Futility Closet:

https://www.futilitycloset.com/2021/08/15/the-conway-circle-theorem/

Good Future For Math Jobs (variety/opportunity)

 Jeremy Kun surveys the landscape of math jobs for math fans (especially software-related):

https://buttondown.email/j2kun/archive/a-survey-of-mathy-jobs/

For Geometry and Triangle Fans (especially)

 A fun li'l Twitter geometry thread from yesterday:

https://twitter.com/DavidKButlerUoA/status/1426286914076692480

Bayesianism and Statistics Curricula

 Some basics:

https://www.cambridgemaths.org/blogs/binomials-and-the-basics-of-bayesianism/

Another 'Jewish-American-born theoretical physicist named Steve' Passes On

 Scott Aaronson memorializes another passing physicist and explains a little quantum computing along the way:

https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=5730

It's A (Math) Carnival

 The latest 'Carnival of Mathematics' (#196) is now up for your perusal:

https://thatsmaths.com/2021/08/12/carnival-of-mathematics/

July Math News Re-visited

 "The Aperiodical" summarizes varied math news from the month of July:

https://aperiodical.com/2021/08/aperiodical-news-roundup-july-2021/

Combinatorics, Language, Communication

 ...and, the Necker Cube:

https://inference-review.com/letter/languages-and-the-necker-cube

Put On Your (Lateral) Thinking Caps

 To begin the week, 6 new 'lateral thinking' puzzles from Futility Closet:

https://www.futilitycloset.com/2021/08/09/podcast-episode-353-lateral-thinking-puzzles/

"Let's do this"... Listen Up New Teachers

 The incomparable Fawn Nguyen has a message for new math teachers:

https://www.fawnnguyen.com/teach/dear-new-teachers

"Total Gibberish"

 H/T to Cliff Pickover for recently linking to this 7-yr.-old piece on gibberish in science (makes you wonder a tad about what's sitting out there right now in the journal stacks?):

https://gizmodo.com/over-120-science-journal-papers-pulled-for-being-total-1534110496

Cheating At Chess... So Many Ways

 "Gödel's Lost Letter..." takes a long look at chess-cheating:

https://rjlipton.wpcomstaging.com/2021/08/04/turning-the-tables-on-cheating/

The Power of Palindromes...

 Just a little number fun from Christian Lawson-Perfect:

https://somethingorotherwhatever.com/sum-of-3-palindromes/

Math Illiteracy Is Long-running

 How long (if ever) before education tackles the math innumeracy of the populace... and what will be the eventual consequences of not doing so (latest from Keith Devlin)?

https://www.mathvalues.org/masterblog/when-the-media-get-the-math-wrong-badly-wrong

Not-so Epic AI

Another critical look at algorithmic medicine: 

https://mindmatters.ai/2021/08/an-epic-failure-overstated-ai-claims-in-medicine/

Whoa, 4 Colors Not So Sufficient...

 Things never seem to be as simple as they appear... "Computational Complexity" notes that, subtly, 4 colors are not so sufficient in the Four Color Map Theorem as most assume...:

https://blog.computationalcomplexity.org/2021/08/do-four-colors-suffice.html

Veritasium Does the Collatz Conjecture

 After the usual routine introduction to the Collatz Conjecture, Veritasium plunges on with this wonderful recent exploration of it, enjoyable by young and old:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=094y1Z2wpJg