March 28, 2015
I had originally picked out another Circe problem for your enjoyment this week. However, this particular problem was in the genre of “series” movers, and it occurred to me that I had never shown you one of those before. I didn't want your first one to be the rather complex affair I had selected…
March 23, 2015
My main line of research is in algebraic graph theory. In particular I am interested in the eigenvalue spectra of Laplacians on graphs. Those don't often get mentioned over at HuffPo, so I raised an eyebrow when I saw this:
A mathematician by the name of John Urschel recently published a complex…
March 23, 2015
As you might have noticed, Sunday Chess Problem had the week off. If you really need to get your fix, though, you can have a look at this web page I made for my chess problems. You'll recognize a few of them from the Sunday Chess Problem series.
I did, however, manage to get the new POTW up.…
March 20, 2015
Secondlawapalooza has broken out over at Uncommon Descent, with a series of posts trying one more time to convince the thinking world that either evolution or abiogenesis violates the second law of thermodynamics. They are unmoved by the fact that the violation exists only in their minds.
One…
March 17, 2015
School has started up again, and so has Problem Of the Week! Problem six has now been posted. As I've mentioned, in the second half of the semester the problems get a bit harder. But have a go at it anyway, and feel free to leave solutions in the comments.
March 14, 2015
With the students returning tomorrow I'm afraid I have to blog and run. But I do want to continue my look at Circe problems this week. So here's a minor effort of mine, published in the U. S. Problem Bulletin all the way back in 1994. The stipulation calls for mate in ten. But remember that we'…
March 13, 2015
Today's date is March 14, 2015. That's 3/14/15. That's the first five digits of pi! And if you're using 12-hour time, then you have two chances to be reading this at 9:26:53. That's the first ten digits of pi! Oh happy day!
And a welcome chance to stick a thumb in the eye of all those…
March 9, 2015
In yesterday's post I mentioned that I wanted to use spring break to make progress on various writing and research projects.
One of those projects is based on one of the Darwin Day talks I gave in February, in which I discussed some of the mathematical arguments used by anti-evolutionists. In my…
March 7, 2015
Blogging will continue to be light around here for at least another week. It's spring break, you see. That's hard to believe considering that Thursday and Friday of last week were both snow days, meaning that our spring break opened with a raging blizzard.
Spring break is a good time to make…
March 1, 2015
One of the underappreciated aspects of chess composition is that some problems have a sense of humor. Sure, the real classics show deep and surprising ideas and do so with impressive constructional finesse. But other problems just bring a smile to your face. This week I have two such problems…
February 28, 2015
Sad news:
Leonard Nimoy, the sonorous, gaunt-faced actor who won a worshipful global following as Mr. Spock, the resolutely logical human-alien first officer of the Starship Enterprise in the television and movie juggernaut “Star Trek,” died on Friday morning at his home in the Bel Air section of…
February 26, 2015
There's lots of good blog fodder out there, but I don't want to let too much time go by before finishing my discussion of Stephen Fry's presentation of the Problem of Evil. See Part One for the full context.
Of all the responses I've seen to Fry's interview, there was one that was so bizarre and…
February 24, 2015
Let's consider a hypothetical situation.
Professor Jones, who has tenure, learns that a graduate student in a different department has conducted a class in a manner he finds objectionable. So Jones writes a blog post in which he attacks the graduate student by name. He uses incendiary rhetoric…
February 23, 2015
The fifth Problem Of the Week has now been posted at the big website. I've also posted an “official” solution to Problem Four. POTW will be taking two weeks off after this one, so you will have to make this last. (Spring break is almost upon us, which seems incredible considering how cold it is…
February 22, 2015
My favorite philosophical conundrum has been back in the news lately, thanks to a recent interview with British actor Stephen Fry:
Asked by the interviewer what he would say to God were he to discover, after his death, that He existed, Fry replied:
I'd say, bone cancer in children? What's that…
February 21, 2015
All my hard work in Baltimore, and all the frustrations of the various drives, paled to insignificance upon arriving at the Parsippany Hilton. You see, it was time for another go at the U. S. Amateur Team East chess tournament. It's one of the biggest chess parties of the year, with more than 1300…
February 21, 2015
It's snowing again. Pretty hard, actually. So, since it looks like I won't be going anywhere today, how about I tell you about my recent travels?
