Napping: is it really a means by which short sleepers can have their cake and eat it too?

You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Introduction I always feel guilty when I go see the dentist. We all know the rules—avoid sweets, brush after every meal, floss several times a day. Talking about tool and shop safety gets the same treatment in articles and books– always read the owner’s manual, inspect your tool for hazards daily, make sure your tools are properly grounded (sound familiar?) The challenge I present to you is tha...

Throw One's Cake - and Eat It Too

We consider the problem of fairly dividing a heterogeneous cake between a number of players with different tastes. In this setting, it is known that fairness requirements may result in a suboptimal division from the social welfare standpoint. Here, we show that in some cases, discarding some of the cake and fairly dividing only the remainder may be socially preferable to any fair division of th...

Early detection of prostate cancer: can we have our cake and eat it too?

If you are over 65--can you have your cake and eat it too?

Two women, in their 70s, are walking on Blackstone Boulevard. Both are 5 feet 2 inches tall. One weighs 146 pounds; the other, 118 pounds. Corresponding body mass index (BMI) is 26.5 (overweight) for the first and 21.6 (normal) for the second. They are both healthy without any chronic medical conditions. Each takes vitamins and calcium supplementation. Which woman has the lower mortality risk? ...

You can have your cake and eat it too: Introducing Dynamical Systems to Cognitive Science

Timothy Van Gelder and Robert Port (PVG) have thrown down the gauntlet to Cognittive Science. Flaunting a young but dynamic tradition of looking to the computer as a possible model of what the brain is, PVG offer to replace this tradition by a new one based on dynamics. The tenets of this shift include a new emphasis on continuous state and time. Through their 500 page edited collection, PVG ho...