At a certain point, you start wondering to yourself whether your body actually seems to think that it is somehow
*helping* with getting over a cold by consistantly making your nose impersonate a leaking tap and making your head feel like it’s being periodically sat upon by an elephant.
I recall being told that this is a sign of the immune system doing a last-ditch effort to rid whateverthehellthisis, but it just has me to digging out the bottom of my bag for the last of the cold and flu tablets (usually covered in tissue residue). Which, in turn, leads me to run out of tablets and going to the chemist when this bug hits me again, because I’ll have depleted all of my medication during this round.
Mind, stockpiling medication so I don’t have to go outside when ill makes me worry that my pharmacy will be quirking eyebrows about whether I’m really sick or faking a wheeze in order to build some elaborate illegal drug-producing laboratory that will explode and take out half of Swanbourne. No win situation.
Enough whinging. Here’s some things for you to read while I try to pull together some semblance of a lesson and finish off everything else that’s due. Oh -- expect another Token Skeptic podcast episode this evening and one that I’ll throw in the direction of the internet around Friday, when I hit Melbourne. Maybe another on Monday. Will see how I go!
If you haven’t read Barbara Dresher’s blogpost on the JREF site -- head over there now. It’s called Women’s Intuition and Other Facts of Life:
Intuition has been explained by pseudoscientists in ways ranging from the unlikely to the ridiculous, but the phenomenon itself is very real. In fact, we could not survive without it. We would be unable perform tasks as simple as recognizing objects or walking on the deck of boat. Most of our interactions with the world depend on implicit knowledge. When, for example, we hold a pencil at arm’s length, then let it go, we know intuitively that it will fall to the floor.
Psychologists have studied reasoning and decision-making for decades, identifying common errors and attempting to explain them. The first step in understanding these failures is the realization that brain development occurs through experience. Our experiences do not just shape our knowledge; they also shape how we obtain that knowledge. Experience provides us with rules of thumb we call heuristics. They do not always lead us to the most accurate answer, but they get us through the day.
An excellent read and has led me to think that perhaps a good index on the JREF site about ‘popular misconceptions’ that are addressed by sensible and well-researched articles for the edification of skeptics would come in use? Everyone can be subject to biases when it comes to certain terms and it’d be useful to see a regular address of terms that get bandied about and disparaged without a real understanding of what the facts are. I’m thinking of it being rather like the considered articles that Daniel Loxton and Michael McRae write, which prompt discussion and debate, as well as informative summaries.
Regarding resources for education, a recent plea by the Digital Cuttlefish blog:
I’m looking for writing
That’s cool, or exciting,
Or just has a nice turn of phrase
That’s calm, or frenetic,
Or even poetic
There’s so many wonderful ways
Your favorites, selected,
Compiled and collected
For use, any way you see fit
So it’s time to get cooking--
Keep writing! Keep looking!
Go find all the best, and submit!
Speaking of great submissions to sites -- congratulations to Michael, Blake Smith and KO Myers for their wins on the recent Skepticism and Ethics essay competition! I didn’t enter myself but very pleased to see that their work will be featured. I’m thinking of forwarding copies to my students, as a part of the ethics component of their course.
In other news -- SUPPORT THE PARSEC AWARDS AND WIN CHOCOLATE! It’s only just been announced, so you’ll be getting two books, one album and a bunch of Australian treats for only $30.
From Australia, assorted items of the skeptical and chocolate kind!
- Richard Wiseman’s new book ‘Paranormality: Why we see what isn’t there’ (not yet out in the USA)
- Michael McRae’s new book ‘Tribal Science: Brains, Belief and Bad Ideas’ (not yet out in the USA)
- Signed George Hrab album ‘Trebuchet’
- 1x Token Skeptic t-shirt
- 1x packet of Australian Furry Friends chocolate bars
- 1x packet of Australian Tim Tam chocolate biscuits
There’s other items that they’re auctioning off, so do check them out and bid on other item lots as well!
If you’d like to help out some of my other friends -- Jack Scanlan has SheThought fundraising (only a few hundred left to go!) to get him to the next Amazing Meeting! Jack is the author of the Homologous Legs blog and contributes to the Nature.com site, as well as a podcaster for the Young Australian Skeptics. You can hear him talk about his studies on one of the Token Skeptic podcast episodes that I recorded for TAMOz, and he’d be a great contributor to the line-up in Las Vegas. If you can help out, head to the site.
Another great contributor to rationalism and skepticism from Melbourne, Simon Taylor, has started up a new project that deserves funding as well -- Flim-Flam!
I’ve created a comic strip series, Flim-Flam, with the intention to produce one every week. The content of each strip will be a comedic look at belief in the paranormal, pseudoscience and religion. As human beings we believe some silly things. Flim-Flam celebrates our silliness with clever words and quirky cartoons.
Simply pop in a pledge and help this creative project become reality.
And now, as always -- milk cartons in love.
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