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Playfair’s Powerpoint Presentation

“To those interested in the effective visual communication of quantitative phenomena, William Playfair’s Atlas is like the Bible: an ancient and revered book that is often cited but rarely read.”...

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Beach reading

A few years ago Michael Berry revealed that his first choice in reading matter, if he were stranded on a desert island, would be Abramowitz and Stegun, also known as Handbook of Mathematical Functions...

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Softer infrastructure

For those who’ve been waiting patiently… My book Infrastructure: A Field Guide to the Industrial Landscape is just out in paperback. Except for the cover and the price, it’s identical to the hard-cover...

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Amazon poker

Investors are constantly checking the stock ticker, gamblers check the point spread, and everybody is forever checking their e-mail. For a writerly type like me, however, the unshakeable obsession is...

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Hard covers

My new book has come out this week: Group Theory in the Bedroom, and Other Mathematical Diversions, Hill and Wang, xi+269 pages, $25. ISBN-10: 0-8090-5219-9, ISBN-13: 978-0-8090-5219-9, Library of...

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Promoting my promotions

I’ll be on the radio Monday (May 26th) at 6 p.m., chatting with Dorian Devins about my recent book Group Theory in the Bedroom, and Other Mathematical Diversions. If you’re within shouting range of...

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Marketplace of Ideas interview

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of chatting with Colin Marshall, whose radio show “The Marketplace of Ideas” is broadcast and webcast from KCSB in Santa Barbara. The main subject of our talk...

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Long division

I’ve been dividing the continent again. Back in the summer of 2000, on a coast-to-coast car trip, I began wondering about the Great Divide, the line that traces the spine of North America, separating...

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Pub date

For those of you who have been waiting patiently for the paperback edition of Group Theory in the Bedroom, and Other Mathematical Diversions: It’s finally here. Today is the official release date. For...

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On the air

Tomorrow I’ll be doing a gig on “The State of Things,” broadcast by North Carolina Public Radio. The main subject of discussion will be Scott Huler’s new book On the Grid; I’ll be present as supporting...

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Googling the lexicon

In 1860, when work began on the New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (better known today as the Oxford English Dictionary), the basic plan was to build an index to all of English literature....

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The Jevons Number

I was doing some reading in the history of cryptography when I came upon a reference to a 1996 article by Solomon W. Golomb. Golomb always has something interesting to say, so I had to go off and find...

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Revised and Updated

The new edition of my big picturebook, Infrastructure: A Guide to the Industrial Landscape, was published October 27th and is now on display in better bookstores everywhere. Above is the cover; below...

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