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Requirements for Graduation
Academic Catalog 2010–2011
General Requirements
- Successful completion of 32 courses, including a maximum of one course credit in designated health and exercise science activities (HES-100 to HES-199). Courses taken in the January Interim do not count toward this total.
- In addition to the 32 regular semester course credits, students will complete at least two Interim Experience (IEX) course credits during the January Interims. Transfer students admitted with advanced standing are also required to complete two Interim Experience course credits.
- Two years (17 courses minimum) are required in residence, including the senior year. The senior year may be the last two semesters preceding the conferring of the degree or at least nine of the last 12 regular semester courses taken toward the degree. Exceptions to the senior year residency are made for students enrolled in Study Abroad Programs sponsored by the College and in cooperative programs with other institutions leading to a B.A. and professional degree. At least three courses of the 17 must be taken outside of the major department.
- Three designated writing courses from at least two different departments. One of these courses must be taken in the first year (normally in the First Term Seminar). At least one designated writing course must be a WRITI (Writing Intensive) and one must be a WRITD (Writing in the Disciplines).
- An approved major.
- A cumulative grade point average of 2.000 or higher. Each graded January IEX course will be included in calculating the grade point average.
- Completion of the core requirements from either Curriculum I or II (below).
Curriculum I (Distributive Core)
The Curriculum I requirements represent approximately one-third of the total courses required for graduation and are intended to ensure that each student has had a broadly based liberal arts education.
- First Term Seminar: As part of their first semester course schedule, Curriculum I students entering Gustavus Adolphus College as first-year students enroll in one course designated FTS-100: First Term Seminar. The FTS is a small, discussion-based course that introduces students to skills and habits central to the liberal arts: critical thinking, writing, speaking, and recognizing and exploring question of values. The FTS professor will serve as the first-year academic adviser. Each FTS carries a WRITI (writing) designation. A list and description of FTS offerings is published for entering students before registration.
- Completion of a Non-English Language Requirement: Curriculum I students will pass the beginning sequence in a non-English language (the first two courses constitute the beginning sequence in all such languages) or will demonstrate equivalent proficiency. Students should contact the Academic Advising Office or the Office of the Registrar for information about demonstrating proficiency in a language (including ASL) that Gustavus does not regularly teach.
- General Education Liberal Arts Perspective Courses: Each Curriculum I student must complete nine designated general education courses (including at least one course from each of the nine areas listed below). No more than two courses from the same department may be counted.
Liberal Arts Perspective Courses
A Liberal Arts Perspective course teaches the principles of a particular domain of study, provides its context, questions the values of that domain, and builds bridges towards other disciplines.
- The Arts (ARTS). Through modes of expression such as painting, sculpture, music, dance, theatre, and film, artists clarify, intensify, dramatize, and interpret the world in all of its physical, social, and spiritual aspects. Courses meeting this requirement in the visual and performing arts develop a more comprehensive understanding of the creative process and foster a lifetime involvement with the arts. These experiences enable students to recognize and value the integral role that the arts play in society; such experiences enable students to express themselves and their ideas in creative ways.
- Biblical and Theological Studies (THEOL). The requirement of one regular semester course in the Christian tradition is a curricular expression of the College's long-standing commitment, articulated in the Mission Statement, to foster in its students a "mature understanding of the Christian faith." Included in such a mature understanding is a careful consideration of the role of religion in human life. Courses meeting this requirement help students understand religion as part of a liberal arts education through a biblical and theological study of the Christian tradition. These courses seek neither to inculcate the Christian religion nor to dismiss it. Rather, such courses help students develop a critical understanding and appreciation of the Christian tradition as an important entity in itself, and as an important element in world cultures.
- Literary and Rhetorical Studies (LARS). The purpose of the Literary and Rhetorical Studies requirement is to help students revel in the beauty and power of the word; understand and enjoy the life of the mind as embodied in books and formal oral communication; and place themselves within the human community of storytellers, poets, orators, essayists, playwrights, satirists, and critics. Courses in this area will introduce students to literary and rhetorical genres, methods of analysis, and historical and cultural circumstances surrounding texts. These courses will help students formulate questions about issues of meaning and value, and will provide a context for the appreciation and personal expression of literature and rhetoric.
- Historical and Philosophical Studies (HIPHI). Philosophy investigates the nature of reality, knowledge, and values. History analyzes past events and constructs narratives that seek to explain those events. Thus, courses in Historical and Philosophical Studies critically interpret records of, and reflections on, human thought, action, and values across time and place and among diverse cultures and peoples. Courses in this area promote understanding of human thought in the context of historical developments, and historical developments in the context of their relation to questions of meaning and value. Historical and philosophical inquiries require that we ask fundamental questions about the construction and creation of knowledge, the roles of objectivity and subjectivity in the search for truth, and the relationship of human agency to theories of historical causation. Philosophers undertake their inquiries with awareness of the historical context in which ideas develop. Historians consider the intellectual milieu in which past events unfold and are interpreted.
- Mathematical and Logical Reasoning (MATHL). Courses in Mathematical and Logical Reasoning introduce students to the methods and applications of deductive reasoning. As such, they focus on underlying axioms, theorems, and methods of proof. Considerable emphasis is placed on the application of these ideas to the natural and social sciences. They also place some emphasis as appropriate on the history of the discipline, its philosophical assumptions, the strengths and limitations of its methods, its relation to other disciplines, and its relation to social and ethical problems. Courses in this area will provide students with knowledge of the language of mathematics and logic; familiarity with mathematical, logical, algorithmic, or statistical methods; knowledge of practical applications; and appreciation of the role of the deductive sciences in the history of ideas, and of their impact on science, technology, and society.
- Natural Science Perspective (NASP). Liberal Arts Perspective courses in Natural Science introduce the student to the mechanics of natural and life processes, and the quantitative basis for understanding these processes. As such, they focus on the evidence, theories, and methods of the natural sciences and place them in a historical context. They also place some emphasis on the strengths and limitations of the methods employed, the philosophical assumptions, the boundaries and connections with other disciplines, and relationships to social, ethical, and political problems. Courses in this area will provide students with factual information about the natural world, knowledge of concepts, principles, and theories that scientists use to organize and explain those facts, familiarity with the application of scientific concepts and principles to the solution of problems, acquaintance with the historical development and philosophical implications of the scientific concepts, and sensitivity to the ethical and social impact of science and technology. These courses also include a laboratory component.
- Human Behavior and Social Institutions (SOSCI). Courses in Human Behavior and Social Institutions seek to enable students to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to understand fundamental social institutions and social characteristics of human beings. Courses in this area will address concepts used by the social and behavioral sciences to organize and to explain information about human behavior and social institutions, as well as the historical development of a particular social and behavioral science. They will also address methods of collecting and presenting information in the social and behavioral sciences, and social and ethical issues concerning human behavior.
- Non-Western Cultures (NWEST). The nature of contemporary world events makes an understanding of non-Western and global perspectives a necessary component of a liberal arts education. It is increasingly necessary for people involved in business, politics, economic development, religious interaction, and everyday life to function across traditional linguistic and cultural boundaries. Courses fulfilling the NWEST requirement will enable students to recognize difference in a pluralistic way while encouraging an appreciation of the importance of difference in common and cultural life.
This requirement may be fulfilled either by taking a NWEST course or by completing an appropriate study-abroad experience. A NWEST course will focus predominantly on non-Western material, and will provide students with an understanding of cultures, societies, religious worldviews and/or political/economic systems outside of the familiar Western context. It will provide the student with the tools or opportunity to gain access to an understanding of others' cultures from within the context of those cultures.
A study-abroad experience meeting this requirement will be a semester or yearlong program centered in a non-Western country. Study abroad will provide students with the opportunity to participate in an intensive exploration of, and experience in, another culture through classroom study and daily living.
- Lifelong Fitness (FIT and ACT). Students must complete both the Personal Fitness (FIT) requirement (.5 course) and the Lifetime Activity (ACT) requirement (.5 course equivalent).
- 9a. The Personal Fitness requirement (FIT) encourages exploration of personal values and enables students to recognize and appreciate the importance of lifelong fitness. Students learn how to set appropriate goals to improve fitness, engage in regular aerobic exercise, and acquire knowledge regarding health promotion, disease prevention, and relaxation.
- 9b. The Lifetime Activity requirement (ACT) encourages students to select courses across a range of activity areas based on personal interest. Courses engage students in activity designed to increase muscular strength and flexibility, improve psychomotor skills, and explore the connection between mind and body. Each course emphasizes appreciation of lifetime activity, health promotion, and reduction of risk behavior.
Curriculum II (Integrated Core)
Curriculum II is an integrated studies approach to general education that explores the interrelatedness of the varied fields of learning. A theme of "the individual and community" is seen throughout the program as it examines the Western intellectual and cultural traditions. Students are challenged to address ethical values questions both in class and in the out-of-class Curriculum II-sponsored cultural, social, and intellectual activities. The courses listed below are open to Curriculum II students only. The program is available, by application, to any entering first-year student, subject only to a limitation of 60 students per entering class. It is supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and enrolls students from all the major fields of study. The recommended sequence of courses is as follows:
First Year Fall: CUR-100 Historical Perspective I, CUR-140 The Biblical Tradition
First Year Spring: CUR-110 Historical Perspective II, CUR-120 The Individual and Morality
Second Year Fall or January: CUR-210 The Individual and Society, CUR-220, 230 or 240 Fine Arts
Second Year Spring: CUR-250 The Literary Experience
Third Year Fall or Spring: CUR-260 The Natural World
Fourth Year Fall or Spring: CUR-399 Senior Seminar
In addition to the above:
- Foreign language through the third semester equivalent (FRE-201, GER-201, GRE-201, JPN-201, LAT-201, RUS-201, SPA-103, or SWE-201).
- One quantitative reasoning course, MCS-115, The Nature of Math, MCS-121, Calculus, or MCS-140, Statistics.
- HES-100, Personal Fitness and .5 course equivalent in physical education activities (ACT). (See #9 in Liberal Arts Perspective Courses.)
The CII program recognizes that flexibility in scheduling is sometimes necessary; in cases of serious academic conflicts, students may petition to use appropriate substitutions, including courses taken abroad, to fulfill Curriculum II requirements. See the director for further details.
Curriculum II Courses
CUR-100 Historical Perspective I (1 course) This course studies some of the people, ideas, and events that are regarded as the most influential in Western history. It provides a survey of civilizations from southwest Asia, Greece, and Italy to the European Renaissance, with some reference to other Asian history and the interactions of Europe with other cultures. Concentrating on specific pivotal periods which illuminate crucial human problems, students will read and analyze primary sources in order to develop an understanding of history's significance for contemporary life and of the shifting nature of historiography itself. WRITI.
CUR-110 Historical Perspective II (1 course) This course picks up where CUR-100 leaves off in a sweeping survey of Western history. Among the themes covered are the revolutions in knowledge, religion, and politics; state development and international relations; discovery, exploitation, and predominance in the world; and the place of the West in the contemporary world. At times the perspective of the course will be global. The course will also seek to develop further an awareness of the "history of history," as well as what it means to think and work as historians.
CUR-120 The Individual and Morality (1 course) This course will explore the historical and social context in which moral problems develop and in which human beings and their communities respond to them. It will investigate the ways in which politics, science, art, and religion, for example, influence the formulation and resolution of moral problems. Non-Western approaches to ethics, morality, and individuality may also be included in the course. We will raise questions about the widely held view that values in morals, politics, science, art, and religion are merely matters of taste
CUR-140 The Biblical Tradition (1 course) This course will use the Bible as a primary source to study the role and major contributions of the Judeo-Christian tradition in the development of Western culture. It will give special emphasis to themes such as faith and reason; the functions of symbol, ritual, myth, and literary genre; the shape of history; the world as the arena of divine creation, providence, and redemption; the communal identity and ethical goals of persons; and aesthetic dimensions of their interrelationship with non-human life and inanimate being.
CUR-210 The Individual and Society (1 course) This course will introduce students to the study of individual behavior, of social interaction, or of social institutions. The basic assumptions, issues, and methods of the behavioral and social sciences will be explored, and students will be asked to reflect on the role of the social sciences in understanding and evaluating society. The interplay of individuals with society will be analyzed over a variety of cultural settings. WRITD
CUR-220 Musical Understanding (1 course) This course provides students with an understanding and appreciation of the nature and place of music in contemporary culture. Music is a rich source of diversity in cultural influences as well as musical periods, styles, and media. The composer's perspective, the performer's role, and the listener's responsibility provide points of departure for considering the individual's contributions to music and communal reaction to differing types of music or musical developments. Students will be involved in activities such as listening to recorded performances of music, attending performances of music on- and off-campus, writing papers for class presentations, discussing special topics, and participating directly in musical performance.
CUR-230 The Visual Experience (1 course) This course provides a basis for the appreciation of the visual arts in human experience. It does this through examination of artistic periods, artists, and individual works of art in a variety of artistic traditions. Students will explore both Western and non-Western traditions. Artistic events on and off campus will be integrated into the course. Although this is mainly a course on art appreciation, students will be involved in exploring their individual artistic creativity.
CUR-240 Theatre Arts (1 course) This course provides the basis for understanding and appreciating the nature of theatrical art. Through the study of significant texts and historical contexts, the student gains a critical understanding of drama or dance. Through the study of the physical and imaginative nature of performance, the student gains an appreciation of the processes of theatrical art. The relationship of the individual and the community is approached in this course from the viewpoint of one or more theatre artists: the playwright, the designer, the actor, the director, the choreographer, the dancer. While the primary focus is upon Western theatre, comparisons are made with non-Western theatres or between minority and mainstream traditions in the West.
CUR-250 The Literary Experience (1 course) This course analyzes works of various literary traditions in the context of the development of Western civilization and examines the scope and importance of reading literature critically. Influential texts of diverse world literatures are also read and discussed. The course encourages students to think and write critically, to make aesthetic, intellectual and moral discriminations, to enjoy literature, and to compare the kind of truth literature offers with that of other forms of art and enquiry. WRITD
CUR-260 The Natural World (1 course) This course will provide an historical view of the evolution of human understanding of the physical universe. It will trace the development of natural science from classical Greece to the rise of modern science in the 20th century. The course will point out the changing view of nature as represented by introducing working models and theories of science in their historical context. The relationship between the drive for unity and the perception of diversity in science will be explored. There will be one laboratory per week.
CUR-291, 391 Independent Study Opportunities exist in Curriculum II for students to develop independent projects under the supervision of a CII professor
CUR-268, 368 Career Exploration, Internship This internship is designed to place students in situations where their CII integrated liberal arts studies are highly valued. Prerequisites: At least three semesters of CII courses.
CUR-399 Senior Seminar (1 course) As a capstone course for the Curriculum II program, this seminar calls upon students to contemplate questions concerning values in the context of the relationship between the individual and the community. The course's main activity is vigorous discussion of books and articles that raise issues concerning values in contemporary life from diverse cultural perspectives. The course's main product is a major paper in which students account for their own values from both theoretical and personal perspectives. WRITI.


