“Have you noticed … there is never any third act in a nightmare? They bring you to a climax of terror and then leave you there. They are the work of poor dramatists.” — Max Beerbohm
Counterpoint
In 1078, Saint Anselm of Canterbury presented a proof that God exists. We define God as a being than which no greater can be conceived. If God existed only in the mind, then we could conceive of a greater God, one who exists in both mind and reality. Therefore God cannot be merely imaginary — he must exist in reality.
Australian philosopher Douglas Gasking offered this response. The creation of the world is the worthiest achievement imaginable. Its merit is the product of its intrinsic quality and the ability of its creator. The greater the creator’s handicap, the more impressive the achievement. The most grievous handicap would be non-existence. An existent creator would be subordinate to one that does not exist. Therefore, if God is the greatest conceivable being, then he does not exist.
(William Grey, “Gasking’s Proof,” Analysis 60:4 [October 2000], 368-370.)
Perspective
Artist Jeff Lieberman designs “Impossible Corners,” a wall art illusion that exploits the same principle as this mistrustful dragon.
Hobo Ethics
A code of principles proposed at the 1889 National Hobo Convention:
- Decide your own life; don’t let another person run or rule you.
- When in town, always respect the local law and officials, and try to be a gentleman at all times.
- Don’t take advantage of someone who is in a vulnerable situation, locals or other hobos.
- Always try to find work, even if temporary, and always seek out jobs nobody wants. By doing so you not only help a business along, but ensure employment should you return to that town again.
- When no employment is available, make your own work by using your added talents at crafts.
- Do not allow yourself to become a stupid drunk and set a bad example for locals’ treatment of other hobos.
- When jungling [camping] in town, respect handouts and do not wear them out; another hobo will be coming along who will need them as badly, if not worse than you.
- Always respect nature; do not leave garbage where you are jungling.
- If in a community jungle, always pitch in and help.
- Try to stay clean, and boil up wherever possible.
- When traveling, ride your train respectfully. Take no personal chances. Cause no problems with operating crew or host railroad. Act like an extra crew member.
- Do not cause problems in a train yard; another hobo will be coming along who will need passage through that yard.
- Do not allow other hobos to molest children; expose all molesters to authorities – they are the worst garbage to infest any society.
- Help all runaway children, and try to induce them to return home.
- Help your fellow hobos whenever and wherever needed; you may need their help someday.
- If present at a hobo court and you have testimony, give it. Whether for or against the accused, your voice counts!
The convention was held by Tourist Union #63, a union of hobos created in the mid-1800s. Members sought to resist anti-vagrancy laws by representing themselves as itinerant workers rather than idle miscreants.
The Fene Cellist
In 2023, the artist collective SFHIR created this nine-story mural in Fene, Galicia, for the first Perla Mural Fest. At night the instrument comes to life as the building’s stairwell is illuminated.
The mural was judged best among 50 finalists in the Street Art Cities 2023 awards.
Unquote
“To be sure, the dog is loyal. But why, on that account, should we take him as an example? He is loyal to men, not to other dogs.” — Karl Kraus
Math Notes
A visual proof that the sum of all positive odd numbers up to 2n – 1 is a perfect square.
In a Word
locodescriptive
adj. describing a particular place or places
hippocrepiform
adj. shaped like a horseshoe
elsewhither
adv. in a different direction
mirific
adj. working wonders; wonderful
The Rochester Institute of Technology contains a portal to another dimension. In 2013, student Michael Lacanilao deliberately set out to create a record of an “Escherian stairwell” on campus that forms a perpetual downward loop.
Lacanilao has long since graduated, but the stairwell is still commemorated on the school’s website.
(Thanks, Colin.)
The Blast Shadow
On the morning of Aug. 6, 1945, a customer was sitting on the steps of Sumitomo Bank in Hiroshima, waiting for the branch to open, when an atomic bomb exploded over the city. The bank was only 260 meters from ground zero, and as the intense heat burned its stone face white, the customer’s body shielded one section of the steps, leaving a “shadow” in that place.
The steps are now preserved in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
In 1946, the British mission to Hiroshima and Nagasaki noted that the surfaces of asphalt roads “retained the ‘shadows’ of those who had walked there at the instant of the explosion.” It called them “objects of macabre interest and pilgrimage for visitors.”
The Gingerbread Game
Hansel and Gretl have discovered a gingerbread cottage and are wondering whether to eat some of the tiles on its walls. A witch appears and tells them how they must go about it. “Each of you is to name a whole number between 0 and 100. Hansel’s must be odd and Gretl’s even. No conferring. Whoever chooses the lower number can eat twice that number of gingerbread tiles. Whoever chooses the higher number can eat the lower number.” So, for example, if Hansel chooses 57 and Gretl chooses 30, Hansel will get 30 tiles and Gretl will get 60.
This sounds fine, but the children have just had lessons in game theory and regard this as a non-cooperative game between rational utility maximizers. Gretl knows that Hansel will not choose 99, because 97 would leave him better off if she chose 98 and no worse off if she chose any other number. By the same reasoning, she will avoid 98 and choose 96. In her mind she can follow this train all the way to its end: Rationally, it seems, she must choose 2. Hansel, following it also, finds himself indifferent between 3 and 1. In the end he will receive a paltry two tiles and Gretl either one or four.
Is all of this sound? Gretl says, “There is something radically peculiar about trains of thought which proceed in the subjunctive. You are to work out what you would be rational to do, if I were to choose a number which I shall not choose. I am to do likewise, with each train of thought reproduced inside the other. What happens if either player derails a train by choosing in defiance of it? In that case it becomes radically unclear whether either player still has a rational choice.”
(Martin Hollis, “The Gingerbread Game,” Analysis 54:4 [October 1994], 196-200.)