rattus rattus’ blog

Inspired by ideas circling around some postings here, such as “What is wrong“, we at contradicTshirts established a new series of designs and T-shirts: right/wrong.

If there was a commandment for “(really) good liars” it might be: You shall not use fallacious arguments. A “bad liar” — heck, who would not want to be bad from time to time — might just as well juggle with fallacies, and hope for the listeners logical illiteracy.

The Fallacy Files is one of Internet’s finest collection of examples of fallacious reasoning, see for instance “appeals to ignorance“. Moreover, Fallacy Files comes with a weblog, a comprehensive taxonomy of logical fallacies, and more.

Bad Science is the tempting apple that does not fall far from the tree of fallacious reasoning. “If you ever doubted the dangers of fallacious reasoning” says Gary N. Curtis, author of the Fallacy Files, you should read Losing the Lottery by Ben Goldacre, “guardian” of Bad Science.

If you’re unlucky enough, fallacious reasoning could put you behind bars for the rest of your life for “murders” you didn’t commit, and which in fact may not be murders at all.
— Gary N. Curtis, Fallacy Files

A nurse called Lucia de Berk has been in prison for 5 years in Holland, convicted of 7 counts of murder and 3 of attempted murder. An unusually large number of people died when she was on shift (…)
— Ben Goldacre, Bad Science

If I myself was only safe from fallacy.

This is no April Fools’ hoax.

[X]

A recent conversation on rats, cats, life, and other music:

Should I fly more rats over to you?

Sure! But, please, slowly! You know, they tend to multiply so damn fast.

You could get a cat to keep the rats in check in the meanwhile.

She’s welcome!

I can imagine the occasional bloody scenes.

This is what I love about music, especially Blues and Rock, I guess.

(Trying to see a link)

You mean to see the trees instead of the wood?
Rats do what Ouroboros stand for.
In absence of cats they get self-caught.
(See, this is why cats often playfully try to catch their tails, too.)
Rats and cats are like counterparts.
Essential elements of life.

You have sent me both. So life is complete.
And of course there is blood (life’s fuel).

Perhaps, there is music that tries to paint all in blue, or black, or white, bright and shiney. I think, if an Ouroboros were to play music it would be Blues-Rock.

Sure, music tries to paint pictures, but it’s most of the time too unreal. Which is what makes it addictive.

And then, it is in some way real, or the unreal is real, or it becomes real, or realized.

If everything goes in circles life seems so banal; to be born to die, to gain something to lose it later, to learn something and find that it’s useless/wrong etc. Like time passes just to be passed.

If you see it this way you can use your life’s time for whatever pleases you. Not that bad a deal.

With pleasure.

[Many thanks to iexertinertia.]

if you find it difficult to be yourself
then go ahead and be someone else
just don’t do it around me

[Ratta says: Ends happen ever and ever again.]