jrosenhouse | July 14, 2014Apropos of our discussion of the proper interpretation of Genesis, Kelly James Clark, writing at Huffington Post, summarizes the state of play at some Christian Colleges:
Shortly after the 2004 publication of his book, Random Designer, biologist Richard Colling was prohibited from teaching introductory biology courses at Olivet Nazarene College in Illinois and his book was banned from the campus. Peter Enns, who earned his PhD from Harvard University in Near Eastern languages and civilizations, claimed that the first chapters of Genesis are firmly grounded in ancient myth, which he defines…
jrosenhouse | July 13, 2014Ever wonder what it looks like to have 300 games of chess going on in one room?
There was a second ballroom, almost as large, which was also filled with players.
Well, we have arrived at round eight. In the prior seven rounds I had scored three wins, two losses, one draw, and one win by forfeit. I was riding high after winning my two previous games. Alas, we have reached the final day of the tournament, when the games are a bit earlier than normal. I don't like doing anything early in the morning, much less play a hard game of chess.
Across the board from me was a kid who was eye-level…
jrosenhouse | July 11, 2014As it happens, the previous post was mostly a digression from what I really wanted to discuss. The set-up here is that back in 2007, philosopher Mary Midgley published a pamphlet discussing creationism, intelligent design, education, and various related topics. Philosopher Nicholas Everitt has just published a critical review (subscription required) of Midgley's pamphlet. Glenn Branch has now done three posts mostly criticizing Everitt: Part One, Part Two, Part Three.
That's the set-up. There is just one aspect of all of this I want to address. You see, in addition to her claims that the…
jrosenhouse | July 9, 2014I will conclude my series on the World Open in the next day or two, but I would not want readers to think that I have converted this into a chess blog. So let's go back to our more traditional fare by pondering this pamphlet, by philosopher Mary Midgley. It is called, “Intelligent Design Theory and Other Ideological Problems,” and was published in 2007.
I will not attempt a full review of the pamphlet (which at forty-three, large print, pages can be read pretty quickly). It is a strange mixture of good points and bad points. Midgley is quite good when she is addressing the substance of…
jrosenhouse | July 8, 2014As happy as I was to salvage the half point in my fourth round game, I was still pretty down about missing that fork. I decided a nice meal would cheer me up. So I hopped on the Metro and went into DC, to have dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Tono Sushi, conveniently located across the street from the Woodley Park stop on the red line.
It worked! I felt much better, shrugged off my three bad games in a row and showed up for round five ready for a fight.
But it was not to be. Fifteen minutes after go time my opponent was nowhere to be found. The rules say that you get an hour…
jrosenhouse | July 7, 2014Hello. I'm still here. Let me get you caught up on some things.
In graduate school I was required to take a battery of four qualifying exams before I could be “advanced to candidacy.” These exams were conducted orally, meaning you had to stand in a room with two faculty members and answer questions for as long as they cared to fire them at you. The exams were in Algebra, Analysis, Topology and a fourth area of the student's choosing, which in my case was Number Theory. These were very stressful, high-stakes exams that entailed many weeks of intense studying. I saved topology for last,…
jrosenhouse | May 25, 2014My SIWOTI syndrome has not returned, the end of the semester notwithstanding. Watching the daily broadcasts from the recently completed U. S. Chess Championship, however, has certainly gotten my chess juices flowing. So here's another installment of Sunday Chess Problem!
Another mate in two for you this week, but with a twist. The problem below was composed by Norman Macleod in 1984. In the position below, white is to play and mate in two. The twist is that this game is being played under Madrasi rules!
Here's how it works: Everything proceeds as in regular chess, but with one…
jrosenhouse | May 18, 2014Clearly there is only one way to celebrate the end of the semester. With the return of Sunday Chess Problem! For our return to the world of chess composition, I have chosen a charming, but not too complex, direct mate problem. It was composed by O. Strerath in 1948. White is to play and mate in two:
Remember that white is always moving up the board, while black is always moving down. Horizontal ranks are numbered 1--8 from bottom to top, while vertical files are labeled a--h from left to right. So, in the diagram white's king is on g3, while black's king is on c5.
We'll cut right to…
jrosenhouse | May 11, 2014It's the season for graduation speeches, and let's be honest, most of them aren't very good. They tend to be very banal and cliched. So let's begin this post with a strong candidate for best graduation speech ever. I am referring to Woody Allen's speech:
More than at any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
I speak, by the way, not with any sense of futility, but with a panicky conviction of the absolute meaninglessness of existence which…
jrosenhouse | May 10, 2014Graduation was this morning, and it just so happens that I was the speaker. That I am posting the speech below should tell you that I thought it went pretty well. I'll do a separate post describing some of the reactions, and commenting on a few of the other graduation-speech related stories that have been in the news lately, but this post is going to be long enough without that. As a teaser, I'll just mention that several people in the audience praised me afterwards for giving such a courageous speech. That made me nervous, actually, since I am not really very courageous.