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Apple just removed Airfoil Speakers Touch 3 from the iOS app store, despite claims from developer Rogue Amoeba that the app complies with all of Apple's rules and developer agreements. What gives, Apple?
Airfoil Speakers Touch is rad, which is why this bothers us. Since 2009 the app has allowed you to stream audio from your computer—Mac or PC—to your iOS device. Last month, Rogue Amoeba released Airfoil Speakers Touch 3, introduced the ability to push audio from one iOS device to another. All signs point to the removal being somehow linked to this new functionality. Still, Apple hasn't given Rogue Amoeba Software a concrete reason for the app's removal:
We first heard from Apple about this decision two days ago, and we've been discussing the pending removal with them since then. However, we still do not yet have a clear answer on why Apple has chosen to remove Airfoil Speakers Touch. Needless to say, we're quite disappointed with their decision, and we're working hard to once again make the application available for you, our users.
Rogue Amoeba has appealed the app's removal.
In fairness, it's possible that Apple has some security concerns about this type of functionality. On the other hand could it be that Apple is using its hand of god to keep Airfoil from competing with its curent or forthcoming products? [Rogue Amoeba Software via Techmeme]
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subset: commoncrawl


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Submitted for your approval is a new batch of Hot Dead Goodness. Today we have three Hot Dead Guys and three Hot Dead Chicks—a little something for everyone.
We begin with Aldous Huxley…über-intellect, philosopher, and author. Best known for his anti-Utopian novel Brave New World. Also well known for his prodigious and copious drug use. Less well known for his 1940 screenplay for Pride and Prejudice, starring Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson. Should be known best for his brooding good looks, penetrating gaze, and general hotness.
Next up we have Sir Walter Raleigh (or Ralegh, as it was originally spelled). Well known for his dalliance with Queen Elizabeth I ("Virgin Queen" my ass). Also known for his ill-fated expedition to settle Roanoke Colony in North Carolina (what kind of dipstick sends people to set up shop on the North Carolina coast during hurricane season, anyway???). Should be best known as Hot Elizabethan Studmuffin.
Our third Hot Dead Guy was chosen with Leo in mind, because I know of his fondness for hot prisoners and ex-cons.
John Boyle O'Reilly was a Fenian who was imprisoned in 1866 for his role in an Irish plot to rebel against British troops. This didn't exactly endear him to the British, and for his troubles he got a prison sentence and subsequent transportation to Australia as a political criminal. O'Reilly escaped from prison in 1869 and made his way to the United States, where he continued to advocate for Irish independence. Now tell me you wouldn't have enjoyed solitary confinement with this fine felon.
And now, the ladies…
First, Alice Roosevelt…she was the oldest child of Teddy Roosevelt, and man, was she a piece of work. She had a throw pillow that was embroidered with "If you can't say something nice, then sit next to me." I mean, look at this haughty broad. You just know she'd rip you to shreds. Her forked tongue often got her in trouble and she was embroiled in multiple scandals throughout her life, but she didn't care. Alice lived without restrictions. And she was hot.
Next, may I present Hedy Lamarr, Hollywood legend and science geek. During World War II, she devised a method of preventing radio-guided torpedoes from being jammed by the enemy: a device that would constantly change the radio frequency so that enemy equipment couldn't get a fix on it.
She received a patent for her "frequency hopping" system. It was never used by the United States Navy, but many modern communications devices use a system very similar to it today. Hottie Hedy had beauty AND brains.
Last but by no means least, we have Jennie Jerome. Who??? Well, Brooklyn-born Jennie was from a well-to-do family, and being a fine specimen of female pulchritude, she had a variety of suitors. In 1874, she met Lord Randolph Churchill—the man who would soon become her husband. They soon had a son, Winston. You may have heard of him. (By the way, smart money says that Winston was conceived BEFORE the wedding of his parents…) Jennie was notorious for her sexual appetites as well as for her impossibly tiny waist (thanks to some seriously impressive corsetry). Her second and third husbands were both 20 years her junior, and she was once described as having "more of the panther than of the woman in her look." Who knew Winston's mom was such a live wire? And so hot??


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VIDEO: Bomb blast hits bus in Egypt's capital, wounding 5
CAIRO - A bomb exploded in a busy intersection near schools in the Egyptian capital Cairo on Thursday, hitting a bus and wounding five people in an attack that raised concerns that a wave of violence blamed on Islamic militants that has targeted security forces and military for months is increasingly turning to hit civilians.
The blast came a day after the government declared its top political nemesis, the Muslim Brotherhood, a terrorist organization, accusing it of being behind the violence. The declaration steps up the crackdown on the group since the military ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July. On Thursday Interior Ministry spokesman warned that leading a Brotherhood protest was now punishable by life in prison under anti-terrorism laws.
The Brotherhood has denied the claim, saying the government is trying to scapegoat it, and called for increased protests.
Since Morsi's July 4 ouster and the subsequent crackdown on his Brotherhood and other Islamist supporters, a nascent insurgency by Islamic militants has accelerated.
Suicide bombings, ambushes and other attacks have mainly targeted security forces and troops in the Sinai Peninsula, but the attacks have also spread to Cairo and other parts of the country. Thursday's was only the second bombing seemingly aimed at solely civilian targets, after a similar bomb in the same area last week. The deadliest bombing yet came on Tuesday, when a suicide car bomber hit a security headquarters in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura, killing 16 people, almost all policemen.
With the declaration Wednesday, the government claimed the Brotherhood was ultimately behind the campaign of violence - and even violence dating back for years. But it has offered no public evidence.
In Thursday's attack, a homemade bomb planted in a main intersection went off at 9 a.m. as a public bus passed in the eastern Cairo district of Nasr City, Interior Ministry said in a statement. Authorities then found and defused at least one more remote-control bomb attached to an advertisement billboard, apparently intended to hit security forces who responded to the first, state TV reported.
The explosion shattered windows on the bus, and flying glass injured five people, one of them seriously, the ministry said.
Ministry spokesman Abdel-Fatah Osman told state TV said that the bomb was planted near a school complex "to terrorize people and cause chaos." The bomb appeared to be cause panic, not to cause casualties, since it was designed to mainly produce a large noise, the ministry's top explosives expert Gen. Alaa Abdel-Zaher told private CBC television.
The site is also near student dormitories of the Islamic Al-Azhar University, which have been the scene of near daily protests by Brotherhood students against Egypt's military-backed interim government. The protests have repeatedly turned into clashes with security forces.
In first implementation of the government's declaration Wednesday, the Brotherhood's daily newspaper, Freedom and Justice, was suspended after security forces confiscated Thursday's edition at the print shop.
At least 54 members of the group were arrested in six provinces in connection to attacks on police stations, inciting riots and violence, the Interior Ministry said.
The Brotherhood, which formally renounced violence in the 1970s, was for years the country's most powerful political force. After the 2011 ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak, it won a series of elections, gaining dominance in parliament and elevating Morsi, one of its own, to the presidency.
The military removed Morsi after massive nationwide protests against him and against the Brotherhood. It then launched a heavy crackdown on the group, killing hundreds of pro-Morsi protesters and arresting thousands of Brotherhood members. At the same time, militant violence swelled, along with attacks by apparent Morsi supporters against government buildings and churches.
The Brotherhood and its Islamist allies have continued small but daily protests demanding Morsi's reinstatement and denouncing what they call an illegal coup against democracy. At the same time, the government is pushing ahead with a transition plan, calling a Jan. 14-15 referendum on a revised constitution.
Throughout, authorities have depicted the Brotherhood as fueling violence. Morsi and several Brotherhood leaders are already on trial on various charges of inciting violence, and last week, a new trial of the ousted leader and more than 30 others was announced on charges of conspiring with terrorist groups before, during and after Morsi's one-year presidency.
But the terrorism label takes it to a new level. Membership in the group could now be grounds for arrest on terrorism charges, and authorities can act against the vast network of businesses and charities linked to the group.
A 1986 terrorism law imposes a possible death sentence for leading terrorist groups and other linked crimes. Hani Abdel-Latif, another Interior Ministry spokesman, said those who lead Brotherhood protests could be sentenced to life in prison, while those who participate in them could get up to five years in prison, according to state TV.
Islamic militant groups based in Sinai have claimed responsibility for previous bombings and shooting against security forces and the military. The most prominent militant group, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, announced it carried out Tuesday's suicide bombing in Mansoura to avenge the "shedding of innocent Muslim blood" at the hands of Egypt's "apostate regime" - a reference to the security forces' crackdown on Islamists following the coup.
But security experts have warned that young members of the Brotherhood may turn to violence in retaliation for the government's killings of group's supporters, imprisonment of top leaders and declaration of the group as a terrorist organization.
In a statement late Wednesday, the Brotherhood-led alliance vowed to "qualitatively" escalate the demonstrations to "wear down the thugs and defeat the terrorist coup."
"Today we are at the doorstep of a turning point in the revolutionary escalation after the coup leaders insisted on terrorism and violence. Hold your strong faith of your cause and your revolution," it said. It called on people to rally against the new draft constitution.
The group accused the coup leaders of "devouring their own sons in the military and police in order to survive" - reflecting its rhetoric that bombings and other attacks are orchestrated by security agencies to justify a crackdown on the Brotherhood


