Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site watdaisy.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!watdaisy!ndiamond
From: ndiamond@watdaisy.UUCP (Norman Diamond)
Newsgroups: net.puzzle
Subject: Re: *SPOILER* Re: A puzzle with two answers?!?(tall and short cannibals)
Message-ID: <6738@watdaisy.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 14-Nov-84 14:50:47 EST
Article-I.D.: watdaisy.6738
Posted: Wed Nov 14 14:50:47 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 15-Nov-84 02:22:19 EST
References: <4@decwrl.UUCP>, <1136@bbncca.ARPA>
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 12

There are more difficulties than have been mentioned so far.  They are
exemplified by the "spoiler" which this message is replying to.
The liars always say the opposite of what they believe.  If a liar says
"A and B and C", does that mean that the liar believes "(not A) and
(not B) and (not C)", or only that he believes "not (A and B and C)"?
In the original problem, the second speaker only stated one sentence,
in conjunctive form.  There are bucketfulls of interpretations.
The followup message reduced the possibilities to two by changing the
second speaker's message into three separate statements, thereby
inferring that all three statements are false (or that all three are
true).  If my life depended on solving the original problem, I would
ask for a coin to flip.