Saturday, December 29, 2007

A Small Dead Syllogism

Kate writes:

The Toronto Humane Society struggles as global warming results in more hours of daylight.

From which we can extract the following argument:

1) The humane society claims that global warming is behind the explosion of winter-born cats.
2) As cats mate only when there are over 8 hours of sunlight in a day, they can't breed in winter (September to January, to be precise).

Hence:

3) The explosion of winter-born cats can't be caused by Global warming.

However, even if valid what the argument actually proves is that the explosion of winter-born cats the Toronto Humane Society claims to be seeing isn't happening in the first place (cats can't breed during the short, dark winter days), and therefore can't be caused by Global warming. Hence the Toronto Humane Society are lying commies bent on wealth redistribution.

In fact, the argument fails outright:

Long haired breeds tend to be more seasonal than short-haired breeds, with 90% of long-haired cats experiencing a period of anestrus compared to only 39% of short-haired cats. In an extensive survey of 168 queens, approximately 50% of cats cycled year-round while the remainder experienced a period of anestrus from September to the end of January.

Some cats obviously can breed through the winter. It's presumably these lucky cats that are doing the EXTRA breeding.

And actually I didn't even have to google this, just scroll a few lines further down through the link Kate provided. Clearly, she expects her regular readers to get tired after the first paragraph. Its hard work moving your lips when your sucking your thumb, I guess.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, I thought we agreed a few posts back that culling the population was the way to go; can't we concentrate on that initiative? For example, our friend TiGuy adds zero value to the planet; all he does is belch carbon. Can we agree that his mere presence threatens humanity and act accordingly? I think we can.

Anonymous said...

You obviously didn't read the article linked to.

Perhaps you did, but chose to create a false straw argument.

Either way, it's bad form, to say the least.

Anonymous said...

You obviously didn't read the article linked to.

Perhaps you did, but chose to create a false straw argument.

Either way, it's bad form, to say the least.

Anonymous said...

Global warming is the latest fad for the left-wing control freak commies. Good for Harper for sticking a fork in Kyoto. When are the Dion Liberals going to wake up on this: Canadians don't mind a little feel-good rhetoric on this but let's not go overboard and actually take this stuff too seriously. That's what Chretien did and he was right. Canadians don't want political extremism. The Dion Liberals continue on this path on their own peril.

Anonymous said...

Ti-guy is symptomatic of the Dion Liberal phenomenon -no nuance whatsoever, just hectoring and harangues, like the broke Mr. Dion.
The guy was fine as a gavel-banging environment minister with no actual clout. But hang on to your hats if this little commie actually presides over the fate of the country. Alas, we'll never actually see that happen because he either won't win the next election or the Liberals make him walk the plank before he causes irreparable harm to the already tarnished Liberal name brand.

Anonymous said...

Canada, the U.S., Japan as well as Britain and Australia, the latter two with pinko governments pushed the world to a pragmatic and fair environmental post-kyoto deal where all countries would have CO2 targets.

Dion is out-of-step with the labour governments of Australia and Britain. John Kerry said that a democratic president would hold the same view (despite Al "the bore" Gore's bull****).

Harper's hugging the center and the Anglosphere's view on the environment which crosses party lines - except in Canada where the Dion Liberals have joined the loony left.

Harper rocks and his credibility on this and other issues will ensure his relection whenever those yellow Liberals take a deep gulp and show the courage of their convictions.

Anonymous said...

Good point Andrew. I think the Liberals are too scared to bring the government down. Didn't their party president just say they don't have enough cash to fight an election?

Ti-Guy said...

Hey, "Andrew"...make yourself useful. Talk to your sock-puppet at 6:12 and ask him what you...er...he was referring to when he asserted that BCL had constructed a false straw argument.

...I think that's actually a real argument, is it not?

Anonymous said...

Ti-guy - just letting you and the other enviro-freaks know that the Global Warming Cult got a political reality check in Bali. There's a new international political reality which crosses party lines in the West, at least in the english-speaking countries. And Harper's in that consensus. And Dion's not. Dion can fight with the Greens and the NDP for that part of the Canadian spectrum who buy this tripe: mostly young impressionable types like Jay who don't vote anyway.

Kyoto is sooooooooo yesterday!

So is ti-guy and his ilk. But hey I'm just trying to inform you people of the new political reality since you apparently have some political, if not climate, knowledge.

All I'm saying is that Dion and his little green scarve revolution is a friggin' bust. The Conservatives are going to smoke you guys on this issue. Clinton, Kerry and Harper are on the same page for cryin' out loud.

Ti-Guy said...

"Andrew," I gave you specific instructions. Do as you're told.

Anonymous said...

ti-guy - time to start diluting those drinks a little or maybe switching to water.

Ti-Guy said...

Do as you're told, trolly. Just pretend the request came from your God, Stephen Harper.

Anonymous said...

It's past your bed-time ti-guy,but if you're still up and not to bleary-eyed to read this, listen closely: the Liberal party of Canada has abandoned its tradional territory as a big tent party to form a narrow left-wing ideological party lead by a professor of sociology who still thinks marxism is science.

I want the former Liberal party that threw the odd bone to the left-wing nutjobs but governed responsibly for the most part. You may like the "new" principled Liberal party but that will keep the Conservatives in power, not that I mind that at all of course.

Anonymous said...

Andrew has it bang on.

The fact that the likes of ti-guy supports Dion, proves it in spades.

The Liberal party of Canada is the party of the ti-guy's of Canada.

Not.

A.

Pretty.

Picture.

Ti-Guy said...

Liberal party of Canada has abandoned its tradional territory as a big tent party to form a narrow left-wing ideological party lead by a professor of sociology who still thinks marxism is science.

What evidence can you provide to support that assertion?