davidad

Express

On rails, an express train is associated with the long haul, and would have the fastest, largest, most powerful locomotive. It would be contrasted with the slower “local” train. But in the air, “express” means “small” and “local” - for instance, US Airways Express is the regional-only division of US Airways. Occasionally the word crops up in other contexts, like restaurants and retail, where it means “fast” - maybe - but mostly “small” and “limited”. I think this might derive from a great misattribution of credit for express trains: that they’re just a limited version of the regular train that is somehow incapable of delivering passengers to a certain set of stations. What’s your take?

Possibly the Best Pizza Ever

Notice: This is one of those sorts of blog posts that make people think blogs are boring and pointless. You have been warned.

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Translation party! Also, Batman!

http://translationparty.com is a web service for translating English phrases into Japanese and back again, over and over again until it reaches “equilibrium.” Feeding it sentences about Batman seems to produce the most hilarious results: http://translationparty.com/#7113686 http://translationparty.com/#7113751 http://translationparty.com/#7113810 http://translationparty.com/#7113838

Of course, this is just a corollary of the general principle that Batman makes everything funny: http://shortpacked.com/d/20050311.html

How to Get Outside

This weekend promises beautiful weather, so I thought I’d post this little guide about how to get into a location where that weather can be enjoyed.

How to get Outside

1. Follow your local fire evacuation plan, assuming maximum fire severity.
2. As you migrate to the safe area, keep a sharp eye about for two things:
   1. Alarmed doors. It is usually possible to find an alternate route that bypasses these doors, and unless there is an actual fire, you should do so to avoid embarrassment.
   2. An enormous ceiling overhead that looks different from any other ceiling you have ever seen (except possibly in Walt Disney World). This is called the sky.
3. When you find the sky, immediately stop following the evacuation plan and take a good look around.
4. Walk anywhere you like, as long as you keep that sky directly above your head. If you see it start to disappear, you’re leaving outside. If you wanted to stay outside, no matter how strong force of habit may be, slowly turn around and walk in a different direction.
5. Have fun!

“Biannual” and “Semiannual”

There’s one simple secret to keeping these straight: just remember that you’re specifying a period, not a frequency. “Annual” means there is one year between each occurrence, so “Biannual” means two years between each occurrence, and “Semiannual” means half a year between each occurrence (or twice each year). Same goes for “biweekly,” “bimonthly,” etc. The confusion comes because the root words (e.g. “annual,” “monthly”) specify a value of one unit each, so the frequency and period, which are reciprocal, are numerically equal under the given unit. “Once a year” and “every one year” mean the same thing, but “twice a year” and “every two years” do not. All you need to remember is that it’s the latter (“every X units-of-time”) that is generally the correct interpretation.

How do you see the mind-body problem?

I’ve identified 8 schools of thought, and developed this handy textual flowchart to guide you to deciding which to identify with! Just answer the questions according to your intuition and follow the numbers.

1. Is there any hope of ever understanding consciousness scientifically? If yes, go to 5. If no, go to 2.
2. Could a conscious mind exist without any physical embodiment (bored though it may be)? If yes, go to 7. If no, go to 3.
3. Is there any place for a high-level theory of mental states? If yes, then your school of thought is Strong Emergentism. If no, go to 4.
4. Is there nothing more to a mental state than a behavioral disposition? If yes, then your school of thought is Logical Behaviorism. If no, then your school of thought is Scientific Behaviorism.
5. Are “qualia” meaningful - experiences like “yellow-ness” - and are they physically irreducible? If yes, then your school of thought is Weak Emergentism. If no, go to 6.
6. Is there any place for a high-level theory of mental states (that may apply across different brains, or even different species)? If yes, your school of thought is Functionalism. If no, your school of thought is Identity Theory.
7. Could the behavior of a conscious being theoretically be predicted by physics? If yes, then your school of thought is Epiphenomenalism. If no, then your school of thought is Cartesian Dualism.

If you’re not sure what your result means, just Google it, perhaps with the added phrase “philosophy of mind”. If you’re not happy with your result, or with the questions, please leave me a comment below, and I’ll see if I can fix it. Thanks!