Wrong, But Useful: Episode 5
/podcasts/wbu5.mp3
In which [twit handle = “icecolbeveridge”] (Colin Beveridge in real life) defends the word ‘geek’ and [twit handle = “reflectivemaths”] (Dave Gale to his offline friends) frequents the bars of Iceland. With Mrs Gale, obviously.
Show notes
- Colin’s giving a talk in Edinburgh on August 15th. (Note: while the talk may be family-friendly, the venue is apparently 18+ only.)
- The Maths book club will feature Alex’s Adventures in Numberland
by [twit handle = ‘alexbellos’] (Alex Bellos)
- Colin’s reading: The Theory That Would Not Die
by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne; and the Haskell School of Music by Paul Hudak .
- Is geekiness a good thing? Are geek and nerd now positive terms?
- In-breeding and common ancestors
- [twit handle = ‘srcav’]’s lunchtime maths
- Abject failure of WBU listeners to explain $\pi$, although [twit handle = ‘notonlyahatrack’] (Will) makes up for it with an amazing spreadsheet
- Things we don’t get: When are pie charts better than bar charts?
- Puzzles: 1) Colin and Dave run a 100m race. Colin wins by 10m. They re-run the race with Colin starting an extra 10m behind Dave. What happens now? 2) If the earth was the size of a golf ball, would you be able to feel the mountains?
And we forgot to congratulate [twit handle = ‘peterrowlett’] on submitting his PhD thesis. Will Math/Maths be making a comeback? Who can say?
As always, tweet widely, and we love comments!