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Archive for February, 2009

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Elusive boundary of proof

This is one of the stories that came in response to my call for childhood stories.
Alexei Lisitsa:
I read about the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic when I was about 10 or 11. I felt very uncomfortable about the proof of the Theorem. The statement seemed so obvious that the proof appeared to be absolutely redundant, not [...]

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The truth about science

Sue Blackmore in the Guardian: 
Science is not clever and elitist – that’s the message the government wants to give young people, in order to attract more into studying science. But that’s a lie.

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Not in the same league as “Banksy“, but “graphed paper” is a popular search word leading to my blogs. Again, I yield to popular demand and palce here a graphic work by Mel Bochner. 
 

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I learned about this exhibition at Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY, April 19, 2008 – June 22, 2008, only as a result of my search for more Mel Brochner musings on Pythagoras (my quest was inspired by his unintentionally outrageous Meditation on the Theorem of Pythagoras. His later work is an attempt of mathematical redemption.
 
Blurb:
Our era is driven [...]

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From MAA Online:
The cover illustration of the January 2009 issue of The College Mathematics Journal(CMJ) has perplexed—even disturbed—a number of people. The cover features a photo of a 1972 work by prominent contemporary artist Mel Bochner titled Meditation on the Theorem of Pythagoras.
 

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I had already had a chance to rant against evidence-based educational research  which leads to replacement individual studies by faceless statistics. It is a sensitive issue for me since I am writing a book based entirely on exceptional individual cases. But today I touch on a similar and earlier development in medical research:  indidual cases disappeared [...]

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[moved here from the old blog]
I quote a description of Zeno’s “Achilles and Tortoise” paradox from Wikipedia:

“In a race, the quickest runner can never overtake the slowest, since the pursuer must first reach the point whence the pursued started, so that the slower must always hold a lead.” (Aristotle Physics VI:9, 239b15)

In the paradox of Achilles and [...]

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Estelle Morris, who was Education Secretary in 2002, told BBC why she scrapped  compulsory modern languages in England’s secondary schools:  
The scrapping of compulsory modern languages in England’s secondary schools was a consequence of truancy crackdowns, the BBC has learnt.
Former education secretary Estelle Morris, who took the decision in 2002, says the aim was a flexible [...]

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A story from LW

I’m not sure [my story] is very interesting but I use it anecdotally every now and then in my current job. It happened when I was 10 (I’m female). English is my mother tongue and was the language of instruction too.
I went to a girls’ private junior school and everyone in my class [...]

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