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Rocky Long, second year head football coach of the San Diego State Aztecs, is facing a problem that is similar, in some respects, to what voters face. Coach Long may choose to never punt the football once the Aztecs cross midfield, regardless of distance on fourth downs. He is listening to advice suggesting that the strategies of many previous coaches were wrong. Coach Long says "We had one of our professors in our business school … go over a system we are thinking about using. We'll have a chart come game time that will determine what we do in different situations."
Voters must decide whether the policies of another Obama Administration will help turn the economy around and contribute to more job creation, or if the Romney campaign proposals will be more successful in achieving these goals. Football and economic policy advice are both derived from observational, not experimental, data. It is difficult to know what might happen if alternative policies were to be enacted. Analysts look to history, in similar circumstances with similar policy options, and hope this provides useful guidance.
Coach Long's decision apparently follows the strategy of high school coach Kevin Kelley of Pulaski Academy in Little Rock, Arkansas who has been remarkably successful. But college football is not high school football. The strategy also appears similar to advice given by Berkeley macroeconomist David Romer, who several years ago found that NFL teams kick surprisingly often on fourth down.
Romer concluded that teams are not pursuing strategies that would maximize their chance of winning the game. Romer may be correct, but we should be cautious because his study is based purely on observational data. It is possible that the real world problem is more complicated than the model used to analyze the data. Whenever economics (or other social science) professors explain that agents motivated by self-interest are making choices not in their self-interest, the professors may have mis-specified their model or may misunderstand the real-world problem that people are attempting to solve.
Romer's paper is interesting, well written, and well executed. All of the criticisms raised here are ones that Romer acknowledges, but they aren't enough to sway his opinion and policy advice. The data Romer analyzed indicated that NFL teams rarely try for a first down on fourth down. The primary question is why? Romer's explanation is myopia. An alternative explanation is that a failed fourth down attempt will shift momentum in the game.
The key problem with observational data is that it is difficult to calculate the expected outcome from counterfactual decisions and policies. Romer argues that teams are not optimizing because he believes they would be successful fairly often on fourth down and two yards to go. He concludes this despite rarely seeing teams attempting this play. So how does Romer "guesstimate" the likelihood of success on fourth down and two? He looks at outcomes of third down plays with two yard to go in the first quarter of games. He uses first quarter plays because once enough game time has elapsed and the score is uneven, both teams will adjust their game strategies. He assumes that third down strategies and outcomes are very similar to what would happen on fourth down plays (if they actually were to occur) because he doesn't have enough data on fourth down plays. Even if he observed more fourth down plays, they would not be a random or representative sample of teams and/or game situations. Romer's assumptions are made out of necessity, not because they are realistic or accurate.
It is also important to note that Romer's empirical model does not allow for momentum. The value of having possession of the ball with first down and ten yards to go on a given yard line (say midfield) in his empirical model is completely independent of how one reached that position on the field. In the language of dynamic programming, the state variables for the optimization problem include down and yardage, but not the sequence of plays leading up to that point. He imposes this assumption, as good applied economists often do, to make the problem tractable. He recognizes that momentum could matter and makes some supplemental calculations to show that teams don't perform much differently immediately after very bad plays (fumbles, interceptions, blocked kicks, and long kickoff and punt returns by the opponent) and just after very good plays (touchdowns) than they do after typical plays. This is, at best, a half-hearted attempt to determine whether there is momentum in NFL games. The model simply doesn't take the idea of momentum shifts seriously, but avoiding these shifts seems to be a key reason why coaches kick field goals rather than go for it on fourth down.
Rocky Long, at San Diego State, may follow the advice of economics and business school professors and forsake the punt. But he should do so understanding how the policy advice was determined. It is extremely difficult for economics professors to evaluate counterfactual policies- whether it is a forecast of what will happen if teams ran and passed on fourth down or a "guesstimate" of the 2012 unemployment rate had there been no stimulus package in 2009.
Asking economics professors, the Congressional Budget Office or other forecasters to evaluate alternative policies and predict what might happen over the next decade also has limited value. Many of these same professionals either didn't forecast the recession or underestimated its severity. Government economists and advisors didn't know how deep the downturn was until a year or two later when the data came in. Mis-estimation of the recession in the midst of the downturn is the explanation given for the woefully inaccurate prediction that the stimulus would keep the unemployment rate below 8%.
It is unwise to rely too heavily on economists as authorities on counterfactual policies. Economists can't easily determine what would have happened had there been no stimulus, or how the economy might perform if taxpayers earning more than $200,000 were to face higher marginal tax rates. In fact they struggle to measure output and employment in real-time. Predictions about hypothetical economic policies are as fraught with error as predictions about fourth down decisions that have rarely been tried in the past.


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Called in Baptism to proclaim by our lives and our works the presence of God in the world, we Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ accept the invitation to live a vowed life in community.
We are inspired by Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and Saint Katharina Kasper, our foundress, to
listen prayerfully
live simply
serve joyfully
Empowered by the same Spirit, we women religious commit ourselves to
- respect and value each person we serve in our diverse ministries
- stand with the poor and powerless in the search for justice
- use our talents and resources in response to the emerging needs of Church and society
- share ministry and nurture leadership in our efforts to bring peace to the world
Resisting our fears, we dare to accept the challenges of the future. We go forward in hope and joy supported by the bond of community and the strength of prayer.
Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ
Mission Statement of the American Province
November 1983
Reaffirmed June 1988


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Fear Is Mounting On Wall Street That The Fed Will 'Fall Behind The Curve' Like In 1994
There is growing concern on Wall Street that there may be less slack in the job market than the Federal Reserve perceives, leading to a scenario where the central bank finds itself "behind the curve" with regard to winding down unprecedented levels of extraordinary monetary stimulus as inflation returns.
Aneta Markowska, chief U.S. economist at Société Générale, writes in a note to clients that "Could the Fed hike rates in 2014?" is one of the top questions that has come up in recent meetings with investors.
The Fed has kept the federal funds rate, its main policy tool, pinned in a range between 0 and 0.25% for five years in a bid to max out monetary accommodation, and it said in its latest policy statement on December 18 "that it likely will be appropriate to maintain the current target range for the federal funds rate well past the time that the unemployment rate declines below 6-1/2 percent, especially if projected inflation continues to run below the Committee's 2 percent longer-run goal."
According to the Fed's own projections, that means the first rate hike likely won't come until the end of 2015.
The monthly release of official employment figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on January 10, however, revealed that the unemployment rate plummeted from 7.0% to 6.7% in December.
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"Albeit 20 years ago, 1994 has not yet left the collective memory of markets, and the fear is that 2014 could see a replay hereof," says Markowska.
Key to the debate is to what extent recent declines in labor force participation — one of the drivers of downward pressure on the unemployment rate — are cyclical (i.e., reflecting economic weakness) versus structural (i.e., resulting from longer-term trends like demographics).
If the decline in participation is largely cyclical, inflation is not a threat. If it is structural, then there will be a smaller pool of workers available to fill job openings as the economy picks up, and the risk becomes upward pressure on wages and inflation.
Fed officials fear a significant amount of the decline in participation is cyclical, which is why they have increasingly sought in recent communications to downplay the 6.5% unemployment rate threshold for consideration of rate hikes in order to push out the market's timeline for when the central bank is expected to move.
"We see part of the decline in the participation rate as structural, part as cyclical," says Markowska. "Should the bulk (contrary to our baseline scenario) prove structural, this would imply significantly less spare capacity in the U.S. labour market and could force the Fed to move early to stem inflation risks."
A breakdown of BLS employment data by Ellyn Terry, an economic policy analysis specialist in the research department of the Atlanta Fed, provides support for the structural argument. It shows that the majority of those who have exited the labor force over the past four years were over 60 years of age.
"The substantial growth (both absolute and relative) of older workers coupled with a decline in the participation rate for this age group suggest that recent participation rate declines may not prove temporary," says Drew Matus, deputy chief U.S. economist at UBS.
"Although we believe that there could be a modest cyclical rise in participation as the economy improves, we believe the likely scale of the increase will not significantly alter the basic equation: payroll growth averaging 200,000 per month should continue to pull down the unemployment rate under all but the most aggressive labor force expansion estimates."
Still, almost no one predicts rate hikes are imminent.
A rare exception is Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi chief financial economist Chris Rupkey, whose prediction that the Fed will begin hiking rates in late 2014 lies squarely outside the Wall Street consensus.
"I am waiting for them to wake up and smell the coffee," said Rupkey of Fed officials in December.
"They keep talking down the economy, where there is greater strength out there than they think. I do not see the underemployment they see."
Despite gains in the labor market, inflation remains elusive. The year-over-year change in the price index of core personal consumption expenditures (the measure of inflation the Fed cites in its policy statements) was only 1.1% in November, well below the central bank's 2% target.
"Inflation is the new unemployment," writes Credit Suisse chief economist Neal Soss in a note to clients.
"Should upcoming data prompt a rise in inflation expectations, the Fed's commitment to low rates will start looking less credible," warns Soss.
If that happens, he says, "look for the markets to test the Fed's forward guidance, perhapsrepeatedly, over the course of the year."
See Also:
- An FBI Agent Reveals 5 Steps To Gaining Anyone's Trust
- 8 Quotes That Prove Richard Sherman Is America's Greatest Trash Talker
- The Fed's Obsession Over Labor Force Participation Could Be A Big Mistake
READ MORE ... The '1994 Moment' is keeping more and more bond traders awake at night


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Is it not that the SNES mini's hardware is a bit more powerful than the one of the PSX? Thus making sense buying that one for hacking and running emulation, although I think the PSX controllers are way better.
This made me think: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol12g5GxI7Y
But apparently RetroArch runs perfectly on the Playstation too, plus the emulator of RetroArch runs PSX games a lot better than their built in one, strange enough.


