Thursday 14 July 2011

Logical fallacy

I was sent an email containing the following statements. Politics aside, I like to comment on the logical fallacy committed by the sender.

Statement:

If any other of our presidents had doubled the National Debt, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, in one year, would You have Approved?

If any other of our presidents had then proposed to Double the debt again within 10 years, would you have approved?
Fallacy: Judging an action which asking the cause of the action. What else can Obama do when he inherited a situation that bad?

Statement:
If any other of our presidents had criticized a State Law that he admitted he never even read, would you think that he is just an ignorant hot Head?
Fallacy: How does one know if another person has or has not read something? "that he admitted he never even read" - What is the context when this admission was made?

Statement:
If any other of our presidents had pronounced the Marine Corps as if it were the Marine Corpse, would you think him an Idiot?
Fallacy: Diversion. What has the pronunciation have to do with an argument?

Statement:
If any other of our presidents had put 87,000 workers out of work by arbitrarily placing a moratorium on offshore oil drilling on companies that have one of the best safety records of any industry because one foreign company had an accident, would you have agreed?
Fallacy: Almost every policy will have winners and losers.

Statement:
If any other of our presidents had used a forged document as the basis of the moratorium that would render 87000 American workers unemployed,
would you support him?
Fallacy: "forged document" - proof needed. BTW, was it not that USA invaded Iraq based on false premise - the Iraq has weapon of mass destruction?

Statement:
If any other of our presidents had been the first President to need a teleprompter installed to be able to get through a press conference, would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how inept he is on his own and is really controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?
Fallacy: Good point. Just watch the following video.


AND THE LIST GOES ON...

Wednesday 6 July 2011

How do differential gears work?

Does Kindle ruin your potential date?

I got a Kindle DX for over two months now. I have had a few people ask me what I have in my hand. Oh, it is a good conversation starter! With my aging eye-sight, DX is worthy of all the extra money over the normal Kindle.