I do need to…
jrosenhouse | April 20, 2014Blogging has been a low priority lately, partly because there's been too much other stuff going on, and partly because I haven't had much enthusiasm for it. The end of the semester is always a bit of a grind. But the long-suffering fans of Sunday Chess Problem should not have to wait another week! So here's a little endgame study I came across, in a terrific book called Endgame Magic by John Beasley and Timothy Whitworth. It was composed by Herbstman and Kubbel in 1937. White is to play and draw.
Recall that white is always assumed to be moving up the board, and black is always assumed…
jrosenhouse | April 5, 2014I guess it's been clear that I haven't been in a blogging mood lately. There's plenty of fodder out there, but somehow every time I sit down to write about it I suddenly remember I had something else to do. But that doesn't mean that fans of Sunday Chess Problem should suffer! So this week I have something exotic for you. For the first time in this series we shall consider a retrograde analysis chess problem, or retro for short. It was composed by Raymond Smullyan. Have a look at this position:
We are to imagine that this position occurred in the course of an actual game of chess. You…
jrosenhouse | March 30, 2014Well, it's eleven o'clock at night and I just remembered I forgot to do a Sunday Chess Problem for this week. So I guess we'll have to go with one of those charming lightweights whose main point is a shocking key. This one was composed by Gerhardus Goethart in 1952. 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 horizontal ranks are labeled 1--8 from bottom to top. So, in the diagram, white's king is on f6 while black's king is on d4. When we write down chess…
jrosenhouse | March 25, 2014Recently I mentioned my new book Four Lives: A Celebration of Raymond Smullyan. I see the Kindle version is now available, so if you preferred an e-version, now's your chance!
The book is a tribute volume to mathematician Raymond Smullyan. He is best known for his numerous books of logic puzzles. In particular, he took puzzles about knights and knaves to a high art. He did not invent the genre, but he definitely elevated it. (I've been trying to trace the history of puzzles of this sort, so if anyone knows any good references then let me know.)
We are to imagine that on a particular…
jrosenhouse | March 24, 2014I'm back from Atlanta. Did anything happen while I was gone?
Well, some people replied to my previous post. Of course, I knew when I posted it that many would disagree with my views. What I had not anticipated was that the main criticisms leveled at me would be so far removed from anything I was actually arguing.
In a comment to the post, Josh Rosenau wrote this:
Yeah, screw the complexity and nuance of real people doing real things for real and complex reasons. While we’re at it, screw real historians for trying to actually understand that complexity and for objecting when people rely on…
jrosenhouse | March 18, 2014Having thrown some red meat with that last post, I guess it's time to leave town. So, tomorrow I'll be flying down to Atlanta to participate in the Gathering For Gardner Conference. Lucky me! That's Martin Gardner, for those not in the know. The conference brings together mathematicians, magicians, puzzle makers and other supercool nerdy types. I'll be back on Sunday, so blogging will resume at that time. Sunday Chess Problem will be taking the week off.
jrosenhouse | March 18, 2014Among those who argue that science and religion are compatible, there is a standard script that goes like this:
In the late nineteenth century, John William Draper and Andrew Dickson White published, respectively, History of the Conflict Between Science and Religion and A History of the Warfare of Science With Theology in Christendom. In doing so they established the warfare thesis about the relationship between science and religion, a complete myth that sadly retains a hold on the popular imagination. Unlike the ignorant polemicists Draper and White, more serious historians recognize that…
jrosenhouse | March 17, 2014Jerry Coyne liked yesterday's post about teaching ID. I do just want to clarify one point, though. Coyne writes:
Jason has a good point. And that point is that although it’s illegal (as well as dereliction of duty) to teach intelligent design creationism in public schools and universities, it is okay to criticize it, for you can criticize ID on the grounds of bad science without bashing religion. And I think Jason’s right, especially given the legal rulings so far on what constitutes an incursion of religion into public schools.
I certainly do think it's a dereliction of duty to teach…
jrosenhouse | March 15, 2014After our recent excursions into the wacky world of selfmates, it's time to get back to saner fare. This week's problem was composed by Milan Vukcevich, who is a strong contender for greatest problem composer ever. This problem calls for Mate in Three:
Recall that when we write down chess moves, we label the vertical files a--h from left to right, and the horizontal ranks 1--8 from bottom to top. So, in this position the black king is on h2, while the white king is on f7.
The main theme this week is known as a Bristol clearance. Sometimes, in chess, one piece gets in the way of another…
jrosenhouse | March 15, 2014This one requires some set-up.
Eric Hedin is an assistant professor of physics at Ball State University. Last year, he was accused of teaching intelligent design, and of making disparaging remarks about non-Christian religions, in a science seminar that he was teaching. Some students complained, and the situation came to the attention of Jerry Coyne. Jerry made a big fuss about it at his blog and wrote letters to Ball State. Eventually the university forced Hedin to stop doing what he was doing, and they issued a strong statement that intelligent design was religion and therefore had no…