Miscellaneous

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  (New) Call for Bids to Host ESSLLI 2028

  Deadline: Sunday 1 November 2026

  The Association for Logic, Language and Information (FoLLI) and the ESSLLI Standing Committee invite bids to host the 39th European Summer School in Logic, Language and Information (ESSLLI 2028), a two-week school held in July/August 2028.

  As a first step, we ask for a short, non-binding expression of interest by 1 November 2026. A brief email is enough, naming the proposed site, the likely organising team and tentative dates. Send it to Jakub Szymanik (jakub.szymanik at gmail.com). The preliminary proposals are due on 1 December 2026.

  For more information, see here or at https://www.esslli.eu or contact Jakub Szymanik at jakub.szymanik at gmail.com.
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  Celebrating Jouko Väänänen’s Honorary Doctorate from the National University of Colombia

  We are very happy to share some wonderful news: Jouko Väänänen has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the National University of Colombia (Universidad Nacional de Colombia), recognizing both his remarkable contributions to mathematical logic and his long-standing commitment to the mathematical community in Colombia.

  Click on the link to read the full laudatio (in pdf).

  For more information, see http://settheory.eu/documents/Vaananenhonorarydoctorate.pdf.
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  Feeding the (short-video) feed: a design proposal for user control of social media recommender systems under the Digital Services Act

  Matteo Fabbri - Lianhe Zaobao, 15 September 2026

  Matteo recently spoke to a Singaporean newspaper about his research in the context of a new Australian regulatory draft on user control of algorithmic recommendations on social media.

  For a deeper insight into the issue, please read his recent co-authored article on the same topic, titled "Feeding the (short-video) feed: a design proposal for user control of social media recommender systems under the Digital Services Act" (follow this link).
  For more information, see https://eur04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zaobao.com.sg%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fstory20260915-9675009%3Futm_source%3Dios-share%26utm_medium%3Dapp&data=05%7C02%7Ca.zieglerova%40uva.nl%7Cd738e2e0f1704550bac708df1319d039%7Ca0f1cacd618c4403b94576fb3d6874e5%7C0%7C0%7C639250673722659931%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=09VCB2%2BLwiSB%2BinRlnKMBOmG3QJtqyCpDkon72jQH04%3D&reserved=0 or contact Matteo Fabbri at m.fabbri2 at uva.nl.
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  Illogician issue 2026 ii

  Illogician, the student magazine of the Master of Logic at Amsterdam's ILLC, has published a new issue (2026 ii). 

  For more information, see https://resources.illc.uva.nl/TheIllogician/issues/2026-ii/.
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  History of the Muddy Children Puzzle

  The Muddy Children Puzzle is a puzzle about knowledge and ignorance that has been inspiring for the development of epistemic logic. Who came up with it first? This is unclear. In 'History of the Muddy Children Puzzle', Hans traces the origin of the Muddy Children Puzzle through logical and literary publications over the past two centuries. The earliest source is early 19th century France (barbichette, pince-sans-rire), travelling by way of Germany (19th century), Japan (1941, Dirac's riddle), USA (1942, Kraitchik), England (1953, Littlewood). From the 1950s onward it is everywhere, and of course very present in 'Reasoning about Knowledge' by Fagin, Halpern, Vardi and Moses.

  Hans is very interested in novel information on historical sources from before 1950. Since posting it, he already obtained: a translation of a relevant part from a 1941 Japanese detective novel by Takataro Kigi, and a publication by Jacques Lacan from 1949 starting a parallel history of muddy children in psychoanalysis. A persistent rumour connects a young Alonzo Church to the riddle in the 1930s. He could not confirm it, despite detailed search in the Church Archive. Any further information, from any source and in any language (or script) will be appreciated.

  For more information, see https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.13703 or contact Hans van Ditmarsch at hansvanditmarsch at gmail.com.