Alex Mauney

To keep checkmate from being too difficult, you probably have to have it be move then slide as the order of operations. Having to consider slides when figuring out checkmate seems like it could be a nightmare.

Back of the envelop math on the complexity based on the Shannon number is that it would take the current 10^120 to about 10^160 if we assume on average 3 possible slide options per player turn

Similar increase in possible boardstates, but probably more likely to get into a stale slide position when no slides are required.

2 is probably an improvement over 1 in multiple ways. Increases the number of board states possible after each move by a significant factor, and prevents annoying deadlocks where the players are just moving the slide puzzle back and forth.

This was a mile as well. Fastest was a bit under 22 to a bit over an hour. 25:13 got me 5th overall.

Yep, my last open water swim was won by a recently graduated college athlete going 3x the speed of the slowest finisher.

And this is not just a problem for academia. Many colleagues who were NSF fellows - federally funded grad students - now work for start-ups, pharma, tech, etc.

Graduate students are current and future innovators in all spaces. Drying up training pipelines will dehydrate our industries. 🫗#SaveNSF

This is what is getting me about the current sweep of Musk stories. The damage "DOGE" did is astounding - he didn't fail at chain-sawing.
Was it a failure at cutting costs?
Absolutely.
Was it incredibly destructive and demoralizing in ways we will only come to terms with over years?
Absolutely.

a black and white bird is standing in the grass ALT: a black and white bird is standing in the grass

Since we’re in a golden age of new Star Wars tv shows, I’ll again pitch “David Attenborough style nature documentaries but of fictional Star Wars creatures.”

No empire. No Jedi. Like, what the Jedi would watch on tv to relax after a stressful mission.

I’ve found both the chocolate and vanilla Orgain powders to be good in smoothies. 21g protein per serving.

They need him to be a genius because they cannot handle what it means for them to be tricked by a fool.

Word of the Day is ‘quockerwodger’ (19th century): a puppet individual whose strings are pulled entirely by someone else.

Congress should hold hearings on this but it’s hard when you can only ask him five questions

Tepid take:

Cantaloupe is a trash fruit that ruins fruit salads. If you want a melon as the largest volume, use watermelon.

🚀DEEP SPACE DISCOUNTS🚀
Ep 1: The First Of Many is LIVE

ADVENTURER: Dragon! We are here for your gold! Prepare to die!
DRAGON: My gold?
ADVENTURER: Yes! We climbed this great mountain, swam it's flooded caverns and-
DRAGON: Fair enough
ADVENTURER: Wait, what?
DRAGON: It's yours
ADVENTURER:
DRAGON: How are you carrying it out of here?
ADVENTURER: Um... /1

Started lifting weights while waiting to get back in the pool after surgery. Felt like every lift was way harder today until I realized I’d added 15 lb instead of 5… My whole job is math…

My “I don’t want to kill executives” shirt is raising a lot of questions answered by the shirt

A decorated cake with chocolate glaze, pomegranate arils, and dried orange slices

Happy Thanksgiving - hope you are surrounded by love this holiday.

I’m thankful for the invigorated spirit in this online science community, as cliche as it is.

Got in my family’s traditional 5K run/walk though it was rough.

And it’s done! My part of Thanksgiving is done. At least until it’s dish time.

What Thanksgiving Can Tell Us About America’s Housing Crisis The national spare-bedroom supply could be put to better use.

Every holiday has an urbanism angle and Thanksgiving is no exception. Time to take stock of the national spare bedroom reserve!
slate.com/business/202...

We’re tied?!? What happened?

Being a panthers fan means getting excited that you have any points when highlights get shown during other games.

A medium sized turkey mummified in plastic wrap.

Starting prep on the turkey for the main event, Thanksgiving at my in-laws. First time we are doing the turkey so hope it goes well.

As an newish uncle getting really into Thanksgiving I feel seen

We love turkey so go a bit overboard when they go on sale around thanksgiving. Got another thawing for family Thanksgiving, and 3 more in the chest freezer already

A smaller turkey in a roasting pan

I say “real” because I did a test turkey for just us to test some changes to the recipe

Fresh out of the oven turkey on a cutting board

First real turkey of the year for my wife’s lab thanksgiving!

Red Cross was also in a weird music mood with mostly Raggaeton but with a few random Christmas songs thrown in.