Interesting Links for 26-11-2013

[andrewducker]

• Bitcoin Survival Guide: Everything You Need to Know About the Future of Money
  (tags: bitcoin )
• How the Daily Mail Conquered England
  (tags: journalism DailyMail uk )
• Pop music is louder, less acoustic and more energetic than in the 1950s
  (tags: music history )
• The US FDA shuts down 23andMe
  (tags: genetics usa law regulation )
• Upworthy: Springfield
  

Comments

[xenophanean]

Thou shalt not commit logical fallacies

I would say one of those logical fallacies isn't a fallacy.

"Special Pleading: You moved the goalposts or made up an exception when your claim was shown to be false."

This is also called an 'Ad-Hoc Hypothesis'. The most famous one:
"Our theory says there's matter"
"If there was matter, we'd see its emissions, we can't! There is no matter, your theory is wrong"
"Ah, no, the matter is invisible!"

Gets steadily dodgier the more you have to do it, but it's a fundamental part of science, not a fallacy.

Also, be careful with fallacy of argument to authority. It's only a fallacy if the the level of authority referred to is inappropriate. "Because the majority of the physics community says it" *is* a good justification for regarding a statement as true. Attempting to use the fallacy of argument to authority to dismiss this is in itself a form of fallacious argument. I'll give the site a pass on this one though, because it provides at least some warning.

[naath]

Ah, the badger fallacy...

[xenophanean]

(Note: physics community statement must be about physics (or a related area of expertise), or else it is an inappropriate argument to authority)

[andrewducker]

Yeah, Argument from Authority is fine, so long as you are convinced that the authority has good reason for their beliefs. You're basically outsourcing your own evidence checking to someone you consider better-educated on that subject.

[rhythmaning]

Interesting take on Dr Who 3D. (Though presumably Pertwee was D3...)

What was your view of it?

Worked fine in 2D at home. On my small tv...

[andrewducker]

It worked really well. The "stopped time" paintings were 3D, and it gave them a nice sense of alienness, the movement into the TARDIS was nicely done.

Mostly, it was subliminal - things just felt slightly more real, with is what good 3D does.

[rhythmaning]

Generally, I don't like 3D films. But Gravity was absolutely amazing.

[bohemiancoast]

I was absolutely astounded at this article, which suggests that Dr Who was filmed in 3d because it was on a tight budget and that 3d post-production is the favoured approach in Hollywood. Because it is very nearly impossible to post-produce 3d well, and normally it's a great pile of poo. Whereas, as long as you avoid some classic mistakes, filming in 3d is relatively easy.

The exception to the 'all secondary 3d is terrible' rule is Titanic 3d, where noted obsessive James Cameron personally supervised every single frame to make sure it didn't have any mistakes.

But yes, the 3d in Doctor Who was jolly good.

[a_pawson]

I'm not convinced by that article on the use of periods. If true then I must sound really angry every time I send a text although this may be because I am in a tiny minority who actually use punctuation in text messages.

[lil_shepherd]

Joining you in that minority.

[andrewducker]

I suspect that it applies largely to younger people, not the group I communicate with regularly.

[gwendysmile]

That 23andMe thing... wow. Obviously, the letter is written to make all the bad stuff as clear as possible, but that's pretty damning. You have to be careful with this stuff...

I have to say I wouldn't be overly concerned about possible health risks as a result of false positives - Sandy and I saw some geneticists when we were in NYC to take about possibilities for making sure our kids don't get my Crouzon syndrome, and they were all pretty blatantly super-sceptical of 23andMe. I got the impression they found it interesting as a business idea, but they would definitely have ordered all their own tests before prescribing any treatment (preventative or otherwise) to anyone who came in after doing the tests.

False negatives and self-medication though.... yeah. That would be bad.

[skington]

Remember those blood test / cheek swab "we'll tell you what type of breed(s) your dog is" companies that started turning up a few years ago? When they first came out they didn't have all dog breeds sequenced, including Border Collie, the breed we most strongly suspect our mutt of having some of in him, so we didn't bother. Last year I noticed their breed lists had lengthened, so I asked our vet which one, if any, they would recommend.

"The guys at Glasgow University Vet School sent them a bunch of DNA samples", said our vet. "They all came back as 'Chow mix'."

The plural of anecdote isn't data etc. etc. but yeah.