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Citation Station: The Most Credible Fact Ever

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    It has been proven worldwide that chocolate is the best flavor of ice cream.

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      CommentAuthorcmseagle
    • CommentTimeAug 12th 2008
     

    A qualitative statement cannot be proven.

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    It is not qualitative. It has simply been proven that chocolate is the most pleasing to the human taste buds.

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      CommentAuthorUdoboy
    • CommentTimeAug 13th 2008
     

    So you're saying that, in surveys where people answer, that they respond that they prefer the taste of chocolate.

    That still doesn't make it the best. Because the best, for having pistacchios, is pistacchio, not chocolate. You see?

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      CommentAuthorFact totum
    • CommentTimeAug 13th 2008
     

    I can see how Peta's assertion is a 'factoid'. One can, of course, dispute the truthiness of it. One could debate the meaning of 'proven' and/or 'best', but if one were to accept Peta's definitions (whatever they are) then it can conceivably be a factoid.

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      CommentAuthorFact totum
    • CommentTimeAug 13th 2008
     
    Posted By: Udoboy

    So you're saying that, in surveys...

    I don't read it that way at all. I interpret it to mean that some scientific community has determined what qualities 'the best' flavor of ice cream must have and chocolate fits those criteria the best.

    Posted By: Udoboy

    That still doesn't make it the best. Because the best, for having pistacchios, is pistacchio, not chocolate. You see?

    No -- you are introducing your bias into his factoid. (Not that his is unbiased, but it's his so he gets to decide what the bias is.)

    • CommentAuthorBeanz
    • CommentTimeAug 13th 2008
     

    I simply looked on google for the term "most popular ice cream flavor" and came up with the first three actual results saying that vanilla had over 25% of the votes and chocolate coming in second. Unless, I'm misunderstanding your original claim and I should be interpreting it as the actual taste rather than popularity or something like that, you have made a very blatantly biased statement.

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      CommentAuthorUdoboy
    • CommentTimeAug 14th 2008
     

    He didn't say "most popular" he said "best." I'm just wondering what the criteria for "best" are in regards to ice cream.

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      CommentAuthorFact totum
    • CommentTimeAug 14th 2008 edited
     
    Posted By: Udoboy

    He didn't say "most popular" he said "best."

    Yes -- clearly essential quality is what the factoid is about, not popularity.

    I'm just wondering what the criteria for "best" are in regards to ice cream.

    That's reasonable -- to wonder what the criteria is. But one of the nice things about being a fact-checker here is one gets to frame the factoid any way one wants and in this case the criteria is not included.

    • CommentAuthorBeanz
    • CommentTimeAug 19th 2008
     

    Well, best could mean a lot of things: best taste, best for you, best pleasure in eating it. There are really too many criteria too say a food is the best. And what I said earlier about it being most popular, doesn't it make sense that people will eat the thing they feel tastes the "best?" It is just a rather biased statement to say the chocolate is the best. I could just as easily contradict and say mint chocolate chip is the best, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's true. The defenition of a fact: "Something that actually exists; reality; truth: Your fears have no basis in fact." -Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) and the definition of bias: "Statistics. a systematic as opposed to a random distortion of a statistic as a result of sampling procedure." -Dictionary.com Unabridged (v1.1). Just to clear things up... :smile:

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      CommentAuthorFact totum
    • CommentTimeAug 20th 2008 edited
     
    Posted By: Beanz

    Well, best could mean a lot of things: best taste, best for you, best pleasure in eating it. There are really too many criteria too say a food is the best.

    Not at all. The person who posits this factoid has, for our convenience, determined the best way to determine what "best" means in this context. Thankyouverymuch.

    doesn't it make sense that people will eat the thing they feel tastes the "best?"

    Perhaps. But the factoid doesn't say "best tastimg". You are still trying to shoehorn this factoid into the way you think about it rather than taking it at face value.

    I could just as easily contradict and say mint chocolate chip is the best, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's true.

    We would believe you, though. I promise.

    Quoting dictionary definitions is Sophomoric.

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      CommentAuthorUdoboy
    • CommentTimeAug 20th 2008
     

    Could you define sophomoric, please?

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      CommentAuthorHushed
    • CommentTimeSep 15th 2008
     

    Dictionaries don't dictate, they define.

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    I would like a sleeping dictionary. I am not quite sure what language would be best.

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      CommentAuthorUdoboy
    • CommentTimeSep 23rd 2008
     

    I'd suggest trying an easy language you don't know before anything extraordinary. Do you know Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian?

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    My partner is a Spanish speaking Italian, and I tried French when younger. But Romanian is a definite possibility. I would like one of those dictionaries that goes both ways.

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