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Fact or Fiction
Dispelling popular myths, misperceptions, and urban legends with logic (and humor)
Identifying misleading arguments and statistics and searching for pragmatic solutions
The place for critical thinkers, skeptics, and political centrists |
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| Every year, somewhere between a million and two million drivers collide with large animals on our roads, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Around two hundred of these collisions are fatal. (That is, they are fatal to occupants of the vehicles. The fatality rate for the unfortunate wildlife is obviously much higher.)
Most of these collisions involve deer, and autumn is the time of the year when you’re most likely to hit one. Deer are increasingly mobile right now; they mate and migrate during the fall. |
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| Posted by Ken Pirok at | | | |
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| In a November 6, 2005 column, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, the authors of Freakonomics, wondered, “Why Vote?” On their blog, Levitt reminded us again that, as an economist, he sees little or no value in voting in the upcoming Presidential election. |
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| Posted by Ken Pirok at | | | |
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USA Today printed an interesting article about public transit yesterday. It seems that ridership continues to reach record levels because of gas prices. Unfortunately, record fuel prices and record numbers of users are proving challenging for public transit systems. So, the last thing they need is people who deny the basic facts about their services.
I have heard more than one “critical thinker” deny that ridership on public transit is increasing. Does it not make perfect sense that people take the bus more frequently when gas prices are high? Did all of the transit systems in the country get together and decide to lie about their numbers? Get real.
While we’re at it, here is an even more common and widely perpetuated myth regarding transit. Over and over, I hear something along the lines of, “No one really rides buses at all. Every time a bus comes through my neighborhood, it’s pretty much empty.”
Do I really have to explain how a bus route works? Guess so. Well, people basically get picked up near their homes and dropped off at work or school. Later, buses return people from work or school back to their neighborhood. If you live near the edge of town, then you are at the end of the line (or the beginning, depending upon how you look at it.)
During the day in my neighborhood, people seem to be waiting on every other corner when the bus is about to come. But, the buses aren’t full out here, and there’s no reason they should be until they pick up everyone else on the way into town.
In the recent past, I have ridden the bus that goes from my corner into the heart of town. As I board the bus, many other riders have just been dropped off or get picked up along the way. I can assure you that if you follow this bus all the way to the University of Illinois campus or to downtown Champaign, it will be very full. That’s how it works.
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| Posted by Ken Pirok at | | | |
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The recent flooding in Iowa and in my state of Illinois has been tragic. But, I am getting sick of hearing people (and media like CNN) blame the government for the floods and the fact that most homeowners didn’t have flood insurance. This was supposedly a five hundred year event. It was an “act of God.”
If we required building standards and insurance that covered every event that might only happen twice per millennium, then we would have to spend a fortune on construction costs, public works projects, and insurance. The same people who are blaming the government now would criticize the government for these onerous and expensive requirements if they were to be enacted.
Now, I don’t know whether this was really a five hundred year event or not. Maybe it wasn’t, or it won’t be in the future. But, I do know that if you live near a river or next to a levy, then you should anticipate that flooding is within the realm of possibility.
And, it is completely false to say that the government told these property-owners that they didn’t need flood insurance. Just because the government didn’t require it, does not mean that flood insurance was not available or that these people were precluded from getting it. In fact, just the opposite was true.
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| Posted by Ken Pirok at | | | |
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| Because I believe that issues and substance should drive elections instead of style and strategy, I don’t usually write about politics for politics sake. But, I keep going back to a single moment in the Democratic Presidential primary campaign. A decision was made, probably as long ago as last fall, when Clinton was significantly ahead in the national polls, and it seemed her race to lose. Barack Obama went one way and Hillary Clinton went the other way, and the result of the entire election was determined by their choices. |
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| Posted by Ken Pirok at | | | |
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