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What follows is an unusual story of perseverance. We start with a conjecture and after some plot twists end up discussing the meaning of truth. While the title is a spoiler, you might not be able to guess how we got there… The conjecture The bunkbed conjecture (BBC) is a basic claim about random subgraphs. Start with a finite graph G=(V,E) and consider a product graph G x K2 obtained …

The poem featured in this post, Autumn Leaves, is found in Mary A. Maitland's book by the same title, published in 1907. Amidst the autumn gloom and the sad sight of fallen and crushed leaves, the poet is reminded that seasons will change again, ending the sense of grief and pain.

Me, tracing my fingers in and out of the coarse surface of cupmarks on a stone in the sun, with red paint marks on the rock beside me. Again. Not in Faifley, but Oslo. To be precise this happened on a walk with fellow archaeologist Ingrid Mainland in Ekebergparken, on the south side of the harbour fjord of the Norwegian capital city. The park is better known for a stunning …

Team Ratings for Week 9 The basic method is described on my Department home page. Here are the team ratings prior to this week’s games, along with the ratings at the start of the season. Current Rating Rating at Season Start Difference Wellington 7.81 10.63 -2.80 Waikato 6.16 5.30 0.90 North Harbour 5.63 3.06 2.60 Hawke’s Bay 5.48 6.09 -0.60 Bay of Plenty 5.31 3.52 1.80 Taranaki 3.64 5.21 -1.60 …

25th Sept. Another very fine day. We must have nearly reached 10 good days this Summer/Autumn. Well if we include the Springtime too. Surprisingly Mary and I have resisted booking any holidays abroad yet. Mainly because we are having work done in our flat and we don't want to head off at a crucial moment. It is not grand designs; the windows have arrived and been fitted. The roof has …

I’ve been casually playing Palia on my Switch for the past couple months. I’d heard it described as a “cozy” game, and I’m all about the cozy. You are a human in a fantasy realm, and you build a little house and farm. You hunt; you craft things; you cook food; you go fishing. There are some quests and puzzles along the way, but you don’t have to do those …

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The film is the first traditionally-animated 2d feature produced in Pakistan.

I recently took a trip to the Yukon (and two days in Alaska) with my partner Elaine. The trip was mostly hiking focused and generally enjoying the nature. We took almost two weeks which was a good amount of time for us. Enough to not rush and soak in a lot of nature but not so long that our legs really started hurting and we started missing the comforts of …

Flames of Sam​ū​mOut 8th September on Dark Adversary Productions Black Funeral are perhaps the unlikeliest latter day acolyte for such staunchly conservative, by-the-numbers black metal. One of the US’s earliest adopters of the form, pillars of the third wave along with Judas Iscariot, Krieg, and Demoncy, their run of albums from 1995 to 2010 delights as much as it divides. Veering between highly traditional, mournfully melodic suites to aggressively abrasive, …

49. QUAD CITY DJ’S – “C’mon N’ Ride It (The Train)” (1996) There was a bit of chat the other day when Pitchfork released its list of Top Tracks Of The 2020s So Far; as is often the way it was sparked by the site’s practice (a tale as old as time) of taking regional scenes, or in some cases national scenes, and anointing one track from among them. There’s …

Back in 1991 my co-blogger here at Crooked Timber, Elizabeth S. Anderson, reminded every one of the significance of John Stuart Mill and Experiments in Living (Ethics, 102(1): 4-26). She situated Mill’s views on the matter in the context of a debate with Bentham (and Parfit) over the nature of the good in which Mill wanted to defend a hierarchy of goods in an empirical fashion. In the paper, it’s …

Some years ago - I think after the Brexit result, but not long after - I was in Hemel Hempstead (Old Hemel to be precise) to have a meal at the Cochin, this great little South Indian restaurant. And just over the road, in the window of some kind of bric-a-brac place, I saw the poster above. Although I disagreed with the sentiment, I couldn't help admiring the eye-grabbing cleverness …

Kieran Press-Reynolds with a fascinating story for GQ about Galaxy Gas, a flavored nitrous oxide product that's all the rage and whose cute packaging recalls Alco-Pops in its kiddy appealOooh and talking about giddy pop thrills - quick update, they come so thick and so fast these days, here's another KPR piece, a tribute / memorial to the "lost promise of hyperpop". For Pitchfork.where the

We all know that the quality of a book is no guarantee that it will stay in print. The ones that survive almost always have merit, but the ones that disappear could be equally brilliant. And I was reminded of that yet again with The Spring House (1936) by Lady Cynthia Asquith. I’m going to warn you up front: this book is incredibly difficult to get hold of, but if …