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A Merry Christmas from Todays Papers

And so this is Christmas
Honduras youths open fire on bus, killing 28 people
For weak and for strong
Car Bomb Kills Five Civilians Near Najaf
For the rich and the poor ones
Five killed by Vietnam War shell
The road is so long
Nepal violence 'leaves many dead'

And so happy Christmas
Grenade attack on Kashmir market
For black and for white
Tanker bomb explodes outside Jordanian embassy in Iraq
For the yellow and red ones
18 GAM rebels killed in Indonesian Aceh
Let's stop all the fight
Israeli soldiers kill militants

A very merry Christmas
Five more killed in Honduras after massacre
And a happy New Year
Pakistani troops killed in ambush
Let's hope it's a good one
Deadly blast in southern Thailand
Without any fear
'20 die' in Nigeria fuel blaze

War is over
If you want it
War is over
Now.

Merry Christmas

Asteroid

This asteroid: 2004 MN4 has a 1 in 63 chance of hitting the Earth, according to the Near Earth Object Program. If it did it would release 1,900 megatones of energy. (The most powerful nuclear bomb ever detonated yeilded 50 magatones.)

Merry Christmas!

Via SlashDot

Duck ride

Via Cruel.com

The gutting of EarthSea

A Whitewashed Earthsea - How the Sci Fi Channel wrecked my books. By Ursula K. Le Guin

This is one of the many reasons why I don't want to work in television and movies.

EricRosenfield.com Forum

I have decided on a solution to the comments problem -- namely I've replaced the comments with a bulletin board forum. I am keenly aware that this will make people even less likely to comment then before. That's alright; it'll serve my purposes. Besides, I'm operating on the rule that if you want people to join your club, act like they can't (or at least make it more difficult for them).

Go to the EricRosenfield.com Forum.

Proofs for the existence of blueberries

My old friend Jay contacted me recently, and we go tinto some arguments about metaphysical ideas. Later, he sent me a piece of mail (snail mail, he has no interenet access) that read "Prove to me the existence of blueberries (yum yum)". Which was funny. So I sent him back these proofs for the existence of blueberries:

Proofs for the existence of blueberries.

Aristotelian Syllogism:
Things I eat exist
I eat blueberries
Therefore, blueberries exist

St. Thomas Aquinas' fifth proof:
Blueberries have a purpose, therefore they exist.

Descartes' proof:
I can imagine a perfect blueberry. Yet, I am human and therefore imperfect, so this imagination of perfection, which is perfect, cannot actually come from me, but must, in fact, come from the perfect blueberry, which exists.

Pascal's Quandary:
If I believe in blueberries and I am wrong, nothing happens to me. If I believe in blueberries and I am right, I get to eat blueberries. Therefore blueberries exist.

Kantian proof:
It is only morally just for blueberries to exist. Therefore, blueberries exist.

Kierkegaard's (existentialist) proof:
If blueberries don't exist, I cannot eat them. I like to eat blueberries. Therefore I choose to believe in the existence of blueberries.

Schopenhauer's proof:
Even if blueberries exist, they don't taste very good.

Marx's proof:
Blueberries are the opiate of the masses.

Nietzsche's proof:
Blueberries are just another form of the Will to Power. Therefore it doesn't matter if blueberries exist, but rather who has them.

Bertrand Russell's proof:
Cb ⊃ Eb
Cb
݅∴Eb

G. E. Moore's proof:
I have one blueberry. I have two blueberries. Therefore blueberries exist.

Early Wittgenstein's proof
The word "blueberry" refers to an object which exists in the world, which is all that is the case. Therefore blueberries exist.

Late Wittgenstein's proof
Language games in which I talk about blueberries do not make sense unless blueberries exist. My language games do make sense. Therefore blueberries exist.

Michel Foucault's proof:
Blueberries are a complicated, dense and multiplistic subject. First we must consider the genealogy of the blueberry... (continue for four hundred pages) And thus we see how the concept of the "blueberry" did not emerge until the classical period, where it was enabled only by the structure of power and knowledge which had come to center around a "blueberry" which exists.

Argumentum ad hominem:
If you don't believe in blueberries then you suck! Therefore blueberries exist.

Argumentum ad baculum:
If you don't believe in blueberries then I'll beat the crap out of you. Therefore blueberries exist.

Argumentum ad misericordiam:
People who believe in blueberries are happier then people who don't. Therefore blueberries exist.

Argumentum ad verecundiam:
George W. Bush says blueberries exist. Therefore blueberries exist.

Argumentum ad absurdum:
Blueberies don't exist! Therefore blueberries exist.

Watchmaker's argument:
If you found a blueberry in the forest, you would assume it was like a watch. Watches exist. Therefore blueberries exist.

Begging the question (petitio principii):
I'm glad blueberries exist. Therefore blueberries exist.

Buddhist proof:
Blueberries are an illusion.

Taoist proof:

Gilda Radner's Proof:
What's all this talk about if a blueberry exits? Of course it can't exit, it's a blueberry! Maybe it can be taken somewhere, but talking about a blueberry like it can just come and go as it pleases is crazy! Blueberries don't exit anywhere they... what's that? It's about if blueberries exist? Oh. Never mind.

Ebook's make a comeback

Article in the New York Times book review on the rise of people reading ebooks on their cellphones and PDA's...