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Nelly, Hunting & Fishing Nights and Star Wars Night all head to Busch Stadium
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (June 27, 2013) – The St. Louis Cardinals announced four new theme nights for the 2013 season including Nelly Night, Star Wars Night, and two Hunting & Fishing Nights at Busch Stadium. Fans who purchase the special theme night ticket receive an exclusive theme-related promotional item or a special pre-game VIP program.
The first Hunting & Fishing Night will be held on Tuesday, July 23, 2013, when the Cardinals take on the Philadelphia Phillies. Fans are encouraged to join their fellow outdoorsmen & women at the ballpark, and everyone who purchases a special theme night ticket will receive a one-of-a-kind Cardinals Rapala fishing lure. The second Hunting & Fishing Night will take place on Wednesday, September 11, 2013, when the Milwaukee Brewers come to town. Fans who purchase a themed ticket to the September 11th game will receive their very own Realtree camouflage Cardinals beanie.
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Ashley will throw out a ceremonial first pitch to her husband, former Cardinals shortstop and 2006 World Series MVP, David Eckstein, prior to the Wednesday night matchup.
Throughout the game, all fans will be able to take pictures with members of the 501st Legion, an international fan-based organization that dresses as costumed Star Wars characters.
Tickets to all four of the new theme nights are available at cardinals.com/theme.
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Term logic
Ideas and interests
|Philosophy portal
In philosophy, term logic, also known as traditional logic, syllogistic logic or Aristotelian logic, is a loose name for an approach to logic that began with Aristotle and that was dominant until the advent of modern predicate logic in the late nineteenth century. This entry is an introduction to the term logic needed to understand philosophy texts written before predicate logic came to be seen as the only formal logic of interest. Readers lacking a grasp of the basic terminology and ideas of term logic can have difficulty understanding such texts, because their authors typically assumed an acquaintance with term logic.
Aristotle's system
Aristotle's logical work is collected in the six texts that are collectively known as the Organon. Two of these texts in particular, namely the Prior Analytics and De Interpretatione, contain the heart of Aristotle's treatment of judgements and formal inference, and it is principally this part of Aristotle's works that is about term logic. Modern work on Aristotle's logic builds on the tradition started in 1951 with the establishment by Jan Lukasiewicz of a revolutionary paradigm.[1] The Jan Lukasiewicz approach was reinvigorated in the early 1970s by John Corcoran and Timothy Smiley - which informs modern translations of Prior Analytics by Robin Smith in 1989 and Gisela Striker in 2009.[2]
The fundamental assumption behind the theory is that propositions are composed of two terms - hence the name "two-term theory" or "term logic" - and that the reasoning process is in turn built from propositions:
- The term is a part of speech representing something, but which is not true or false in its own right, such as "man" or "mortal".
- The proposition consists of two terms, in which one term (the "predicate") is "affirmed" or "denied" of the other (the "subject"), and which is capable of truth or falsity.
- The syllogism is an inference in which one proposition (the "conclusion") follows of necessity from two others (the "premises").
A proposition may be universal or particular, and it may be affirmative or negative. Traditionally, the four kinds of propositions are:
- A-type: Universal and affirmative ("Every philosopher is mortal")
- I-type: Particular and affirmative ("Some philosopher is mortal")
- E-type: Universal and negative ("Every philosopher is not immortal")
- O-type: Particular and negative ("Some philosopher is not immortal")
This was called the fourfold scheme of propositions (see types of syllogism for an explanation of the letters A, I, E, and O in the traditional square). Aristotle's original square of opposition, however, does not lack existential import:
- A-type: Universal and affirmative ("Every philosopher is mortal")
- I-type: Particular and affirmative ("Some philosopher is mortal")
- E-type: Universal and negative ("No philosopher is mortal")
- O-type: Particular and negative ("Not every philosopher is mortal")
In the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article, "The Traditional Square of Opposition", Terence Parsons explains:
One central concern of the Aristotelian tradition in logic is the theory of the categorical syllogism. This is the theory of two-premised arguments in which the premises and conclusion share three terms among them, with each proposition containing two of them. It is distinctive of this enterprise that everybody agrees on which syllogisms are valid. The theory of the syllogism partly constrains the interpretation of the forms. For example, it determines that the A form has existential import, at least if the I form does. For one of the valid patterns (Darapti) is:
- Every C is B
- Every C is A
- So, some A is B
This is invalid if the A form lacks existential import, and valid if it has existential import. It is held to be valid, and so we know how the A form is to be interpreted. One then naturally asks about the O form; what do the syllogisms tell us about it? The answer is that they tell us nothing. This is because Aristotle did not discuss weakened forms of syllogisms, in which one concludes a particular proposition when one could already conclude the corresponding universal. For example, he does not mention the form:
- No C is B
- Every A is C
- So, some A is not B
If people had thoughtfully taken sides for or against the validity of this form, that would clearly be relevant to the understanding of the O form. But the weakened forms were typically ignored...
One other piece of subject-matter bears on the interpretation of the O form. People were interested in Aristotle's discussion of "infinite" negation, which is the use of negation to form a term from a term instead of a proposition from a proposition. In modern English we use "non" for this; we make "non-horse," which is true for exactly those things that are not horses. In medieval Latin "non" and "not" are the same word, and so the distinction required special discussion. It became common to use infinite negation, and logicians pondered its logic. Some writers in the twelfth century and thirteenth centuries adopted a principle called "conversion by contraposition." It states that
- 'Every S is P ' is equivalent to 'Every non-P is non-S '
- 'Some S is not P ' is equivalent to 'Some non-P is not non-S '
Unfortunately, this principle (which is not endorsed by Aristotle) conflicts with the idea that there may be empty or universal terms. For in the universal case it leads directly from the truth:
- Every man is a being
to the falsehood:
- Every non-being is a non-man
(which is false because the universal affirmative has existential import, and there are no non-beings). And in the particular case it leads from the truth (remember that the O form has no existential import):
- A chimera is not a man
To the falsehood:
- A non-man is not a non-chimera
These are [Jean] Buridan's examples, used in the fourteenth century to show the invalidity of contraposition. Unfortunately, by Buridan's time the principle of contraposition had been advocated by a number of authors. The doctrine is already present in several twelfth century tracts, and it is endorsed in the thirteenth century by Peter of Spain, whose work was republished for centuries, by William Sherwood, and by Roger Bacon. By the fourteenth century, problems associated with contraposition seem to be well-known, and authors generally cite the principle and note that it is not valid, but that it becomes valid with an additional assumption of existence of things falling under the subject term. For example, Paul of Venice in his eclectic and widely published Logica Parva from the end of the fourteenth century gives the traditional square with simple conversion but rejects conversion by contraposition, essentially for Buridan's reason.[3]— Terence Parsons, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
A term (Greek horos) is the basic component of the proposition. The original meaning of the horos (and also of the Latin terminus) is "extreme" or "boundary". The two terms lie on the outside of the proposition, joined by the act of affirmation or denial. For early modern logicians like Arnauld (whose Port-Royal Logic was the best-known text of his day), it is a psychological entity like an "idea" or "concept". Mill considers it a word. To assert "all Greeks are men" is not to say that the concept of Greeks is the concept of men, or that word "Greeks" is the word "men". A proposition cannot be built from real things or ideas, but it is not just meaningless words either.
In term logic, a "proposition" is simply a form of language: a particular kind of sentence, in which the subject and predicate are combined, so as to assert something true or false. It is not a thought, or an abstract entity. The word "propositio" is from the Latin, meaning the first premise of a syllogism. Aristotle uses the word premise (protasis) as a sentence affirming or denying one thing or another (Posterior Analytics 1. 1 24a 16), so a premise is also a form of words. However, as in modern philosophical logic, it means that which is asserted by the sentence. Writers before Frege and Russell, such as Bradley, sometimes spoke of the "judgment" as something distinct from a sentence, but this is not quite the same. As a further confusion the word "sentence" derives from the Latin, meaning an opinion or judgment, and so is equivalent to "proposition".
