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Mars at the 2003 opposition in an afocal KODAK DX3215 image at 200x by MVW through a Meade 10" F/10 LX200 SCT, taken 27 August 2003 around 0600 UTC in St. Louis.

MARS at its closest in 60,000 years.

Map from Sky & Telescope's Mars Profiler showing the albedo features facing Earth at the time of the photo, mirror-reversed as in the photo, with "X" marking the facing spot.

Parts: a two-player game with a simple strategy.

Player 1 chooses N>0 and draws a circle with N tick-marks, or darts, pointing inside. Player 2 makes the initial move, connecting the tips of two darts inside the circle with a curve, and then adding a double dart to the curve. Player 1 then moves, connecting the tips of any two unused darts. Curves must stay within the circle, and must not cross. A dart tip can be used only once. The players alternate until there are no more moves. The last player to move wins.

For example, here are the first moves of a game with 8 initial darts:

Parts is an introduction to parity and proof by strong induction. The rules, examples, variations, and an analysis of the winning strategy may be found in the write-up The game of Parts, a Math Circles presentation, 23 January 2002.

Hint:
(Cartoon: FOX TROT by Bill Amend, from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 27 June 2002)

What thoughts would he have, looking at a soccer ball? (Cartoon: FOX TROT by Bill Amend, from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 30 July 2000)

What is the word? (Cartoon: FOX TROT by Bill Amend, from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 31 August 1999)