Maths in the Bedroom

Clocks. Wealth. Lava lamps. Mattresses. What, no correlation? You should read Group Theory in the Bedroom by Brian Hayes. This books covers eleven essays published in American Scientist and one published in The Sciences.
Very neat is that Brian Hayes appended a section called Afterthoughts on the end of every essay where he reconsiders the statements and adds information from letters to the editor.
I don’t want to reveal you too much information. If you are interested in mathematics and computation, go and buy the book (or if you are miserly you can read the essays online).

The Numerati – Maths is everywhere

You buy things on amazon, search for latest news on Google and write a new blog post on blogspot. These companies are highly delighted when you do this. Not only because you bought a product or clicked on an ad but also they can gather information about you.

Today information is a very important product. Many companies exist only because of this information flood. But why? Why was information not so important hundred years ago?
Stephan Baker gets to the bottom of this change. He investigates several different areas of your daily life and the importance of the Numerati. In The Numerati he shows what people are doing with this data. How they construct mathematical models of customers and electors and why you’re maybe a Right Click if you own a fast broadband connection.

It’s not a textbook but nevertheless very interesting. Anyone who wants to know what you can do with people’s data should read this book. It’s short and stimulative.