Frazz by Jef Mallett for March 27, 2020

I think that Caufield has answers without questions.

How are they math questions?

The answer is “no”.

They have no answers because the questions as asked are ambiguous: What is a “sound”? Might be compression waves, or it might be a perception of that phenomenon. If you rephrase the question until it’s unambiguous, it pretty much answers itself.

Caulfield is ridiculous, many questions have been answered by math, philosophical ones can’t be and economic ones are so ephemeral as to be ludicrous one day and laudable the next. The Laffer curve was the golden fleece, then became the laughing stock of those who believed in it by those who knew it was right wing BS!

“Yes”, because physics. “No” because you spend more money than you “saved” Now 20% off!!! (We increased the price 20% first, but won’t tell you that)

The tree question is nonsensical. The universe made sound before there was life to perceive it. Plus, it is not a philosophy question, but a science question.

Too many quandaries due to poor choice of words. We have too many “optional “ spellings for words and too many optional definitions for things.

Yesterday, it was science. Today, “sound”. Maybe we can work toward more confusion with some dumb question about religion.

Define “Sound”

“Passioned pastel neon lights

Light up the jeweled traveler

Who, lost in scenes of smoke-filled dreams

Finds questions, but no answers."

—Mike Nesmith

Yes and no. Next question.

If I buy 12 Volkswagens, I save enough to buy a Mercedes!

Well, I am no one: I was once in a forest when a tree fell, I heard it. So yes, it does make a sound!

And the Nobel Prize in Economics goes to “A Study of 2020 Pandemic Hoarding” by …

If a man says something in the forest and there’s no woman there to hear him, is he still wrong?

Depending on the use one has for the word, “savings” can be interpreted many ways.

“Since I’ve been working I’ve saved five thousand dollars, and I have the bargains at home to prove it.” Cathy

The first question does have an obvious answer of YES. The laws of Physics don’t change just because nobody is there to observe the phenomena.

It doesn’t help to confuse the issue by going off on the tangent of asking what is sound. That’s just a label we have created so we can discuss the real natural response in a common frame of reference.

Insight #1:

Philosophy is like searching in a dark room for a black cat.

Metaphysics is like searching in a dark room for a black cat that isn’t there.

Theology is like searching in a dark room for a black cat that isn’t there — and claiming to have found it.

Science is like searching in a dark room for a black cat by using a flashlight.

Insight #2:

Philosophy is questions that may never be answered.

Religion is answers that may never be questioned.

I know that a tree falling has a lot of energy and the impact can cause an indentation in the earth, but how does it create a large ocean inlet between two bodies of land?

Buying tools like getting immunized; It is too late when you find that you didn’t get it.

No. Where is the confusion?

Jef Mallet’s Blog Posts:Frazz18 hrs · Since I’m a cartoonist, you probably think I’m hopeless at math. I’m not, but I might be a cartoonist in part because I, too, thought I was hopeless at math. For a long, long time. I still won’t claim to be good at it, or even particularly enjoy it. But I’m not hopeless.When I was the right age to be thinking of college and majors and stuff, philosophy seemed appealing. All that sitting around thinking, discussing heavy themes and defending ideas with a modest facility for language and an epic capacity for bullshit sounded right up my alley. Economics sounded like a lot of math and other people’s money.Many years later, I would spend a week backpacking in the mountains with Dick Porter, a good friend, a nominal, distant and non-blood relative, a brilliant eccentric and, at the time, the chairman of the Econ department at the University of Michigan. It’s a good thing I could walk and climb, because I sure couldn’t keep up with him at anything else. He gently and methodically and mathematically — philosophy being mostly logic and logic being math — destroyed any philosophical pretensions I had, but he also destroyed all those reservations I had about economics. “What’s the big deal?” he said, “It’s just a bunch of Who Gets What and Why.” Later yet, the book Freakonomics would come out and further prove Dick’s point, breaking the discipline’s reputation wide open. Or maybe just my thick skull.

Make no mistake, it’s still a good thing I went into the KartoonWerks, where a little bit of drawing ability and the aforementioned language and bullshit skills allow me to pretend I know something resembling a damn thing. It seems a good fit. Both econ and philosophy are best left to the experts. But I do love watching them from a distance.

So you saved 50% on the purchase? I saved 100% on the non-purchase!

“If a tree falls in the forest you can’t see for the trees, does it hit the bear cr*pping in the woods?”