If sports got reported like science

An awesome parody of jargon in sports reporting.

Liar paradox in novel “Don Quixote”

While reading Cervantes’ novel Don Quixote [1], I came across the following version of the liar paradox. The quote is from Part II, Chapter 51, page 798.

Sir, a deep river divides a certain lord’s estate into two parts… Listen carefully, your worship, for the case is an important one and rather difficult. I must tell you, then, that over this river is a bridge, and at one end a gallows and a sort of courthouse, in which four judges sit to administer the law imposed by the owner of the river, the bridge and the estate. It runs like this: “Before anyone crosses this bridge, he must first state on oath where he is going and for what purpose. If he swears truly, he may be allowed to pass; but if he tells a lie, he shall suffer death by hanging on the gallows there displayed, without any hope of mercy.” Though they know the law and its rigorous conditions, many people cross the bridge and, as they clearly make true statements the judges let them pass freely. Now it happened that they once put a man on his oath, and he swore that he was going to die on the gallows there—and that was all. After due deliberation the judges pronounced as follows: “If we let this man pass freely he will have sworn a false oath and, according to the law, he must die; but he swore that he was going to die on the gallows, and if we hang him that will be the truth, so by the same law he should go free.”

[1] Cervantes. Don Quixote. Penguin Books, 1950.

2005 is not the 20th anniversary of 1975

An NPR story on the fall of Saigon in 1975 has this quote:

NPR Senior Foreign Editor Loren Jenkins witnessed the fall of Saigon. He wrote this essay in 2005 to mark the 20th anniversary.

The year 1995 is the 20th anniversary in question, whereas 2005 is the 30th anniversary. Thanks to Dan Drake for pointing out this story to me. Just in case the typo is corrected in a future edited version, I have attached a screenshot of the relevant quote below. Enjoy.