dimanche 26 octobre 2014

Are Multiple Personalities Real?

I interviewed 5 people who were diagnosed with Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) / Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).



http://ift.tt/1zuLBjx



If you take the time to read these interviews, I'd love to know if they helped you form an opinion on whether MPD/DID is real.



If you don't have time to read the interviews and just want to discuss MPD/DID, I'll quote my summation at the end:



Why didn’t I include answers from anyone who currently believes multiple personalities are real?



It would be promoting a sense of false balance by including believers’ answers. The science is not divided on the issue.



These people here have lived and breathed multiple personalities, and understood the reasons for and against alters to the depth of their beings, rationally concluding they are not real. They have seen both sides of the argument to the fullest extent.





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samedi 25 octobre 2014

Blackwater Guards Guilty in 2007 Iraq Killings



Quote:








Federal Jury Finds Blackwater Guards Guilty in 2007 Iraq Killings



A federal jury convicted and immediately jailed four former Blackwater Worldwide security guards yesterday for their roles in a 2007 shooting that injured 17 Iraqis and killed 14 in Baghdad. Despite the defense’s claims, the jury found that the deaths were not the result of a battlefield tragedy, but of a criminal act.



Good. Private security personnel should not be above the law. The lives of Iraqi citizens are as important as Americans.





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Thermite Welding

Anyone heard of "Thermite Welding"?



Here's a video from the American Welding Society.




Quote:








American Welding Society

How many of you have ever performed thermite welding?



For those of you who don't know, thermite welding uses an exothermic reaction from a thermite composition to heat and join metals together. Like most other types of welding, it requires no external source of heat.



(Video Courtesy: Wolfgang Lendner)



http://ift.tt/1nFZ3vP



What implications, if any, does this have on truther theories? Maybe none, but I hadn't seen this video posted here, so maybe some of you haven't either.





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Volkwagon's new XL1...

Apparently won't be hitting the U.S. market anytime soon. Besides the FED feels its efficiency (combined mileage of over 200 mpg) would lower fuel profits, I also wonder how much a car this efficient might also impact the U.S. auto industry? Granted, i'm hopeful that sometime in the near future "parallel direct to cylinder water injectors" technology will soon take hold over here.



http://ift.tt/1wsxHwc





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New nickname: iSKEP?

I used to be able to reference the forum name in 4 letters. I'd like to have better "branding" on the name of the new site. For years now I have been telling people about a site on the Internet where personal attacks are taboo, people are called on their flaws in logic and evidence-based arguments are respected. In my limited experience I can identify 3 kinds of forums:



- those that quickly devolve into personal insults

- those with such a benign culture that moderators aren't needed

- those so tightly monitored that dissent is instantly quashed



My search is by no means exhaustive, but still, a forum with a culture of civility, fairly lightly moderation and a strong bias toward evidence-based argument is such a rare bird that I frequently mention its existence to friends. ISKEP, iSkep, I-SKEP would all be convenient brand names.



Googling these I do find unrelated items - INSKEP is a word in Afrikaans, ISKEP is someone's online user name - so I'm not wed to these suggestions. However a short, phonetic nickname would help the new brand, IMO.





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vendredi 24 octobre 2014

Gay attack stopped in Texas....you read that right

A long time ago I decided that if you apply for a job in Texas you have to include a proficiency in "gay bashing" somewhere on your resume lest the rangers come arrest you and force you into their own version of The Hunger Games. Generally speaking the state does a good job of living up to this assumption electing governors and senators whose only qualifications seem to be that they hate everyone except heterosexual Christian men.



So color me surprised when this video pops up showing a man in an airport attacking another man for wearing a pink shirt yelling out "queer" as he goes in for his rather uncoordinated kick/slap combo move and the bystanders actually stop him instead of just assisting him. The leader of this intervention even wears a cowboy hat which just about broke my mind.



http://ift.tt/1wqZXga



Good job Texas.





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Marysville, WA Shooting Already Declared a Hoax

Wow! It only took a few minutes for the usual suspects to figure out it's really a hoax!















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