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05d6d63
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Her constant orders for beheading are shocking to those modern critics of children's literature who feel that juvenile fiction should be free of all violence and especially violence with Freudian undertones. Even the Oz books of L. Frank Baum, so singularly free of the horrors to be found in Grimm and Andersen, contain many scenes of decapitation. As far as I know, there have been no empirical studies of how children react to such scenes an..
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literature
reading
death
media
children
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Martin Gardner |
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a54d4cd
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If you ask me to tell you anything about the nature of what lies beyond the phaneron... my answer is "How should I know?"... I am not dismayed by ultimate mysteries... I can no more grasp what is behind such questions as my cat can understand what is behind the clatter I make while I type this paragraph."
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philosophy
solipsism
realism
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Martin Gardner |
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d74a680
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There are, and always have been, destructive pseudo-scientific notions linked to race and religion; these are the most widespread and damaging. Hopefully, educated people can succeed in shedding light into these areas of prejudice and ignorance, for as
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prejudice
education
destructive
race
voltaire
ignorance
pseudo-science
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Martin Gardner |
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9bea9cd
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Wouldn't the sentence 'I want to put a hyphen between the words Fish and And and And and Chips in my Fish-And-Chips sign' have been clearer if quotation marks had been placed before Fish, and between Fish and and, and and and And, and And and and, and and and And, and And and and, and and and Chips, as well as after Chips?
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Martin Gardner |
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dfb7c42
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It is part of the pholosophic dullness of our time that there are millions of rational monsters walking about on their hind legs, observing the world through pairs of flexible little lenses, periodically supplying themselves with energy by pushing organic substances through holes in their faces, who see nothing fabulous whatever about themselves.
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Martin Gardner |
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f0e4e7b
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The rub is that any work of nonsense abounds with so many inviting symbols that you can start with any assumption you please about the author and easily build up an impressive case for it. Consider, for example, the scene in which Alice seizes the end of the White King's pencil and begins scribbling for him. In five minutes one can invent six different interpretations.
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psychoanalysis
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Martin Gardner |
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ae35b16
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The Rail Fence Cipher Suppose
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Martin Gardner |
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ef95c32
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Contrariwise,' continued Tweedledee, 'if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.
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Martin Gardner |
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3ee7386
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LEWIS CARROLL'S CIPHER
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Martin Gardner |
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72c6ff0
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We cannot tell that we are constantly splitting into duplicate selves because our consciousness rides smoothly along only one path in the endlessly forking chains
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identity
science
wisdom
wise
science-fiction
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Martin Gardner |
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c1caede
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7] The Shadows Code In the 1930's a mysterious crime-fighter called the Shadow was the hero of a popular pulp magazine and an even more popular radio show. Dressed all in black, the Shadow could glide unseen through the darkness to battle the forces of evil. Stories about the Shadow, written by Maxwell Grant (pseudonym for the Shadow's creator, Walter B. Gibson), often contained curious codes. This cipher, from a novelette called The Chain ..
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Martin Gardner |
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71624b8
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XXII
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Martin Gardner |
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3541045
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At St. John's College, Annapolis, where Robert Hutchins' educational views have been most successfully practiced, they make, it is true, a great hubbub about science. The school's catalog boasts that more mathematics and laboratory work are required than at any other college, and there is even a pretentious listing of all pieces of apparatus used by the student, down to such items as compass, calipers, and ruler. But so heavy is the emphasi..
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Martin Gardner |
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184d846
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The Polybius Checkerboard Polybius was an ancient Greek writer who first proposed a method of substituting different two-digit numbers for each letter. The alphabet is written inside a 5-by-5 square matrix which has numbered rows and columns:
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Martin Gardner |
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8dc510a
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As I have often said, electrons and gerbils don't cheat. People do.
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Martin Gardner |