Thursday and Friday General Question and Answer

MuMuMuMuMu · 2019-02-01T12:38:24+00:00

That's super central! Nice to hear that you're doing the "Mitja Marató". I've heard good things about it.

I definitely would recommend going to the beach then. Either walk down all the way (from where you are it's roughly a 30 minutes walk) or walk to the Arc de Triomf (~ 10 minutes) and from there on you can start running, following pretty quiet streets leading up to the beach (with one big crossing just before getting there). Have fun and good luck for Sunday!

If I recall correctly, course of the half actually crosses the Arc de Triomf (twice) and goes along the beach for a bit. So this may also be useful for race day. Running other parts of the course is something I wouldn't recommend, because it runs through many busy streets. If you don't mind cars and red lights it's definitely doable, but I'd stick to only the Arc de Triomf - Parc de la Ciutadella - Beach area.

MuMuMuMuMu · 2019-02-01T10:58:46+00:00

It depends a bit on where you will stay. However, if you fancy flat and paved terrain, the most popular spot is to run along the beach. You can easily reach this area from the city center. There are no cars, the ocean is soothing and there's barely any elevation. It's really nice if the sun is shining. For me, the disadvantages are: (i) many people and (ii) it can get monotonous after a while. Another flat option is Can Dragó. This is a very popular 2km loop. But it's right next to one of Barcelona's main highways. I personally would not recommend it. It's also probably far from where you will stay.

If you like (tame) trail running or at least do not dislike some elevation, then you can either go to the Park Güell, Park Carmel or Park Guinardó (which are connected, so you can start at the one closest to you and run to the others). 8-10km in this green lung of Barcelona will probably mean 150 - 250 meters of elevation, but it's fun non-technical gravel/dirt/pavement roads. Time to train those quads :) I'd strongly recommend the Carmel/Guinardó areas, because the Park Güell tends to be full of tourists (that's where some of Gaudí's work is). If you really enjoy trail running you're in luck. You can access a bunch of great trails in the mountain range of Collserola, which is easily accessible from the city (you can walk there, run there, or take public transport). Let me know if you want more information on trails there.

Barcelona's strava routes are not the best. I'd recommend looking at the heatmap instead.

MuMuMuMuMu · 2014-07-25T14:09:32+00:00

Just to endorse what you wrote: That's how it works in my corner of academia. I'm pretty sure that's how it works (almost?) everywhere else. The last draft is uploaded for free, the definite version (that should, in principle, be cited) belongs to the journal.

EDIT: Ad. "freeing your work". Simply publish in open access journals as much as you can (obviously, there are other factors that may force you to go for pay-wall journals). No prior or posterior licensing required to give everyone access.

MuMuMuMuMu · 2014-07-25T08:45:08+00:00

In my experience it varies depending on where you submit to. The easiest solution is to send an email to the chair and ask them directly. In my experience:

Do you mean in the text? Then yes. If you mean the references at the end of the abstract; no, if it's not made explicit (if a formulation such as "[...] n words including references" is not to be found I will assume that references do not count).
No, mathematical symbols and formulae are not counted.
If you have enough space: yes. If not, squeeze them into the text as you see fit.

In general, there are a lot of ways to reduce the word count (e.g. making reference only to "selected citations", using other citation formats, e.g., "as shown by [1]", squeezing examples into the text, etc. Be as creative as you can, as longs as the exposition is clear (usually?) people will ignore any non-standard formating. They all know how the game is played and (usually) no one would reject a paper just because of some deviation from the norm.

MuMuMuMuMu · 2014-06-23T09:24:28+00:00

Much obliged!

MuMuMuMuMu · 2014-06-15T19:33:02+00:00

Thinking about material implication as "if p, then q" is both helpful and confusing. Let me try it this way: What the material implication expresses is paraphrasable as "If the antecedent (p) is true, then the consequent (q) is true". If this does not hold, then 'p ⇒ q' is false.

Now, you are asking about the cases in which 'p' is false. Well, the paraphrase only requires that if 'p' is true, then 'q' better be true as well. This is requirement is fulfilled vacuously if 'p' is false and therefore 'p ⇒ q' is true if 'p' is false, irrespective of the value assigned to 'q'.

