A Mathematician's Lament

http://www.metafilter.com/70699/A-Mathematicians-Lament

Haven't read it yet (placeholder) but it looks interesting. (And I agree that mathematics is often taught poorly, e.g., the curricula are generally structured so that unless you go to a lot of trouble (i.e., take math in college) you get the impression that math is limited to arithmetic, geometry, algebra, trigonometry, and calculus..._none_ of which are what I spend most of my time doing when I'm doing mathematics. Probability and statistics? Graph theory? Combinatorics? Algorithm design, analysis, and optimization? Yes, some of these require some bits of the others as prerequisites...but seriously, let's at least give HS students a _taste_ of what else is out there.)

Catan coming to cellphones?

http://www.boardgamenews.com/index.php/boardgamenews/comments/catan_comes_to_mobile_phones/

tiiiiiime siiiink.... :)

John McCain and a surface-paradoxical perspective on honor

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/sometimes-honor-is-wrong-_b_94524.html

Of interest both because of the subject matter and because of the author's background:

Frank Schaeffer is a writer and author of "Crazy for God: How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back"

I'm not sure that I agree with all of it, but it's worth reading.