Are These Incredible Historical Coincidences Actually Due to Synchronicity or Mathematical Probability? | Unexplained Phenomena - Ancient Origins

Coincidences are a concurrence of circumstances which are so unpredictable that they often become associated with the supernatural and paranormal, insist Ashley Cowie, Scottish historian, author and documentary filmmaker.

Tomb of Galileo Galilei in Santa Croce , Florence, Italy. Stephen Hawking was born on the same day Galileo died, 300 years later – a strange historical coincidence? 
Photo: stanthejeep/ CC BY SA 2.5 

History is composed with brilliant acts of skill and is also full of bizarre ‘coincidences’ that often seem so incredible that many people have been convinced higher powers were at play.

Mathematicians describe coincidences as probabilities and deem them as inevitable, meaning they can be given odds of occurring. It is when the odds of an occurrence are highest that events are thought of as being coincidental, and if the odds are through the roof then some events can appear almost miraculous.

So far as mathematicians and near miracles are concerned, Stephen Hawking, one of the greatest scientific minds in all of history, would have struggled to work out the chances of his own birthday, January 8, 1942, falling on the 300th anniversary of the death of another great scientist, Galileo Galilei. What is more, his death occurred on Einstein’s 139th birthday, March 14, Pi day, when the calendar reads 3.14.

Before we look at what exactly a coincidence is, scientifically, and why they occur so frequently, let’s first look at some of history’s most perplexing and apparently extraordinary coincidences, that seem to stretch mathematical probability to its very extremes. 
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Source: Ancient Origins

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The 45 New Skills You Can Now Learn on LinkedIn Learning | New Courses - LinkedIn Learning

Each week presents a new opportunity for you and your team to learn the skills necessary to take on the next big challenge, inform Paul Petrone, Editor - LinkedIn Learning.

Photo:  Learning Blog - LinkedIn Learning

And, at LinkedIn Learning, we want to do everything we can to help make that happen.

So, each week, we add to our 13,000+ course library. And this past week was no different, as we added 45 new courses covering everything from real estate analysis to motion graphics to data science. 

The new courses now available on LinkedIn Learning are:
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Source: Learning Blog - LinkedIn Learning

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Why reading 100 books a year won’t make you successful | Medium.com

Originally published at www.jotform.com.

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Reading is trending, notes Aytekin Tank, Editor of The Startup and JotForm.

The internet’s taken something uncool and given it a makeover.

Reading is the new kale: worth stomaching because it’s Good For Us.

So good, in fact, that we should do as much of it as we can. More is more! Everyone should be reading one book a week — no, wait, one book a day.

That’s why Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Elon Musk are successful, after all.

The more we read, the smarter we’ll get.

But where to find the time? We have to do it faster, faster, and faster still!...

As the professor and eye tracking researcher Keith Rayner explains, techniques like simultaneously reading large segments of the page aren’t biologically or psychologically possible, due to the limitation of our foveal viewing area.

An entire page can’t be read at once. Zig-zagging down one page doesn’t work. The human eye just isn’t up to it...

And according to UCLA psychologist Patricia Greenfield, when the brain skims, less attention and time is allocated to slower, more time-consuming processes, like inference, critical analysis and empathy.

In other words, we aren’t giving ourselves enough time to grasp complexity or develop opinions of our own...

Why do we read, anyway? 

Consider three types of reading:

• The first is passive. Scrolling on Facebook, flicking through a magazine in a doctor’s room, tapping away on Twitter. This reading happens to you. 
• The second is practical. Reading for a purpose. Because we want — or need — to learn something. At school, college, or for personal improvement. 
• The third is pleasurable. Not just fiction or magazines or fluffy escapism. Reading for pleasure doesn’t have a category: it’s subjective. It happens when something makes you tick: an article, a novel, an autobiography.

Reading because you want to, not because you feel you should.

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Source: Medium

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Learning, design and technology grad embraces online learning to help students | Penn State News

Jessica Buterbaugh, marketing communications specialist for the College of Education says, After 10 years working as a technology director and teacher for a small, rural school district, Marty Petrosky knew the best way to help his district was to return to school. 

Marty Petrosky, left, and his family — daughter Mariya, son Kai and wife Heidi (class of 1995) — have always been Penn State fans. Now, Petrosky can also say he is a proud alumnus.
Photo: Submitted

Completing a graduate program is rigorous and time-consuming. Just ask Marty Petrosky, who returned to being a student after spending more than a decade educating students.

