Even Witters Would Eschew Debate with E. E. Coleman

A dear friend sends me this missive from Lincolnshire, England. What's unclear to me is whether this has been written in the spirit of good fun or not. I am also not entirely sure that dear Ludwig would disagree either.

SHAPE-SHIFTING LIZARDS ARE USING GLOBAL WARMING AS A DISTRACTION

Date : 31.07.07

I Must say I wholeheartedly agree with E.C.Coleman (July 27).

I've long thought there's been some kind of massed rank conspiracy brewing for some time. Get everyone worrying about the weather then they take their eye of the ball.

Clearly it's a prelude to alien invasion. Let me explain.

For some considerable time switched on bods like myself and E.C.Coleman have been able to cut through the rubbish on the telly to what's really going on in Europe - Euro takeover by the back door.

Now I've gone even further - the leaders of the free world are actually shape-shifting lizards bent on world dominion.

They are altering our climate and melting the ice caps to distract us and get us squabbling over the cause.

It takes sensible people like us to fight for the truth. Greenhouse gases, as I've said before, are sucked up by a mini black hole in the upper atmosphere and flown off to Alpha Centauri - ironically where the alien lizards hail from.

JOHN KESTER, West End, Lincoln

&

FACT: SUN IS SMALLER THAN EARTH!

09:45 - 31 July 2007

E. C. Coleman states at one point in his missive "For the technically minded the climatic cycles correspond perfectly with the effects of the earth's spin known as the Milkanovitch Cycles" (July 27).

If Mr Coleman looks out of his window when the skies are clear at dusk or dawn during this midsummer time of year, he would see that the sun sets at about 20 degrees west of north and rises about 40 degrees east of north.

This indicates that the earth doesn't spin but the sun goes around the earth.

Furthermore, as the sun travels one foot across the sky every two hours and one foot corresponds to the distance of the object from the viewing point, it follows on through a perfectly straightforward mathematical equation that the sun's distance is 3,330 miles from the earth's surface and is roughly 70 miles in diameter.

I am well aware that this goes against all that is known as 'received wisdom'. As far as I am concerned the conclusions to be drawn from this observed evidence are incontrovertible.

MICHAEL R KEMSHALL, Wragby Road, Lincoln

Sub Specie Aeternitatis

I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves.
--Ludwig Wittgenstein

This is of course from the man who on learning he had cancer felt relieved at the fact that he no longer needed to consider suicide.