Re: Diophantine problem from current MONTHLY


Proginoskes wrote:
Thomas Mautsch wrote:
In news:<1141625292.952077.38720@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
schrieb "Proginoskes" <CCHeckman@xxxxxxxxx>:
Thomas Mautsch wrote:
In news:<1141340590.522065.171860@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
schrieb Proginoskes <CCHeckman@xxxxxxxxx>:
Proginoskes wrote:
[...]
Nicely handled, Arturo. I had programmed a heat-seeking missile to lock
into Ray Steiner's brain waves, but your way is much cleaner.
[ ... ]
What's wrong with you? - In most countries,
sending missiles is considered an act of war,
and you reconsider thrice before you even try
to *threaten* someone with such a thing.

Wow. Tom, I've added you to my list of people who wouldn't know a joke

That's alright with me.

I guess, I must have been missing the necessary cultural background.
In the dictionaries I consulted a "missile" was always
identified as a weapon, and there was no mention of other uses.
I suppose I will have to purchase a replacement!? ;-)

if it walked up to you and bit you on the ***. (BTW, that's a joke, too.)

I guess people don't have manners these days anymore. ;-(

Is that directed at me or you?

Oh, come on! - Add some emoticons to your statements
if you can't refrain from your kind of "joking".

That wasn't a joke. You intended that comment to apply to me, when
(from my point of view) it could just as easily apply to you.

So what have I done wrong?
Should I really have to wait a year,

No, only until after March 31.

to be allowed to discuss such a "worthless" problem,
that I probably will have forgotten by that time? - I don't think so.

BTW: How come both of the guys who answered my message
deleted the part of it that contained the real content.
Are you just "trolling"?

Am I supposed to quote all previous discussion in this thread? No. This
part of the thread only deals with the missile joke and your failure to
interpret it as such.

So, for those of you who just joined us, here's what happened:

(1) A bonehead named Ray Steiner posted an American Mathematical
Monthly problem.

(2) A bigger bonehead named Thomas Mautsch posted a solution. (This is
a joke, TM.)

(3) Seeing that the spirit of the AMM problems was violated, I posted a
short message that said you should wait until after the deadline before
discussing the problem in a public forum. (I also sent an e-mail to the
Problems editor, suggesting that he add a statement to this effect to
the problem instructions. We'll see whether he takes me up on this.)

(4) Steiner "flew off the handle", saying there was no such rule, and
posted a message that looks like sarcasm.

(5) Arturo Magidin diplomatically settled the issue.

(6) I congratuated him on this, and jokingly said that I had planned on
overreacting instead.

(7) Ray Steiner KNEW I was joking.

(8) I mentioned that the person who was really responsible for this
mess was Mautsch, and that the missile should have been sent to him,
continuing the joke.

(9) Thomas Mautsch proved publicly that he has no sense of humor.

***

I suspect that the part of TM's post he wanted quoted is the part that
said that if I didn't want to look at the solution, I didn't have to
read it. But nothing prevents some undergraduate, or even Archimedes
Plutonium for that manner, from copying the proof verbatim and sending
it in as his/her own work. THIS clearly is a violation of the spirit of
the problems.

[ ... ]
"If they can't take a joke, *** 'em." -- J.R. "Bob" Dobbs
???!

Go to K-Mart and buy yourself a sense of humor, for God(dess)'s sake!

--- Christopher Heckman

So sorry, guys. When I posted that problem I was unaware
of the deadline. Also, I didn't "fly off the handle" and I most
humbly apologised for my pecadillo. The important thing
here is that Mautsch's "solution" is at best incomplete.
So no real damage was done. I shall respect the
deadline from now on. There was no sarcasm intended in
my previous post.
Regards,
Ray Steiner

.

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