A 2152-Point Scrabble Move

In the November 1979 issue of Word Ways we exhibited a 2064-point single-move Scrabble score using open sources. This was an improvement on an earlier 2037-point effort devised by Josefa Heifetz, better known as Josefa Heifetz Byrne, compiler of the famous Mrs. Byrne\u27s Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure and Preposterous Words (1974). Both moves are based on the elusive term SESQUIOXIDIZING, which is not specifically indicated in any dictionary. The closest approach is the past participle SESQUIOXIDIZED, which appears in OED

Escaping the Natural Attitude About Gender

Alex Byrne’s article, “Are Women Adult Human Females?”, asks a question that Byrne treats as nearly rhetorical. Byrne’s answer is, ‘clearly, yes’. Moreover, Byrne claims, 'woman' is a biological category that does not admit of any interpretation as (also) a social category. It is important to respond to Byrne’s argument, but mostly because it is paradigmatic of a wider phenomenon. The slogan “women are adult human females” is a political slogan championed by anti-trans activists, appearing on billboards, pamphlets, and anti-trans online forums. In this paper, I respond to Byrne’s argument, revealing significant problems with its background assumptions, content, and methodology

Discussion: Byrne and Hall on Everett and Chalmers

Byrne and Hall (1999) criticized the argument of Chalmers (1996) in favor of the Everett-style interpretation. They claimed to show ``the deep and underappreciated flaw in ANY Everett-style interpretation''. I will argue that it is possible to interpret Chalmers's writing in such a way that most of the criticism by Byrne and Hall does not apply. In any case their general criticism of the many-worlds interpretation is unfounded. The recent recognition that the Everett-style interpretations are good (if not the best) interpretations of quantum mechanics has, therefore, not been negated.Comment: 6 page

Basic Themes For Regulatory Takings Litigation

There is probably no area of law that is as fraught with confusion and inconsistencies as the regulatory takings doctrine. In this Article, Professor Byrne summarizes arguments, called litigation themes, that can be made to help circumnavigate the many pitfalls and quagmires that await takings liti-gators as a result of this confusion. The Article argues that the Fifth Amend-ment\u27s Takings Clause was never meant to apply to the regulation of property, but only to physical or legal appropriations. Professor Byrne suggests that the Due Process Clauses or the Equal Protection Clause are equally capable of resolving the conflicts that result from the regulation of property that have traditionally been examined under the Takings Clause. The litigation themes discussed in this Article are a means to shift regulatory takings arguments away from the Takings Clause toward the Due Process Clauses or the Equal Protection Clause

Byrne: Closing the Gap Between HIPAA and Patient Privacy

HIPAA’s lack of an individualized remedy harmed individuals and left the law a toothless monster, but Byrne begins to fill the longstanding gap by offering greater protection for individuals and their sensitive information. Byrne will also incentivize better compliance with HIPAA by instilling in companies a fear of sizeable tort suit damage awards. Part II of this Note introduces HIPAA and its ability to protect sensitive health information. Part III discusses the facts, holding, and reasoning of Byrne, in which a state supreme court, for the first time, recognized HIPAA requirements as a duty owed in negligence claims. Part IV examines the available remedies for injured individuals before and after Byrne. Part V analyzes how the Byrne decision, in combination with HIPAA’s expansion under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), affects companies subject to HIPAA. Part VI demonstrates that Byrne and other similar state court decisions are trending toward recognizing HIPAA as a standard of care nationwide. Part VII concludes

Metaphysics of Quantity and the Limit of Phenomenal Concepts

Quantities like mass and temperature are properties that come in degrees. And those degrees (e.g. 5 kg) are properties that are called the magnitudes of the quantities. Some philosophers (e.g., Byrne 2003; Byrne & Hilbert 2003; Schroer 2010) talk about magnitudes of phenomenal qualities as if some of our phenomenal qualities are quantities. The goal of this essay is to explore the anti-physicalist implication of this apparently innocent way of conceptualizing phenomenal quantities. I will first argue for a metaphysical thesis about the nature of magnitudes based on Yablo’s proportionality requirement of causation. Then, I will show that, if some phenomenal qualities are indeed quantities, there can be no demonstrative concepts about some of our phenomenal feelings. That presents a significant restriction on the way physicalists can account for the epistemic gap between the phenomenal and the physical. I’ll illustrate the restriction by showing how that rules out a popular physicalist response to the Knowledge Argument

On Strong convergence of Halpern's method using averaged type mappings

In this paper, inspired by Iemoto and Takahashi [S. Iemoto, W. Takahashi, Nonlinear Analysis 71, (2009), 2082-2089], we study the Halpern's method to approximate strongly fixed points of a nonexpansive mapping and of a nonspreading mapping. A crucial tool in our results is the regularization with the averaged type mappings [C. Byrne, Inverse Probl. 20, (2004), 103-120]

Byrne, John E. Jeb oral history interview

John E. “Jeb” Byrne was born January 15, 1925 in New York City. He went to public schools in Larchmont, New York, attended Iona Prep School, and then served in World War II for two years. Byrne graduated in 1949 from Marquette University College of Journalism on the GI Bill. Both of his parents were Democrats and politically active. Byrne became the Editor of Iona News, which he did for two years, then started a daily Catholic newspaper in Kansas City, Missouri in 1950 called the Sun Herald. He also worked for UPI. Byrne moved to Maine in 1951 to run a one-man UPI bureau. He was Governor Clint Clauson’s press secretary in 1958