Category Archives: Mathematics

Dicey Claims

Posted on Saturday 26 September 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

No, Noah’s Ark has not been found, again; Evidence suggests Trump wanted the Kennedy Center to fall into ruin; Lenders around the world don’t trust the US; An example of how AI is making things worse, by claiming credit for … Continue reading →

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Ian Stewart: NATURE’S NUMBERS

Posted on Thursday 24 September 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: The Unreal Reality of Mathematics (Basic Books, 1995, x + 164pp, including 14pp of further reading and index) One more in this series for now. Despite the title, this books’ topic is not that that of Martin Rees in … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Mathematics | Leave a comment

Cognitive Abilities and Limitations

Posted on Tuesday 22 September 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

How AI is being used to solve math problems that humans have been unable to; How anti-vaxxers are at core angry, fearful, and despairing; NYT’s Brett Stephens complains that none of the National Book Award finalists are by or about … Continue reading →

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Whiteson & Warner, DO ALIENS SPEAK PHYSICS?

Posted on Thursday 12 March 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitle: “And other questions about science and the nature of reality” (Norton, 2025, 254pp, including 12pp of bibliography and index) Here’s a book that’s remarkable in an unusual way: I didn’t hear about it from anywhere, not in a review, … Continue reading →

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Current Events; Nihilism and the Meaning of Life

Posted on Monday 2 February 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Pete Hegseth delights in violence; How Scott Adams was mislead by innumeracy into conspiracy theories; How conservatives resent a politician telling them to act more like Jesus; Examples of lunacy from JMG; Nihilism and the meaning of life. – – … Continue reading →

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Credulity, Innumeracy, and Alarmism

Posted on Thursday 1 May 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

More about Pam Bondi’s nonsensical claim that Trump has saved 258 million lives by seizing fentanyl; Has it occurred to Red States to extend tariffs to Blue States, and only buy products from other Red States? How would that work … Continue reading →

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Dispatches from Reality

Posted on Saturday 15 March 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Taking a day off from political posts, for posts about reality. Or at least, the exploration of reality. Mathematicians solve a 125-year-old problem, perhaps; OnlySky’s Dale McGowan about the evolutionary mismatch between the world we evolved in, and the modern … Continue reading →

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A Couple Interesting Things About Reality

Posted on Tuesday 26 November 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

After which, items about toxic masculinity and Trump, Elon Musk stifling news, and others. Let’s begin by noting a couple interesting things about reality, one from a hundred years ago, one new. AlterNet, via The Conversation, 22 Nov 2024: It’s … Continue reading →

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Cosmic and Psychological Lessons

Posted on Friday 8 March 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Phil Plait on the scale of the cosmos; Beware of pluralistic ignorance; How math education can be better taught with examples about money. – – –   Today’s cosmic lesson. Scientific American, Phil Plait, 8 Mar 2024: The Scale of … Continue reading →

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The Flaw of Math, or Perhaps Just the Limits of Human Cognition

Posted on Saturday 2 March 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Veritasium on math’s fatal flaw, or perhaps just a limitation on the extent humans can understand reality; Considering why cars are built to be able to break the law; A cartoon about religious folks who believe the Bible was written … Continue reading →

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