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Logical Paradoxes

This is a site with many interesting paradoxes and solutions for them:

http://www.logicalparadoxes.info/

Example of one:

The Paradox of the Stone

God is all-powerful, or as theologians put it, “omnipotent”; there is nothing that he cannot do. This is part of the definition of “God”.

So can God create a stone that is so heavy that he cannot lift it? Either he can or he can’t.

If God can’t, then he isn’t all-powerful. If God can’t create a stone that he can’t lift, then there is something that he can’t do: create the stone.

If God can create a stone that is so heavy that he can’t lift it, though, then he also isn’t all-powerful. If God can create a stone that is so heavy that he can’t lift it, then there’s something that he can’t do: lift that stone.

There is, therefore, no way of answering the question above that preserves God’s omnipotence. If there is an omnipotent God, then he neither can nor can’t create a stone so heavy that he cannot lift it. This, though, is absurd; he must be either able or unable to perform this feat.

Stereotypes

An stereotype is the assumptions about a group of people purely on the basis of their membership to a particular group.

In your culture, which of the following adjectives are associated more with men and which are associated more with women? How much truth do you think there is in there is in these stereotypes?

a) Emotional- Women
b) Active- Both
c) Sensitive- Women
d) Affectionate- Women
e) Reckless- Men
f) Aggressive- Men
g) Tough- Men
h) Cautious- Both

Having stereotypes, limitates our knowledge about the diversity in some cultures or groups. It is impossible to capture the identity and way of think of for example all the American people and say they are all the same, without being in a mistake.

Language

Does language play roles of equal importance in different areas of knowledge?

Language, understand as the way we communicate (send, receive & understand information), plays a really important role for knowledge, because it is one of the main ways in which we acquire it about the world, but, does it play roles of equal importance in all the areas of knowledge?

A big part of the “knowledge” that we have of the world now, is an accumulation of all the knowledge our ancestors have found, experimented and studied. We can still make use of it, because thanks to language, it has been passing from generation to generation, in the form of books, videos, etc. If there were no language, we would have to learn everything about the world by ourselves; schools probably wouldn’t exist, because teachers make use of language to teach us, so there wouldn’t be a point in having 20 people sitting in one classroom when they can’t communicate to each other.

Consequently, if language disappears, it will affect all the areas of knowledge in a huge way, because it has vital importance for them. Let’s think of an example. To study history, you need to have either a book with historical information or a person with knowledge about it; in both options you need language to learn, and since most of all the things in history were done before you were born, there’s no way to study it without other’s people knowledge. We can think of math as well. It would be rally hard for one person to find out what humanity has found out in centuries of studies, so language is fundamental in this area as well.

I think language is elemental for all the different areas of knowledge.

The Ron Clark story

I really liked the film. He totally changed the live of those kids by believing in them, and in himself as well, and doing his best to make a change. What could have happen to them if he decided to gave up in the beginning? They would have no hope of progressing, they wouldn't even try to do something better for themselves. Their lives would be really different. It's amazing how a single person can make such a big difference.

The final question- will it lead to a final answer?

What had made Vitoria turn down the chance of her fortune and leave the town so suddenly?

The rules said that no amateur hairdressers would be allowed, the EFF Directors ordered Celina to cut the hands of Vitoria if she cuts the hair of people who normally cut their own hair and anyone with messy hair in January would have their head cut off.

Therefore, Vitoria couldn't ask someone to cut her hair, because se was the only former hairdresser and amateur hairdressers were not allowed. She couldn't cut it by herself because of the rule of the EFF Directors. So, she was going to have messy hair and her head was going to be cut off if she stayed.

The Mayan Calendar

The Mayans created 3 calendar systems; they function as gears, linked together.

“Tzolkin” is the name of the shortest calendar; it was for rituals and religious ceremonies, and lasts 260 days, divided in 13 months of 20 days each. “Haab” is a solar based calendar; therefore it lasts 365 days, but those 365 days are divided different from our Gregorian calendar; they have 18 months of 20 days each, plus 5 extra days (this 5 days were considered the bad luck month). Every 52 years, the first day of both calendars coincides, the Mayans call this an “age”.

For the Mayans, “La Cuenta Larga” or the Long Count, began around 5,000 years ago (Gregorian years), the 13 of august of 3114 B.C. and ends in 23 of December of 2012. This calendar lasts 1872000 days.

In 23 of December of 2012, the Mayans celebrate “the end of a completed cycle”, but there is no evidence of that the Mayans thought the world was going to end in that day, but, since their other calendars are cyclical, there are more possibilities for the “Long Count” to be cyclical than to point an end.

Other important point that makes the idea of the Mayans pointing to an end of the world in 2012 less probable is that the Earth did exist before the beginning of their Long Count calendar. So if the Long Count must not point a “beginning” and an “end” for the Earth.

An interesant theory says that they marked the end of their calendar in that day because this day will be a winter solstice. The sun will overlap exactly with the point of intersection of the ecliptic of the Milky Way and Ecuador. At this point, the sun will be located in the cleft of the Milky Way. Or the Milky Way "sit" on Earth. It will be almost like opening a door to heaven to Earth. The Mayans called the last period of the Long Count calendar the period of "purification of the Earth". Probably because afterwards, the "door to heaven" was going to be open, so the ones who where pure, were going to be able to cross it.

The Mayans thought that the Earth was "reorganiced" several times since its creation, so, what their prophecy does say, is that there will be an important event that will probably change the order of humanity, but it won't be the end.

Curious information: Did you know this...?

-The Mayans were the first civilization to introduce the zero to the numeric system.
-The Mayan temple of the moon's door is decorated with images of the dark side of the moon. At the beggining the scientists were confused with the patrons and pictures, but afterwards they discovered that the images in the door were images of the dark side of the moon. How did the Mayans saw it? The moon always faces the Earth with the same side.
-There is still no reason of why their civilization disappeared.
-The Long Count calendar is more exact than the Gregorian calendar