Diaconis on foundations and history of probability

Suresh points out that Persi Diaconis is teaching a very interesting-looking probability course next quarter at Stanford.

From the course description:

History of probability from Greek and Talmudic sources to Pascal, Fermat, and Bernoulli. Interpretations of probability from axioms to subjective probability. Psychology of probability, heuristis and biases - what we know that isn't so. Humes problem of induction. Exchangeability and deFinetti's answer. Randomness and gambling. Statistical inference. Alternatives and caveats.

Maybe I can sneak in? It might mesh nicely with the Vortex Emerson class, the same day, only later.

The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design

I used to consider myself the strongest mathematician and physicist within a radius of 500ft of our house. Then I made some casual enquiries and learned that Lenny lives one door down from us (street party photo). So I reduced the radius of interest to 50 feet.

Anyway, I just got his new book, which is ranked #2239 today at Amazon (up from #3018, yesterday).

I remember reading somewhere that every equation in a science book subtracts some number of potential sales. So it's best to never write any equations, if you want to maximize sales. I looked for the first equation in Lenny's book and can report that it occurs on page 25:

He should have found some way to say that differently. I could have helped. But I'm glad to see it's selling well, anyway.

Dlugy acquitted

Max Dlugy is a former president of the United States Chess Federation and chess Grandmaster who was arrested and thrown into a Russian jail months ago on charges that he had embezzled money from Russian magnesium plant.

It's nice to see that he has been acquitted (link).