Dan Everett has spent 30 years studying the language of a small Amazonian tribe, the Piraha. His findings are challenging long-held linguistic theories and stirring a sometimes-bitter debate.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9458681
Tagged with numbers mathematics
Join author and journalist Alex Bellos for a surprising and entertaining look at the world of mathematics.
By bringing together history, reportage and mathematical proofs, and covering subjects from adding to algebra, from set theory to statistics, and from logarithms to logical paradoxes, Alex Bellos reveals how mathematical ideas underpin just about everything in our lives.
Join Alex Bellos at the RSA to discover the beauty of mathematical patterns in nature, the peculiar predictability of random behaviour, how to win at the casino, the deep connections between maths, religion and philosophy, and why the best Scrabble players are mathematicians.
Speaker:Alex Bellos, writer, broadcaster and author of Futebol, the Brazilian Way of Life (Bloomsbury, 2002) and Alex’s Adventures in Numberland (Bloomsbury, 2010).
Chair:Matthew Taylor, chief executive, RSA.
http://www.thersa.org/events/audio-and-past-events/2010/adventures-in-numberland
Here is the first part in a series of recordings from our room at the Something Very, Very Epic Party that happened at Razzmatazz in Barcelona during the Sonar weekend.
This first mix is by L-Vis 1990. Alongside Bok Bok he runs London’s Night Slugs club and label, has recorded solo for Mad Decent and Dress 2 Sweat, plus we just released his remix of Mr Mageeka’s ‘Different Lekstrix’.
You can catch L-Vis 1990 at the London leg of our Seventh Birthday Parties on Friday 9th July. His partner in crime Bok Bok will be playing alongside Lil Silva, Feadz and Jackmaster in Glasgow this Friday – both lineups below. Look out for his ‘Forever You EP’ dropping in a fortnight on Night Slugs.
Enjoy the mix…
From http://nmbrs.net/podcast/l-vis-1990-numbers-barcelona-sunday-20th-june-2010/
Radiolab dedicates this hour to an exploration of numbers, those pesky little things on the chalkboard. Where do they come from and what do they really do for us? We bring you stories on how they confuse us, connect us, and reveal secrets about us.
FACT mix 133 – Lazer Sword
Tracklist: 1. Roger Troutman ”Superman” 2. Krystal Klear ”Throw It Away” 3. Inner City ”Big Fun (Lando Kal Remix)” 4. Ghosts On Tape ”Midnight Moves” 5. Zackey Force Funk ”The Split” 6. Lazer Sword ”Shot In The Nite” 7. Machinedrum ”SXLND (Demo)” 8. Maniac ”G.R.I.M.E.” 9. Rebound X ”Rhythm N’ Gash” 10. Terror Danjah ”Haunted” 11. Gucci Mane ”Stupid Wild (ft. Lil Wayne, Cam’ron)” 12. DVA ”Keep Up (4X4 VIP Mix)” 13. Slugabed ”Ultra Heat Treated” 14. Fantastic Mr. Fox ”Brandy Remix” 15. Crookers ”No Security (Rustie Remix Instrumental)” 16. Soulja Boy “All Black Everything” 17. Lone “Waves Imagination” 18. Low Limit “Trapperkeeper” 19. Salva “Wake Ups (Edit)” 20. Mr. Dibiase “Spacely Sprocketts” 21. Letherette “Track 9″ 22. Javelin “Leonard pt 6″ 23. E-40 “Show Me What You Working Wit ft. Too Short” 24. Bernard Fevre “Dali”
Tagged with mixes lazer-sword numbers mix
Episode three of A Further Five Numbers, the BBC radio series presented by Simon Singh.
Six is often treated as 2x3, but has many characteristics of its own. Six is also the "pivot" of its divisors (1 2 3=6=1x2x3) and also the centre of the first five even numbers: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. Six seems to have a pivoting action both mathematically and socially. How is it that everyone in the world can be linked through just six social ties? As Simon discovers, the concept of “six degrees of separation” emerged from a huge postal experiment conducted by the social psychologist Stanley Milgram in 1967. Milgram asked volunteers to send a package by mail to one of a hundred people chosen at random. But they could only send mail to people they knew on first name terms.
Episode two of A Further Five Numbers, the BBC radio series presented by Simon Singh.
We all remember the story of the Persian who invented chess and who asked to be paid with 1 grain of rice on the first square, 2 on the second, 4 on the third and so on, doubling all the way to the 64th square. He bankrupted the state!
This doubling is a form of exponential growth, which appears in everything from population growth to financial inflation to the inflation theory that supposedly caused the Big Bang.
Episode two of Another Five Numbers, the BBC radio series presented by Simon Singh.
Picture a gambler. Is it George Clooney, tuxedo ruffled after an all-nighter at a Vegas Black Jack table, or your old Aunt Doris putting down her yearly quid-on-the-nose for the Grand National? Recent research would suggest that it’s neither. Your inveterate gambler is far more likely to be sporting leather patches at their elbows, an unhealthy appetite for corduroy, and a penchant for M-Series rather than Martinis, shaken or stirred. Some mathematicians are putting their mathematical theory where their mouth is and are betting the shirts, stuffed or otherwise, off their backs.
Tagged with mathematics five numbers book:author=simon singh bbc seven math
Episode four of Five Numbers, the BBC radio series presented by Simon Singh.
The imaginary number takes mathematics to another dimension. It was discovered in sixteenth century Italy at a time when being a mathematician was akin to being a modern day rock star, when there was ‘nuff respect’ to be had from solving a particularly ‘wicked’ equation. And the wicked equation of the day went like this: "If the square root of 1 is both 1 and -1, then what is the square root of -1?"