Saturday, May 25, 2013

Everybody Loves Raymond!



Just came to my attention that today is Raymond Smullyan's 94th birthday. THAT is an occasion worth noting!
As I've written before, Smullyan, like Martin Gardner, is an American gem!

An hour-long 2004 movie about him, aptly titled "This Film Needs No Title: A Portrait of Raymond Smullyan," (after a book of his entitled, "This Book Needs No Title"), is available (with registration) here:

http://tinyurl.com/owxc53k

A review of his interesting 1977 NON-mathematical volume, "The Tao Is Silent" here:

http://ramblingtaoist.blogspot.com/2009/08/smullyan-on-tao.html
(of course he's written a plethora of math/logic/puzzle books as well, but the above offering is a bit different)

For the umpteenth time (apologies to long-time readers here) I'll link back to a post on one of my very favorite Smullyan puzzles/paradoxes which I re-cite every year:

http://math-frolic.blogspot.com/2011/01/seemingly-impossible-task-that-isnt.html

And finally a fun, self-referential paradox presented by Richard Elwes which I believe (like one of Elwes' commenters) also originated, in some form, from Smullyan:

http://richardelwes.co.uk/2011/06/06/an-idiotic-paradox/

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR. SMULLYAN! (and may the Tao be with you!)


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