Add Homonym Attacks! #29
Ad Hominem: Appealing to personal considerations rather than to logic or reason.
Ad Hominem Attack: An argument that focuses on a personal attack as opposed to the subject in question.
Add Homonym Attacks!: The process by which one inserts a homophone and it bites you.
(It also serves as the title to Inside Pulse’s representative column in the world of Critical Thinking, Science and Skepticism.)
Introduction
According to a Globe Mini Magazine found shoved into my Twister box entitled The Little Book of Fortune Telling:
Reading the future can be easy and fun.
I did not know that.
Lottery here I come!
As you may or may not know, this column will cease to be in the Culture section of Insidepulse, as the Culture section will cease to be. So for our re-debut in a spanking new section, I would like to have as many people as possible help me out with a test. It should take all of three seconds.
Looking into the FUTURE!
My tiny book-thing goes on to say:
Don’t think these techniques are less effective than the complex systems used by professionals.
Perish the thought.
…If these methods are not effective, why have they survived thousands of years?
We call thinking like this an “appeal to tradition” fallacy. “People owned slaves for thousands of years before Lincoln; it must be okay.”
But it is a little bit more complicated than a simple appeal to tradition, methinks. That statement is similar to: “Of course marriages are always successful. Otherwise, why would people still get married?”
I don’t think I would call that an appeal to tradition. But let’s move on with this thing.
Models that work tend not to be faith-based. Models that work generally pass double blind tests and all that whatnot. An internet column is not really an ideal place for a strict double-blind scenario, but we should still be able to perform experiments which roughly follow the scientific method.
So this is the plan. We are going to test one of these “time tested” methods, on Thursday the 14th.
EQUIPMENT:
2 six-sided dice.
flat surface
writing implements
PROCEDURE:
Here is what you need to do on Thursday the 14th.
STEP 1: Draw a circle with a diameter of 14 inches give or take 7 inches. (That is what the book says.)
STEP 2: Write the name of the mark, I mean, the person whose fortune is going to be told inside the circle. For the purposes of this experiment, our subject will be one Thalia Kennedy.
STEP 3: Roll one die, record the result. (You don’t have to throw it in the circle.)
STEP 4: Roll both dice inside the circle. Here is where the “magic” gets complicated:
If they both stay in, record the result.
If one rolls out, roll again.
If both roll out, roll again.
If both touch the circumference of the circle, record the result.
If only one die touches the circumference, re-roll the other die.
That is it. Write down the number from Step 3, and the number from step 4, and e-mail them to me. I’ll compile what I have, make some notes, and publish the results in this column’s RE-DEBUT on September 21st.
It’s just that easy.
Before I go
Make sure you check out all of Carla’s PAPER CUTS columns/reviews. She has linked to me in the past, and I have never returned the favor. Even now, I am not fully returning the favor as I find myself unwilling to code for her. But hey, that just means she is a better person than me.
