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Opinions expressed on these pages were the views of the writers and did not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the American Mathematical Society.
Author Archives: annahaensch
Best and Worst of 2017
As this year comes careening to a screeching halt, it’s time once again for that annual tradition of the best and worst of the year…in math. And what a year it’s been! Where to begin? Let’s start with the good … Continue reading
Posted in Current Events
Tagged ABC conjecture, bitcoin, blockchain, Capital Currents, Karen Saxe, Maryam Mirzakhani, mochizuki, Navier Stokes Equations, neural networks, nsf, Vladimir Voevodsky, WannaCry
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The Blockchain Party
Maybe you think bitcoin is silly, maybe you think it’s dangerous and socially irresponsible, maybe you’re a bitcoin millionaire (in which case, hi), or maybe you are desperate to join the blockchain party. Whatever your stance, it seems that you … Continue reading
Just In Time For The Holidays
Well, I’ve done you a favor and shielded you from these juicy mathematical and political morsels until after Thanksgiving. A recent NPR/PBSNewshour/Marist poll showed that 58% of people were not looking forward to discussing politics at their holiday table, while … Continue reading
Posted in Current Events
Tagged Cathy O'Neil, Election, Election Forecasting, fivethirtyeight, Nate Silver, politics
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Bees and Bombs
His name is Dave, he used to do physics, now he makes GIFs. Dave is known on Twitter as beesandbombs and he has a Tumblr of the same name. David Whyte studied theoretical physics as an undergraduate at Trinity College … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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A Not Too Mathy Math Blog
Lauren Miller’s favorite number is 23. “I really liked being 23, that was the year I decided to become a mathematician,” Miller told me over burgers and beers in Claremont, California this week. After taking a circuitous route through education … Continue reading
Posted in History of Mathematics, Math Education
Tagged Ada Lovelace, Girls Who Code, Lauren Miller, Life By Number, SageDays
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Hacking Cracking & Packing
Sometimes the boundaries of voting districts can look really suspicious. If you’ve ever seen Illinois’ 4th Congressional District, you know what I mean. Sometimes there are good reasons for this; communities with common interests may want to vote together. But … Continue reading
Posted in Current Events
Tagged gerrymandering, Gill v. Whitford, Jordan Ellenberg, moon duchin, Olivia Watch, Supreme Court
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Exploding Dots For Global Math Week
If you hang around the #MTBoS long enough you can’t help but notice something called exploding dots. Today in a quite moment I took some time to dig in, and I am not disappointed. Exploding dots is the focus project … Continue reading
That Neural Net That Predicts Sexual Orientation
A neural network is one way to achieve machine learning. Modeled after the human brain, a neural net teaches a computer how to do some task by processing a huge set of training data. The data passes through the network … Continue reading
Posted in Data Science
Tagged algorithms, Cathy O'Neil, mathbabe.org, neural networks, sociology
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Some Stories of Journals Behaving Badly
Hoax papers have a long and time-honored history. Ten years ago a group of students from MIT wrote a program that randomly generated totally nonsensical computer science papers. One of their bogus papers was accepted by a conference and it … Continue reading
With Profound Sadness
It was an incredible day in 2014 when Maryam Mirzakhani became the first woman to win the Fields Medal. I remember feeling absolutely overwhelmed with emotion and thinking to myself, alright, beginning today winning the Fields Medal is officially something … Continue reading
Posted in Current Events
Tagged Erica Klarreich, in memoriam, john baez, Maryam Mirzakhani, mathsbyagirl, obituary, RAGE of the blackboard, Terrence Tao
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