This is the only other difficult question on the whole exam

What's something you have memorized for a stupid or funny reason?

I memorized the following quote from Kant, and I'll start spouting it off and gauge the reaction if I believe a student has stopped paying attention:

There is only one experience, in which all perceptions are represented as in thoroughgoing and lawlike connection, just as there is only one space and time, in which all forms of appearance and all relation of being or non-being take place. If one speaks of different experiences, they are only so many perceptions insofar as they belong to one and the same universal experience. The thoroughgoing and synthetic unity of perceptions is precisely what constitutes the form of experience, and it is nothing other than the synthetic unity of the appearances in accordance with concepts.

Unity of synthesis in accordance with empirical concepts would be entirely contingent, and, were it not grounded on a transcendental ground of unity, it would be possible for a swarm of appearances to fill up our soul without experience ever being able to arise from it. But in that case all relation of cognition to objects would also disappear, since the appearances would lack connection in accordance with universal and necessary laws, and would thus be intuition without thought, but never cognition, and would therefore be as good as nothing for us.

The a priori conditions of a possible experience in general are at the same time conditions of the possibility of the objects of experience. Now I assert that the categories that have just been adduced are nothing other than the conditions of thinking in a possible experience, just as space and time contain the conditions of the intuition for the very same thing. They are therefore also fundamental concepts for thinking objects in general for the appearances, and they therefore have a priori objective validity, which was just what we really wanted to know.

About time...

You sit down at a table. The above cards are displayed on the table. You are told that each card has a letter on one side and a number on the other.

Now, consider the following rule:

If there is a vowel on one side, then there is an even number on the other.

Now, given that each card really does have a letter on one side and a number on the other, flipping as few cards as possible, which cards would you have to turn over to see if the rule you are considering is true of these four cards?

The Daily Poor is apparently now a logic puzzle channel

A new report indicates almost half of young adults experience “money dysmorphia”.

According to a report from Qualtrics commissioned by Intuit Credit Karma, 29 per cent of Americans say they often find themselves comparing their financial situation to others, sparking feelings of inadequacy and insecurity. While surveying 1,006 US adults above the age of 18 from 18 to 26 December 2023, researchers found that these feelings were found predominantly among younger adults, specifically 43 per cent of Gen Z and 41 per cent of millennials.

This new phenomenon was defined as “money dysmorphia,” which describes the distorted view of one’s finances, and how it could contribute to poor decision-making as a result. Those who experienced this issue were more likely to feel financially behind their peers, with 82 per cent reportedly noting that they struggled with financial insecurity.

Learn to be happy with less and you can leave the feelings of monetary insecurity behind. Who cares if you have less if you're able to live as well or better with less? Focus first and foremost on improving yourself so that you can be a good human being and live well, then you won't have to worry so much about finances.

You have to flip the E and the 7.

Why do you need to flip the E? To see if there's an even number on the other side, like the rule suggests.

Why do you need to skip the 7? Because if there is a vowel on the other side, then the rule is falsified, as a card with a vowel has an odd number when the rule says it should be even.

Additionally, the other two cards do not need to be flipped because no possible combination could falsify the rule. The K is a consonant, and the rule says and implies nothing about what needs to be on the other side of consonants. Similarly, 4 does not need to be flipped since the rule does not suggest that even numbers necessarily have vowels on the other side; evens are necessary, but not sufficient, for a vowel to be on the other side.

Berta says that Greta tells lies.
Greta says that Rosa tells lies.
Rosa says that both Berta and Greta tell lies.

Who is telling the truth?

I can't believe us non-New Yorkers are gonna miss this... Tragic...

Cops in the Midwest....

Not what I expected from a talk by Vladimir Kramnik, but I'll take it. Lol

Congratulations Wisconsin and... Delaware? Didn't see that one coming, but excellent work nonetheless!

Even better advice

We are looking for the combination of truth-telling and lying that does not lead to a contradiction.

Let’s say Berta is telling the truth. It follows that Greta is lying. So, since Greta is lying, Rosa must be telling the truth. But if she is telling the truth, then both Berta and Greta are lying, which contradicts our previous idea that Berta was telling the truth. Given that all of this emerged just from the assumption that Berta was telling the truth, she must be lying. This is a Reductio ad Absurdum, a form of argument that establishes a claim by showing that the opposite scenario would lead to contradiction.

Now, we just have to test the idea that Berta is lying. If Berta lying also leads to a contradiction, then we've discovered a paradox that will be unsolvable, in which no real answer exists. If, on the other hand, we find that it doesn't lead to a contradiction, then we've discovered the truth.

Berta lying implies that Greta tells the truth. And then Greta telling the truth implies that Rosa is lying. Lastly, since Rosa said that both Greta and Berta are lying, and was herself lying according to our current results, at least once of them must be telling the truth. And, since we have labeled Greta as telling the truth, this works out.

So, the correct answer is that Greta is telling the truth and the other two are lying.

USA Today’s Top 10 Gas Stations list just came out