Linkage

Elsevier made up a fake reference for the boilerplate they use to show authors how to format their references, some authors forgot to delete it, and now it has a lot of citations (G+). Ho hum. But through this I learned that there is a Lorem Ipsum Journal with a paper whose abstract is the text of the lorem ipsum.

Olivetti Elettrosumma 22. The Elettrosumma 22 was an old electromechanical calculator, and this artwork by Giovanni Pintori from when it was new was apparently intended as a typographic exploration of its digit forms. But to me it looks like a village on a hillside, with shapes reminiscent of my work on orthogonal polyhedra.

Triangulating the locations of so-far-undiscovered ancient cities by using trade volume as a proxy for distance (G+, via).

Antignocchi and six other spatial patterns (G+). In the comments, Jeff E. notes that it should actually be cognocchi.

What can we learn from the accretion of errors in copied ancient mathematical diagrams? (G+), by Stephen Ormes in PNAS.

Computer models of housing segregation (G+, via). Very weak levels of homophily lead to big clear segregated regions. But paradoxically, high levels freeze the initial desegregated situation into place.

Jeff Barrett and Frank Artzenius’s infinite decision puzzle (G+, more G+ comments), in which taking more money in each step can leave you with less at the end.

Being a woman in math and academia. Stories of parental pressure, awkward comments and inappropriate advances, and a successful targeted-for-affirmative-action hire.

Radon plays the urn, a problem on selecting and replacing random colored balls from an urn motivated by an old paper of mine on quickly and robustly estimating high-dimensional central tendencies.

1. Write a PNAS paper claiming renewable power sources are enough for all our energy needs.
2. Read your critics’ countering PNAS paper claiming that those sources are not enough and we need nuclear power (everyone still agreeing that fossil fuels are right out; they’re scientists, not Republicans)
3. Sue them!

Someone complained that the LA Times link didn’t work, so here’s another story on the same situation.

Are you an academic from another country who gives invited talks as part of your academic practice? Then don’t take a position in Denmark or the immigration authorities there will charge you as a criminal for taking side jobs (G+, more G+ comments). According to English-language but local sources this is only one of 14 similar ongoing cases.

The headline says “soft robots acquire origami skeletons for super-strength” but really these carefully shaped inflatable bladders act more like muscles.