Saturday, August 28, 2010

Jim's Logic Proof for driving as he does.


Jim had studied enough logic to know he must keep going,
but not enough to know he was supposed to drive down the
center of the road.
 
01. L v R     In the past, Jim had noted that either the
              left lane is closed, or the right lane is
              closed.
02. R > Ml    And he knew that if right lane is closed, 
              then one must take the left lane
03. L > Mr    And also he knew that if the left lane is
              closed, then one must take the right lane.
04. L & R     But Jim can now see that both lanes are
              closed ahead.
----------
05. L         Which means, the left one is closed 
              (4, Simplification) 
06. R         And, too, that the right one is closed.
              (4, Simplification) 
07. Mr        So, Jim deduces he must take the right lane.
              (3,5, Modus Ponens) 
08. Ml v Mr   That, or he must take the left one. 
              (7, Addition)

Jim has correctly reasoned that he must take either of 
the two lanes, and so he yells, "Onward!" and punches the 
gas, as the above picture shows. Yet with a bit more study,
Jim would have reasoned as follows:

09. Ml         "But I must likewise take the left lane."
               (2,6 Modus Ponens)
10. Ml & Mr    "Therefore, I must take the left land and the
                right lane!" (7 & 9 Conjunction)

Such contingencies of life show the value of studying logic.

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Sunday, August 15, 2010

Nicely stated miniature, tech nerd.


In chess and in art, there are archetypal works called "miniatures."[1]  Other disciplines have them also, I'm sure; but, they don't often go under those names.  For example, here is a paragraph taken from an article in PC World, which I just happened across via Google's (highly useful, in my opinion) Fast Flip:
If you want to kill your child's Facebook account, and that child is determined to not let you kill his account, you pretty much have to go Full Amish on the kid for two solid weeks -- no computer access at home, school, library, or friends' homes; no cell phone access at all. Really, anything with a browser on it -- the Playstation, PS3, the Kindle -- is off limits. Try that with a 14 year old sometime and tell me how that works.[2]
That "go Full Amish on the kid" was a nice phrase, intimating a nice image, especially given the subject at hand.  I'm sure Weird Al would agree.

O.

REFERENCES

[image] Steynian Blog


[1] "miniature" Wiktionary (Accessed Aug 15,2010)

[2] "Facebook May Get a Real 'Delete Account' Option" PC World July 28, 2010 (Accessed Aug 15, 2010)

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