The logical quality of a proposition is whether it is affirmative (the predicate is affirmed of the subject) or negative (the predicate is denied of the subject). Thus every philosopher is mortal is affirmative, since the mortality of philosophers is affirmed universally, whereas no philosopher is mortal is negative by denying such mortality in particular.
The quantity of a proposition is whether it is universal (the predicate is affirmed or denied of all subjects or of "the whole") or particular (the predicate is affirmed or denied of some subject or a "part" thereof). In case where existential import is assumed, quantification implies the existence of at least one subject, unless disclaimed.
Singular terms
For Aristotle, the distinction between singular and universal is a fundamental metaphysical one, and not merely grammatical. A singular term for Aristotle is primary substance, which can only be predicated of itself: (this) "Callias" or (this) "Socrates" are not predicable of any other thing, thus one does not say every Socrates one says every human (De Int. 7; Meta. D9, 1018a4). It may feature as a grammatical predicate, as in the sentence "the person coming this way is Callias". But it is still a logical subject.
He contrasts universal (katholou)[4] secondary substance, genera, with primary substance, particular (kath' hekaston)[4][5] specimens. The formal nature of universals, in so far as they can be generalized "always, or for the most part", is the subject matter of both scientific study and formal logic.[6]
The essential feature of the syllogistic is that, of the four terms in the two premises, one must occur twice. Thus
- All Greeks are men
- All men are mortal.
The subject of one premise, must be the predicate of the other, and so it is necessary to eliminate from the logic any terms which cannot function both as subject and predicate, namely singular terms.
However, in a popular 17th century version of the syllogistic, Port-Royal Logic, singular terms were treated as universals:[7]
- All men are mortals
- All Socrates are men
- All Socrates are mortals
This is clearly awkward, a weakness exploited by Frege in his devastating attack on the system (from which, ultimately, it never recovered, see concept and object).
The famous syllogism "Socrates is a man ...", is frequently quoted as though from Aristotle,[8] but fact, it is nowhere in the Organon. Sextus Empiricus in his Hyp. Pyrrh (Outlines of Pyrronism) ii. 164 first mentions the related syllogism "Socrates is a human being,Every human being is an animal, Therefore, Socrates is an animal."
Influence on philosophy
The Aristotelian logical system had a formidable influence on the late-philosophy of the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. In the early 1970s, Lacan reworked Aristotle's term logic by way of Frege and Jacques Brunschwig to produce his four formulae of sexuation.[9] While these formulae retain the formal arrangement of the square of opposition, they seek to undermine the universals of both qualities by the 'existence without essence' of Lacan's particular negative proposition.[10]
Decline of term logic
Term logic began to decline in Europe during the Renaissance, when logicians like Rodolphus Agricola Phrisius (1444-1485) and Ramus (1515-1572) began to promote place logics. The logical tradition called Port-Royal Logic, or sometimes "traditional logic", saw propositions as combinations of ideas rather than of terms, but otherwise followed many of the conventions of term logic. It remained influential, especially in England, until the 19th century. Leibniz created a distinctive logical calculus, but nearly all of his work on logic remained unpublished and unremarked until Louis Couturat went through the Leibniz Nachlass around 1900, publishing his pioneering studies in logic.
19th-century attempts to algebraize logic, such as the work of Boole (1815-1864) and Venn (1834-1923), typically yielded systems highly influenced by the term-logic tradition. The first predicate logic was that of Frege's landmark Begriffsschrift (1879), little read before 1950, in part because of its eccentric notation. Modern predicate logic as we know it began in the 1880s with the writings of Charles Sanders Peirce, who influenced Peano (1858-1932) and even more, Ernst Schröder (1841-1902). It reached fruition in the hands of Bertrand Russell and A. N. Whitehead, whose Principia Mathematica (1910–13) made use of a variant of Peano's predicate logic.
Term logic also survived to some extent in traditional Roman Catholic education, especially in seminaries. Medieval Catholic theology, especially the writings of Thomas Aquinas, had a powerfully Aristotelean cast, and thus term logic became a part of Catholic theological reasoning. For example, Joyce's Principles of Logic (1908; 3rd edition 1949), written for use in Catholic seminaries, made no mention of Frege or of Bertrand Russell.[11]
Some philosophers have complained that predicate logic:
- Is unnatural in a sense, in that its syntax does not follow the syntax of the sentences that figure in our everyday reasoning. It is, as Quine acknowledged, "Procrustean," employing an artificial language of function and argument, quantifier, and bound variable.
- Suffers from theoretical problems, probably the most serious being empty names and identity statements.
Even academic philosophers entirely in the mainstream, such as Gareth Evans, have written as follows:
- "I come to semantic investigations with a preference for homophonic theories; theories which try to take serious account of the syntactic and semantic devices which actually exist in the language ...I would prefer [such] a theory ... over a theory which is only able to deal with [sentences of the form "all A's are B's"] by "discovering" hidden logical constants ... The objection would not be that such [Fregean] truth conditions are not correct, but that, in a sense which we would all dearly love to have more exactly explained, the syntactic shape of the sentence is treated as so much misleading surface structure" (Evans 1977)
See also
- ↑ Degnan, M. 1994. Recent Work in Aristotle's Logic. Philosophical Books 35.2 (April, 1994): 81-89.
- ↑
- Review of "Aristotle, Prior Analytics: Book I, Gisela Striker (translation and commentary), Oxford UP, 2009, 268pp., $39.95 (pbk), ISBN 978-0-19-925041-7." in the Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, 2010.02.02.
- ↑ Parsons, Terence (2012). "The Traditional Square of Opposition". In Edward N. Zalta. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2012 ed.). 3-4.
- 1 2 καθόλου. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
- ↑ καθ' ἕκαστον in Liddell and Scott.
- ↑ They are mentioned briefly in the De Interpretatione. Afterwards, in the chapters of the Prior Analytics where Aristotle methodically sets out his theory of the syllogism, they are entirely ignored.
- ↑ Arnauld, Antoine and Nicole, Pierre; (1662) La logique, ou l'art de penser. Part 2, chapter 3
- ↑ For example: Kapp, Greek Foundations of Traditional Logic, New York 1942, p. 17, Copleston A History of Philosophy Vol. I., p. 277, Russell, A History of Western Philosophy London 1946 p. 218.
- ↑ "The Aristotelian Roots of Lacan's Formulas of Sexuation".
- ↑ Urban, William J. (2015). Lacan and Meaning: Sexuation, Discourse Theory, and Topology in the Age of Hermeneutics. New York. pp. 108–10, 132–3. ISBN 978-1530345502.
- ↑ Copleston's A History of Philosophy
- Bochenski, I. M., 1951. Ancient Formal Logic. North-Holland.
- Louis Couturat, 1961 (1901). La Logique de Leibniz. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung.
- Gareth Evans, 1977, "Pronouns, Quantifiers and Relative Clauses," Canadian Journal of Philosophy.
- Peter Geach, 1976. Reason and Argument. University of California Press.
- Hammond and Scullard, 1992. The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-869117-3.
- Joyce, George Hayward, 1949 (1908). Principles of Logic, 3rd ed. Longmans. A manual written for use in Catholic seminaries. Authoritative on traditional logic, with many references to medieval and ancient sources. Contains no hint of modern formal logic. The author lived 1864-1943.
- Jan Lukasiewicz, 1951. Aristotle's Syllogistic, from the Standpoint of Modern Formal Logic. Oxford Univ. Press.
- John Stuart Mill, 1904. A System of Logic, 8th ed. London.
- Parry and Hacker, 1991. Aristotelian Logic. State University of New York Press.
- Arthur Prior
- 1962: Formal Logic, 2nd ed. Oxford Univ. Press. While primarily devoted to modern formal logic, contains much on term and medieval logic.
- 1976: The Doctrine of Propositions and Terms. Peter Geach and A. J. P. Kenny, eds. London: Duckworth.
- Willard Quine, 1986. Philosophy of Logic 2nd ed. Harvard Univ. Press.
- Rose, Lynn E., 1968. Aristotle's Syllogistic. Springfield: Clarence C. Thomas.
- Sommers, Fred
- 1970: "The Calculus of Terms," Mind 79: 1-39. Reprinted in Englebretsen, G., ed., 1987. The new syllogistic New York: Peter Lang. ISBN 0-8204-0448-9
- 1982: The logic of natural language. Oxford University Press.
- 1990: "Predication in the Logic of Terms," Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 31: 106-26.
- and Englebretsen, George, 2000: An invitation to formal reasoning. The logic of terms. Aldershot UK: Ashgate. ISBN 0-7546-1366-6.
- Szabolcsi Lorne, 2008. Numerical Term Logic. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press.
External links
- Term logic at PhilPapers
- Smith, Robin. "Aristotle's Logic". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- "Term logic". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- Aristotle's term logic online-This online program provides a platform for experimentation and research on Aristotelian logic.
- Annotated bibliographies:
- PlanetMath: Aristotelian Logic.
- Interactive Syllogistic Machine for Term Logic A web based syllogistic machine for exploring fallacies, figures, terms, and modes of syllogisms.


