Category Archive: skeptic

May 05 2013

[Blogathon] Bimodal Personalities and the Myers-Briggs

bimodal

[Part 1 of a topic suggested by @mmace134] The Myers-Briggs Personality Test is very, very popular. It’s used as a predictor of career paths, of relationship styles, of leadership ability. Basically, you take the test and answer a bunch of questions like “Do you enjoy having a wide circle of acquaintances?” (To which you can only …

Continue reading »

Apr 28 2013

For Best Results, Trust in God and Use Large Sample Sizes

Belief in treatment credibility and expectancy of success across levels of belief in God.

Earlier this week, Crommunist pointed me to this article in The Atlantic, People Who Believe in God are More Responsive to Treatment of Depression. And ohhh boy do I have feelings and crinkly skeptic eyebrows. [As a side note, I’d like to thank The Atlantic for putting a link to the original research in their footnotes. Nice touch, actually …

Continue reading »

Apr 24 2013

Scammers on Craigslist

Scam

Oh, there’s nothing new about scammers on CL, but what is the point of having a blog if I cannot post about them.  I am trying to sell a basically new MacBook Pro because my stolen computer got returned to me several weeks after I got a replacement.  I got an e-mail from someone asking …

Continue reading »

Apr 22 2013

I get e-mail — Cinematic Appraisals: “Mind Science” or Pseudoscience

polygraph

I got a very hurt e-mail from someone yesterday. A few years ago, before I was at Freethoughtblogs, I wrote an article about a service offered to film producers called “Cinematic Appraisals”.  I had recently optioned my screenplay and I was generally up-to-date with everything, but a friend sent me a link to their site telling me …

Continue reading »

Apr 11 2013

So You Want To Talk About Multiple Personalities?

I’ve gotten a few requests over my blogging time to talk about multiple personality disorder. I’ve (half) jokingly told friends that this post would garner me a great deal of upset commenters but here it is.  Important Note: My opinions on the scientific validity of this disorder DO NOT reflect any belief that identified ‘multiples’ …

Continue reading »

Apr 10 2013

Moderating Comments, Normalization & Anonymity

I was on this panel at SkepTech! You can read my prepared thoughts here. Notes: -I improperly conflated psuedonymity with anonymity in the last third of the talk. Those are different things. I think pseudonymity (like Gravatar, Disqus, etc. offer) is one of the nice middle ground ways we can keep an eye on commenters …

Continue reading »

Apr 08 2013

SkepTech

Safe Space

…was spectacular. -There were many more panels than I’d seen at previous cons. I don’t usually love panels, but I’m very supportive of this system if it means introducing new voices. (Olivia James, one of the first-timers, got spontaneous applause on multiple occasions throughout the Real World Activism panel. Damn.) We talk a lot about this being a young movement, a movement …

Continue reading »

Apr 04 2013

SkepTech: Anonymity on the Internet

Like Miri, I’m going to be at SkepTech…[checks calendar]…holy crap, tomorrow! And lucky me, I’m going to be on a panel about anonymity on the internet, moderated by the lovely Chana. This panel will explore the conflict between online anonymity and harassment. In a world where absolute freedom is practically possible, what shall be permitted? …

Continue reading »

Feb 27 2013

Training Therapists: We’re Doing It Wrong.

Becoming a therapist should not take two degrees. If we want to create a program to train therapists, it needs to be one degree that actually intends to make good counselors. We need a vocational school styled approach, explicitly focused on licensing in four years or less. Getting a grab bag of undergraduate psych experience–which …

Continue reading »

Feb 19 2013

The Weight Requirement, and Other Ways We Diagnose Anorexia

This is a post that’s been a long time in coming. Unfortunately, every time I start it, I get upset and then have to leave it alone. So here we have it: what’s wrong with how we diagnose anorexia. Now with less ragequitting! Anorexia has a weight requirement. Refusal to maintain body weight at or …

Continue reading »

Older posts «

:)