Hey look kids, the part/whole fallacy!

"If one person has freedom of speech, then multiple people banding together -- such as a corporation (but also unions) also have freedom of speech."

Worst science reporting ever.

Be sure to click through to read the story. Remember, science reporting gets really bad, and this is the worst ever science reporting.
Worst science
Originally uploaded by perca fluviatilis.

Does Socrates use the Chewbacca defense?

I use this all the time in Critical Thinking and Introduction to Philosophy courses (Discussion question: does Socrates use the Chewbacca defense?). But I couldn't find it last time I needed to grab it in class, so I'm putting this up my future reference.

doubleplusgoodthingers bellyfeel truthiness!

For my critical thinking class.

I'm going to use this disclaimer: "The opinions expressed are here for discussion purposes and do not necessarily represent the views of the instructor or the college."

Readings: Orwell, "Politics and the English Language" and chapter 1 and the appendix to 1984.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

The Word - Truthiness

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Funny Political News

Christian Bale Parody
Joke of the Day

George Carlin - Soft Language

Other notes

McAvoy had an earlier talk on teaching using pop culture, and she noted that the shelf live of the Blackwell/Open Court books is about six months. After that, the bit of pop is out of student consciousness. Students today were 10 when the Matrix came out, and their parents didn't let them see it. This means that if I want to teach using essays from Watchmen and Philosophy, I'd have to do it fall 2009, about the time the DVD of the movie comes out.

I have repeatedly heard people here praise The Institute for Critical Thinking. I ordered some of their material a couple-three years ago, when I was at SLU, and was quickly turned off by it. My immediate reactions were (1) this is aimed at high school students and teachers of high school students, (2) this has the same cheesy style of presentation of a management seminar (3) like a management seminar, it might be a scam.

Now I am at an institution where high-school level material would be useful, and people are telling me that there is some significant theory behind what Paul and Elder do. (It is a completely formal, content-neutral definition of critical thinking. This goes against the trend that says total content neutrality is for formal logic only.) Perhaps I should take a look at their stuff again. It may, in particular, be good for the assessment people at LCCC who need to assess critical thinking learning outcomes.

a nice multi-dimensional chart

a nice multi-dimensional chart
Originally uploaded by rob helpychalk.

This chart is from a new NYT editorial about older women and harder drugs. The chart doesn't entirely back up the editorial, but it is a nice example of the sort of chart Ed Tufte likes. It includes many dimensions of data in a single view.