October 1, 2008

For this week’s contest, click here!

Hello, Leiter Reports! I’m very glad that I have a couple philosophy degrees, because the conditional logic that you guys threw my way … well, wasn’t too complicated per se, I just don’t see much of it during a regular work day! That wasn’t supposed to rhyme.

Anywho, I’m gonna pick THREE winners this week rather than one; because the response was so overwhelming, and I want to raise the chances for everyone. So I’ll announce the winners of Hexaflexagons, Probability Paradoxes, and the Tower of Hanoi.

If you don’t win, don’t fret! Along with the winners, I’ll post the next contest. Two more weeks to go.

There are three simple ways to do it, and you guys nailed them all.

Ask about the other guy: “If I were to ask a member of the other tribe the if this (pointing) road leads to the village, what would he say?”

The soul-searching method: “If I were to ask you if the road over there leads to the village, what would you say?”

The Biconditional (hey, I remember these): Warren C. Haggstrom of Ann Arbor suggested the following phrasing to Gardner (it’s in the book) to take the ambiguity out of questions within questions: “Of the two statements - ‘You are a liar’ and ‘This road leads to a village,’ is one, and only one of them true?”

I like Haggstrom’s language; it’s simpler than the “if and only if” conditional.

Check this out. In a 1957 letter to Scientific American, a couple of writers (one a Cambridge cosmologist) pointed out that you could know that two words, say, ‘pish’ and ‘tush’ mean yes and no, but not know which means which. Even so, given the liar/truth-tellers a crafty logician could ask:

“If I asked you whether the road I am pointing to is the road to the village, would you say pish?” If the response is “Pish,” then that’s the road to take. If “Tush,” take the other road.

Though not categorically correct, I also would have accepted: “Did you know that they are serving free beer in the village?”

This week’s winners:

M. M. Smith with a nice little poem, Gathering for Gardner-style. He changed the logician to a young girl for clarity.

The lass questioned the teen on her plight
But feared he might lie by birthright
So she quizzed the youth’s ken:
“Would the other tribe’s men
Say to the left, or the right?”

The lass then took the other road.

Oh, man! A. Andrews managed to tie this one to our economic crisis:

There once was man from a U(niversity),
got stuck at a fork, what to do!?!
A truth-teller he sought, but discern he could not,
whether what he was saying was true.

He said to his new friend “Dear sir,
If an opponent you were (that is, a member of the other tribe),
Would you tell me to stay on branch B, or A?
Oh, and please do try not to slur.” (For the man from the University was old, and his hearing had declined).

“My friend,” said the native, “I know
that my opponent will tell you to go,
down this road right here, letter B, but I fear,
that with you this way I must go. (For the man’s sight had also declined, and this was apparent to the native).

Now the university man was quite bright,
and he knew well that the native might
be telling the truth, but with out any proof,
he could not be sure he was right, (at least, he could not be sure whether the native were a truth-teller).

But this quandary could not overcome
the mind of the man who was from
the University, for the answer, you see,
was clearer for him than for some.

He started down branch letter A
But why, you ask, did he stray,
from the path advised by the native disguised?
Since the native’s true tribe was still vague.

The answer will now be secured:
The question the prof asked ensured
that the native’s report, or his opponent’s retort
would certainly be a false word.

So along down branch A he went
Till every last dime he had spent
It was gone very fast, for no bill was passed,
that would, an economic crisis, prevent.

Winner #3, picked at random, was B. Bix. with an “Ask the other guy” method. There were some other memorable answers, some insightful, others, well, wrong, but good for a laugh. I’ll post them in the Hall of Fame page up top later today.

Thanks, Leiter readers, I knew I could count on you. Enter again!

And the next contest, after the jump.

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Trading a kidney for tickets to see Obama at the DNC. On Craigslist.

Good deal? Trustworthy?

I’m not sure, but at least they picked a very well rendered, accurate picture of a kidney, courtesy of *ahem* Cambridge University Press’ A.D.A.M. Atlas of Anatomy.

Plus, it’s hilarious. Click to embiggen.

Thanks to Laura for pointing this one out.

It’s Friday. Feeling healthy? I’m not qualified to give any dietary advice but… if you’ve been drinking wine as a healthy alternative to beer, perhaps you should reconsider. Then again, who am I to talk? That picture to the left was taken in my kitchen after a night of heavy fermentation. The result was a very tasty beer. It should be no surprise that I’ve enjoyed Beer vs. Wine Fridays. Perhaps we should let an expert take over from here — someone with a real knowledge of brewing chemistry.

Charles Bamforth on Beer and Health

Alcohol is the key ingredient for countering the risk of your arteries blocking up. Guess what? It matters not one jot whether it comes from wine or beer. You might just dwell on the fact, however, that the beer contains the more vitamins, soluble fiber and silicon, which counters osteoporosis. In fact beer is second only to bananas as a source of silicon. And much more pleasurable.

Some studies (excerpted from Grape vs. Grain)

Dr. Cynthia Baum-Baicker, a clinical psychologist within the University of Pennsylvania Health system, has reviewed the literature on the positive psychological benefits of moderate alcohol consumption and concludes that there is reduced stress in such consumers. There is an increase in happiness, euphoria, conviviality, and pleasant and carefree feelings but a decrease in tension, depression, and self-consciousness. More so, low doses of alcohol improve certain types of cognitive performance, such as problem-solving and short-term memory. By contrast, heavy drinkers and abstainers had higher rates of clinical depression than did regular moderate drinkers. Guallar-Castillon and colleagues at a Madrid university described a study showing that people drinking wine or beer believed themselves to be healthier; in fact, the higher the consumption the better people felt they were! Perhaps this is the reason why studies in different regions variously flag up wine or beer as the more beneficial.

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Tags: Bamforth, Beer, Grape vs. Grain, Wine

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