Search Our Writing:
The Case for AlphaZero: Openings and Pawn Progression
January 20, 2022 | By Timothy Han SM ‘22
On December 6, 2017, AlphaZero, a new chess program developed by Google, changed the world. AlphaZero made its world premier in a match against Stockfish, the most dominant algorithm in chess history. Ever since IBM’s DeepBlue defeated world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, engines have reigned supreme over humans in the world of chess. Stockfish, the latest in a long line of formidable chess algorithms, could evaluate 70 million moves per second; AlphaZero could only manage 80,000. An open-source program that has been ceaselessly improved since its debut in 2004, Stockfish came armed with countless formulas, strategies, and even endgame sequences to plan for every contingency.
How Firm a Foundation: Pandemic Science Tests The Limits of Our trust
January 20, 2022 | By Raquel Sequeira TD ‘21.5
“I’ve never felt as dependent as I am today on shaky data to make what could be life or death decisions.” I was struck reading the words of Dr. Neel Shah, an obstetrician describing what it’s like to care for pregnant patients in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. [1] As I watch the world through my internet browser, scientific facts seem to flip-flop like pundits. A graph of biotech stocks, responding to daily progress reports from the companies racing to produce a vaccine, might as well be tracking the sentiments of Facebook users as each new pandemic model urges hope or despair.
Military Mental Health: Whole Persons
January 20, 2022 | By Jadan Anderson MC ‘22
Two years out from her twenty-year service with the U.S. Air Force, Mom keeps an American flag, neatly folded and elegantly framed in a closet downstairs, and insomnia between the restless tosses and turns of her four-hour sleep cycle. Though Mom is undoubtedly one of the strongest women I know, insomnia is just a single item on the long list of ailments that warrant her full disability compensation. That she has full disability is, to service members recently retired or retiring, great news. The sudden and somewhat steep drop of benefits experienced by veterans as they retire from service often feels more like getting the boot than a grateful send-off.
“God Loves You”
December 18, 2021 | By Hannah Turner, BK ‘24
“That’s funny,” my high school friend said when she heard the common Christian phrase thrown out in a conversation about racism. She had concluded the very opposite: God didn’t love her, if there even was a god.
A Meditation on Sacred Spaces
November 26, 2021 | By Bella Gamboa JE ‘22
Limestone columns rise to an intricately engraved ceiling far above, whose artistry is somewhat shadowed as it lies above the lights that line the sanctuary. The nave is imposing yet familiar; its grandeur feels like home. The stained-glass windows are particularly exquisite: the cool blues and purples that enclose a stone brought from the moon, the panoply of shades in the rose windows, the vivid panes painstakingly joined by lead seams. The light filtering through the glass creates puddles of color, rivulets of crimson and gold, eddies of amber and sapphire. And these are but the wonders of the main sanctuary; both outside and deeper within, crevices and cornices, chapels and gargoyles, add to the intricacies and spectacle of the church.
A Psalm A Day
November 7, 2021 | By Shi Wen Yeo MC ‘23
One of my favourite parts about Sunday mornings is walking into church and smelling the musty pews gently speckled with the mid-morning sun, and seeing the rows upon rows of pews, pews that are usually littered with hymnals and psalters. I have been doing some reflection on this recently. What does it mean that hymnals or psalters are usually distributed as separate books as opposed to the rest of the Bible?
Upcoming Events:
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Working Meeting
THURSDAY, APRIL 2ND, 6:15-7:50 PM
This week, we will work on writing and editing our drafts in community.
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Writing Retreat
SATURDAY, APRIL 4TH
We will be adjourning to Mystic to spend a day dedicated to making progress on our drafts.
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Final Draft Meeting at Elm
THURSDAY, APRIL 9th, 6:15-7:50 PM
Elm Institute
We will be polishing our pieces for the print edition.
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Final Draft Submission
THURSDAY, APRIL 16th, 6:15-7:15 PM
We will be polishing our pieces for the print edition.
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Publication Party
THURSDAY, APRIL 28TH
Come celebrate our Spring 2026 print edition: Mirrors!