XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: no.spam@no.spam   
      
   On 1/4/2012 1:01 AM, In article "Re: _The Hobbit_ - first glimpse"   
   Troels Forchhammer enscribed in Moon-runes:   
      
    > I do think it's fairly clear that the earth is round ;)   
      
   *Approximately* spherical, except that the sun and moon cause tides   
   not only with the oceans but with the stuff of the Earth itself --   
   apparently even the solid rock of the crust expands and compresses   
   with the standing planetary tidal waves, while the molten core   
   sloshes around under high pressure doing its best to escape   
   through volcanoes such as Mt. Doom. So the Earth is actually   
   [I dunno the scientific word for it -- a "3 dimensional oval"]   
      
   Of course this is made use of by the Nameless Things (older than   
   Sauron) that gnaw the world deeper than the deepest delvings   
   of the Dwarves. They keep time by it so as to know when to gnaw   
   and when to sleep.   
      
    > Sometimes it helps to start from the obvious as common grounds -- and I   
    > do so like my understatements :) (I'm sorely tempted to make a science-   
    > philosophical objection to the use of 'true', but that'll have to wait   
    > until some other day ;-)   
      
   How about I take a fling at it.   
   When I was programming, I would sometimes include the following:   
      
   #define FALSE 0   
   #define TRUE !FALSE   
      
   This has philosophical implications (which I was too busy   
   at the time to contemplate). However, it seems to assert   
   that Truth is any information which is not False.   
      
   In other words, Falseness, including illusion, deception and lies   
   would be a fundamental quality of the Universe, with Truth a derived   
   concept; defined in terms of Falseness (and evidently   
   a rare commodity).   
      
   This contradicts the intuitive view that there is only one   
   reality but many views (and falsehoods, slanted opinions, spin   
   and outright propaganda). * And yet the Heisenberg Uncertainty   
   Principle holds that we can never be absolutely sure of anything;   
   the best we can do being to rely on a high statistical probability.   
      
   * "They'll hug you and kiss you   
   And tell you more lies   
   Than cross-ties on a railroad   
   Or stars in the skies."   
      
   SQ   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)