Weekend reading (February 7)

Sorry that this week has been a little off on the posting frequency side. It’ll pick back up soon. In the meanwhile, here are some shiny items from around the web:

Math:

• Neat article from John Baez on the use of category theory in control theory. I like how he describes category theory as a way of formally studying anything that can be diagrammatically expressed.
• Mathematicians have found that the Rubik’s cube has a Hamiltonian circuit – a sequence of quarter-turn moves that will generate all the 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 positions that a Rubik’s cube can attain, and then on the next move restore it to its original state.

Technology:

• This BBC report is on computer programming being taught in primary schools in Estonia. More please, and over here in the states.
• Apple has pulled its most popular Bitcoin wallet app from the App Store. Difficult to say whether Bitcoin is getting traction or not these days – everyone seems interested in it, but at the same time nobody wants to touch it.

Education:

• Eric Mazur is perhaps best known for his work on peer instruction and his video “Confessions of a Converted Lecturer” in which he lays out how and why he came to invent peer instruction. He has a more recent video “Assessment: The Silent Killer of Learning” that’s also worth watching and discussing. I’ll have more next week on this one.
• Did you know that the US Army was using the flipped classroom with impressive results in the 1970s? I didn’t, and this article gives some fascinating details.