Click here to support the Daily Grail for as little as $US1 per month on Patreon

News Briefs 21-04-2014

Praise be!

Quote of the Day:

There is something out there, beyond the rational mind, beyond the everyday commitments, beyond the cities in the valleys and the cities in our heads, which we need and have needed for much longer than we would care to admit.

Paul Kingsnorth

  1. regarding the dawkins
    regarding the dawkins conversion article…..

    can anyone point me in the direction of a study that concludes that attacking someones religion actually causes them to hunker down and hold on to it ?

    I read reference to some such thing somewhere within the paranormal blogosphere but cannot find said reference.

    i think it’s a most delicious scientific fact that attacking someones faith helps reinforce it.

    thanks ahead !
    billy

    1. When Corrections Fail

      Abstract

      An extensive literature addresses citizen ignorance, but very little research focuses on misperceptions. Can these false or unsubstantiated beliefs about politics be corrected? Previous studies have not tested the efficacy of corrections in a realistic format. We conducted four experiments in which subjects read mock news articles that included either a misleading claim from a politician, or a misleading claim and a correction.Results indicate that corrections frequently fail to reduce misperceptions among the targeted ideological group. We also document several instances of a “backfire effect” in which corrections actually increase misperceptions among the group in question.

      [SOURCE]

      Hope this helps 🙂

  2. merman
    The common misconception with taxidermy is that the organs are left inside. Bacteria in the organs is what causes the animal to decay, so they are usually removed and you are left with the hide. From the x-ray they show in the article, you can see a wire at the core of what it probably newspaper or straw wrapped around that leads to the head form. The “monkey” half is paper-mache, if you click on the image inside the article of the merman it tells you this.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Mobile menu - fractal