These are my links for August 20th through August 23rd:
- Fallacies of Risk (application/pdf Object) – In addition to traditional fallacies such as ad hominem, discussions of risk contain logical and argumentative fallacies that are specific to the subject-matter. Ten such fallacies are identified, that can commonly be found in public debates on risk. They are named as follows: the sheer size fallacy, the converse sheer size fallacy, the fallacy of naturalness, the ostrich's fallacy, the proof-seeking fallacy, the delay fallacy, the technocratic fallacy, the consensus fallacy, the fallacy of pricing, and the infallibility fallacy.
- NIST/SEMATECH e-Handbook of Statistical Methods – The e-Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of statistical methods, including experiment design, data analysis and quality control. It is tailored to the needs of engineers and scientists for rapid understanding and quick solution of statistical problems so that they can get back to their primary work. The approach is problem-oriented and includes detailed case studies from the semiconductor industry and from NIST laboratories to illustrate statistical approaches to solving engineering and scientific problems. The Web site also includes links to integrated software packages.
- Itamar Pitowsky, From logic to physics: How the meaning of computation changed over time | PhilPapers – The intuition guiding the definition of computation has shifted over time, a process that is reflected in the changing formulations of the Church-Turing thesis. The theory of computation began with logic and gradually moved to the capacity of finite automata. Consequently, modern computer models rely on general physical principles, with quantum computers representing the extreme case. The paper discusses this development, and the challenges to the Church-Turing thesis in its physical form, in particular, Kieu’s quantum computer and relativistic hyper-computation. Finally, the robustness of the boundary between polynomial and exponential time complexity is considered in connection with quantum computers and quantum information theory.
- 30 Classic Games for Simple Outdoor Play | GeekDad | Wired.com – When I was a kid, we played outside with the other kids in the neighborhood with most of our free time. We also made the most of recess at school. We kept ourselves quite occupied without any of today’s modern technologies. Listed below are some no-tech games that you may have enjoyed as a kid. I sure did. Some can be done indoors. Some can be done by yourself or with just one friend. But most of them are best when done outside with a group of people. Also, most of these games can be changed or improved by making up your own rules. Use your imagination!
- Mark Colyvan, A topological sorites | PhilPapers – This paper considers a generalisation of the sorites paradox, in which only topological notions are employed. We argue that by increasing the level of abstraction in this way, we see the sorites paradox in a new, more revealing light—a light that forces attention on cut-off points of vague predicates. The generalised sorites paradox presented here also gives rise to a new, more tractable definition of vagueness.