My adventures started last Thursday. I hopped into the Jasonmobile around noon, and headed out to Baltimore. This entails driving on I-495, better…
February 17, 2015
My recent travels, to Parsippany, NJ via Baltimore, MD, which involved three talks in two days, followed by multiple games of chess, bookended by two long drives, came to a dramatic conlcusion yesterday when I had to drive home in the snow. Not fun! There was so much snow on the road that you…
February 8, 2015
The third problem of the week is now up at the big website. I've also posted the official solution to Problem Two. So go have a look and let me know what you think. Feel free to present solutions in the comments.
Unless, of course, you just want to pick micronits with the problem statement. In…
February 8, 2015
I will be in Baltimore at the end of week to give a couple of talks in honor of Darwin Day.
On Thursday, February 12, I will be speaking to the Baltimore Ethical Society. Pot luck dinner at 6:30 pm, with the talk beginning at 7:30. I will give a talk entitled Among the Creationists; I seem to…
February 8, 2015
It's time to take a break from helpmates and return to selfmates. This week's problem was composed by Andrey Selivanov in 2014. The stipulation is selfmate in three:
Recall that in a selfmate, white plays first and forces black to give checkmate in no more than the stipulated number of moves…
February 7, 2015
Here's something that happened this week: David Brooks wrote a bad column about secularism. In fairness, it gets off to a decent start:
Over the past few years, there has been a sharp rise in the number of people who are atheist, agnostic or without religious affiliation. A fifth of all adults…
February 2, 2015
The second Problem of the Week has now been posted. Also posted is an official solution to the first problem. Go have a look, and let me know what you think in the comments.
But don't get cocky. The problems get harder as we go along...
February 1, 2015
Broadly speaking, there are two general strategies for proving that God exists. One we might call the scientific approach. This is where you point to some empirical fact and argue that it is beyond the reach of natural forces. The classic example is Paley's version of the argument for design.…
February 1, 2015
This week we continue our look at helpmates. This week's problem has very different feel from the two helpmates we have seen thus far. It was composed by Joao Santiago and Nenad Petrovic, back in 1951. The stipulation calls for helpmate in four:
Let me remind you that in a helpmate, white and…
January 27, 2015
We're only six episodes into The Nightly Show, the program Comedy Central put on to replace Colbert, but I'm about ready to write it off. Larry Wilmore, the show's host, was pretty funny as a correspondent for The Daily Show, so I was optimistic. But it was not to be. The basic format is this:…
January 25, 2015
Do you prefer math problems to chess problems? Well then today's your lucky day! For today is the day that Problem Of the Week returns! Our theme this semester is: Geometry. Euclidean geometry to be exact.
There will be ten problems during the term. The first five are meant to be relatively…
January 25, 2015
This week we shall continue our look at helpmates. The problem below was composed by Zivko Janevski in 2011. It calls for helpmate in two, with three solutions:
Before diving in, let's review how helpmates work. In defiance of normal chess logic, white and black will be cooperating to…
January 21, 2015
I'm not in the mood for heavy blogging just now, so how about we discuss something light and frivolous. Like the meaning of life.
Back in July, I wrote this:
Answers about our origins have no implications at all for questions of meaning and value. Arising through blind, uncaring forces in no way…
January 17, 2015
This series has featured quite a few direct mates, selfmates and endgame studies. There are, however, other problem genres to consider. One of these neglected genres is the helpmate. So, over the next few weeks, I'd like to show you a few of them.
This week's example is a simple, but, I think…
