In the pantheon of popular books about mathematics, one would be hard-pressed to name another that has lasted so long in popularity or had such a dramatic impact. Generations of students have gained their first true appreciation of higher dimensions by reading this slight story written by a schoolmaster more than a century and a quarter ago. Of the more than 50 books that Abbott wrote, this is the one for which he is remembered.

‘When a Muslim land is attacked,’ Roshonara Choudhry told the police, ‘it becomes obligatory on every man, woman, and child and even slave to go out and fight and defend the land.’

At the root of our problem with judgment is the undeniable victory of relativism over truth.

By MORGAN MEIS [Smart Set] – It takes Satan to bring out the true spirit of Thanksgiving. That’s because it can be hard to give thanks unless you know why you are doing it. Plenitude is lovely. Abundance is a delight. I think of the famous painting by Norman Rockwell. A large American family sits […]

It makes the production feel genuinely menacing: however familiar you are with the great Dane, you somehow wish things would turn out better than we know they will.