Little known fact: some sized Venn Diagrams have never been drawn. In case you missed it when it whipped round Twitter a few weeks ago: it looks like someone finally cracked the 11-Venn diagram, and it’s a cracker!
You're reading: Yearly Archives: 2012
Information and Inference: new journal with free content for two years
The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications has launched a new journal, Information and Inference: a Journal of the IMA. This aims to
publish high quality mathematically-oriented articles, furthering the understanding of the theory, methods of analysis, and algorithms for information and data.
Articles should be written in a way accessible to researchers in the associated topics in pure and applied mathematics, statistics, computer sciences, and electrical engineering. Articles are published in, but not limited to: information theory, statistical inference, network analysis, numerical analysis, learning theory, applied and computational harmonic analysis, probability, combinatorics, signal processing, and high-dimensional geometry.
According to the website, “all content will be free to access for the first two years of publication of the journal”. You can sign up for free email table of contents alerts.
The first paper, ‘The masked sample covariance estimator: an analysis using matrix concentration inequalities‘, has been made available for advanced online access.
More information: Oxford Journals: Information and Inference: a Journal of the IMA.
A clue to deciphering Kryptos
You may be aware of Kryptos, the sculpture covered in enciphered text and located outside CIA headquarters (and so not accessible to the general public). Three of the four messages on the sculpture have been decrypted, but the fourth remained obscured. Now the Telegraph reports that the sculptor, Jim Sanborn, who is apparently surprised that the puzzle is unsolved 22 years after the sculpture was created – has offered a clue “by divulging six of the 97 letters in that last phrase”:
On the sculpture, they read NYPVTT. Decoded, they say BERLIN, he disclosed.
Maths and Paralympic Sport in Plus magazine
Apparently there’s a parallel Olympics taking place in series with the Olympics in London.
Having done such an excellent job so far this summer, the Millennium Mathematics Project is continuing its coverage from a mathematical angle, with the Plus Paralympic calendar and the special project Maths and Sport: Countdown to the Games. For example, John Barrow discovers when investigating the different speeds of races over different distances that wheelchair racing is “not just a wheel-based equivalent of Olympic racing” but is quite a different kettle of fish.
A trailer for Keith Devlin’s Intro to Mathematical Thinking MOOC
Keith Devlin has recorded a 3-minute video advertising his Introduction to Mathematical Thinking MOOC on Coursera.
In this, Keith explains the aims of the course, which includes elements seen previously on his MOOC Talk blog, and discusses the structure of the course and a little about the MOOC concept.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFs06zgBfMI
According to a tweet from Keith on 27 August, over 33,600 students have registered for the course since registration opened in July. The course starts on the 17th of September.
More info: Introduction to Mathematical Thinking on Coursera
The Mathalicious weekly video series has launched
You may remember Math52, a Kickstarter project from Mathalicious which reached its goal in June. This promised, “every week for a year we’ll create a short video exploring a unique application of math in everyday life”. Now the Mathalicious video series has launched with two videos, both less than two minutes in length, available via YouTube.
The first video, Tip Jar, explores tipping in restaurants.
When we go out to eat at a restaurant, it’s customary to tip as a percent of the total bill. But is this fair? And what are some other ways we might pay waiters & waitresses?
The videos are snappy and nicely produced. The Mathalicious website offers free lesson plans and materials to support the video in the classroom.
YouTube channel: Mathalicious: the Video Series.
Prismatoy: a parallelepiped you can hold
Applied mathematicians love parallelepipeds. The one I share my office with is always drawing them, and banging on about how great they are. Well, I think I know just what to get him for Christmas.
Hopson Kinetic has, for reasons only they can know, made a plastic parallelepiped toy called Prismatoy. It’s constructed from “72 individual jointed parts” and is roughly the size of a stack of floppy disks. The slogan is, “What shapes will you find?” Without having played with one, I’m going to go with “a variously sheared cube”.
It’s $14.99, and comes in orange, green or blue flavours. The site says “international shipping is currently unavailable”, which I assume means they won’t deliver outside the US.
Online shop: Hopson Kinetic