News for game theory geeks

A team from Southhampton University, in England, has developed a program for Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma which can -- in certain circumstances -- beat the reigning champion Tit-for-Tat. Discussed on Slashdot, of course.

Speaking of game-geeks, I did my good deed for today by introducing J.-from-Wixom to a couple of my fellow untenured wageslaves at Huron State. Actually, it was her idea to show up at the library this evening inquiring about the flight speeds of African swallows (laden and unladen), but by serendipitous chance she showed up just after I and my two colleagues had started talking about the game Settlers of Catan. The "reference interview" quickly turned into a cheerful babble of gaming geek-speak, and discussions of plans to meet up for a beer after work. (Where they await me even now, probably planning all sorts of dastardly tricks and ambushes.)

Unfortunately, it means that I probably should not tell J.-from-Wixom about the blog. Pity.