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Theft is a concept that logically and genetically depends on the antecedent concept of rightfully owned property and refers to the act of taking that property without the owner s consent. If no property is rightfully owned, that is, if nothing is property, there can be no such concept as theft. Thus, the statement All property is theft has an internal contradiction: to use the concept theft while…
A brainteaser from the British intelligence agency GCHQ: Explain the following: falkun, home de guerra, kick, lavoro, moed, mosca, raccordement, schafer, stobhach, tre, zevk.
The opening of Edward Bulwer-Lytton s 1830 novel Paul Clifford, It was a dark and stormy night, has been held up as a model of bad writing for nearly two centuries. But it s also the opening sentence of Madeleine L Engle s award-winning 1962 young adult science fantasy novel A Wrinkle in Time. Apparently this was deliberate. L Engle biographer Leonard Marcus writes, With a wink to the reader, she…
Contributed by Mrs. M.L. Dow to a cookbook compiled by the Ladies of Trinity Church, Claremont, N.H., 1899: 4 1/2 cups 1st Kings 4:22 1 1/2 cups Judges 5:25 2 cups Jeremiah 6:20 2 cups 1st Samuel 30:12 2 cups Nahum 3:12 1 cup Numbers 17:8 1/2 cup Judges 4:19 2 tablespoons of 1st Samuel 14:25 1 pinch of Leviticus 2:13 2 teaspoons of Amos 4:5 6 teaspoons Jeremiah 17:11 The first line calls for 4 1/2…
A puzzle by National Security Agency applied research mathematician Nicholas R., from the agency s October 2016 Puzzle Periodical: Eddie, Layne, Kurt, and Chris are locked in a heated game of CyberChance which only one of them will win. Their fans are on the edge of their seats: everyone knows that in CyberChance, things can change at any moment. One fan, who prefers Kurt or Chris, is feeling…
Mr. Chairman, before we put the motion That the motion be now put, should we not first put the motion That the motion That the motion be now put be now put ? Punch, 1952
In 1990, physicist Joseph Polchinski described a puzzling situation: Suppose a billiard ball were sent through a traversable wormhole into the past, where it knocked its earlier self off course, away from the wormhole. This is a version of the famous grandfather paradox: How can we explain the ball s presence where it seems to have prevented its own arrival? Fortunately, Caltech students Fernando…
You re tiling a floor with 4 1 and 2 2 tiles when you accidentally break one. A tile of the other shape is available. Show that it s not possible to cover the floor by rearranging the tiles.
To give an accurate and exhaustive account of that period would need a far less brilliant pen than mine. Max Beerbohm [These foolish remarks] show a want of knowledge that must be the result of years of study. Oscar Wilde
Alexey Khanyan devised this no-brainer in 2008. Black is in check. His only legal response is to interpose one of his knights, which then checks White, who must capture the knight, and so on. The whole ensuing 22-ply bloodbath unfolds mechanically, always reaching the same conclusion. Via Tim Krabbé s chess diary. Krabbé writes, As it is a no-brainer, I feel free not to give the moves. See The…