Jordan Ellenberg In BBC Podcast

 9 minutes of Jordan Ellenberg:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09w8sr2

A Few Health Numbers (by the book... or, buy the book)

 Recently finished, and much enjoyed, Dr. Robert Lustig’s latest volume on nutrition/health/food, “Metabolical,” a fairly searing take on the American diet and how it got to be this way. Toward the end of the volume comes this passage hinting at the insidious countervailing pressures at work:

“Which addictive substance is the cheapest to produce and procure, yet the most expensive burden to society? Nicotine used to be the cheapest. At its worst, lung cancer claimed 443,000 people a year and cost healthcare $14 billion annually. But it also made the U.S. government lots of money, because the median smoker died at age sixty-four, before they started collecting Social Security and Medicare….”

[he goes on to dispatch with alcohol in a similar vein, before coming to his conclusion that “By far and away, the most expensive burden to society is sugar,” which he has spent much of the book detailing].

Not terribly mathematical (though plenty of facts and figures), but a good, if scathing, read on processed food in America.

Probability and Randomness via Twitter

 Oh, just another interesting Twitter thread:

https://twitter.com/svpino/status/1437793433255620633

"Dimension" -- What Is It?

 "Dimension"... like many intuitive ideas, not so easily defined and grasped:

https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-mathematicians-guided-tour-through-high-dimensions-20210913/

What's Been Happenin'

 Another round-up of monthly mathy news from The Aperiodical:

https://aperiodical.com/2021/09/aperiodical-news-roundup-august-and-half-of-september-2021/

Mathematics & Category Theory

 Emily Riehl covering category theory for the uninitiated:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/infinity-category-theory-offers-a-birds-eye-view-of-mathematics/

Math... High School Requirement or Not?

 An interesting Twitter thread on secondary math education:

https://twitter.com/mikeandallie/status/1437527668115791873

Teaching "Mathematical Habits of Mind"

 From Sam Shah:

https://samjshah.com/2021/09/12/mathematical-habits-of-mind/

Two Great Ones Discuss Progress In Science

 A fascinating interview (via AMS Notices) with Steve Smale and Lee Hartwell:

https://www.ams.org/journals/notices/202109/rnoti-p1578.pdf

A Little Weekend Reading (via Stephen Wolfram)

  Stephen Wolfram continues with his computational paradigm:

https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2021/09/even-beyond-physics-introducing-multicomputation-as-a-fourth-general-paradigm-for-theoretical-science/

Podcast With Donald Knuth

 Wow, 2+ hours of Donald Knuth talking with Lex Fridman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE1R8FYUJm0

Multiplying With John....

On your marks, get set... multiply!:

https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2021/09/09/double-triple-quadruple/

Solvable.... Yes

 A tricky one from Futility Closet today:

https://www.futilitycloset.com/2021/09/08/exam-week/

Dilbert Espouses...

 An oldie-but-goodie:

Dilbert.com

Just Another ASMR Video

Shaving cream....

Have the Mice Had Their Coffee Yet... ;)

 Mouse studies... time-of-day may matter!:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/many-mouse-studies-happen-at-the-wrong-time-of-day/

A Tweet For Folks Who Love Big Numbers

 5^(69^96) ... have at it:

https://twitter.com/johncarlosbaez/status/1433800220383584256

4, 6, 8, 12, 20... Points On a Sphere You Ask

 An apocryphal story via John Cook:

https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2021/09/02/spreading-out-points-on-a-sphere/

Jo Boaler with Lex Fridman

 Math educator Jo Boaler recently spent 90 minutes with Lex Fridman on his podcast:

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

Just For Fun & Amazement (illusions)

This is old (…well around 5 years old), but Cliff Pickover retweeted one of my favorite static illusions yesterday, the “Scintillating Grid Illusion” by gamer Will Kerslake. The grid contains 12 black dots at intersections but you can’t see them all at the same time! Be befuddled:

Here’s one piece on it:

https://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-why-you-can-t-see-all-12-black-dots-in-this-crazy-optical-illusion

...shortly after preparing the above post yesterday, I then came across this Tweet introducing me to the Ames Window motion illusion, which was possibly new to me (and definitely worth checking out if you're unfamiliar with it):

https://twitter.com/gunsnrosesgirl3/status/1432793383760764938

And here is Veritasium's great take on it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBap_Lp-0oc