Interesting, non-mathematically-unaware data visualisations on the blog Ideas Illustrated, including the origins of English words, the distributions of LEGO bricks, and how Wisconsin voters ended up on Null Island.
(via David Roberts on Google+)
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The Aperiodcast – week of 23/4/2012
Here’s the very first edition of what we’ve cleverly decided to call The Aperiodcast. The plan is to record a short podcast every week or week-and-a-bit (this is the Aperiodical after all) talking about what’s been happening on the site, and pointing out posts that we found particularly interesting or have generated a lot of discussion.
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Talk: Alan Turing and the Enigma Machine, by James Grime
James Grime has written an all-new talk, titled “Alan Turing and the Enigma Machine”, which he’ll be delivering 5:30-6:30 on Tuesday the 12th of June at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Clarkson Road, Cambridge.
Alan Turing was one of our great 20th century mathematicians, and a pioneer of computer science. However, he may best be remembered as one of the leading code breakers of Bletchley Park during World War II. It was Turing’s brilliant insights and mathematical mind that helped to break Enigma, the apparently unbreakable code used by the German military. We present a history of both Alan Turing and the Enigma, leading up to this fascinating battle of man against machine – including a full demonstration of an original WWII Enigma Machine!
You can find more details of the event on the Millennium Mathematics Project site.
A mathematician’s survival guide, by Peter Casazza
A survival guide for young mathematicians written by Pete Casazza has been doing the rounds today. It contains an experienced mathematician’s advice for young mathematicians starting out on their careers and unsure of what to expect or what’s expected of them.
Math/Maths 94: Broadcasting From A Hollowed Out Volcano
A new episode of the Math/Maths Podcast has been released.
A conversation about mathematics between the UK and USA from Pulse-Project.org. This week Samuel and Peter spoke about: Alan Turing papers on code breaking released by GCHQ; Biography by Turing's mother republished; Bletchley Park to host Loebner Prize competition; How the universe began; Biodiversity model reliability; MathAlive; Volcanic eruptions and Benford's Law; New Careers section on Plus Magazine; QAMA Calculator now shipping; Harvard Library view on journal pricing; The Aperiodical launches; and more.
Get this episode: Math/Maths 94: Broadcasting From A Hollowed Out Volcano
Model predicts prevalence of left-handedness in sports populations
Research has been published describing a mathematical model that successfully predicts the ratios of left-handers to right-handers in different sports.
2012 Loebner Prize to be held at Bletchley Park & streamed online
The 2012 Loebner Prize competition (based on the Turing test) will be held at Bletchley Park. A Bletchley Park Trust press release explains the competition procedure:
The judges at the competition will conduct conversations with the four finalist chatbots and with some human surrogates, and will then rank all their conversation partners from most humanlike to least humanlike. The chatbot with the highest overall ranking wins the prize [a bronze medal and $7,000].
The competition will take place on 15 May 2012, starting at 1:00pm. Visitors to the Park will be able to follow the conversations on screens in the Mansion and these will also be streamed live online for the first time.