Quick catching-up post

I have been somewhat too busy to blog recently, because I had to work both on this paper, the ideas behind which I discussed in this post earlier on, and on my talk (about this work, also discussed here) for the Lattice meeting in Regensburg.

This is therefore mostly just a quick catching-up post with a few things I thought remarkable enough to note:

• Using a massive brute-force computation, computer scientists at the University of Alberta have solved the game of checkers. More on the story here and here, or straight from the source.


• The most recent issue of Physics World is all devoted to questions of energy, a topic which I have blogged about before both here and elsewhere. I am especially delighted at the "lateral thought" column pointing out the problem of electronic devices on stand-by, which make up for about 20% of the average household's energy consumption, a problem I am fond of pointing out to anyone listening. Go unplug your TV and stereo overnight!


• I intend to cover the Lattice meeting in Regensburg in much the same manner as last year's meeting.

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