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How Checkers Was Solved Tech

Alexis Madrigal | Atlantic | 19th July 2017
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The tale of Marion Tinsley, the greatest player of checkers in world history and perhaps the greatest player of any board game; and of Tinsley’s nemesis, Jonathan Schaeffer, who was sure a computer could beat Tinsley given enough computing power. Schaeffer was right: he eventually proved that checkers, played perfectly, “amounts to a draw”. But that took him almost 30 years, by which time Tinsley was dead. “From 1950 to 1990, Tinsley had been the world champion of checkers whenever he wanted to be” (4,400 words)

The Metaphysics Of The Hangover Life

Mark Edmundson | Hedgehog Review | 19th July 2017
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“After a drink or two, the internal lines blur; we transgress, or at least we’re tempted to. We disobey the standard rules and regulations, or we can imagine doing so. What Freud calls the superego, and Christians call conscience, clamours less: You can’t quite hear the old parental voice calling from the backbench, Don’t! Cut it out! We’ll have no more of that around here! But then in the morning, the police are back again, in force, to retake the territory they were compelled to cede the night before” (3,500 words)

I Am The Fifth Dimension Life Pick of the day

Bee Wilson | London Review Of Books | 19th July 2017
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Highly entertaining review of Gef! The Talking Mongoose, by Christopher Josiffe. “For several years in the 1930s the case of this Manx mongoose – who was said to speak in a range of foreign languages as well as singing, whistling, swearing, dancing and attending political meetings – was discussed across Britain. Josiffe is still not entirely clear about the nature of the hoax. He leaves open the possibility that Gef lived and talked and ate lean bacon exactly as the Irvings claimed he did” (4,700 words)

Video of the Day: Un Albero Un Anno

What you see if you train a camera on a tree for a year. Guest stars include boars, wolves, foxes, badgers, deer, and bears (2’45”)
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If you can do it then why do it?

Gertrude Stein
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