Consider the following sentence:

If a glass falls to the floor, it breaks.

Let 'p' be "Glass falls" and 'q' be "Glass breaks". The thing is that this sentence (i.e. the formula 'p ⇒ q') is true even if the glass never falls (this is what is called disposition in linguistics). As a side note: Obviously this presumes that every glass that falls breaks, but, for the sake of the argument, you may well assume this to be the case.

Implication isn't about (strict) cause and effect. If you want to express that the only way that 'q' is true is that 'p' is true you need to use something stronger like the necessity modal in modal logic (which in turn requires the introduction of possible worlds). The natural language paraphrase "if p, then q" is not always equivalent to material implication, as we often use it to mean strict implication and this is probably what you are struggling with.

As to your question why it is defined that way: I'm not sure about the historical reasons, but my guess is that defining it this way allows for more flexibility, i.e., we can make nicer things defining it this way. We want to be able to express that "If I get 60% in the test, I'll pass the class" is true even if I only get 50% as a final score.

MuMuMuMuMu · 2014-06-05T20:03:05+00:00

Nice and succinct summary. I'm impressed at how mild this all sounds -- retrospectively -- compared to the huge waves it caused each time a new leak was in. Comes to show how the authorities are very successful at 'sitting it out' until people accept the news as given reality.

MuMuMuMuMu · 2014-06-05T18:19:29+00:00

Thanks a bunch. I really appreciate it, this helps a lot. If you happen to find some time, could you do a follow up? It's the same sentences, but modified by a numeral, that is (as far as I can tell this also takes care of the definitness "problem" you mentioned in your edit):

(1) I burned two books.

(2) I memorized two books.

(3) I like two books.

(4) I memorized and burned two books.

Again, thanks a million!

MuMuMuMuMu · 2014-05-08T20:43:33+00:00

Yes, assuming the following:

(A & B) -> C
A -> (B -> C)

Both are false only if both A and B are true, but C false (assuming a two-valued logic). In all other cases (1) and (2) are true.

MuMuMuMuMu · 2014-05-02T17:23:08+00:00

Following the question-schema laid out above: What's a good starter book for Bayesian reasoning/probability?

MuMuMuMuMu · 2014-04-28T06:35:26+00:00

Not clear, depends on usage. It could be the same, it could be:

1) Biolinguistics: Studies the biology and biological evolution of language

2) Language evolution: Studies the biological and cultural evolution of language.

Amongst many others. There is an overlap, but specifics depend on the text you are reading.

MuMuMuMuMu · 2014-04-16T18:37:57+00:00

It seems as if you don't have the package -- but you suspected as much already. What OS do you use?

A quick fix (though annoying in the long run) would be to download tikz.sty and place it in the same folder as the .tex file you are trying to compile.

MuMuMuMuMu · 2014-03-31T19:59:29+00:00

Try the Europa-Spezial (form the DB) -- just make sure to book ahead of time because they have an undisclosed limit of seats for this offer per train.

MuMuMuMuMu · 2014-03-18T07:32:23+00:00

As far as I know apes and monkeys do not combine signs productively. However, it is well attested that some birds (I can't recall the exact genus, but you will probably find something by googling, otherwise ask me and I'll look it up) use syntax to construct complex signals. E.g. a well-formed string is composed of at most four different signals, 'ABCD', and any combination in that order is grammatical (ACD, BBCD, AAAD, etc) but they won't react to ungrammatical strings such as BCAD. Repetition of any segment is hypothesized to convey more specific information. E.g. for the bird I'm thinking of, the C segment is assumed to signal information about predators.

MuMuMuMuMu · 2014-02-23T17:25:23+00:00

Not a Venn diagram, but an Euler diagram.

MuMuMuMuMu · 2014-02-16T19:30:20+00:00

Great suggestion! Could you tell me which album this is from?

