Science Two possible explanations of mysterious earthquake lights — Centuries of humans have reported strange lights moving along the ground before an earthquake strikes. Now, two different teams of scientists have two competing theories that could explain where those lights come from and how they're made. — Maggie • 5 Maggie Koerth-Baker at 6:57 am Fri, Apr 11, 2014 • 16 Oarfish are freaky sea dragons. You might remember them from the beaching incidents last fall, when two oarfish turned up on the coast of California within a week. Video Link A biologist trying to go to Mars — Biologist Chris Patil is one of the 1058 people chosen (from more than 200,000 initial applicants) to participate in the second round of Mars One astronaut selection. The side-effects of surviving HIV — There are side-effects to being an HIV controller — a person whose body naturally suppresses the virus without medication. David Pescovitz at 10:18 am Tue, Apr 8, 2014 • 18 The geology of Westeros — Here's to your health!
You Are Not So Smart ROAR Magazine How many dimensions are there, and what do they do to reality? Writing away at my desk, I reach my hand up to turn on a lamp, and down to open a drawer to take out a pen. Extending my arm forward, I brush my fingers against a small, strange figurine given to me by my sister as a good-luck charm, while reaching behind I can pat the black cat snuggling into my back. Right leads to the research notes for my article, left to my pile of ‘must-do’ items (bills and correspondence). Our architecture, our education and our dictionaries tell us that space is three-dimensional. Yet the notion that we inhabit a space with any mathematical structure is a radical innovation of Western culture, necessitating an overthrow of long-held beliefs about the nature of reality. Over the past century, the quest to describe the geometry of space has become a major project in theoretical physics, with experts from Albert Einstein onwards attempting to explain all the fundamental forces of nature as byproducts of the shape of space itself. But why stop there?
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NY Times Magazine Deductive Argument | Reasoning Resources While people generally think of an argument as a fight, perhaps involving the hurling of small appliances, this is not the case-at least as the term is used in philosophy. In philosophy, an argument is a set of claims, one of which is supposed to be supported by the others. There are two types of claims in an argument. The second type of claim is the premise. Arguments can have unstated premises and even an unstated conclusion. Varieties There are two main categories of arguments, three if bad arguments are considered a category. The second type is the deductive argument. Examples Inductive Argument Premise 1: When exposed to the nerve argent known as “Rage”, the chimpanzees showed a massive increase in aggression.Premise 2: Humans are very similar to chimpanzees.Conclusion: If exposed to “Rage”, humans would show a massive increase in aggression. Deductive Argument Example of a Fallacy General Assessment Reasoning If the argument is inductive, it is assessed in terms of being strong or weak.
Red Pepper Art - Crochet Coral Reef — Margaret Wertheim The Crochet Coral Reef is a project by Australian-born twin-sisters Margaret Wertheim and Christine Wertheim and their Los Angeles based Institute For Figuring. Responding to anthropogenic crisis, the work simulates living reefs using techniques of crochet to mimic in yarn the curling crenelated forms of actual reef organisms. Corals and other frilly reef creatures are biological manifestations of “hyperbolic” geometry. "The sculptures are like force fields drawing you into their orbit, catalysts for a network of social interactions that mimics a reef's ... “the AIDS quilt of global warming” – Lawrence Weschler, Virginia Quarterly Review The Crochet Coral Reef has been exhibited internationally including the Hayward Gallery (London), Museum of Arts and Design (New York), Deutsches Museum (Munich), the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History (Washington D.C.), and the 2019 Venice Biennale May You Live in Interesting Times, curated by Ralph Rugoff.
No longer the world’s favourite airline - British Airways faces a £183m fine over a data breach | Gulliver | The Economist BRITISH AIRWAYS (BA), the country’s flag carrier, used to make much in its advertising of being “the world’s favourite airline”. That slogan, which the airline used between 1989 and 2004, trumpeted its status as the world’s largest carrier by international passenger numbers. British Airways also claimed to provide some of the world’s best service, for instance, by introducing the world’s first fully-flat airline seats in 1995. But nothing has so exemplified the falling standards of service at BA as much as a data hack last summer in which around 500,000 people had their personal data, including their credit-card details, stolen by hackers. Rafi Azim-Khan, head of data privacy at Pillsbury, a law firm, warns that this will be the first of many big fines handed out to companies for data breaches.
MAGAZINE Critical Thinking Course Description: Critical Thinking is an introductory course in the principles of good reasoning. It covers pretty much the same subject as what is usually taught in practical logic, informal reasoning or the study of argumentation. This means that the main focus of the course lies in arguments, their nature, their use and their import. In this regard, a course in Critical Thinking comes very close to the study of classical Logic as it pertains to our natural language. However, there are two major differences. The above features make Critical Thinking at once less formal and more dynamic than Logic. The present course is designed to serve as a methodical preparation for more effective reasoning and improved cognitive skills. The course includes the following areas of study: Introductory: Concepts, Propositions. Course Texts: The course is based on these textbooks and their incorporated or accompanying materials. Format: Objectives: Requirements: Exams: Grading: