jrosenhouse | January 28, 2014Here's a trailer for the HBO documentary about evolution and religion that I mentioned a while back:
The film was made by Antony Thomas, who is a very prominent documentary filmmaker from England. I was one of the talking heads interviewed for the film, and Antony wrote to tell me that some of my interview made it into the final cut. Yay me! I have not seen the finished film, but from our conversations I am confident it will not suggest that creationism has any scientific credibility whatsoever.
jrosenhouse | January 27, 2014When I finished graduate school in 2000, I interviewed with a large number of schools. One of them was Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. They are a pretty strong liberal arts school which, its name notwithstanding, has never had a religious affiliation. I was interviewed by the chair of the department, and at one point he asked me, after noting that I had lived in the Northeast for nearly my whole life, whether I thought I would be happy to moving to Texas. I waxed eloquent about how I could be happy living anywhere, regardless of the state or whether it was a big city or a small…
jrosenhouse | January 26, 2014Having devoted the last three problems to exploring the exotic world of selfmates, I think it's time for a return to the real world. So let us now consider a genre that has not yet been featured in this series: The two-move direct-mate.
In the position below, it is white to move and mate in two:
This problem, composed by Lev Loshinsky in 1930, illustrates one of my favorite themes: the Grimshaw. A Grimshaw occurs when two pieces of the same color interfere with each other on the same square, in two different variations. The theme's name comes from Walter Grimshaw, a British chess composer…
jrosenhouse | January 24, 2014In a lengthy comment to my post on probability and evolution, I pointed out that for scientists engaged in biological research, natural selection is not an abstract principle. It is not something that is invoked casually as a catch-all explanation for whatever complex biological system crosses their path. Rather, it is a tool that they use for generating testable hypotheses about the origin and history of whatever they are studying.
This point is highly significant, since anti-evolutionists tend to argue at a very abstract level. This is especially prominent in the work of William Dembski…
jrosenhouse | January 23, 2014Returning now to my radio debate with Sean Pitman, another issue that arose involved the use of probability theory in understanding evolution. Sean argued, indeed, it was really his only argument, that natural selection was incapable in principle of crafting complex adaptations. He chided me for not including in my book any probability calculations to show that natural selection can do what I say it can do. I replied that probability theory was simply the wrong tool for that particular job. Sean was aghast, suggesting, bizarrely, that this somehow rendered evolution unscientific.
In his…
jrosenhouse | January 22, 2014Writing in The New Statesman, Cristina Odone laments what she sees as liberal intolerance of religion. The article is quite long, but here's the opening:
I couldn't believe it. I was trying to discuss traditional marriage – and the state was trying to stop me.
Incredible, in a 21st-century European country, but true. I was invited to speak at a conference on marriage last summer, to be held at the Law Society in London. The government had just launched a public consultation on changing the law to allow same-sex marriage. The conference was a chance for supporters of traditional marriage to…
jrosenhouse | January 20, 2014One frustration I had in my radio debate with Sean Pitman was that the topic kept changing in such a rapid-fire way that it was not really possible to discuss anything properly. Happily, I have no such restrictions here at the blog! So let's devote a post or two to clarifying some of the issues that arose during the debate.
One of Pitman's talking points was the idea that natural selection is not capable in principle of crafting complex biochemical systems. Of course, this is standard fare for ID folks. Pitman made the claim that there is some level of functional complexity beyond which…
jrosenhouse | January 20, 2014The start of the spring semester brings with it a new round of Problem of the Week! This term's theme is “Knights, Knaves, Normals, Werewolves and Other Fanciful Creatures.” That's right! A whole term dedicated to the most endearing characters ever to populate fictional islands in logical brainteasers. The problems will get harder as we go along, but I always like to start with a few easy ones. So have a go at it, if you like.
jrosenhouse | January 19, 2014Out of respect for my recent travels, “Sunday Chess Problem” has the week off. However, my new friends at the Center for Inquiry in Long Island have now posted the video of my talk. And here it is:
Alas, the question and answer period is not included in the video, which is a pity, since it was actually very interesting. Also, the first minute of the talk seems to have been cut off, so you will have to imagine the humorous anecdote I told just prior to where the video starts.
Let me also thank everyone at CFI-LI for their wonderful hospitality and for inviting me in the first place. I…
jrosenhouse | January 17, 2014You always remember your first! I have now participated in my very first debate about evolution and creationism. Earlier today I was a guest on Harry Allen's radio show, where I discussed things with Sean Pitman, who maintains this pro-ID website. “Discussed” is a polite term for what transpired. The first segment was cordial enough. Things got more heated in the second segment, during which Sean and I were often talking over each other. Not so informative, perhaps, but probably good for ratings.
