The Australian Blues
CW Stoneking was born in Katherine, Northern Territory. He was in Balmain, a suburb of Sydney and now lives in Melbourne.
Here he does a cover of 7 Nation Army
Visit the real blog at www.bitethedust.com.au
I'm out bush. Literally and always.
I live and work in the Great Victorian and Gibson Deserts of western Australia.
I twitter away a bit at BiteTheDust
There is a serious blog. www.bitethedust.com.au will take you there. It's about remote and indigenous health issues.
This is for the fun stuff.
Enjoy
Robbo
Mental Bias - Would You Like Fries With Your Warm Fuzzy Platitudes?
Have you ever read a horoscope, taken an online personality test, or even had a key ring that told you what your personality was based solely on your name? Were you surprised at the accuracy of what was said about you?
Perhaps what you should have been surprised by is your own gullibility. Don’t feel too bad about it though - we all do it. It’s what’s known as the Forer effect, and it’s just one aspect of mental bias.
The Forer Effect
Back in 1948, psychologist Bertram R. Forer gave his students a personality test. He ignored their answers, and then handed them, individually, the exact same result, which read in part:
You have
a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical
of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses you are generally able
to compensate for them. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not
turned to your advantage. Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside, you
tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside. At times you have serious
doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing.
[...]
(Forer effect, The Skeptic’s
Dictionary)
This was cobbled together from various horoscopes, and bore no relation to any of the students’ answers. Forer then asked his students to rate how accurate their profile was, on a scale of 0 – 5 (with 4 being “good” and 5 “excellent”). The average rating given was 4.26. Since 1948, the test has been repeated hundreds of times with other student groups, and the accuracy evaluation is always around 4.2.
For the rest of this go to the blog SidSavara.com
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Do you have a Nothing Box?
The difference between men’s and women’s brains explained.
Finally!
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FirstDogOnTheMoon Meets Dot Art
FirstDogOnTheMoon, the resident cartoonist at www.crikey.com.au produced a Twitter avatar for me based on a photo I used as the avatar.
The canvas arrived today.
Here it is compared with a small dot painting by Morita Ward
Don’t forget the serious blog at www.bitethedust.com.au/bitingthedust
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Big Pharma
See how a fake drug rep was trained and when out to sell Cashenin XR.
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=2YRShjrZhmE
It is a well spent ten minutes. Listen carefully to the use of words
Don’t forget to visit me at www.bitethedust.com.au/bitingthedust
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how sweet!
The old man placed an order for one hamburger, French fries
and a drink.
He unwrapped the plain hamburger and carefully cut it in half, placing one half
in front of his wife.
He then carefully counted out the French fries, dividing them into two piles
and neatly placed one pile in front of his wife.
He took a sip of the drink, then
his wife took a sip and then set the cup down between them. As he began to eat
his few bites of hamburger, the people around them were looking over and
whispering.
Obviously they were thinking, 'That poor old couple - all they can afford is
one meal for the two of them.'
As the man began to eat his fries a young man came to the table and politely
offered to buy another meal for the old couple. The old man said, they were
just fine - they were used to sharing everything.
People closer to the table noticed the little old lady hadn't eaten a bite. She
sat there watching her husband eat and occasionally taking turns sipping the
drink.
Again, the young man came over and begged them to let him buy another meal for
them. This time the old woman said 'No, thank you, we are used to sharing
everything.'
Finally, as the old man finished and was wiping his face neatly with the
napkin, the young man again came over to the little old lady who had yet to eat
a single bite of food and asked 'What is it you are waiting for?'
She answered
'THE TEETH.'
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