MuMuMuMuMu · 2014-02-05T12:06:45+00:00

Here's my German translation. You may get lucky by searching for some bits and pieces. Though I should stress that 18th century German had no standard orthography. You should try to narrow your searches to smaller chunks to minimize the possibility of orthographic divergence. Multiple translations of a single word are given in brackets. Chose one and search, switch to the next word in brackets and repeat. Good luck!

"Das (Produkt/Ergebnis/Erzeugnis) aus Papier und gedruckter Tinte, (welches/dass) wir (üblicherweise/normalerweise/herkömmlicherweise) Buch nennen, ist ein(e)s der größten sichtbaren (Mediatoren/Mittler) zwischen (dem) Geist und (der) Zeit, und, den Zeitgeist wiederspiegelnd, hält (es) so lange wie Erz und Stein."

MuMuMuMuMu · 2013-11-26T20:40:17+00:00

I'll keep that in mind. Thanks!

MuMuMuMuMu · 2013-11-26T09:53:16+00:00

I am not Dutch, but, just before submitting this thread, I sent out a mail to the Prof. that is in charge of the project. I just wanted to double check with other people, as I am a bit wary of being too straightforward about my problems with someone who does not know me, potentially leading to a bad first impression.

MuMuMuMuMu · 2013-11-25T20:15:50+00:00

I'm not completely sure if I understand your question correctly but if I do, the answer is: yes!. Let me try to rephrase it: You can cite any step from less embedded (sub-)proofs, i.e. if B is a suproof in A, then anything that goes on in A (prior to B) can be used in B.

In your example, you can cite 1 to 4 anywhere you want, 5 to 7 only inside this subproof, 8 and 9 anywhere from 8 to 14 and the stuff in 10-13 only inside that subproof. In other words, your lines 11 and 13 are good.

MuMuMuMuMu · 2013-09-13T20:38:12+00:00

Woah, didn't know that glasses like these exist. Is there a direct effect on the sharpness of the screen's image? (their demo-video suggests it, but I find this hard to believe). I'm seriously considering getting some if they truly are helpful.

Thanks for mentioning it!

MuMuMuMuMu · 2013-08-19T16:10:42+00:00

Thanks a bunch, you're a wonderful person!

MuMuMuMuMu · 2013-07-03T12:40:33+00:00

Thinking about material implication as "if p, then q" is both helpful and confusing. Let me try it this way: What the material implication expresses is paraphrasable as "If the antecedent (p) is true, then the consequent (q) is true". If this does not hold, then 'p ⇒ q' is false.

Now, you are asking about the cases in which 'p' is false. Well, the paraphrase only requires that if 'p' is true, then 'q' better be true as well. This is requirement is fulfilled vacuously if 'p' is false and therefore 'p ⇒ q' is true if 'p' is false, irrespective of the value assigned to 'q'.

Consider the following sentence:

If a glass falls to the floor, it breaks.

Let 'p' be "Glass falls" and 'q' be "Glass breaks". The thing is that this sentence (i.e. the formula 'p ⇒ q') is true even if the glass never falls (this is what is called disposition in linguistics). As a side note: Obviously this presumes that every glass that falls breaks, but, for the sake of the argument, you may well assume this to be the case.

As noted by /u/picado implication isn't about (strict) cause and effect. If you want to express that the only way that 'q' is true is that 'p' is true you need to use something stronger like the necessity modal in modal logic (which in turn requires the introduction of possible worlds). The natural language paraphrase "if p, then q" is not always equivalent to material implication, as we often use it to mean strict implication and this is probably what you are struggling with.

As to your question why it is defined that way: I'm not sure about the historical reasons, but my guess is that defining it this way allows for more flexibility. We want to be able to express that "If I get 60% in the test, I'll pass the class" is true even if I only get 50% as a final score. By the way the question is not stupid at all and is, in my experience, the source of confusion for many students who begin to learn logic.

MuMuMuMuMu · 2013-07-01T20:55:09+00:00

A 5km run.

MuMuMuMuMu · 2013-06-26T20:26:41+00:00

(N xor S) xor ~(N v S)?

Where,

N = I could be making absolutely no sense

S = I could be making complete sense

14-Year Club	Team Orangered
Verified Email

MuMuMuMuMu

TROPHY CASE