A damning new report into maths education blames an over-politicised system for narrow teaching, uninterested students and demotivated teachers.

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Mathematics is used in interesting, and often less than accurate, ways. Newspapers present graphs showing apparently correlated variables, but with a little thought, some of the time you will find that whilst it looks like two variables are connected, there is actually no cause and effect. An unscrupulous media can draw connections where they don't exist for political ends and politicians have been known to confuse cause and effect entirely. So what really is behind the rise in oil prices? Could it be the humble game of cricket?

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Mathematicians are known to be good musicians. Here is a mathematical parody of the Gloria Gaynor song, "I will survive". I particularly like the lyrics:

And so now I, I will derive.
Find the derivative of x position with respect to time.
It's as easy as can be, just have to take dx/dt.
I will derive, I will derive, I will derive!

A boomerang has been thrown in space, and lo and behold, it returns to its thrower, just like on Earth.

Japanese astronaut Takao Doi threw the boomerang on request from world boomerang champion, compatriot Yasuhiro Togai onboard the International Space Station.

"I was very surprised and moved to see that it flew the same way it does on Earth," Doi was quoted as saying in the Mainichi Shimbun.

Thanks to wawawamovie for the following video of the boomerang.

If you would like to read more about the physics of throwing a boomerang (and why it is no surprise that it should fly in microgravity as long as there is air), read the Plus article Unspinning the boomerang. And to make your own boomerang, read the Plus article Bang up a boomerang.