Monthly Archives: December 2012

Lionel Pournin found a combinatorial proof for Sleator-Tarjan-Thurston diameter result

Posted on December 30, 2012 by Gil Kalai

I just saw in Claire Mathieu’s blog  “A CS professor blog” that a simple proof of the Sleator-Tarjan-Thurston’s diameter result for the graph of the associahedron was found by Lionel Pournin! Here are slides of his lecture “The diameters of associahedra” … Continue reading →

Posted in Combinatorics, Computer Science and Optimization, Convex polytopes | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Postoctoral Positions Available

Posted on December 20, 2012 by Gil Kalai

Maybe I should say that (like every year but even more so) we do have funding for 1-2 postdoctoral positions in combinatorics, for 1-3 years starting in the next academic year (the time is flexible) here at the Hebrew University … Continue reading →

Posted in Updates | Leave a comment

Dorit Aharonov’s on TEDx: A Feldenkrais lesson for the beginner scientist

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Gil Kalai

Here is a lovely lecture starting with quantum computers, going through the Feldenkrais method, and ending with a mathematical puzzle. Click on the picture for the video of the talk. Here are Dorit’s four body-mind principles for learning: 1. Start … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Angry Bird Skepticism

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Gil Kalai

Lenore Holditch is a freelance writer. Here is what she wrote to me: “I love learning about new topics, so I am confident that I can provide valuable content for your blog on any topic you wish, else I can … Continue reading →

Posted in Games, Rationality | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The Privacy Paradox of Rann Smorodinsky

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Gil Kalai

   The following paradox was raised by Rann Smorodinsky: Rann Smorodinsky’s Privacy Paradox Suppose that you have the following one-time scenario. You want to buy a sandwich where the options are a roast beef sandwich or an avocado sandwich. Choosing … Continue reading →

Posted in Games, Philosophy, Rationality | Tagged , , | 17 Comments