Burning, cats, and zombies: a recap of GRASCan 2015
We had another successful meeting of Graph Searching in Canada (GRASCan) this last weekend, with about 15 participants from across Canada and the US. GRASCan was held at Universite de Montreal, co-chaired by Gena Hahn and Ben Seamone (I was a co-chair, but did little of the organization). There were talks on graph burning, the…
R.I.P. John Nash
Like everyone else, I was devastated today to hear of the passing of the nobel prize winning mathematician John Nash. He and his wife died in car crash on Saturday, May 23. When I first heard the news I thought his passing was due to old age as I am sure many first thought. Reading…
How to burn a network
We have been taught since we were children not to disrupt the world around us. Keep quiet… Don’t make waves… Don’t start fires… What would you do, however, if you were encouraged to set fires? That is, burn things down as quickly as possible. It may seem like an odd question, and such thoughts in real…
Zombies vs Mathematicians!
A horde of ravenous zombies descends on a sole survivor loose in a ravaged city, filled with deserted streets and no help in sight. The survivor happens to be a Mathematician, and so has no weapons to use other than his mind. He has, therefore, no choice but to make a run for it. Which way…