Kratzer’s picture [, , ]: • Modals are quantifiers over possible worlds. • Possibility modals are existential quantifiers, necessity modals are universal quantifiers. They are duals of each other. • Modals quantify over the worlds given by a background such as “in view of what the laws are” (i.e. the worlds compatible with what the laws are in the evaluation world). • The “ambiguity” betwe...

Spiroplasmas are small helical bacteria without rigid walls. They have a cytoskeleton in the form of a flat ribbon that runs the length of the cell. In an ordinary liquid medium, a cell spins about its long axis, but it does not translate. In a gel-like medium, containing a viscous agent like methylcellulose, it moves rapidly in a direction parallel to its long axis. Here I suggest how a cytosk...

T here is a phrase in the English language: ''pigs might fly''. The phrase is used, since pigs will never fly, as a metaphor for something that will never, or is highly unlikely to ever happen. It is perhaps somewhat ironic then that although the pigs are not flying it is due to the interaction between pigs, as the source, and aviation, as the vector, that the current influenza outbreak has spr...

New characterizations of sequential equilibrium, perfect equilibrium, and proper equilibrium are provided that use nonstandard probability. It is shown that there exists a belief system μ such that (~σ, μ) is a sequential equilibrium in an extensive game with perfect recall iff there exist an infinitesimal and a strategy profile ~σ′ consisting of completely mixed behavioral strategies (so that ...

When a child acquires her first modal verbs, is she learning how to map words in the language onto innate concepts of possibility, necessity, and impossibility? Or does also have construct concepts? If are constructed, talk about possibilities play role construction process? Exploring this hypothesis space requires testing children's acquisition vocabulary alongside nonverbal tests their concep...

The past several years have witnessed a renewed and growing interest in improving the quality of governance, and government, in virtually every region of the world. There are many reasons for this development. The very significant economic, social and institutional upheavals that have characterized the past two decades have been significant contributing factors. Reform efforts initiated in many...