jrosenhouse | September 14, 2014The title pretty much says it all. I have a new teaser for you, along with some discussion of palindromes that you might enjoy. The solution to last week's problem has been posted as well. Let me know what you think!
jrosenhouse | September 7, 2014I'm feeling a bit bereft now that the Sinquefield Cup is over. Fabiano Caruana won his first seven games, and then drew his last three, to win the tournament by a ridiculous three points (ahead of World Champion Magnus Carlsen). This is certainly one of the great tournament performances in chess history, worthy of mention alongside Anatoly Karpov's six straight wins in the 1994 Linares tournament, or Victor Korchnoi's eight straight in the 1968 Wijk aan Zee tournament. Not quite at the level of Bobby Fischer's twenty straight wins over grandmasters, though. Just saying. The incredible…
jrosenhouse | September 7, 2014The second POTW has now been posted, along with one possible set of solutions for the first problem. This week's problem has a similar flavor to last week's, so if you liked that one you'll like this one.
jrosenhouse | August 31, 2014If that last post did not satisfy your need for brain food, then let me mention that as of today the Problem of the Week returns. This semester's theme: Fun With Arithmetic! What's that? You don't like arithmetic? Well, let's see if you're still saying that at the end of the term.
In general I try to choose problems that are accessible even to people in lower level classes. I go for things with a brainteaser quality to them, as opposed to problems that require knowledge of calculus or something higher. Also, I'm perfectly aware that solutions to just about any brainteaser are readily…
jrosenhouse | August 31, 2014The Sinquefield Cup is turning out to be not just one of the strongest chess tournaments in history, but also one of the most exciting. In today's round five all three games ended decisively, but the commentators were lamenting that the games were not as thrilling as in previous rounds. The sensation of the tournament has been Fabiano Caruana of Italy...who currently has a perfect score. You read that right. He's five and oh, winning three games as black no less. And it's not like his opponents have just been blundering left and right. Meanwhile, the rest of the field is mostly losing…
jrosenhouse | August 27, 2014The start of the school year, coupled with the looming deadline for the book I'm coediting, has left little time for blogging. I do, however, feel compelled to point out that six of the world's top ten chess players have gathered in St. Louis for what is arguably the greatest chess tournament in the history of chess tournaments. Six different countries are represented and, interestingly, none of them are Russia. Hikaru Nakamura is representing the United States. The other five players are Magnus Carlsen of Norway, Levon Aronian of Armenia, Fabiano Caruana of Italy, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave…
jrosenhouse | August 6, 2014The blog will be quiet for a bit longer, since I'll be hitting the road tomorrow. I'll be working out of my NJ office for a few days, which is to say I will be visiting the 'rents. See ya when I return!
jrosenhouse | August 3, 2014Last week I introduced the Dombrovskis theme: Black has a certain move which, in one phase of the problem prevents a mate and in a different phase provokes the same mate. Last week's problem came from the master himself, and coupled two such variations with an astonishing key move, which granted two flights. This week we have another presentation of the theme, from a 1985 problem by composer Dimitris Kapralos. White is to play and mate in two:
Remember that white is always moving up the board and black is always moving down. Vertical files are labeled a--h from left to right, while…
jrosenhouse | August 2, 2014Assisted suicide is not the happiest topic in the world, so I think it's time to lighten the mood around here. And what better way to do that than with some cute animal pictures?
Let's start with Emily keeping me company while I am at the computer:
I was making revisions to my paper about knight/knave puzzles for non-classical logics, which will be appearing shortly in The College Mathematics Journal. You subscribe, surely?
Also, yes, those are golden retriever puppies on my mouse pad. You got a problem with that?
Here's Spider in a contemplative mood:
Spider is a long-haired cat, which…
jrosenhouse | July 31, 2014I hadn't intended to turn this into assisted dying week, but that's how it's turning out.
After his recent debate with Christian apologist William Lane Craig, Sean Carroll expressed frustration that the debate followed a certain pattern. Craig would make an argument, then Carroll would rebut it, then Craig would simply repeat the same argument as though nothing had happened.
That's how I felt reading David Klinghoffer's latest contribution to our discussion about assisted suicide. He merely repeats the same nonsense from his previous posts, this time tricked out with an impressive amount…
jrosenhouse | July 29, 2014Wesley Smith and David Klinghoffer have now replied to yesterday's post, here and here respectively.
Smith's reply simply ignores all of the main points that I made. He's mostly sore that I did not discuss two specific cases from his original essay, of people who faced great physical suffering but overcame it to live long and meaningful lives. I did not discuss those cases because they were entirely irrelevant to the points I was making.
