A Better Disjunctivist Response to the 'New Evil Genius' Challenge

This paper aims for a more robust epistemological disjunctivism (ED) by offering on its behalf a new and better response to the ‘new evil genius’ problem. The first section articulates the ‘new evil genius challenge’ (NEG challenge) to ED, specifying its two components: the ‘first-order’ and ‘diagnostic’ problems for ED. The first-order problem challenges proponents of ED to offer some explanation of the intuition behind the thought that your radically deceived duplicate is no less justified than you are for adopting her perceptual beliefs. In the second section, I argue that 'blamelessness' explanations are inadequate to the task and offer better explanations in their place—that of ‘trait-level virtue’ and ‘reasonability’. The diagnostic problem challenges proponents of ED to explain why it is that classical internalists disagree with them about how to interpret 'new evil genius' considerations. The proponent of ED owes some error theory. I tackle this problem in the third section, arguing that classical internalists overlook disjunctivist interpretations of new evil genius intuitions owing to a mistaken commitment to a ‘vindicatory’ explanation of perceptual knowledge

A Plea for the Theist in the Street

It can be easy to assume that since the “theist in the street” is unaware of any of the traditional arguments for theism, he or she is not in position to offer independent rational support for believing that God exists. I argue that that is false if we accept with William Alston that “manifestation beliefs” can enjoy rational support on the basis of suitable religious experiences. I make my case by defending the viability of a Moorean-style proof for theism—a proof for the existence of God that parallels in structure G. E. Moore’s famous proof for the existence of the external world. I argue that this shows that even if the theist in the street has nothing to offer for helping to convince the religious sceptic, this needn’t entail that she cannot offer independent rational support in defense of her theistic belief

How many lone parents are receiving tax credits?

When data on child poverty in 2003/04 were released, the fall in child poverty since 2002/03 was smaller than had been expected. Brewer et al. (2005) identified several reasons that might explain this, one of which was that the Family Resources Survey (FRS) - the data-set from which the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) income series is currently derived - may have been under-recording the number of families receiving tax credits (or the equivalent level of support in out-of-work benefits) and therefore underestimating the incomes of some low-income families with children. Brewer et al. (2006), who analyse what happened to child poverty between 1998/99 and 2004/05, show that estimates of spending on tax credits received by families with children based on the FRS have been getting increasingly inaccurate over time compared with estimates made by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), with around £5 billion of spending on tax credits received by families with children going unrecorded by the FRS in 2004/05. However, a detailed comparison of estimates of the number of families with children receiving tax credits (or equivalent in out-of-work benefits) based on the FRS with the equivalent estimates based on the government's administrative data is confounded by the fact that HMRC estimates that the government is paying the child tax credit and the equivalent in out-of-work benefits to more lone parents than official statistics suggest live in the UK

Tester automatically checks insulation of individual conductors in multiple-strand cables

Insulation tester checks multiple-strand electrical cables in nuclear rocket reactors. It has both manual and automatic capabilities and can check the insulation of a cable with 200 or more conductors in a few minutes

Transport in a sustainable urban future

Transport is acknowledged as a vital ingredient of any credible strategy for the sustainable city because of the key role it plays in promoting economic development, quality of life and wellbeing. Yet managing urban transport effectively, given its complex and intersecting economic, environmental and social impacts, is also precisely the kind of ‘wicked problem’ that policy makers consistently find hard to resolve (Docherty and Shaw, 2011a; Conklin, 2006; Rittel and Webber, 1973). Many of the reasons for this are longstanding and emanate in particular from the dominance of the private car in meeting the demand for mobility, which has built up over many decades in the developed world, but which is now being reproduced at a much higher pace in the fast growing cities of the Pacific Rim and elsewhere (Newman and Kenworthy, 1999; Lyons and Loo, 2008). Although it has undoubtedly transformed our patterns of travel and consumption, concerns over the limitations and externalities of private car transport – primarily traffic congestion, environmental degradation and social exclusion – have for many years stimulated various initiatives designed to mitigate these externalities (Feitelson and Verhoef, 2001; Knowles et al, 2008). The conflict between the car, long promoted by neoliberal voices as a potent weapon of the free market and individual liberty, and competing visions of a more ‘public’ transport system based on collective modes such as the bus and train, and active travel by walking and cycling, has been played out over many years. Nowhere has this conflict been more intense than in cities, as it is here that the problems such as congestion, poor local air quality and mobility deprivation are often at their most intense (Cahill, 2010; Docherty et al, 2008)

Families and Children Strategic Analysis Programme (FACSAP): Childcare use and mothers’ employment: a review of British data sources

In this paper we investigate recent trends in childcare use amongst families in Great Britain, and provide a thorough comparison of the different household survey and administrative datasets. The three datasets in questions are Families and Children Study (FACS), Family Resources Survey (FRS), Labour Force Survey (LFS) and Parents’ Demand for Childcare (PDFC)

NASA's Aircraft Icing Analysis Program

An overview of the NASA ongoing efforts to develop an aircraft icing analysis capability is presented. Discussions are included of the overall and long term objectives of the program as well as current capabilities and limitations of the various computer codes being developed. Descriptions are given of codes being developed to analyze two and three dimensional trajectories of water droplets, airfoil ice accretion, aerodynamic performance degradation of components and complete aircraft configurations, electrothermal deicer, fluid freezing point depressant antideicer and electro-impulse deicer. The need for bench mark and verification data to support the code development is also discussed, and selected results of experimental programs are presented

Investigation of infrared spectra of atmospheric gases to support stratospheric spectroscopic investigations

Spectroscopic instrumentation and the absorption characteristics of atmospheric gases are discussed in relation to the requirements of spectroscopic stratospheric experiments. Improvement in the spectral resolution, accuracy of the line parameters, and the ranges of atmospheric conditions over which information is to be obtained are among the factors considered. Methods of simultaneously analyzing entire bands containing many lines were developed and applied to the analysis of bands of N20 and CO2. Progress in this analysis is reported

Research and competition: Best partners

NASA's Microgravity Science and Applications Program is directed toward research in the science and technology of processing materials under conditions of low gravity. The objective is to make a detailed examination of the constraints imposed by gravitational forces on Earth. The program is expected to lead ultimately to the development of new materials and processes in Earth-based commercial applications, adding to this nation's technological base. An important resource that U.S. researchers have readily available to them is the new Microgravity Materials Science Laboratory (MMSL) at NASA Lewis Research Center in Cleveland. A typical scenario for a microgravity materials experiment at Lewis would begin by establishing 1-g baseline data in the MMSL and then proceeding, if it is indicated, to a drop tower or to simulated microgravity conditions in a research aircraft to qualify the project for space flight. A major component of Lewis microgravity materials research work involves the study of metal and alloy solidification fundamentals