[WSCSS] Information for WSCSS Retreaters

[Linser, William D]

Dear WSCSS Retreaters:

Thanks again for the warm welcome you gave me in Chelan last weekend. Will Linser kindly suggested that I use him as a conduit to pass on in written form some of the information I mentioned in my talk on Saturday. If you have any comments or questions on this, or on issues I raised, don't hesitate to get in touch. 

By the way, I forgot to turn on the Subliminal Hypnosis tape during my talk, so let me just close by saying that you are getting VERY sleepy and  Emperors of the Ice would make an ideal holiday gift for all your friends and relatives.... :-) 

Thanks again. With best wishes,
Richard Farr
www.richardfarr.net <http://www.richardfarr.net/> 

***

BOOKS:



	There aren't many good, accessible books on the Cognitive Bias literature, except in math, where John Allen Paulos has written the best-sellers Innumeracy, A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper, and others. Two good general introductions to the psychological literature are Tom Gilovich, How We Know What Isn't So and Thomas Kida, Don't Believe Everything You Think. The classic, which founded the whole field, is Amos Tversky and Dan Kahneman, Judgment under Uncertainty - a bit more academic. Robyn Dawes' House of Cards uses some of this for a biting attack on the profession of psychology itself, and his Everyday Irrationality has good material. 
	


FUN OPTICAL ILLUSIONS WEBSITES:  

http://www.scientificpsychic.com/graphics/

 

http://www.exploratorium.edu/seeing/exhibits/index.html

 

Chaplin mask: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJIQTf5UpRU


   
THE "BASKETBALL GORILLA"


 http://viscog.beckman.uiuc.edu/grafs/demos/15.html


	        or Google: Simmons Illinois gorilla video
	


SOME FAKE WEB PAGES:


RYT Hospital - Dwayne Medical Center : All the Miracles of Modern Medicine(tm) <http://www.rythospital.com/> 
A clever spoof

WTO | World Trade Organization: WTO / GATT <http://www.gatt.org/> 
Ditto 


Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division - dihydrogen monoxide info <http://www.dhmo.org/> 
April 1st is coming - see what your students make of this informative web page about a pervasive and potentially dangerous chemical!!

The Republic of Cascadia: Bureau of Sasquatch Affairs <http://zapatopi.net/bsa/> 
Just for fun....


Information Literacy: An Overview <http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~dialogue/issue7.html> 

 A non-fake useful source of information on different types of fake site.



ON SKEPTICISM GENERALLY:



	Don't miss www.snopes.com <http://www.snopes.com/>  on urban legends. Also the website of Michael Shermer's Skeptic magazine at www.skeptic.com: <http://www.skeptic.com/>  I enjoy their e-newsletter, which has good articles on everything from Nessie to that stuff that (as it turns out) does nothing at all to stop you catching colds while flying.