I had two main points. One was that everyone has the right to personal autonomy and dignity. The other was that it is possible to reach a state of such…
jrosenhouse | July 28, 2014Consider this profile of NPR reporter Diane Rehm, in which she relates the harrowing story of her husband's final days:
His Parkinson's disease had become unbearable. “He just kept getting weaker,” the NPR host told NBC News. “We called in the doctor and John said to him: `I am ready today.' He said `I can no longer use my legs, I can no longer use my arms, I can no longer feed myself.' And knowing with Parkinson's it is going to get worse rather than better, he said `I wanted to die.'” He asked the doctor for help.
The answer they got surprised and disappointed both of them. “The doctor…
jrosenhouse | July 27, 2014Today I have a charming little bagatelle for your consideration. It was composed by Alfreds Dombrovskis in 1958. In the diagram position, white is to play mate in two.
Keep in mind that white is always moving up the board and black is always moving down. Vertical files are labeled a--h from left to right, while horizontal ranks are labeled 1--8 from bottom to top. So, in the diagram, the white king is on e5 and the black king is on d3.
This is an example of a multiphase problem, meaning that grasping the composer's intent requires more than simply looking at the solution. We must also…
jrosenhouse | July 25, 2014 From the current issue of The New York Times Magazine:
One of the most vivid arithmetic failings displayed by Americans occurred in the early 1980s, when the A&W restaurant chain released a new hamburger to rival the McDonald's Quarter Pounder. With a third-pound of beef, the A&W burger had more meat than the Quarter Pounder; in taste tests, customers preferred A&W's burger. And it was less expensive. A lavish A&W television and radio marketing campaign cited these benefits. Yet instead of leaping at the great value, customers snubbed it.
Only when the company held customer…
jrosenhouse | July 23, 2014That title is somewhat facetious, of course, but I do think the multiverse is far more than an idle speculation. I think it is an idea that is sufficiently well-supported that it is those who deny it who should be on the defensive.
I would make an elaborate argument in defense of that claim, but Coel Hellier, a physics professor at Keele University in the UK, has saved me the trouble. He recently posted a two-part article on the subject over at Scientia Salon: Part One, Part Two. Hellier writes:
The multiverse concept is often derided as “unscientific” and an example of physicists…
jrosenhouse | July 21, 2014There's plenty of science and religion stuff out there, but I think talking about anything else right now would be to ignore the elephant in the room.
There's a basic moral principle that I subscribe to that goes like this: When your neighbor is relentlessly firing rockets at you in an attempt to kill as many civilians as possible, or barring that to make life unlivable for civilian populations, then you have carte blanche to do whatever is necessary to make it stop.
I have no patience for bloggers who sit in perfect safety on the other side of the world, and, with steepled fingers and…
jrosenhouse | July 20, 2014My renewed interest in chess has not just extended to tournament play. I am composing chess problems again as well. Here's one I came up with recently, and which will eventually be published in The Problemist magazine. In the position below, white is looking for selfmate in thirteen moves:
Recall that white is always moving up the board and black is always moving down. Vertical files are labeled a--h from left to right, while horizontal ranks are numbered a--8 from bottom to top. So, in the diagram, the white king is on e3 and the black king is on e5.
Also recall that in a selfmate,…
jrosenhouse | July 17, 2014The anti-evolutionists just never get tired of the second law thermodynamics! The latest bit of silliness comes from Barry Arrington, writing at Uncommon Descent. Here's the whole post:
I hope our materialist friends will help us with this one.
As I understand their argument, entropy is not an obstacle to blind watchmaker evolution, because entropy applies absolutely only in a “closed system,” and the earth is not a closed system because it receives electromagnetic radiation from space.
Fair enough. But it seems to me that under that definition of “closed system” only the universe as a…
jrosenhouse | July 16, 2014I've been a fan of Weird Al Yankovic ever since “Eat It”
He just keeps getting better and better. His new video, “Tacky”, a spoof of Pharrell Williams' “Happy,” has just been released:
Great stuff! Be sure to pay attention to the lyrics. They're hilarious!
I also like his palindrome song:
jrosenhouse | July 15, 2014Over at The New York Times, Gary Gutting has an interview with philosopher Michael Ruse. It is part of a series on philosophy and religion. There are several interesting nuggets in the interview, but I just want to discuss this one:
G.G.: Do you think that evolution lends support to the atheistic argument from evil: that it makes no sense to think that an all-good, all-powerful God would have used so wasteful and brutal a process as evolution to create living things?
M.R.: Although in some philosophy of religion circles it is now thought that we can counter the argument from evil, I don't…