Oops

Of course, we meant 'longitude.'

Yesterday, we wrote, "It seems that there are effectively no population centers that fall between the lines of latitude corresponding to one hour earlier than GMT." The problem, though, is that NO population centers fall between those lines of latitude because there ARE no such lines of latitude; or, rather, EVERY latitudinal line passes through that time zonal patch of geography. One crosses time zones by moving longitudinally.

Image from geographyalltheway.com

And why did none of you catch this?

We were standing in the shower this morning when we realized our error.

(Digression: Some sing, some engage in self-abuse; we think about our previous blog posts. What else would you expect from the Solipsist? EOD)

We faced a quandary, though: Should we go back and edit the post before some sharp-eyed Sloppist discovered the error? Apparently, we needn't have worried. But it does bring up some interesting questions about the nature of truth in the internet age.

When facts can simply disappear, how can one be sure about what constitutes truth?

This is not a new question, of course. A Philosophy 101 thought experiment poses the question: If you place a chair in a room, then leave the room and close the door, how can you prove that the chair continues to exist? Or, even more mind-trippy, if you were placed on this earth only one minute ago, and all your memories were simply planted in your mind, how would you know?

By going back and changing "latitude" to"longitude," or by going to Wikipedia and adding our autobiography to the entry on "Solipsism," we would in some small but real (though virtual) way fundamentally (if temporarily) alter the nature of truth. Would we be any better than Stalinist sycophants airbrushing Vyacheslav Molotov out of official photographs?

It's all very "Matrix." Take the red pill.