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"The Upside of Paying More Taxes"
"Your taxes are going up" because of "a basic economic reality," staff writer David Leonhardt writes, with an air of finality, in his latest economics column, "The Upside Of Paying More Taxes." The online headline made an appeal to the big-government lover in all of us: "Like Having Medicare? Then Taxes Must Rise."
Leonhardt isn't much displeased by this apparently inevitable turn, arguing that it's the only way to pay for the vast array of services the American people have come to expect from government. That's true as far as it goes. But wouldn't it be nice if Times writers scrutinized the people's love of government programs with the same intensity it employs on the people's love of tax cuts?
Toward the end of Monday's meetings on fiscal responsibility at the White House, Senator Kent Conrad stood up and produced a little bolt of honesty. "Revenue is the thing almost nobody wants to talk about," said Mr. Conrad, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. "But I think if we're going to be honest with each other, we've got to recognize that is part of a solution as well."
Mr. Conrad's frankness was delivered in the cryptic language of budget experts, and many people might have missed the point. So allow me to translate:
Your taxes are going up.
They will probably go up in the coming decade, and the increase will be permanent. For a half-century, federal taxes have remained fairly constant relative to the size of the American economy - equal to about 18 percent of gross domestic product. But the 18 percent era has to end soon.
It won't end because President Obamais some radical tax and spender, either. It will end because of a basic economic reality.
Americans have made it clear that they want a certain kind of government, one that can field a strong military and also maintain popular programs like Medicare. Yet we are not paying nearly enough taxes to maintain those programs. Even major changes to the health care system - the single most important step for closing the budget gap - will not close it entirely. Taxes must rise, too.
Leonhardt argued that "Despite all the scary stories you've heard, the evidence that higher taxes necessarily cripple an economy is somewhere between thin and nonexistent." He pointed to the 1950s and 60s, where the top marginal tax rate was 90 percent, and paid only lip service to the fact that tax hikes "reduce people's incentive to work. But history has shown that this cost isn't enormous."
In fact, he sees high tax rates as a sign of a civilized society:
Think of it this way: A tax increase isn't so much a barrier to a society becoming richer as it is a result of a society becoming richer.
During the campaign Leonhardt insisted candidate Obama was "a fiscal conservative" compared to John McCain.


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Some tech jigsaw pieces that come out of a box labelled "open in 2010":
Toradex Robin — a 1.6GHz Atom CPU, 512Mb of RAM, 2Gb Flash SSD, and an intel video chipset on a PCB the size of a credit card, for €179.
If that's a bit hardcore for you, here's the Marvell SheevaPlug — a wall-wart with a gigabit-ethernet-enabled small Linux computer embedded in it, for US $49 when they start shipping in bulk. (Yes, you read that right: it's a pregnant mains plug that costs $49 and has about the same raw computing power as a Cray X-MP. Embryonic smart dust, anyone? With the admittedly weird property that the embryo shrinks as it gets closer to maturity ...)
Meanwhile, here's DARPA's Nano Air Vehicle Program (and new news of the Lockheed Katana program). (Betcha these are very popular with police and customs officers, in the not too distant future. When fitted with insect-sized high resolution video cameras streaming in real time via mesh networks supported by suspiciously smart mains plugs they'll really let the police see what's happening in your neighbourhood dealer's bedroom. Or in your bedroom, if they get the wrong address.)
Meanwhile, Open Pandora continues to lurch hopefully towards the light of day. The street, as they say, finds its own uses for technology.


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The Sacramento Kings added a big-time shooter Thursday evening when they selected Michigan's Nik Stauskas with the eighth overall selection in the 2014 NBA Draft. The pick has received mixed reviews from fans and leaves one glaring question: what does this selection mean for last year's first-round pick, Ben McLemore?
It's difficult to write an analysis piece without comparing what Stauskas brings to the table versus McLemore. It's rare to see a team spend two top-10 picks in consecutive years on the same position, but that is what the Kings have done.
General Manager Pete D'Alessandro has a lot of work to do if he hopes to balance out the roster, but he added shooting and playmaking at a position that absolutely killed his team last season.
"Knocking down shots and spreading the floor is definitely something I'm excited to do for this team." – Stauskas on what he brings to the Kings
Stauskas has great range, finishing his sophomore season hitting 44.2 percent (92-for-208) from 3-point land. He has Jimmer-type range, but in a 6-foot-6 body.
You can't argue with his 64.2 true-shooting number or the fact that he shot 82.4 percent from the line on 5.7 attempts per game. The Kings landed one of the top shooters in the draft, which was a huge need.
Stauskas can score as a catch-and-shoot player (49 percent) and off the dribble (38 percent) and he averaged 4.6 pick-and-roll possessions per game as a sophomore. He understands the game and can instantly come in and make an impact on the offensive end.
"I think I can play multiple positions. Moving forward in the NBA, I think I can play a little bit of one and also the two." – Stauskas on his versatility
With Trey Burke moving onto the NBA last summer, Stauskas was asked to take on more of a ball-handling role in year two at Michigan. He posted 3.3 assists per game as a sophomore and an 18.8 percent assist percentage, while turning the ball over 1.9 times a game.
Stauskas won't have an opportunity to post a usage rate of 24.4 percent with the Kings like he did in Ann Arbor, making those assist numbers difficult to duplicate. But Sacramento needs playmakers at almost every position. McLemore finished with a total of 82 assists last year in 82 games played. It's not hard to see Stauskas doubling or tripling that number.
"Nik may give us great shooting, he may give us playmaking and right now, one of his maybe weaknesses is his ability to defend an NBA player from day one." – Kings head coach Malone on Stauskas
According to Malone, the Kings have done their homework on Stauskas as a defender. They have watched plenty of tape and interviewed coaches from Michigan. They believe that Stauskas has the ability to come in and hold his own as a team defender, but will initially struggle in isolation situations.
"I can improve defensively and I can also improve my body and putting on more strength and speed." – Stauskas on his defense
Stauskas has the size to play the two, but his lateral quickness is in question. At 20 years old, he is still growing into his body. His 12-percent body fat that he measured at the combine is high for a perimeter player at the NBA level and will have to come down significantly if he hopes to compete with elite wings. He may not have the athleticism of McLemore, but if he can play smart defense, he may be an upgrade at the position initially.
More than staying in front of his man, Stauskas needs to improve as a rebounder. He also hardly moved the meter in steals or blocks. This might be a product of his role at Michigan, but 2.9 rebounds, 0.6 steals and 0.3 blocks in 35.6 minutes per game is unacceptable at the pro level.
There is no question that defensive accumen is the major knock on Stauskas. Malone will have his hands full trying to make him into anything more than a solid team defender.
This might not be a super-popular pick, but Stauskas is a very functional player that instantly improves major points of need for the Kings. Sacramento needed shooters and improved playmaking. Stauskas brings those skills to the table. But those two items come at the expense of defense.
There were no perfect players at No. 8 and the Kings went with the player that filled the most needs and at a major position of need. Stauskas will have the opportunity to compete with McLemore for the starting shooting guard position on day one if a move isn't made beforehand.
At Michigan, Stauskas was the star, but at the NBA level, he will need to do more or he will quickly become a situational player. He doesn't have McLemore's raw upside, but he could prove to be the better pro.


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So you're on holiday in Florida, you've met up with another two couple's from the UK, spent time together all fairly standard stuff and then on the last day, a girl goes missing from the resort. You're interviewed by the police and allowed to return to the UK. Would you make a date to meet up with your fellow holidaymakers away from the sun?
Well that's exactly what the couples in our story did. It has to be said some were keener than the others to get together but they grouped together round Angie and Barry's table they begin to get to know each other on home ground so to speak. Inevitably the conversation becomes dominated by what could have happened to Amber-Marie and how she had disappeared so suddenly. Of course it goes without saying that one uncomfortable dinner party isn't enough for these intrepid travellers, as Ed and Sue host one as do Marina and Dave. For the reader who doesn't have to endure the actual company, these are brilliant parties with each character showing their hand a little bit more.
Over in Florida Amber-Marie's mother Patti Lee Wilson is naturally distraught and the manager of the resort where she has camped out is fearing she is bad for business, or he's simply run out of what little compassion he has.
Jeff Gardner is working the case in the US and left to voice the increasingly trite sounding reassurances that the case is getting the department's full attention. And then there is a murder in the UK and a bright trainee PC, Jenny Quinlan decides to contact Jeff and so the investigation progresses both sides of the Atlantic.
In between the dinner parties themselves not only does the investigation gather pace but we hear what the characters are doing, what worries them and, for some, what have they found on the internet that they can mull over and dissect at the next meeting. We also hear the killer's voice but I have to admit, it wasn't who I thought it would be.
I can safely say that none of the characters have bucket loads of redeeming features but they are all recognisable, you probably work with at least one of them! There characteristics range from mousey through to an arrogant assumption that their opinion is what everyone is waiting for, from the geeky nerd to the wannabe actress and from the neurotic to the grumpiest man on the planet – why the couples are with each other is intriguing enough let alone why they would voluntarily chose to spend time with the other couples!
In a nutshell that is the beauty of Rush of Blood this standalone novel has a different feel to the Tom Thorne books, although fans will be pleased to hear he does have a cameo role. While there is a mystery to solve it is more firmly in a whodunit than a why which makes it possible for the author to experiment with the amusing character studies which contrasts behaviour between the couples themselves and how they behave in a group situation… and the author doesn't neglect the detectives either but I'll let you make your own minds up about them!
I found Rush of Blood an absolutely fascinating read whilst vowing to myself to make sure I look as unfriendly as possible on any future holidays I may take!!
I'd like to thank Grove Atlantic for allowing me to read Rush of Blood. This honest review is my thanks to them.
First Published UK: 2012
Publisher: Grove Atlantic
No of Pages: 400
Genre: Crime Fiction
Amazon UK
Amazon US


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For professional customers
Are you planning a new kitchen for a customer? Or is a client looking to renovate some facilities? Our business portal offers you a simple interface providing access to all planning-related documentation. This includes current planning documents like installation instructions, dxf, stp, 3ds and skp files, high-resolution images, planning aids and much more for rapid download.


