As part of my fundraising efforts for the Great Shave, I promised to write 500 words in praise of mathematics in return for some generations donations. I thought this would be the easiest of my promises to fulfil, but it’s actually pretty hard to write in praise of something that is (to me) so obviously wonderful. Anyway, here goes.

The most striking single thing about mathematics is that a collective endeavour, pursued for thousands of years primarily because of its beauty and pure intellectual interest should turn out, in our time, to be so amazingly useful. To take perhaps the most striking example, the amazing fact that

or better still, with five fundamental constants

is, or ought to be, adequate reward for all the effort that went into the discovery of calculus, trigonometry and complex number theory, and the effort each new generation puts into learning these things. But, it gives us, free of charge, the amazingly useful Fourier transform, the basis of all kinds of modern communications, and much, much more.
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With two days to go before the Great Shave donations have passed $4800. This is the most successful appeal we’ve ever had here. Only $200 more and we’ll reach the $5000 target! Click on the link above, to push us over the line.

With libertarians stepping forward, the total raised in the Great Shave Appeal has now passed $4000. How about a similar effort from Howard fans? Despite the latest polls, there must be a fair number of you out there. Wouldn’t you like to read 500 words of crisp pro-Howard prose – $250 is all it takes.

Any ideas on more gimmicks gratefully received. Meanwhile you might like to discuss this piece by James Joyner asking why we go for gimmicks to raise money for charity.

Donate here

The World’s Greatest Shave appeal has reached $3,365.10. I’ve promised 500 words in praise of mathematics (this will be easy, as soon as I get a moment) and there’s still 500 words on offer if any libertarians or conservatives out there want to donate $250.

It’s now time for a new incentive and my son Daniel has bravely offered to help. He’s 17 and has just grown quite an impressive beard. He’s now offered to join me in the shave on Saturday. Before and after photos will be published if we can reach $4000.

To donate, just click here or send me a cheque at School of Economics, University of Queensland.

Update I had a nice phone call today from the chair of the Leukemia Foundation, congratulating us on our effort here. Also, the first libertarian contribution is in, with $100 from Jan Libich. Come on fans of voluntary initiative, put in another $150 and see what nice things I have to say about spontaneous order!

Thanks to a very generous donation of $620 from occasional reader Swarup, we passed the $2000 mark with a couple of days to spare. With my matching donation, and a bit more coming in, the total is now $3055.10. I’ve got some new ideas planned to reach the $5000 target, and any others are gratefully welcome.

As was noted in commens, most of the contributions so far seem to have come from social democrats. So to spread the love around, I thought I’d invite self-identified adherents of other viewpoints to pitch in, and offer a more direct incentive. Give me and make a note in comments that you’re doing so, identifying your philosophical position or political affiliation (libertarian, Howard-lover, neoconservative, radical left or whatever). The first group to reach a total of $250 gets a 500 word post from me, commending some aspect of your position,

To donate, just click here, or send me a cheque at the School of Economics, University of Queensland