 "I contemplated starting a master's program for probably five years before I finally took the proverbial plunge," said Petrosky.

As the technology director for the Shanksville-Stonycreek School District (SSSD), a position he has held for the past 13 years, Petrosky said continuing his education was something he wanted to do in order to help his district advance 21st-century learning. But that would mean that he would have to become a 21st-century student — and that was an intimidating thought.

"I had never taken an online class before and I wasn't sure if I could handle it or even what to expect," he said. "I was concerned for a long time about acclimating back to being a student and being comfortable with online learning. That's probably what scared me the most and made me apprehensive.".

In 2015, Petrosky faced his fear and enrolled at Penn State, in the College of Education's educational technology integration graduate certificate program offered through Penn State World Campus. The structure of the program made it easy to transition back to being a student, he said, and his first class — LDT467: Emerging Web Technologies and Learning — was perfect in helping a returning adult student acclimate to online learning...

Now, three years after he took that first class, Petrosky is set to graduate on Dec. 15. In addition to earning his master's of education in learning, design and technology, he also will have received three postbaccalaureate certificates — Educational Technology Integration; e-Learning Design; and Teaching and Learning Online in K-12 Settings (TLOK12). He is the first student at Penn State to complete the TLOK12 certificate program, an approved provider of the state's Online Instruction Endorsement for licensed educators in Pennsylvania.
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Source: Penn State News

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GE Nigeria launches e-learning portal, an innovative training hub for entrepreneurs | Strategy - Pulse Nigeria

With the e-learning platform, GE Nigeria says interested entrepreneurs no longer have to be physically present at the Garage to benefit from the training the hub offers, continues Pulse Nigeria.

Participants at the launch GE Nigeria e-learning platform
Photo: Twitter/GE Africa

GE Nigeria has launched an e-learning portal to advance manufacturing training program with the objective of extending its reach to thousands of Nigerians across the country.

The portal was launched during GE’s Lagos Garage Week 2018, last Thursday, a year-end series of events held annually at the Lagos Garage which is located in GE’s Lagos office in Victoria Island.

During Garage week, GE opens up its innovation hub to the public for interested entrepreneurs to register for carefully curated courses in advanced manufacturing and business development.

Courses on offer introduce participants to principles of 3-D printing and rapid prototyping as well as a range of business development skills in Finance, Personal Branding, Marketing and Innovation.

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Source: Pulse Nigeria

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Word of the Day - Ada Lovelace (Augusta Ada King) | WhatIs.com

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, was an English mathematician who is credited with being the first computer programmer. 

Painting of Lovelace seated at a piano, by Henry Phillips (1852). Although in great pain at the time, she agreed to sit for the painting as her father, Lord Byron, had been painted by Phillips' father, Thomas Phillips.
Photo: Public Domain

She is known for writing the first algorithm for a machine, inventing the subroutine and recognizing the importance of looping. Countess Lovelace lived from 1815 to 1852. 

Ada, whose given name was Augusta Ada Byron, was the daughter of the poet Lord Byron and Annabella Milbanke Byron, an accomplished mathematician. Ada was educated in music and mathematics by a succession of tutors, including Mary Somerville, a noted mathematician and scientist during the Victorian era. In addition to publishing her own papers, Somerville was known for translating Mécanique Céleste by Pierre-Simon Laplace and adding her own notes to explain the mathematics used by the author.

In 1833, Somerville introduced Ada Byron to Charles Babbage, who demonstrated a working model of a steam-powered calculating machine he called a Difference Engine...

Ada, the programming language created by the United States Department of Defense, is named in honor of the Countess of Lovelace. Since 2009, her contributions to science and engineering have been recognized each year on the middle Tuesday of October.
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Source: WhatIs.com  

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Golden Ratio Coloring Book by Artist Rafael Araujo | Arts & Photography - Amazon.com

Check out this Coloring Book by Artist Rafael Araujo entitled "Golden Ratio Coloring Book".

Golden Ratio Coloring Book

Rafael Araujo’s hand-drawn Golden Ratio illustrations are a beautiful fusion of art with science.

