Pimply Stress

This mini-article on acne and anxiety raises a combo platter of questions relevant to what we're going over in class.

1) Reverse cause & effect: Does acne cause stress, or does stress cause acne?
2) Questionable statistics: Do you trust the stat that students were 23 percent more likely to experience breakouts around the time of a test? Is it a good study? A reliable source? An undemanding stat?
3) Questionable use of statistics: If the above statistic is true, is it reasonable to conclude that anxiety causes acne? Or is there another plausible explanation?

What say you?

Satan's Fingers? The Hospital Bombers?

OK, before we start rocking all night, perhaps we should come up with a name for our logic band. What's a good name for us? The Why Bads?

Hmmm... hopefully, you can come up with better names than that. Post some names in the comments to this post.

(Extra credit to anyone who knows what the title of this post refers to.)

Cat Statements

What kind of statements are these?

Let us know in the comments.

Quiz You Once, Shame on Me...

The first quiz will be held at the beginning of class on Wednesday, February 18th. You will have about 25 minutes to take it. There will be a multiple choice section, a section on evaluating deductive arguments, a section on evaluating inductive & abductive arguments, and a section where you provide examples of specific kinds of arguments and statements. Basically, it will look like a mix of the homework and group work we've done in class so far.

The quiz is on what we have discussed in class from Chapters 1 and 2 of the textbook. Specifically, here's what will be covered on the quiz:

• arguments in general
• deductive args (valid & sound)
• fancier deductive args
• statements: contradictions, tautologies, contingencies
• inductive args
• abductive args (inferences to the best explanation)

The quiz is worth 7.5% of your overall grade. Feel free to insult me in the comments for putting you through the terrible ordeal of taking a quiz.

Defining Our Terms

1. Tool: Here's one Urban Dictionary definition of "tool," the one I had in mind when referring to Dane Cook:

someone who tries too hard. a poser. one of those chic's who holds the sign saying "Carson Daly is Hot." the asstard who goes to a rock show because they heard one of the songs on the radio or mtv. or someone who insists on wearing velour sweat suits. Avril Lavigne.

To find out more, I suggest watching Tool Academy to see our heroes in action:

2. Fugly: uh, rather ugly. Moe Szyslak has been called a few variations of this term.

3. Emo Kid: "Emo" has a ton of meanings. The wikipedia article on "emo" has a nice history of the term.

4. Lame: South Park usually nails this term.

5. Carson Daly: This is especially for Steve, who kept asking for pictures of everyone's favorite TRL host.
Did I forget any terms? Let me know!