Comfortably Numb

You know. I really don't care for Pink Floyd. They're just another band in a long line of '60's and '70's bands that just needs to be permanently retired because their music is just too old.

Anyway, I stuck solely with the second draft today. It is the priority after all.

Today was another long day of struggled writing. People say writing a novel is a marathon, not a sprint. Some days, it feels more like a battle. I guess that is the price I pay for retraining myself to a (hopefully) better style of writing.

I managed 2286 words over the course of 4-5 short sessions. I would guess 85 to 90% of it is new material. That's another thing that slows me down: Trying to determine what little is worth saving.

My brain feels numb, so I guess this'll be another short post, but I did want to pass on a little nugget of internet interestingness.

whatstheharm.net

I learned of this website in one of the skeptic podcasts I listen to. (The podcast is called "Skepticality" for the none of you who are interested.)

I'll explain the website first. It's intent is to provide documented anecdotal evidence that sometimes seemingly innocuous things can cause harm. Granted, "documented anecdotal evidence" is a bit of an oxymoron, but it does serve it's purpose of providing information and examples.

The theory behind the website is to show people that things like naturopathy, which is often considered, at worst, benign in its effects can occasionally have serious ill effects. It's a site that tries to show comments like, "If it's just snake oil, then it's not really hurting anyone except in the wallet" are false claims. Like any good skeptic site, it does not discriminate against topics, so some may be offended by a few of the categories, but I'll let y'all make that determination for yourselves.

As for "skeptic podcasts", the skeptic movement is a scholarly movement that is attempting to get more people to think critically about everyday and not so everyday topics. Too many people accept inaccurate information and anecdotes as evidence for a lot of nonsense. This movement/mentality tries to get people to ask questions and challenge that nonsense.

I'm too tired/lazy to go into more detail. Feel free to check out the home of the Skeptic's Society:

www.skeptic.com

I can't fully endorse this particular website, as I have not perused it too much, but I did sign up for the newsletter. What's the harm in signing up for a free email newsletter? Since it's not listed as a category, it must be okay.