If you’re looking for a highly intelligent and sensible discussion about the existence and implications of God in the world from an elite mathematician, then you MUST listen to this.

John Lennox is Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University. I would LOVE to see him in debate and dialogue with Richard Dawkins, whose writings to me are flawed with terrible logic and an incorrect understanding of science and the scientific method. Lennox slices through the smoke and mirrors to address the real issues.

As an aside, I totally agree with Lennox’s view on creationism and some of the creation science stuff out there… “confusing the big thing with small things”… he’s a smart, articulate guy… worth the 30 minutes investment.

And, yes, I am a little biased towards Mathematicians… :-)

I still do not understand why this persists, except for my experience in too many places where “doing what we had to do” is the rationale for continuing very stupid practices.

I was reading a bio piece by a former SAS guy recently, in which he talked about sleep as being a key factor in survival, and how he was fully aware that his lack of sleep was affecting his judgements and he made specific plans to ensure that he could safely sleep to get himself in good shape to do what he had to do.

I’ve yet to hear a good argument for allowing medical staff (both docs and nurses) to work in ways we would never allow airline pilots to do.

[Update... here's the official advice on what to do about fatigue if you're a doc who's exhausted... just drink 6 cups of coffee a day... :-)]

Having just gone through an insurance application that made much of this number, it is a bit aggravating to find that the number is built off completely arbitrary assumptions that could actually be grossly inaccurate. How could this have gained such a central place in the health care industry?! Did ANYONE actually check out the logic of the tool?!

Crazy!

Read this short article and some of the links, and I’m sure you’ll be ready to ditch the BMI as quackery, and yet you’ll find that it’s still used in gyms, medical practices and insurance companies as a staple statistic.

“As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.”
– Albert Einstein

“In mathematics you don’t understand things. You just get used to them.”
– Johann von Neumann

“We used to think that if we knew one, we knew two, because one and one are two. We are finding that we must learn a great deal more about ‘and’.”
– Sir Arthur Eddington

von Neumann is an old favourite of mine… :-)

Great white sharks have some things in common with human serial killers, a new study says: They do not attack at random, but stalk specific victims, lurking out of sight.

The sharks hang back and observe from a not-too-close, not-too-far base, hunt strategically, and learn from previous attempts, according to a study being published online on today in the Journal of Zoology.

And, just like serial killers, they fit a certain profile of operating:

The sharks had a distinct mode of operation.

They were focused. They stalked from a usual base of operations, 90m from their victims – close enough to see their prey, but not close enough to be seen and scare off their victims.

They attacked when the lights were low. They liked their victims young and alone. They tried to attack when no other sharks were around to compete. They learned from previous kills. And they attacked from below, unseen.

However, there is a big difference between great white sharks and serial killers – motive.

Great whites attack to eat and survive, not for thrills.

So, the good news is that if you get attacked by a Great White, it won’t just be for fun. Bad news is that he’ll be really good at taking you out for lunch.

Leave the man alone! His only crime was loving algebra…

Actually, Adam Ries was a very interesting man whose impact on German culture was enormous because he published his works in German and not Latin. He’s also one of the prime reasons we’re not using Roman numerals. Hi V, dude!