Saturday, March 21, 2009

An Epistemological Nightmare

(by Raymond M. Smullyan, 1982)

"Scene 1

Frank is in the office of an eye doctor. The doctor holds up a book and asks "What color is it?" Frank answers, "Red." The doctor says, "Aha, just as I thought! Your whole color mechanism has gone out of kilter. But fortunately your condition is curable, and I will have you in perfect shape in a couple of weeks."

Scene 2

(A few weeks later.) Frank is in a laboratory in the home of an experimental epistemologist. (You will soon find out what that means!) The epistemologist holds up a book and also asks, "What color is this book?" Now, Frank has been earlier dismissed by the eye doctor as "cured." However, he is now of a very analytical and cautious temperament, and will not make any statement that can possibly be refuted. So Frank answers, "It seems red to me."

Epistemologist:
Wrong!

Frank:
I don't think you heard what I said. I merely said that it seems red to me.

Epistemologist:
I heard you, and you were wrong.

Frank:
Let me get this clear; did you mean that I was wrong that this book is red, or that I was wrong that it seems red to me?

Epistemologist:
I obviously couldn't have meant that you were wrong in that it is red, since you did not say that it is red. All you said was that it seems red to you, and it is this statement which is wrong.

Frank:
But you can't say that the statement "It seems red to me" is wrong.

Epistemologist:
If I can't say it, how come I did?

Frank:
I mean you can't mean it.

Epistemologist:
Why not?

Frank:
But surely I know what color the book seems to me!

Epistemologist:
Again you are wrong."

Read the rest here.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Pencil Drawings

The following were drawn by pencil. The artists are unknown.











There are more examples here.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Can't Sleep

The Solway Firth Photo

"On 24th May 1964, Jim Templeton, a fireman from Carlisle in the North of England, took his young daughter out to the marches overlooking the Solway Firth to take some photographs. Nothing untoward happened, although both he and his wife noticed an unusual aura in the atmosphere.

There was a kind of electric charge in the air, though no storm came. Even nearby cows seemed upset by it.

Some days later Mr Templeton got his photographs processed by the chemist, who said that it was a pity that the man who had walked past had spoilt the best shot of Elizabeth holding a bunch of flowers. Jim was puzzled. There had been nobody else on the marshes nearby at the time.

But sure enough, on the picture in question there was a figure in a silvery white space suit projecting at an odd angle into the air behind the girl's back, as if an unwanted snooper had wrecked the shot.

The case was reported to the police and taken up by Kodak, the film manufacturers, who offered free film for life to anyone who could solve the mystery when their experts failed.

It was not, as the police at first guessed, a simple double exposure with one negative accidentally printed on top of another during processing. It was, as Chief Superintendent Oldcorn quickly concluded, just "one of those things... a freak picture."

A few weeks later Jim Templeton received two mysterious visitors. He had never heard of MIBs: the subject was almost unknown in Britain then. But the two men who came to his house in a large Jaguar car wore dark suits and otherwise looked normal. The weird thing about them was their behavior.

They only referred to one another by numbers and asked the most unusual questions as they drove Jim out to the marshes. They wanted to know in minute detail about the weather on the day of the photograph, the activities of local bird life and odd asides like that.

Then they tried to make him admit that he had just photographed an ordinary man walking past. Jim responded politely, but nevertheless rejected their idea, at which they became irrationally angry and hustled themselves into the car, driving off and leaving him. The fire officer had to hike five miles across country to get home."

This is taken from here. More information here.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Words of Wisdom

"It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god."

~Seneca

Friday, March 6, 2009

Elementary Geometry

Using only elementary geometry, find the measure of angle x.



This problem is harder than it looks.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Olive You

I really like this greeting card.



This and other cards can be found here.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

The Hokey Poke

The Washington Post asked readers to submit instructions for anything, but written in the style of a famous person. The following instructions on how to do the Hokey Pokey won the competition.

"O proud left foot, that ventures quick within
Then soon upon a backward journey lithe.
Anon, once more the gesture, then begin:
Command sinistral pedestal to writhe.
Commence thou then the fervid Hokey-Poke,
A mad gyration, hips in wanton swirl.
To spin! A wilde release from Heavens yoke.
Blessed dervish! Surely canst go, girl.
The Hoke, the poke -- banish now thy doubt
Verily, I say, 'tis what it's all about."

~William Shakespeare

Written by Jeff Brechlin, Potomac Falls, Maryland, and submitted by Katherine St. John.

Happy Cloud

UK artist Stuart Semple released over 2000 smiley faces over London's financial district and Tate Modern. When asked why he did this he answered: "I just wanted to make a piece of work that would cheer people up a bit." Learn more about "Happy Cloud" here. You might also want to check out some of his other works.





Monday, March 2, 2009

Epitaph of a Miss Nott

"Nott born, Nott dead, Nott christened, Nott begot;
So here she lies that was and that was Nott.
Reader behold a wonder rarely wrought,
Which while thou seem'st to read thou readest Nott."

A Graceful Compliment

"Among the charming women who, in 1784, adorned the Court of Charlotte of Mecklenburg Strelitz (or, more properly to speak, the English capital for scarcely could that queen be said to have any court), might well be accounted Lady Payne, afterward Lady Lavington. Her person and manners were full of winning grace. At her house, in Grafton Street, the politicians of her day frequently met; and Erskine having once dined there, found himself so indisposed as to be obliged to retire after dinner to another apartment. Lady Payne, who was incessant in her attentions to him, inquired when he returned to the company, how he found himself. Erskine took out a bit of paper and wrote on it:

'Tis true I am ill, but I cannot complain,
For he never knew Pleasure who never knew Payne.'"

~The American Magazine (1883)