Rafael Araujo´s Relationship With The Golden Ratio
"My approach to the Golden Ratio and its use within my Work has a geometrical character rather than a mathematical one. The golden Mean as well as the Fibonacci Spiral (directly related as quoted above) could be calculated with utter precision by the use the classical tools of technical drawing. So there I place the challenge for those who dare to try their geometrical skills into this area."

I’d love to say that Golden Ratio is the magic number which produce the perfect results. In my own experience, it’s another tool in the search of that perfection.

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BEAUTIFUL QUALITY printed in Verona, Italy on thick, 9.8 x 9.8 inch acid-free drawing paper which keeps its color over time and can be easily detached for framing.

25 HAND-DRAWN ILLUSTRATIONS by artist Rafael Araujo, including grayscale drawings to guide your color choices and help you give depth to your creations. 

Enjoy using this book! 

Source: Amazon.com and Rafael Araujo Oficial website.

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How to win the Nobel prize and mathematicians why it doesn’t Shine | The Koz Telegram

Annually on December 10 in Sweden and Norway – the Nobel day, when the hand of one of the most prestigious awards in the world for achievements in science, as The Koz Telegram reports.

Photo: The Koz Telegram

The inventor Alfred Nobel in his will ordered to create a Fund, the interest from which will be issued in the form of bonuses to those in the previous year brought the greatest benefit to mankind.

All his fortune, which is about 31.5 million Swedish kronor, he was appointed to the financing of international awards. According to his will, the annual income from this legacy shall be divided into five equal parts in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and special achievements to humanity in the cause of peace.

For the entire history of the Nobel prize abandoned six winners:

• In 1938, Germans Richard Kuhn refused (at the insistence of the German authorities) of the prize in chemistry, but later received the diploma and a medal;
• 1939 this act was repeated by two of his countrymen: prize in chemistry Adolf Butenandt and laureate in medicine Gerhard Doma.
• 1958 Nobel prizes in literature have refused Boris Pasternak (under pressure from the Soviet authorities)
• In 1964 Jean-Paul Sartre (literature prize 1964);
• 1973 – Nobel peace prize laureate Le Duc.

Each winner receives from the hands of the king of Sweden the gold medal with the image of the founder of the award Alfred Nobel and diploma. The cash prize is transferred to winners in accordance with their wishes, often scientists give them on the development of science. Now the prize is 1,118 million US dollars...

Why mathematicians do not get Nobel prize So he decided Alfred Nobel. 

There are several versions of why he did so:

1. When scientist invented the dynamite, then didn’t use mathematics, respectively believed that in this science it is impossible to implement discoveries.
2. A very popular version in the biography of the Nobel. The scientist took revenge on the suitor of his wife, who was a renowned Professor of mathematics.

We will remind, earlier 5.ua reported the Nobel prize in chemistry, received for the study of enzymes and antibodies.
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Related link

Photo: Nobel Media

The Nobel Prize 

Source: The Koz Telegram

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6 Fiction Books For Maths Nerds | Learning Corner - Analytics India Magazine

Here is a list of fiction books for people who enjoy mathematics and literature alike, summarizes Ram Sagar, master's degree in Robotics.

Photo: Analytics India Magazine

Using maths and fiction in the same sentence may turn many heads and raise many eyebrows. Having said that, there is something exquisite about mathematical proofs and dramatic plots. A lot of creativity goes into bringing them out. 
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Source: Analytics India Magazine

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The Books We Can't Wait To Read In 2019 | Books - Esquire.co.uk

Olivia Ovenden, Digital Writer reports, Including a collection of short stories by the 'Cat Person' author and the long-awaited sequel to 'The Handmaid's Tale'.

Along with useless aspirations like losing weight or tying to be nicer to your parents, aiming to read more is one of the most common New Year's resolutions in our increasingly screen-dependant times. 2018 was crammed with excellent novels some of which explored how love can bloom in turbulent political times or posed uncomfortable questions about the relationship between sex and power. That with a new short story collection from Lauren Groff and a book of essays by Zadie Smith rounded off a bumper year for books.
In 2019 there's plenty of gems to look forward to, from Ian McEwan's tale of an AI love triangle to a fantasy-tinged adventure from Booker Prize winner Marlon James.

Remember to actually crack the spine after bulk ordering on Amazon.

Happy reading.
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Source: Esquire.co.uk

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