Craig on God and Morality

In this paper we critically evaluate an argument put forward by William Lane Craig for the existence of God based on the assumption that if there were no God, there could be no objective morality. Contrary to Craig, we show that there are some necessary moral truths and objective moral reasoning that holds up whether there is a God or not. We go on to argue that religious faith, when taken alone and without reason or evidence, actually risks undermining morality and is an unreliable source of moral truths. We recommend a viewpoint on morality that is based on reason and public consensus, that is compatible with science, and that cuts across the range of religious and non-religious positions

Flow around a sphere in a circular tube

The vector potential for the flow of an ideal fluid through a tube containing a concentric spherical obstacle is found for ratios of sphere radius to tube radius of 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, and 0.95. The flow is confined to the space between sphere and cylinder by thin vortex sheets of variable strength and a table of their circulation intensity on the spherical surface is given. Accuracies vary from about one part in 108 for small spheres to one part in 107 for large ones. The increase in the scalar velocity potential between the ends of the tube caused by the insertion of the sphere is expressed in terms of the effective increase in tube length. This also gives the increase in resistance of a solid conducting cylinder due to the presence of a concentric spherical bubble

PRIVILEGED ACCESS AND QUALIA

In this paper I shall examine some recent literature that purports to show that sensations or qualia are not real psychological phenomena, and that we do not have privileged access to our psychological states. In particular, I shall criticize some work by Daniel C. Dennett, who has argued against the existence of qualia and privileged access to the mental. I will maintain that Dennett has not made a convincing case for eliminating qualia, and has not shown that we do not have privileged access to psychological phenomena from a first-person point of view

Materialism And The Locus Of The Subject Of Experiences

The paper treats alternative views about a materialist conception of the subject of experiences or the self or person. Some views are that the self is the brain, or the whole person, or that there is no self or subject of experiences. We lay out each view and their advantages and disadvantages

No anomalous scaling in electrostatic calibrations for Casimir force measurements

In a recent paper (Phys.Rev.A78, 020101(R) (2008)), Kim at al. have reported a large anomaly in the scaling law of the electrostatic interaction between a sphere and a plate, which was observed during the calibration of their Casimir force set-up. Here we experimentally demonstrate that in proper electrostatic calibrations the scaling law follows the behavior expected from elementary electrostatic arguments, even when the electrostatic voltage that one must apply to minimize the force (typically ascribed to contact potentials) depends on the separation between the surfaces.Comment: Final versio

Réplica a Graham Murdock

In this text Smythe defends himself from accusations made by Graham Murdock about his analysis of the deficiencies of Western Marxism in its study of communications (see abstract of last article). The author accuses Murdock of reductionism and Eurocentered tendencies, and defends his own point of view analyzing and answering to every critical assertion made to his work. Finally he suggests the need of questioning and re-examining the European tradition, anchored in class conceptions and hierarchical organizational structures, preconceptions which have caused the blindspots in what has to do with consciousness industry and ideology.En este texto Smythe se defiende de las acusaciones vertidas por Graham Murdock respecto de su análisis sobre las deficiencias del marxismo occidental a la hora de abordar el estudio de las comunicaciones (ver abstract del artículo anterior). El autor acusa asimismo a Murdock de reduccionista y eurocentrista, y defiende su postura anterior analizando y respondiendo a todas y cada una de las críticas planteadas a su trabajo. Por último sugiere la necesidad de cuestionar y reexaminar la tradición europea, anclada en concepciones de clase y estructuras de organización jerárquicas, preconcepciones que precisamente han producido el agujero negro en lo que se refiere a la industria de la conciencia y la ideología

Tailoring the carrier mobility of semiconducting nanowires by remote dielectrics

The dielectric environment of thin semiconductor nanowires can affect the charge transport properties inside the wire. In this work, it is shown that Coulomb impurity scattering inside thin nanowires can be damped strongly by coating the wire with a high-k dielectric. This will lead to an increase in the mobility of free charges inside the wire.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure