Tuesday, April 29, 2008

LFotW: Argument from Personal Incredulity

I cannot explain, imagine, or understand this, therefore it cannot be true. However, reality is not limited by our ability to comprehend it, or by our comfort with it. Creationists are fond of arguing, for example, that evolution is false because they cannot imagine the complexity of life resulting from blind natural processes, but that does not mean life did not evolve.

Subtype: Appeal to Ridicule
This form of the argument from personal incredulity argues that a claim is false because it seems ridiculous. Of course, some claims are ridiculous and it is legitimate to arrive at such a conclusion after careful examination of the logic and evidence. However, it is a fallacy to dismiss a claim a-priori simply by labeling it ridiculous or absurd. Many ideas that initially seemed far-fetched, such as the notion that invisible tiny organisms cause disease, or that space and time are relative and not constant, turned out eventually to be proven scientifically valid.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Hang Gliding !?!?!?

One of my major goals in life is to attempt a little bit of everything. I would like to experience as many things as possible before I die. I am also very interested in unusual sports (i.e. broomball) and unique activities (i.e. juggling, magic, etc). Sarah knows this is a fairly encouraging in this pursuit. So, for my birthday this year, she got me hang gliding lessons! Crazy, huh? Not only is hang gliding pretty far out there on the unique/unusual scale, but it is also fairly dangerous and impossible in rural Ohio, no? Well, turns out that hang gliding is perfectly possible in flat Ohio thanks to John Alden. John Alden runs the Wings to Fly ltd. school where he teaches complete beginners how to hang glide. How exactly? That was my question.

So, after three weekends of really bad weather and poor flying/field conditions I finally made it up to the Aerodrome Wes/Mar in Orient, Ohio. This is a small grass runway where John teaches hang gliding and other more experienced gliders come to fly (plus other “schools” use it as well including ultralights and skydiving classes). So, John teaches a 3-day beginner course that gets you almost ready to fly by yourself and a 8-day Novice course that teaches you the skills, confidence, and certification needed to fly by yourself. But, he also does a one day, “learn what it is all about” kind of course. That’s what I did. I didn’t realize that "one day" was going to mean from 8 am to 9 pm, though.

So, I got there early and John arrived right on time. John is a very nice guy and everybody I talked to said the same thing. He was an excellent teacher. But, first I signed my life away for insurance sake. Then he ran through how gliders work and how the harness works. Very shortly, we pulled out a hand glider and started assembling it. It was not very hard to put together at all. So, the first thing he had me do, was get underneath it, lift it up, and start running across the field. First, the hand glider I was using was a “light” one and it weighed a lot more than I expected. Secondly, the glider was hard to keep level with the wind pushing it around. Thirdly, it was hard to run fast with the glider. But, once you got going, you could feel the glider start to lift off your shoulders and try to fly. So, that was step one; just to get a feel for the glider.

Next, he pulled out the "Andre the Giant" of hang gliders. The one I had just used had a surface area of about 150 square feet. This one was over 300 square feet. This would be the glider I would use for the rest of the day. There was no running with this glider, though. It was a challenge just to lift it up and hold it steady. So, John Alden broke out his secret weapon, the wench. He has a snowmobile that he has converted into a glider pulling wench. This is put at one end of the field and the line is strung to the chest of the hang glider. Then the pilot gives the go sign and the glider is pulled (yanked) up into the air at a fairly steep angle getting around 1000 feet up and then letting the line go. I saw a guy do this and stay up in the air for over 30 minutes. But, I was not going to be ready for that this day. My goal was to get about 50 feet in the air, let the line go, set up the landing, and not crash in the muddy ground.

So, for the first pull, John was just going to pull fast enough for me to run really fast and the glider to start pulling me up into the air. He started the wench and I started running pretty fast to keep up. About halfway to wench a few things happened really fast. First, the glider got some fairly strong up lift and was almost getting airborne. Second, one of the stupid dogs, that was roaming around the airfield, ran in front of my feet. Third, I tried to jump into the air and over the dog. Fourth, the glider, now with my full weight, came straight back down to the Earth and I did a head-first belly slide. Damn dog. So, John, who didn’t like the dog anyway, drove it (with a golf cart) over to its house and tied it up. So, the next few tries went much better. I got pulled up to about 5 feet off the ground and he slowed the wench and I pushed the nose of the glider up to make a soft landing.

At this point the wind was getting stronger and other more experienced pilots were showing up to get pulled by the wench. So, in the middle of the day, I took a break and just watched others take their turns getting lifted to about 1000 feet and trying to stay up as long as possible. They do that by riding hot thermals rising from the ground. Just look for the hawks; they can tell you if a thermal is nearby. You will see them circling around and around gaining altitude.

So, the later half of the day consisted of me getting very long pulls (about 500 feet) and rising to about 40 feet. It was a great feeling, being up that high. My final challenge was to control the glider up into the air to about 40 feet and pull the tether line off and float down toward the ground. Well, on my first attempt, I forgot to point back toward the ground and kind of did a stall float to the ground and sort of crash landed on my belly. I finally got the hand of it and my last launch went perfectly. If I go back, I will graduate to a lighter, higher performance glider and probably get launched up to about 100 feet.

Controlling the glider was different than I expected. I sort of thought that I would just be hanging there for the ride and moving the glider around if I wanted to go somewhere. That’s not really true. You are constantly in control and you have to maintain control. You are always banking a little bit this way or that and making sure your pitch isn’t too high. Really, a lot to think about. I’m sure it would come naturally after a little while.

This was one fantastic experience. I am very tempted to go back and progress a bit more into the sport. It is a bit scary as well, though. I can’t say which exciting sport was better: hang gliding or race car driving. I think I will have to pursue both of them. Now, lets see, the glider costs about $5000, the harness is $1000, plus other incidental costs….. I only need about $10k to start hang gliding. Oh, and a cliff.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Movie Review: The Mist

Summary: Thriller/horror film written by Stephen King about a creepy mist that envelops a town and bad things start to happen.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10

Review:
I read the Stephen King novella and liked it a lot. The movie followed that plot line really well and I was only disappointed with one section of the CG. Most of the CG was good, but one scene was of noticeably lower quality.

Really, the story is about how people deal with intense, emotional situations. And some monsters, I guess. My biggest problem with the movie, and the reason I didn't like it as much as I would have, was the ending. The book ended just fine. I was happy with it. For some reason, they changed it in the movie. And the movie went too far. I was not pleased with the result of the movie ending. Other than that, a good, spooky time. I would read the novella first, though. Tells the story just as well, but with a better ending.

Movie Review: Flightplan

Summary: Woman and young daughter get on a plane and suddenly the kid goes missing. But, everyone on the plane says she got on alone. Is she going crazy or is everyone in on the missing child?

Rating: 5.0 out of 10

Review:
Not a bad movie, but not great. Really, the only point to this movie is to figure out if the woman is going crazy or not. The build up to the reveal isn’t too bad and the viewer gets to try and figure out what is going on, at least. After the reveal, the movie wraps up fairly quickly and entertainingly. Despite some plot holes which I couldn’t quite figure out, it was a satisfying “what is going on” movie.

Movie Review: Hot Fuzz

Summary: A parody (sort of) of action cop movies (Bad Boys, Lethal Weapon, etc.) by the same guys who did Shawn of the Dead, Cube, and Nothing.

Rating: 6.0 out of 10

Review:
Well, this movie had the same feel that Shawn of the Dead did. And it pokes fun at cop movies in an over-the-top dramatic feel. I’m having a hard time describing the feel of this movie, though. It is definitely not like Airplane or Naked Gun; but, it was a parody of cop movies. The setup is a “super cop” in London is doing too good of a job and making his coworkers look bad, so he is shipped off to a small town in the country. How is this “by the book” cop going to adjust to small town living, especially when weird things start happening?

So, I liked the ending of the movie much better than I liked the other 90%. It wasn’t bad, it was just a little boring; a bit too much dry, English humor for most of the movie. Although, this isn’t completely true, because it did mix in the “super cop” feel of action movies and a “who done it” feel of mysteries, just so it could make fun of them. So, all in all, I would say that it is just not my style of comedy. If you liked Shawn of the Dead, you would probably like this movie; and vice versa.

LFotW: Ad ignorantum

This week's Logical Fallicy is Ad Ignorantum or the argument from ignorance. The argument from ignorance basically states that a specific belief is true because we don't know that it isn't true. Defenders of extrasensory perception, for example, will often overemphasize how much we do not know about the human brain. It is therefore possible, they argue, that the brain may be capable of transmitting signals at a distance.
UFO proponents are probably the most frequent violators of this fallacy. Almost all UFO eyewitness evidence is ultimately an argument from ignorance – lights or objects sighted in the sky are unknown, and therefore they are alien spacecraft.

Intelligent design is almost entirely based upon this fallacy. The core argument for intelligent design is that there are biological structures that have not been fully explained by evolutionary theory; therefore a powerful intelligent designer must have created them.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Airwaves Kite Fest

Once again, it was time for the great Airwaves Kite Fest in West Chester. I really like going to this. This year was a little different in the experience. First of all, we’ve had floods for many days leading up to the event, so the fields were very muddy and even swampy in some areas. So, the mud meant that there was no parking on the fields (and caused some huge lines waiting to park) and it meant that the open field for flying was very wet. Secondly, on the Sunday that I went, the wind was almost nonexistent. These were some tough conditions for a kite show, but the show went on, nonetheless. It just meant that more people spent time watching the professionals than flying their own.


Due to the 0 to 3 mph winds, only the ultralights (very lightweight kites) were flying on Sunday. So, the performers that I saw were the Chicago Fire Kite Team, Zach and Josh Gordon, and a few others who attempted the winds; including a guy with a 18 foot wing span stunt kite. All the performers were great, but the EOS team of Josh and Zach was great. They did an amazing job with their music and complicated, synchronized tricks (including flat spins, which I’m going to have to figure out how they do). The only quad-line kite I saw was Josh’s. His performance was very upbeat and entertaining. I think I will have to get me one of those kites. All in all, despite the conditions, it was a great show. Here are some pictures I took last year (forgot my camera, this year).

Quad-line "Revolution" Kite


Pinewheels


Chicago Fire's "Killer Bee" Kites

Restarant Review: Mesh (2008)


Went to Mesh for the second time the other day. Great restaurant. Believe it or not, but this time it was for my birthday, again. Mesh is one of the fancier restaurants that I have been to. Here is last years review by me.


First off, everybody there knew it was my birthday and was very nice in congratulating me (not that I had a choice with anther birthday). Anyway, Sarah and I stated things off with the Potato Poppers again. They are definitely one of the best things on the menu. I got the corn chowder soup and it was just alright. Not nearly as good as their tomato bisque. For our meals, Sarah got the pan roasted chicken with gnocchi and I got the swordfish special. Both meals were excellent and the swordfish was the best I’ve ever had, perfectly cooked with a great flavor.


The desserts deserve their own special honors. As good as the rest of the food is, the desserts are just incredible. We have never been less than amazed by them. Sarah got Oreo ice cream. Yep, that’s it. And it was probably the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted. Simply great. I got “a tasting of 5 truffles” (the chocolate candy, not the fungus). Let me talk about each one. The first one was “chocolate toffee”. Really good and rich. Lots of flavor there. The second one was “blueberry”. This had a white chocolate coating and a very light blueberry flavored filling. Again, really good. The third on was my favorite. It was “gingerbread”. Holy cow! Sarah thought it was too much, but I liked it a lot. Really strong cinnamon and clove flavor. The last two were a little different. How about “Balsamic Vinegar”? Yeah, that was my least favorite. I appreciated how it was different and I didn’t hate it. But, there was something weird about eating chocolate and smelling and tasting vinegar. Kind of weird. The last one was “lemon rosemary”. This one was fantastic. It has a white chocolate coating with a lemon filling that had a strong rosemary essence to it. I thought the combination was great.


So, overall, good experience at Mesh. I would recommend it to anyone (who doesn’t care to spend $100+ for two people and doesn’t mind getting a babysitter for the kids).

Movie Review: The Darjeeling Limited

Summary: Three brothers go to India in order to have a spiritual journey to renew their relationships with each other. Nothing seems to go as planned, but maybe that’s not a bad thing.

Rating: 6.0 out of 10

Review:
The movie wasn’t great. It seemed weird just to be weird. You didn’t really know where the plot was going (although, that may be the point) and I’m not really sure if the brothers solved anything. I guess, if you’re into Natalie Portman, then there are about 3 minutes of the pre-movie (Hotel Chevalier) that are good. I put The Darjeeling Limited into the weird, quirky, surreal movie category; where I’m sure the movie had some deeper meaning that I just didn’t get. Seems to fit with other Wes Anderson (Director) movies: Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Rushmore. Really, it was just not my type of movie.

Monday, April 7, 2008

LFotW: Ad hominem

An ad hominem argument is any that attempts to counter another’s claims or conclusions by attacking the person, rather than addressing the argument itself. Taken broadly, this fallacy can be any argument that a person’s claims is false because of a negative quality possessed by the person. True believers will often commit this fallacy by countering the arguments of skeptics by stating that skeptics are closed minded. Skeptics, on the other hand, may fall into the trap of dismissing the claims of UFO believers, for example, by stating that people who believe in UFO's are crazy or stupid.

Sometimes this fallacy can be more subtle. For example, undesired research results can be dismissed because the researchers have an apparent conflict of interest. While true conflicts are a legitimate concern, the use of even minor potential conflicts to dismiss research finding a-priori is little more than an ad hominem logical fallacy.

Subtype – Argument from prior error
This form of ad hominem logical fallacy argues that the current claims of a person or group are incorrect because of errors committed in the past. Creationists, for example, often point to fossil frauds, or the discovery of living coelacanth previously thought to be extinct to counter the current evidence for evolution.