THIS is a CLOSE-UP?

When the first edition of David Nutt's book Drugs Without The Hot Air came out in 2012, I absolutely loved it. Informative without being dry, the book offered up evidence-based policy critiques and recommendations in nearly every chapter, while also elaborating upon the many different factors -- biological, psychological, sociocultural, economic, etc. -- that contribute to usage and addiction. Nutt (who currently works at www.drugscience.org.uk ) has recently released a revised and updated second edition, which you can purchase here: Drugs Without The Hot Air (2e) If you'd like a free sample before you take the purchase plunge -- and how druggy is that, to offer you a taste of that sweet sweet knowledge? -- you can read an excerpt here: Chapter 14 Book Excerpt Out of a bounty of information, the last chapter (Chapter 20) specially addresses young people and drugs. Since many of you might be around young people with idle time at this particular moment, why n

One of the more interesting (and CRUSHINGLY DEPRESSING ) parts of cognitive psychology is the examination into the many forms of cognitive bias that human beings predictably express. One of my favorites (perhaps due to the availability heuristic fueled by the keynote lecture I saw David Dunning deliver at a psychology conference I attended in January) is the Dunning-Kruger Effect , which is explained here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/dunning-kruger-effect Here's another explanation of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, but in video form: Here's David Dunning, currently a professor at the University of Michigan , talking about some real-life examples of the Dunning-Kruger Effect in action: Here is a post from Psychology Today outlining 12 common biases, including the Dunning-Kruger Effect: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/thoughts-thinking/201809/12-common-biases-affect-how-we-make-everyday-decisions After some deliberation, I posted all this conte

So this flier greeted me as I walked into NCMC this morning. After calming down a bit, and then calming down some more, I sent the following message to the President of the College, as well as other members of the Administration. Hi there. I'm writing to voice my robust displeasure with the upcoming "Stump The Pro-Lifers" presentation on 17 March in the NCMC Library. I don't believe that the promotion of a religious perspective that is largely bereft of scientific validity and reliability is the path the College should follow by allowing this presentation to happen on the grounds of the College.  While the people at Gaslight Media -- an apt name were there ever one -- are portraying this presentation to be a spirited "Q&A" where all beliefs are welcome, both presenters have such clear belief systems that any evidence-based discussion will quickly grind to a halt. Here's an example of one of the speakers expressing her belief system in action a