Out of curiosity, does anyone know or have any idea what time the trial's taking place? If it's before 3 PM Harry's unable to use his Time Turner to change the events of the trial. Unless he cheats the Time Turner like last time, or gets his Time Turner's restriction taken off, but he can't do that easily while the trial is going on.

Harry had used up all six hours from his Time-Turner, and there were still no clues, and he had to go to sleep now if he wanted to be functional at Hermione's trial the next day.

"Wanted to be functional" meaning if he doesn't sleep now, he'd have little sleep. Which wouldn't have been a problem in the first place if he was allowed to sleep in.

"I think this has gone on quite long enough, wouldn't you say, Lord Malfoy? The boy will miss his classes."

...which means classes are still going on, at that moment (Monday). I'm not sure when classes end for Harry but it's probably closer to morning than evening.

Harry had read the Daily Prophet that morning.

Okay I have no clue now. But the wording implies that it's not morning anymore, so... I'm going with noon/early afternoon, 12 to 2 PMish.

Okay, I don't really think this is how it'll go down - slightly too Dark Lordish. But the image was amusing, so here goes:

"It just happens that if Hermione doesn't walk, everyone but me will lose the ability to cast Patronus. Don't buy it? Oh, well, I'll just explain it to Hermione and she'll be able to testify under Veritaserum that I can do it."

Or, you know, have Hermione figure it out herself from Harry's note and do the blackmail herself.

Anyway, the blackmail potential for this is rather great, and I'd not be surprised to see it used in a more dire situation with more than Hermione on the line.

He also said if I wanted to win a lot of arguments I should learn about more fallacies.

This is actually one danger of learning about fallacies: you become more able at defeating arguments, and this holds irrespective of their truth, so if you have a standard tendency to privilege arguments for the positions you already hold, that makes it harder for you to change your mind. See the post Knowing About Biases Can Hurt People.

If you don't use a car, how will you get to places?

There are a few very cultural biased responses in the thread. Your statement seems really ignorant to me. Obviously your usage of alternatives depends on what the situation in your area is like. There are cultures that are very much into bicycles (Netherlands, Denmark), some where just no one even has a car (China, many other non-rich countries). Some where public transport is crappy and car is the only alternative (Fill in your own). Some where many alternatives exist. It is for everyone to find out which alternatives exist in her or his locale. It should be easy to figure out the local transport abilities. On an international forum no one can give all-suitable advice that fits every situation.

For example I choose to move into the inner city of a 400.000ppl city in Germany. There is much public transport (bus, tram, subway, distance trains) available, including a great website that tells me how to get from A to B anytime. As a backup there are taxis. But since I am young, poor and healthy I mostly walk everywhere. If is more than 1,5h walking distance I take public transport.

The OP probably does not suggest to never ever drive, but to make a reasonable effort to stay safe. Reducing driving if possible is one way. If it is not feasible in your area, than you still can do the other things. Since we deal with probability here it is all about comparing alternatives and improving your odds.

From a financial viewpoint one can calculate the total cost of a car broken down on usages, vs. public transport vs. increased rent for a more favorable place. And if you do not need a car on a (work)daily basis you can find the local car-sharing offer (no idea if the US provides it. In Germany it is slowly growing), rent a car at times or take the Taxi.

Welcome to LessWrong.

Thanks for mentioning that other fanfic, I hadn't seen it and it looks great.

I'm glad you find the moral theory stuff interesting - I do as well. I want to let you know that law is a terrible career for that sort of thing.

can anyone tell me what fallacy this is?

Probably post hoc ergo propter hoc.

1. Avoid driving.

This. Seriously all else being equal the more miles you are in a car for the more likely you are to die, or to be seriously injured.

Salutations and whatnot! My name is Joyce, I'm a high school sophomore. Probably on the younger side of the age spectrum here, but I don't mind starting young. The idea of rationality isn't new to me, I've always been more inclined to the "truth", even when it sometimes hurts. In my mind knowing more about the truth = better person, so that's my motivation for being here. I'm have better grades than the average, but for the past couple of years the thing I hated most about myself was the fact that I usually "coast" a class, get my A, and then promptly forget everything I've done in the class. My goal was "get an A", not "learn something new". I'd like to learn new things now, and actually retain it, instead of just coasting by. Knowledge is power. I want to be the best, like no one ever was.

Um. When I was younger, perhaps ten, while I was tinkering with Photoshop, my older cousin approached to me and tried to introduce to me the idea of fallacies. He's...nine years older than me, so he was a barely an adult. I forgot most of the conversation, but from what I DO remember, blaming a stomachache on the last thing you ate was falling prey to SOME fallacy because it takes a day to digest food and thus you should think about what you ate 24 hours before, not two. (by the way I think this is wrong, your body reacts to bad food quicker than that, and can anyone tell me what fallacy this is? If it exists?) He also said if I wanted to win a lot of arguments I should learn about more fallacies. I was kind of doubtful and sort of didn't really care about the whole thing, but it must have been significant if the hard drive that is my brain hadn't completely forgot about it already.

What brought me here was Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, and what brought me to HPMoR was the writer Aspen in the Sunlight who wrote the Harry Potter fanfiction series A Year Like None Other (I didn't capitalize that correctly), and what brought me there was dragcave.net and from there I'm not quite sure. It was nearly three years ago, after all.

Ah, what else should I say. I'm an INTP. Psychology is the loveliest subject ever, oh it's just the most fun subject ever. I'm sort of taking AP Psych next year. And by that I mean buying the textbook off ebay or something and self-studying it along with my friend from another school who actually has the course, because my school doesn't offer the class. sigh Milgram's experiment was interesting and a little shocking, it's almost become my conversation starter ("Did you know that two-thirds of people would administer 450-volts of electricity through a person because a guy in a white lab coat told them to?"). Not sure what I want to be when I grow up, though I'm very well versed in computer technology. If not that, then law.

Someyears in my life I want to teach for a few years, just to experiment and find out what the best teaching method actually is. Traditional methods are so boring, and since a significant amount of my peers don't actually respond well to the current learning environment there obviously needs to be some updating to do. Electronics are going to be so cheap in the future, I could probably make my potential students shell out some 30 dollars for a decent tablet, install some heavily modded operating system, (Android/Apple if advanced enough by that time, Linux if not) lock it so my students can't tinker, and integrate that heavily in the curriculum. Sync my own tablet with all of theirs, kill some poor school's wi-fi. Maybe actually make a points system. Now that I typed that out it's losing its effectiveness appeal, but gosh, it'd at least be interesting.