Hello! My name is Colin and I am a mathematician on a mission to spread the joy and delight of getting stuck into maths.
Let’s start with a lovely quote from Karen Uhlenbeck:
“I think you can’t do mathematics without the ability to concentrate. But also, that’s where the fun is, the rest of the world fades away and it’s you and the mathematics. And I think there isn’t any other way to do mathematics.”
That state of flow is the Best Thing. Onto the links!
Links
I used to love taking part in National Novel Writing Month, and was sad to see that it had declined and closed amid scandals and controversy. I’m pleased to learn that there is a National Novel Generating Month, and that Liza Daly has generated a book made of the numbers 1 to 50,000.
Reader Maria has written in to let me – and, indirectly, you – know about a new children’s book from Allison Bishop and Sasha Fradkin called Modultown (a sequel to Funville Adventures). It has already been fully-funded on Kickstarter, and will be available under a Creative Commons licence. Learn more here! There’s a shortage of good maths books for kids. The one I’m working on is getting ever closer to done…
There was a daring heist at the Louvre recently. I was surprised to learn that the rumour about the password to the security system being ‘louvre’ is not yet listed as debunked by Snopes, although they haven’t been able to prove it, either. Meanwhile, here’s Katie Steckles on how to cover a gallery with cameras and a more topical version from Kit Yates.
Apparently there’s a Christmas coming up soon. While I am firmly on Team Humbug, there’s some neat maths involved in some of it – especially Secret Santa. It’s covered in my favourite Christmas book, by Hannah Fry and Thomas Oleron Evans.
Lastly, here’s a piece in Chalkdust by Eleanor Doman about where surnames go to die.
Currently
What’s Chalkdust? Why, it’s a magazine for the mathematically curious. New issue out on Monday November 17th.
That’s during Maths Week England, which launches this Saturday, November 15th at MathsWorld in Southwark. Some cracking speakers on that line-up, including Sam Hartburn and Rob Eastaway.
Also also, Tuesday November 18th is the traditional local MathsJam day – as usual, find yours or start one yourself. Big MathsJam is just around the corner, too.
Can’t get moving for “currently” this week. On top of all that excitement, we’ve just started Season 9 of the Mathematical Objects podcast, one of very few podcasts I’ve listened to every episode of.
And finally, don’t forget to send pieces of mathematical joy for Tom to collate into the next Carnival of Mathematics.
That’s all I’ve got for this week. If you have friends and/or colleagues who would enjoy Double Maths First Thing, do send them the link to sign up – they’ll be very welcome here.
If you’ve missed the previous issues of DMFT or – somehow – this one, you can find the archive courtesy of my dear friends at the Aperiodical.
Meanwhile, if there’s something I should know about, you can find me on Mathstodon as @icecolbeveridge, or at my personal website. You can also just reply to this email if there’s something you want to tell me.
Until next time,
C