Let me know how I did! Click here for the audio. But don't tell me I say “y'know” too…
jrosenhouse | January 16, 2014I am on the road! Tomorrow I will be in New York, as I have previously discussed. Today I was in Baltimore to hang out at the big math party known as the Joint Mathematics Meetings. I also managed to write a guest post over at the Oxford University Press blog. Enjoy!
jrosenhouse | January 12, 2014Time to get back to the classroom! Our spring semester starts tomorrow. This term I'll be teaching Calculus I and History of Math. I have a relatively light teaching load this term, as my reward for accepting a relatively heavy teaching load last term.
Things are going to be a bit hectic for me this week. On Thursday I'll be in Baltimore to spend the day at the annual math extravaganza known as the Joint Mathematics Meetings. The conference is actually four days long, but, sadly, it was not practical for me this year to attend more than one day. But I'll take what I can get. I'm on my…
jrosenhouse | January 12, 2014Last week's problem, though undoubtedly clever and imaginative, was not really typical of modern selfmates. So, let us spend one more week with this genre, this time considering a real heavy-duty, barn-burner of a composition. It comes from Uri Avner, a prominent composer from Israel, and was composed in the early 1980s. The stipulation calls for selfmate in three. (Recall that in a selfmate problem, white moves first and forces black to give checkmate. Black, for his part, tries to avoid giving checkmate.)
Recall that the vertical files are labeled a--h from left to right, and the…
jrosenhouse | January 8, 2014So, have you heard what's going on in New Jersey?
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) denied any involvement in a political payback scheme carried out by some of his top aides on Wednesday, saying the whole thing was “inappropriate and unsanctioned.”
“What I've seen today for the first time is unacceptable,” Christie said in a statement. “I am outraged and deeply saddened to learn that not only was I misled by a member of my staff, but this completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without my knowledge.”
“One thing is clear: this type of behavior is unacceptable and I will…
jrosenhouse | January 4, 2014Last week we introduced selfmates with a straightforward example that I composed in the late 1980s. This week we feature another representative of this genre. It was created by an American composer named Mark Kirtley, in 1986. In the position below, white is to play and force selfmate in eight moves. (Recall that this means that white will force black to deliver checkmate, while black will do everything in his power to avoid giving mate.)
Recall that the vertical files are labeled a--h from left to right. The horizontal ranks are labeled 1--8 from bottom to top. So, the white king is…
jrosenhouse | January 4, 2014Here's a little brainteaser for you. What do these four fractions have in common?
$latex \dfrac{16}{64} \phantom{xxxx} \dfrac{19}{95} \phantom{xxxx} \dfrac{26}{65} \phantom{xxxx} \dfrac{49}{98}$
As it happens, these are the only four fractions where the top and bottom are both two-digit numbers that have this property. Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments. Good luck!
jrosenhouse | January 2, 2014Jeffrey Shallit has an interesting post up about The Southern Confederacy Arithmetic, a mathematics textbook published in 1864. Some of its idiosyncratic examples make for amusing reading.
Reading Jeffrey's post reminded me of a textbook I picked up at home-schoolers convention a while back. The book is called Intermediate Logic For Christian and Home Schools, by James Nance. Now, I am happy to report that the logic presented in the book is the same logic you would find in any other textbook. It covers all the standard banalities of basic propositional logic, and does so in an entirely…
jrosenhouse | January 2, 2014Just in case you are still wondering why college professors tend to be politically liberal, the last few days have provided three examples that make my point perfectly.
First up, we have this piece from Bret Stephens, writing at The Wall Street Journal. Stephens's piece is behind a pay-wall, but this essay at HuffPo quotes the most relevant part. Stephens is keen to argue that any notion that income inequality is a serious problem in America is just the product of envious left-wingers. Stephens writes:
Here is a factual error, marred by an analytical error, compounded by a moral error. It…
jrosenhouse | December 29, 2013Over at Talking Philosophy, Mike LaBossiere takes up that question. Unfortunately, I think his answer is mostly wrong.
Here's his introduction:
One common conservative talking point is that academics is dominated by professors who are, if not outright communists, at least devout liberals. While there are obviously very conservative universities and conservative professors, this talking point has considerable truth behind it: professors in the United States do tend to be liberal.
Another common conservative talking point is that the academy is hostile to conservative ideas, conservative…
jrosenhouse | December 28, 2013To this point in our Sunday Chess Problem series, we have considered one endgame study and two “direct mates.” While the diagram positions we have considered may have seemed a bit fanciful, we have not yet fiddled with the basic logic of the game itself. Which is to say that even if the position seems bizarre, we still imagine that white and black are simply playing a normal game of chess.
This week we change that up a bit. This will be our first example of the “selfmate” genre. In selfmate problems, white tries to force black to give checkmate in the stipulated number of moves. Black,…