Heroes of Syntax: May 2011

27.5.11

Disagreement Games

12:16 PM |

Posted by Maj |

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Here's a page from the paper I wrote with Kasper (in LaTeX. Click to enlarge. Pretty, ain't it?) If you'd like me to send you the PDF file, I'd be happy to, so just let me know. :) Here's our abstract, in case you're interested:

When exchanging information, agents frequently come across matters on which they disagree with their fellow conversational participants. In what follows, we look at agents' resolution of such disagreements in terms of their moves in what we call a Disagreement Game. More specifically, our paper sets the groundwork for modelling what takes place when agents with diverging beliefs sort out who should change his mind (or their minds) on the contentious matter under discussion. To this e ffect, in the first half of our paper, we motivate and define the notions which service our model: the (newly extended) Common Ground, the Authority Function and the mentioned Disagreement Game. The second half of the paper is devoted to discussion of some philosophical issues raised by the proposed model.

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1.5.11

+1

8:06 PM |

Posted by Maj |

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(I also share with you my favourite photo I've taken at Science Park so far.)

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Praha a Go-Go

7:41 PM |

Posted by Maj |

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Ladies and gents (especially facebook-free Lorébanane),

While in the Canary Islands, I came to something like a resolution to actually learn from the trips I take. (I think this is probably obvious as all hell for everyone else.) About five days into my Tenerife excursion, I realized:

1) I like my friends. There's no reason to escape from them, really. I much preferred going to Brussels, Bergen and Berlin (where I spent most of my time hanging out with Jonas, Erik, Sylvia respectively) than going to Dublin and spending most of my time doing research and feeling bored, lonely and particularly clueless as to where to go.

2) I like short trips. When I'm somewhere for 2 days, I can justify putting off all work and just enjoying myself; when I'm somewhere for a week or so, I know I should do work, but I don't get it done (and thus begins the painful descent into self-loathing over laziness.) Working on vacation = pretty stupid idea.

Furthermore, about five days into the trip, my friend Julie (who I hadn't spent any real time with since my third year in undergrad: we took Group Theory together. She was a chemical engineering student who wanted to change the world, had a lovely singing voice and would come hang out with me in Raynor's Philosophy of Enlightenment class (where "hang out" = "doodle a variety of sea creatures and mean caricatures of profs to pass the time")) asked me if I wanted to go to Prague with her on a weekend trip in April. So despite the fact that I was really missing Amsterdam while in the Canaries, I signed up for Julie's trip in light of Realisations 1 and 2. And not only did the trip sound promising at first, but the pretty man I'd had a crush on since last year wanted to come along with Julie and I. And then -- AND THEN! -- said pretty man and I started dating in March, so despite the fact that it might not be wise to hype up trips, it was inevitable. I was pretty pumped for our 4-night stay in the Czech Republic. :)

The trip itself was certainly one of the best on which I've been. We saw plenty of touristy things, but took it easy when it came to sight-seeing and actually spent a fair amount of time just sitting around drinking, talking and eating delicious non-Dutch vacation foods in our rented apartment and around the city. Consequently, I introduce

3) I like travelling with people who like stopping for pastries/street meat/coffee/ice cream/beer every two hours or so.

Alright, time for some photos. These are from my camera, as well as Julie and Erik's. Enjoy. :)

Before we begin: this is Katja Mavec, Julie's friend and one of the best metal guitarists in Slovenia. We heard so many bizarre stories about their adventures that it only felt right to include her in the photos.

Meet Julie. Julie is on a funicular which brought us to the top of a hill with a tiny version of the Eiffel Tower.

Meet Erik, the most handsome Norwegian computer scientist to walk the Charles Bridge. These are my beloved travel companions.

...And this is largely how we roll.

This was the first church we visited.

They sold bluebell hats nearby. Here I am, pollinating them with lice.

We spent the day gallivanting around downtown, scoping out fires and squares.

The Franz Kafka Café. Loré, I got you Kafka sugar packets. :)

This is the Astronomical Clock in the Old Town Square. It was not fully functional when we visited it, but it sure is pretty. Every hour on the hour, a trumpeter comes out and toots out a short, annoyingly catchy tune.

We snuck up to the top of the Tower and took these pictures of ourselves and the city.

This is a photo of the Easter Markets open in the Square in March and April.

It's busy down there.

And so very festive. :)

The Astronomical Clock has a tiny front door. Erik took this photo of Julie and I in front of it. Realizing how stupidly tall it made Julie look, we figured we'd have to take this photo, too, for good measure (har!):

Photos on the way to Charles Bridge.

There it is in the background!

And there's the annoying gentleman who tried to sell Julie and Erik boat trip tickets.

Now there's a man who loves his job.

Julie is fascinated by Europe's abundance of "Jesus Parties" (as she likes to call them.) Here's one on Charles Bridge.

Seriously, though, this is how I felt the whole time.

Over the course of our 5 days in town, we spent something like a half-hour watching these birds and ones like them.

On our second day, we caught the changing of the guards as we arrived at Prague Castle.

Just magnificent.

There was a classical concert at this basilica that evening. I was so, so happy to hear both Brahms' and Dvorak's (respective) Hungarian and Slavonic dances, which are some of my all-time favourite pieces. I was stupidly lucky.