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Yes, we get it. OpenSSL really screwed up -- for a long time. And nobody who knew about it said anything. Meanwhile, millions of "secured" sites were helpfully vomiting up 64KB chunks of process memory just for the asking.
Yeah, it sucks.
[ Also on InfoWorld: The rise and fall of Heartbleed hysteria | How to rethink your security strategy for today's world. Bonus: Available in PDF and e-book versions. | Stay up to date on the latest security developments with InfoWorld's Security Central newsletter. ]
But as I wrote last week, if you keep your production systems a release or two behind current, you were probably fine. If you were running OpenSSL 1.0.1 and had a large vulnerable footprint, you hopefully had orchestration tools in place and were able to patch those systems quickly. Of course, that doesn't help with the rekeying and cert regeneration that everyone is probably still sorting through, but at least you could stop the bleeding.
Now comes the backdraft. After everyone was able to put out their fires and get a handle on Heartbleed, we get the inevitable blame game, holier-than-thou proclamations, threats, and forking that this kind of event engenders. For instance, OpenBSD is overhauling OpenSSL. It's likely that this will turn into an OpenBSD-centric fork of OpenSSL rather than being accepted back into the OpenSSL base -- but who knows at this point?
Then there was Akamai's claim to be invulnerable because it used a custom memory allocator it had written into OpenSSL, but not contributed back to the project. Of course, that software was later proven to be vulnerable and Akamai's method still unsafe.
There have been lots of accusations and lots of people discussing the OpenSSL codebase as if it was a festering cesspool of awful code. There have been loud but baseless plans to reinvent open source SSL altogether. I alluded to the core of the matter at the end of my column last week: OpenSSL has been neglected for a long time. It has been taken for granted by developers and companies for more than a decade, and in the meantime, it has been implemented in two-thirds of all Web servers.
Let's put that into perspective. Netcraft says it received responses from 861,379,152 websites -- that's a fuzzy number, but good enough. That means roughly 573,678,515 websites are running OpenSSL code. In fact, those websites rely solely on OpenSSL for any and all encryption protection. That's a massive number of users for any software, be it commercial product or open source project -- yet there's only one full-time developer of OpenSSL.
OpenSSL has 11 team members scattered across several countries, most of whom are volunteers -- the sort of team that we ordinarily see on an open source project with a far smaller footprint. Clearly, OpenSSL has been flying well under the radar, a nearly invisible but massively important cog in the economy of nearly every nation on Earth -- the foundation of secure communications across the globe.


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The tristate area could see a significant storm with snow, bitter cold and wind during the days prior to Thanksgiving, AccuWeather.com said late Wednesday.
The polar vortex is a storm that typically hangs out within the Arctic Circle. Arctic air is usually locked up within the bounds of this storm. The area along the Atlantic Seaboard is often a perfect breeding ground for storms in situations like this, according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Evan Duffey.
"The clash between the arriving arctic air and the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean could help instigate a major storm several days before Thanksgiving," Duffey said.
Such a storm can pose major travel problems should the storm grab the cold air fast enough to produce heavy snow inland and heavy rain and wind on the coast.
The magnitude and path of the cold air as well as the exact formation and track of the storm may become clear later next week.
"There is the risk for the first major snowstorm somewhere in the Northeast during the period from Saturday, Nov. 18, to Tuesday, Nov. 22," AccuWeather Lead Long-Range Meteorologist Paul Pastelok said.
Check back to Daily Voice for updates.
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Should every woman consider banking their eggs?
Dr. David Tourgeman, Infertility Specialist, shares advice on whether or not women should bank their eggs.
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Expert Bio
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David Tourgeman, MD
Infertility Specialist
Education - Undergraduate: University of California, Santa Barbara. Medical School: University of Southern California. Residency: Obstetrics and Gynecology University of Southern California, Los Angeles County Women's & Children's Hospital. Fellowship: Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility University of Southern California, Los Angeles County Women's & Children's Hospital.
Board Certification - Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Academic Appointments - Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Southern California School of Medicine.
Hospital Affiliations - Huntington Memorial Hospital St. John's Health Center.
Awards - Wyeth-Ayest Award of the Pacific coast Reproductive Society, April 1999. Serono In-Training Award for the Pacific Coast Reproductive Society, April 2000 . Ortho- Mcneil Poster Award Obstetrical and Gynecological Assembly of Southern California, February 2011. Serono In-Training Award for the Pacific Coast Reproductive Society, April 2001. Fellow Award, co-author Pacific Coast Reproductive Society, April 2001.
Professional Organizations - American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Pacific Coast Reproductive Society Society of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility.
Areas of Research and Publication - Assisted reproductive technologies and oocyte donation in women of advanced reproductive age. Advanced reproductive fertility surgery. Alternatives for enhancing embryo implantation . Evaluation of ovulation induction agents. Vaginal hormone administration.
Languages Spoken - English, French, & Spanish.


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Fearful of Iran's influence, Saudi king reaches out to Syria
Saudi Arabia, a close US ally, has switched from a policy of isolation toward engagement. Some hope the warming could bolster US Middle East peace efforts.
| Damascus, Syria
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia arrived here Wednesday to mend fences with Syria and strengthen regional cooperation in a move that some hope could advance President Barack Obama's Middle East peace plans.
The two day visit by the king – his first since he took power in 2005 – will focus on unrest in Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories, where political rivals backed by the two countries are wrangling over power. The Saudi monarch and close US ally is also seeking to nudge Syrian President Bashar al-Assad out of Iran's diplomatic orbit toward closer cooperation with fellow Arab states.
The visit is the latest sign of a thaw in relations between Syria and Saudi Arabia, which went into deep freeze after the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Mr. Hariri was a close friend of the king's family, and Saudi Arabia and many others believe that Syria ordered his murder, a charge Damascus has denied.
"The trip is very significant, given the negative mood that has prevailed in Syrian-Saudi relations over the last couple of years," says Sami Moubayed, a Syrian political analyst, who argues that the visit could bring peace closer between Israel and its Arab neighbors. "This is very positive news for the region."
The Syrians have laid on a lavish welcome for Abdullah, whose delegation has commandeered two of Damascus's largest hotels, in a manner that is reflective of the dramatic improvement in ties with the region's political and economic powerhouse. "Today… the Saudi king in the heart of Arabism," screamed Wednesday's morning Al-Watan newspaper, a Syrian daily, devoting its whole front page to the visit.
Stunning turnaround
After the Hariri assassination, always fragile Arab unity appeared to come apart at the seams, with close US allies Saudi Arabia and Egypt – nervous about Shiite Iran's growing regional influence – at odds with Syria, which formed a self-proclaimed resistance alliance with Iran to oppose Israel and provide support to the militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas. In 2008, things were so bad that an Arab League summit in Damascus was boycotted by the Saudi and Egyptian leaders.
But Syria's ties with the West have been warming of late, thanks to the efforts of President Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and Saudi Arabia has turned from a policy of isolation toward engagement. The Saudi and Syrian leaders met in Riyadh in March. Saudi Arabia restored its ambassador to Syria in August after an 18-month hiatus. And two weeks ago, Abdullah and Mr. Assad met in Jeddah. [Editor's note: The original version misstated the location of the leaders' March meeting.]
"There is an overall positive momentum in the region which kicked off with the exodus of George W. Bush," says Mr. Moubayed, crediting Obama's regional outreach for the more harmonious atmosphere.
On the two leaders' agenda will be Lebanon, where the Saudi-backed prime minister-designate, Saad Hariri, continues to struggle to form a new government in the face of demands from the Syrian-backed opposition, and the ongoing Palestinian peace talks between the Syrian-backed Hamas movement and Fatah. Analysts say that a Syrian-Saudi accord on these issues would substantially increase chances of resolving them, while serving to strengthen Obama's desire to restart the Middle East peace process.
Washington watching
Washington will be watching closely, says Andrew Tabler from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, hoping the visit will mark the beginning of a new regional balance.
"The Abdullah visit is significant symbolically in that it opens the door for Damascus to move away from an increasingly isolated Iran toward Washington's Arab allies," he says. "All of this will just be a photo shoot, however, if it doesn't lead to progress on key issues, most notably the formation of a government in Lebanon and reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah."
The extent of Syria's influence over Hamas is uncertain, and Syrian analysts caution against expecting too much from the trip.
One Damascus-based commentator, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, says divisions between the two sides remain deep. Moreover, he adds that without Egyptian participation there could be no real regional accord on key issues such as Palestine.
While there has been some talk that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak might join the Damascus summit, Egyptian-Syrian relations are poor, and such an appearance is considered unlikely.
And some Syrian analysts say that warmer relations with Saudi Arabia and the West don't necessarily mean cooler ones with Tehran.
"Yes, the king is here, but the [Syrian] president was in Iran one month ago," says Moubayed. He argues that Iran's opponents should use Syria as gateway to the Iranian state, rather than seeking to break the relationship.
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