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POPSStrange Things Afoot-Run For Your Life!
3) Papers falling into the trashcan. Please refer your boss to appropriate experts in astronomy, mechanics, and theoretical physics. During this dangerous time, it is essential that all soul-deadened middle-managers understand it is simply not your fault your assignments won't stay on the desk. 4) Fat people falling off diets. Please refer to your body in that high-school bikini you can still "fit into." 5) Ice-cream falling off cones. This only happens when you are derelict in your ice-cream eating duties. Have you no shame? 6) Time falling off clocks. Despite the widespread transition to digital, this is expected to remain a significant problem in the coming months, as the minute and hour hands alike are pulled down swiftly toward the poles of 6 and 12 (6 + 6). Inconclusive data is leading some scientists to conjecture the end of the world is near, and to encourage their lab assistants to experiment further with observed phenomenon No. 1. Katelyn Sack is The Wasteful Amer
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POPSRocky The Robo-Squirrel an ornithologist with Cornell University, was able to talk to a parrot through speakers hidden in a bush. The parrot was later seen encouraging other parrots to follow a set of commandments. At Indiana University, researchers were even able to build a robot that could successfully challenge male lizards to push up contests. Can complete control of the reptile psyche be far behind? “Whether it's a bunch of squirrels in a field or humans in a mall, there are general principles of behavior that seem to hold up across species lines,” said Greg Demas, director of Indiana University's Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior. This indicates just one eventual outcome of this line of research: creating robots that can successfully challenge humans to push up contests.
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POPSThe Analytic/Synthetic Distinction Synthetic statements are not necessary. Philosophers use the word contingent to describe something that is not necessary. It is not necessarily true that you are reading this webpage: you could be reading a printout, for example. It is important to make the analytic/synthetic distinction in argument. If you try to argue that something is true you need to be clear about whether you are saying something about the empirical world, or whether you are clarifying the meanings of words. It would do you no good for example to hunt for a bachelor who was married to try and refute the statement. It would be no help to you to try and find a "good murder" to refute the statement that all murder is bad, because murder is by definition bad.
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POPSThe Enlightenment and dogmatism of the mediaeval and the awakening of modernity. Medieval philosophy combined Christian beliefs with the ideas of Plato and Aristotle. In the medieval world philosophers respected their predecessors and accepted their methods. If a new discovery about nature contradicted one of Aristotle's principles, for example, it would probably have been assumed that it was the discovery that was in error. Enlightenment thinkers were not content to accept appeals to Aristotle's authority. It could be seen that using experimental methods science was progressing and increasing our understanding of nature, which could not have been done without rejecting some of Aristotle's assumptions. It was not only Aristotle that was being questioned, using reason and logic philosophers criticised political and religious ideas. What rational answer is there for the justification of monarchy or that you should choose one type of religion over another?
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