Cat Defies Gravity!

I've always been interested in paradoxes.

Here's an old chestnut: "This sentence is false." (If it really is false, then it must be true. But if it's true, it must be false - meaning, of course, that it's true.)

And then there's this paraphrased quote from the German philosopher Hegel: "We learn from history that we learn nothing from history." (That one's a little too scary to think about, considering the current state of the world.)

During junior high school, I was determined to devise a workable "perpetual motion machine." Never mind that a number of great thinkers already had covered that particular ground. Success would be mine!

I'm just glad I never heard about the "buttered cat paradox" when I was young enough to think it actually had some scientific merit. I might have devoted precious hours to pondering the concept - instead of spending my time on more productive activities, like lining up rolls of caps on the sidewalk and smacking them with a hammer.