en-us 2009 A weblog for the Fallacy Files website. http://www.fallacyfiles.org Here it is... http://www.fallacyfiles.org/archive112009.html#11062009 The Multiple Comparisons Fallacy. I haven't added it to the Taxonomy yet; that is to come.... http://www.fallacyfiles.org/archive112009.html#11012009 Britain's "Guardian" newspaper has a fascinating history of the birth and growth over the last ten years of the estimate of the number of prostitutes trafficked into the U.K.... http://www.fallacyfiles.org/archive102009.html#10282009 Ben Goldacre's latest "Bad Science" column deals with a slanted debate about a slanted movie... http://www.fallacyfiles.org/archive102009.html#10252009 I've been hearing this sort of argument made recently by right-wing pundits: Obama is a good speaker. Hitler is a good speaker. [More or less implied conclusion:] Obama is Hitler (or like Hitler).... http://www.fallacyfiles.org/archive102009.html#10242009 David B. Grant's "Joseph Spider and the Fallacy Farm". http://www.fallacyfiles.org/archive102009.html#10212009 I heard about the following incident when it happened over a week ago, but I didn't realize who organized it until today... http://www.fallacyfiles.org/archive102009.html#10192009 The only clue the police have to a murder is a blurry photograph on a cell phone camera. They question a woman who might be able to identify the killer in the picture: "Who is this man, Mrs. Murphy?" There was a long pause as the woman looked intently at the photo. Finally, she answered: "This man's son is my daughter's father's son". After that, she refused to answer any further questions. For the third time, the police come to you for help: If the witness spoke truly, who is the murderer? http://www.fallacyfiles.org/archive102009.html#10122009 Here's another "Volokh Conspiracy" item: Eugene Volokh has an extensive criticism of a study purporting to show that carrying a gun does not afford protection against being shot. In fact, the study claims that people carrying guns are more likely to be shot than those unarmed. I haven't had an opportunity to read the study itself, so I can't confirm Volokh's criticisms, but they certainly sound plausible. The best that such a study can show is a correlation, rather than a causal relationship, between carrying a gun and being shot; or the lack of a correlation, rather than the lack of a causal relationship, between carrying and not being shot. It's plausible that people who carry guns do so because they are more likely to be shot at than those who don't carry, so it's possible that guns offer them protection even though they are shot at a higher rate than those who aren't packing. http://www.fallacyfiles.org/archive102009.html#10062009 Law professor David Post of "The Volokh Conspiracy" has a post about the interpretation of sections 116 and 256 of the Patent Act, which are almost identical except for a single comma... http://www.fallacyfiles.org/archive102009.html#10042009 Poll: Support for Obamacare at New Low... http://www.fallacyfiles.org/archive092009.html#09302009 What should we learn from the Jaycee Dugard kidnapping case? According to Lenor Skenazy, not much... http://www.fallacyfiles.org/archive092009.html#09272009 A short video of statistician Peter Donnelly explaining the base rate and prosecutor's fallacies, and giving a shocking real-life example of the latter... http://www.fallacyfiles.org/archive092009.html#09232009 In his book "Doublespeak Defined", William Lutz documented the use of the term "undocumented worker" as doublespeak for "illegal alien". Ten years after, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists' (NAHJ) advocates the use of the term "undocumented immigrant"... http://www.fallacyfiles.org/archive092009.html#09162009