Bullshit Detector Invented

David Skillicorn and his group, of Queen's University in Ontario, Canada, have created a program that distinguishes spin in speeches.

Spin, in this case, is defined as “text or speech where the apparent meaning is not the true belief of the person saying or writing it”, says the algorithm’s developer, David Skillicorn at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada.

He and his team analysed the usage patterns of 88 deception-linked words within the text of recent campaign speeches from the political leaders. They then determined the frequency of these patterns in each speech, and averaged that number over all of that candidate’s speeches.

I hope that this program has a high spin threshold. Ten minutes with Scott McClellan might crash it.

(new scientist article)