- Pseudosciences are destroying the reputation of Australia’s Universities – From Roger.
- The perils of 20-sided dice – A clip from a 1985 episode of 60 Minutes on the danger of D&D.
- Study purporting to show link between abortion and mental health outcomes decisively debunked – From Otoki.
- Psychologists confirm, women really don’t like beards – How could I not share a Daily Mail article that seems to be saying that beards exist to scare off other men, not to attract women? Too silly to resist.
Amanda
That thing about men being more attractive to women if they don’t have beards was interesting. Is it a cultural phenomenon? The study was down with women in New Zealand and Samoa. Might the results be different if done with women in other societies?
Excuse me, but I’d like to speak on behalf of all Bearded Canadian men. We wear our beards explicitly to frighten others. This has been a public service announcement brought to you by Poutine, CBC, and Ryan Reynolds.
I like beards on certain men. Not all men can pull it off, but some really, really can. And scruffy is nice sometimes, too!
I couldn’t care less if women like my beard. I’m a big homo. =P
What about big homos who don’t like beards?
Don’t really care about those, either. My partner likes my beard. =)
Beards are actually a thing among a certain part of the gay male culture (bears and cubs and whatnot), so I think he’s okay. :P
Roll to see if you like beards. -2 racial penalty to elves. +2 bonus to dwarves.
New CAM: beardology. Facial hair promotes the immune system. Degree courses coming to an Australian university near you soon.
5000 teenage suicides in 1985 in the US. 12 associated with D&D. 4988 not associated with D&D. 4 million D&D players, 40 million non-D&D-playing teenagers (estimate.) Conclusion: D&D causes teen suicide. Statistical analysis provided by Priscilla Coleman et al.
Pffft…D&D pales in comparions to heavy metal music! I mean gangsta rap…I mean video games…I mean…
http://www.rpgstudies.net/stackpole/pulling_report.html
Author Michael Stackpole analyzed Pat Pulling and her numbers. Even if you took all of her numbers as factual (even ones that were “Name withheld, details confidential at request of family, age 14, 1979, suicide.”), and her claims of numbers of D&D players… it still worked out to D&D preventing suicide.
Regardless of the increase in attractiveness beards do a lot to add to the male jaw line. Where did Keaneu’s chin go in that ending shot?
As for the abortion paper I can happily say, “Science It Works!”
Unhappily, I know that most people will ignore this (what should eventually be a full retraction) and will continue to point to this study as proof, a la Wakefield and vaccines. :(
my poor beard :(
Way back in jr college I decided to do a report on MADD. I was a dedicated D&D player, so I was a little biased. After a great deal of research on the group, and failing to get ahold of their written info, it finally became apparent that the entire “national” organization consisted of Mrs Pulling.
Just realized, it was BADD, not Madd. Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons.
Beards are something I’ve always got mixed signals on. I was an early, er, bloomer? I had a full beard in 9th grade. Peach fuzz in 8th, full beard in 9th. Anyway, on a number of occasions one of my female classmates and I would seem to be getting on rather well, but they’d always insist I’d look so much better if I shaved. So I’d shave. Said classmate would immediatly refuse to even acknowledge my existence anymore. I never did figure it out.
‘Many universities teach therapies without a scientific basis to their students within their health care curricula, including homeopathy, iridology, reflexology, kinesiology, healing touch therapy, aromatherapy and “energy medicine”.’ What bugs me extra about this is that the people they are teaching these ‘classes’ to are young people that likely do not have the knowledge to know it is crap. They are getting those students fresh off the turnip truck. Teaching and charging for crap is just as bad as the next charlatan, worse even. And then these students get to say, I learned this at my University leading this crap some sort of legitimacy.