All Russia, or perhaps only parts of Russia, is or are celebrating the newly published Russian edition of the book This Is Improbable. The ISBN for the Russian edition is 9785996316281, a number that some, or perhaps all Russian mathematicians find fascinating. Here’s what the front cover looks like: The American edition of the book has […]
Month: October 2015
The ‘Usefulness of Uselessness’ and a vice versa update
It was somewhere around the 4th century BC that Chinese philosopher Zhuang Zhou raised the idea of ‘The Usefulness of Uselessness’. Master Zhuang pointed out that objects (or information) which appear at first sight to be quite useless, can, on further investigation (and/or at a later date, and/or at another place) sometimes turn out to […]
Effects of the Watergate hearings on the growth of pea plants
It’s always a good time to take another look at Peter Del Tredici‘s experiment: the effects of the Wategate hearings on the growth of pea plants:
Did the Explorers Club Eat Frozen Mammoth in 1951?
Did they (they!) serve frozen mammoth to the Explorers Club on that famous evening in 1951? A new study, to be presented next week, claims to have the answer. And that answer is: Nay, nay, it was green turtle. The study is: “Was Frozen Mammoth or Giant Ground Sloth Served for Dinner at the Explorers Club?” […]