Number Theory Awesomeness

"On May 13, an obscure mathematician garnered worldwide attention and accolades from the mathematics community for settling a long-standing open question about prime numbers. Yitang Zhang showed that even though primes get increasingly rare as you go further out along the number line, you will never stop finding pairs of primes separated by at most 70 million. By the end of May, mathematicians had uncovered simple tweaks to Zhang's argument that brought the bound below 60 million. Then Terence Tao, a winner of the Fields Medal, mathematics' highest honor, created a 'Polymath project,' an open, online collaboration to improve the bound that attracted dozens of participants. By July 27, the team had succeeded in reducing the proven bound on prime gaps from 70 million to 4,680. Now James Maynard has upped the ante by presenting an independent proof that pushes the gap down to 600."

I always thought number theory and related proofs were pretty neat. But I can't even complrehend how you prove there are an infinite number of prime pairs spereated by no more than 70 million, and then interatively advance the gap down to 60 million, 4680 and 600.  I'm too stupid to understand the proofs (and too smart to try), but the gap sizes seem extraordinarily arbitrary for number theory proofs.  It's like saying "I can't prove that there are finite cows in the world, but i CAN prove there are at least 294".  It's not really like that at all, but that's the best I could come up with.


Bonus number theory proof joke:

Several scientists were asked to prove that all odd integers higher than 2 are prime.

Physicist: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 is an experimental error, 11 is a prime. Just to be sure, try several randomly chosen numbers: 17 is a prime, 23 is a prime...
Engineer: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 is an approximation to a prime, 11 is a prime,...
Mathematician: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, therefore by induction......

http://science.slashdot.org/story/13/11/20/1256229/mathematicians-team-up-to-close-the-prime-gap

Non World Cup All Star Team

Via Kottke.org for my soccer loving friends, an all star roster of the best players who won't be playing in the world cup.

The Vogons Got Nothing On This Guy

Via Kevin Drum,

From Paul Ryan, who's apparently hard at work on a conservative plan to fight poverty: 

"You cure poverty eye to eye, soul to soul. Spiritual redemption: That’s what saves people."

Is Ryan's goal to destroy poverty or poetry?

JPMorgan Chase $13 billion Settlement could be an opportunity for Jersey City

According to the settlement, "$2 billion in relief, the person said, JPMorgan has agreed to reduce interest rates on existing loans, offer new loans to low-income home buyers and keep those loans on its books. The bank will also receive credit for demolishing abandoned homes and other efforts focused on curbing urban blight".  Considering JPMorgan has 2 entire office building in Jersey City, it seems like a perfect place for them to direct some of those funds to curb urban blight.  It's a win-win, letting them satisfy their settlement agreement and improve their own neighborhood backyard, so to speak.  

Will Google Glass Actually Be Useful?

I know there'a lot of skepticism about google glass, but I'll throw my lot in with the optimists' camp.  Things like the stupid android watch from samsung are useless.  It is just a smaller, crappier interface for the phone you already have in your pocket.  Glass, with it's heads up display interface, opens up a huge range of new applications and improved user experience for existing ones.  With it's limited battery life, high cost and still somewhat kludgy physical design, I don't thing the first gen Glass will be a big huge hit sales wise, but in 2 to 3 years I expect it's successors to be a big deal.  Here's a quick rundown of some new apps from Wired.

test

test

Notorious BIG freestyling in Bed Stuy at age 17

Kid was already a pimp.

A Pattern of Insane Behavior

So murdering douchebag (yeah I know he was legally acquitted) George Zimmerman is at it again, with his most recent escapades ending with his arrest on charges of felony aggravated assault.  His girlfriend called 911 and said he smashed her belongings, pointed his shotgun at her and then forced her out of her house.  In court today he claimed she was the aggressor and "went crazy on him".  Sounds kind of familiar, huh? This is the same asshole who already has a felony assault on a police officer, a restraining order from another ex for domestic abuse, and was accused of assaulting his father in law and pulling a gun on him too.  Oh yeah, he also shot and killed an unarmed 17 year old kid walking home alone.

So, how much stupid, criminal, violent shit does this guy have to do before people who have been defending him and his gun rights admit he might just be a fucking asshole who got away with murder?  Maybe if he actually shoots his wife or girlfriend or father in law?   No one else saw exactly what happened, certainly not me, but at some point you look at a pattern of crazy, violent behavior and say "yeah. that guy is a psychotic asshole who probably murdered Trayvon Martin".

Gay Marriage Isn't "Debasing" Anything

So I wondered over to RedState.com today, as I do occasionally to see what the latest thing is in right wing outrage and white male oppression whining.  One article that caught my attention was "The Debasing of Marriage" by a clearly deranged poster named streiff.  It was the usual diatribe about the horrors of modern society destroying marriage as an institution.  Feminism, contraception, the "elites", premarital sex, drinking alcohol and of course abortion.  All par for the course when it comes to regressive, sexually repressed, religious extremist rhetoric.  One piece of particularly idiotic babble blamed feminism specifically because it "had as a goal the marginalization of men into sperm donors and the source of income to support illegitimate children. "  He/She also throws in some tired, stupid tropes about the holocaust, bestiality and polygamy (OH NOES!  THE SLIPPERY SLOPE TO ANIMAL SEX).  Conservative sure spend a lot of time worrying that everyone is just waiting for an excuse to fuck a dog.  Project much, guys?

However, none of that  is what got me to write this post.  Streiff is arguing (poorly) that gay marriage is the final step in the evil liberal debasement of marriage into a meaningless and disrespected non-institution.  That's the point of his whole article.  But the reality is the long, hard fight for marriage equality does exactly the opposite of debasing marriage.  It exemplifies the immense importance of marriage, it's centrality to our society and to individual relationships.  That's why it's such a huge issue for the gay community, because they understand and believe in it's importance.  I guess logic just isn't the strong suit for folks who still think evolution is fake and rape can't get you pregnant.  

Stupidity: More Dangerous Than Guns

"I've heard of people being killed playing ping-pong -- ping-pongs are more dangerous than guns.  Flat-screen TVs are injuring more kids today than anything."  Texas Rep. Kyle Kacal, a Republican.

First off, that this guy's a moron goes without saying.  But just to get it out of the way:

Number of children killed by falling 10's in the last decade - 169
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-01-16/news/ct-met-tv-fall-death-0117-20120117_1_chicago-girl-cranial-cerebral-injuries-tvs

Number of children and teens killed by gunshot the last 30 years - 116,385
http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/data/protect-children-not-guns-2012.pdf

Total deaths from ping pong over a decade (the only data available is for Germany) -7

http://www.medicine.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/booth/risk/sports.html

So the point of this post isn't really that this guy is a moron, its that he's a US Congressman and a moron and willing to say stuff this stupid in public.  This is the kind of idiocy that   prevents common sense regulation of guns and leads to many of the ~30,000 firearm deaths per year in the United States.  In any sane society, saying something this stupid about an issue this important just days after the tragedy in Newtown would end your political career.  Not in today's Republican Party though.