RESOUR> [NetGold] PHILOSOPHY: SKEPTICISM: The Skeptic's Refuge

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Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 16:27:06 -0000
From: jwneastro <jwne@xxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: NetGold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: NetGold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [NetGold] PHILOSOPHY: SKEPTICISM: The Skeptic's Refuge

PHILOSOPHY: SKEPTICISM: The Skeptic's Refuge

The Skeptic's Refuge
<http://www.skepdic.com/refuge/srnf.html>

"The Skeptic's Refuge is your
gateway to The Skeptic's Dictionary
with well over 400 skeptical
articles on the occult, the supernatural,
the paranormal and the pseudoscientific.

Here you will also find articles
critical of the way the mass media
treats paranormal or occult
subjects, as well as book reviews, an
occasional WWW site review,
links to skeptical essays and
skeptical homepages, and a vast
bibliography of skeptical literature.
In addition, you'll find
reviews of news articles of
interest to skeptics
and critical reports on
internet scams.

What you won't find here is a
sympathetic ear for psychics, gurus,
gods or bunyips.

Table of Contents

The Skeptic's Dictionary
"Skeptical articles on occult,
paranormal, supernatural and
pseudoscientific beliefs from
acupuncture to zombies."

Skeptical Links
Links to other skeptical pages

R & R Book Reviews

New Books

Suburban Myths
"Suburban myths are common
misconceptions that are
uncritically passed on as
established truths by "experts" and
non-experts alike. Suburban
myths should not be confused with
urban legends."

Skeptical Essays

Mass Media Bunk Reviews
"False, misleading or deceptive
information in the mass media
regarding scientific matters or
alleged paranormal or supernatural
events."

Internet Bunk
"Reviews of false, misleading or
deceptive information
on the Internet...."

Site to See
"WWW site worth an extended visit."

Too Good to Be True
"Reviews of internet business
opportunities which seem too
good to be true."

Mass Media Funk
"Stories, articles and TV
programs of interest to skeptics"

Site Review

A Skeptic's Halloween
"Of Witches, devils and ghosts
in haunted houses."

Bibliography  Books and Articles
for the Skeptic

Commentary on "Skepticism and
Belief in Contemporary
American Society"
"A Conference at Sacramento City College -
Oct. 31 and Nov 1 with Carol Tavris,
Wallace Sampson and Alan Dundes"

In Memoriam  Skeptics and Scientists

Search the Skeptic's Files

-------------------------------------------------

The Skeptic's Dictionary
<http://skepdic.com/>

A Collection of Strange Beliefs,
Amusing Deceptions, and
Dangerous Delusions
(and how to think critically about them)
OVER 400 ENTRIES

Content Sample:  Sample Definition:

speed-reading
<http://skepdic.com/speedreading.html>
Speed-reading is the purported ability to read as many as
10,000 to 25,000 words a minute. For example, Howard Berg
claims to be able to read 25,000 words a minute by reading "
15 lines at a time backwards and forwards."
That's about 80-90  pages a minute. Tolstoy's War and
Peace should take Berg about 15 minutes to read.

George Stancliffe claims he has
taught a woman with a reading
disability to read 18,000 words a
minute. Such a feat, he says,
is common in children, but rare in
adults.*

Anne Cunningham, a
University of California at Berkeley
education professor and an expert
on reading, reports that tests
measuring saccades (small rapid
jerky movement of the eye as it
jumps from fixation on one point
to another) while reading have
determined that the maximum
number of words a person can
accurately read is about 300 a
minute. "People who purport to
read 10,000 words a minute are
doing what we call skimming,"
she said. Speed in reading is
mainly determined by how fast a
reader can understand the words
and expressions one is reading.
The fastest readers are those
with excellent "recognition
vocabularies." Faster readers
can see words and understand
them faster than slower readers.
To improve one's speed at
reading, she says, one should
work on comprehension and study
strategies (Robertson).

Others claim that "the average
college student reads between
250 and 350 words per minute
on fiction and non-technical
materials" and that a "good"
reading speed is 500-700 words
per minute.* It does seem
intuitively true that one could speed
up one's reading by (a) spending
less time between eye movements;
(b) taking in more words with
each fixation; and (c) always moving
forward, rather than skipping
back to re-read something. Having a
good recognition vocabulary
would certainly speed these processes up.
Conscious practice at improving
one's speed should also help.

Berg has repackaged the
Evelyn Woods Reading Dynamics
course, one popular several decades
ago with people like John F. Kennedy.
A reporter who attended one of
Berg's classes noted that in his five-hour
course, Berg hadn't said much about
comprehension, except to suggest
that it would come with practice.
This did not deter several of the
35 students, who had paid $51 each
for the class from the Learning
Exchange in Sacramento, from
purchasing audio tapes for $65
(Robertson).

Those desiring to increase the
speed of their reading would do
better to enroll in a community
college course devoted to building
study skills, vocabulary, and
reading comprehension. It would cost
them less, and they would not
end up wasting their time trying to
read 10 lines at a time, backward
and forward. They would also
avoid the frustration that will be
inevitable when they find that while
they can skim through material at
a greater rate than they can read it,
the utility of such a skill is limited
(good for most of what's likely to be
in the daily newspaper, for example,
but not for studying physics or
reading a good novel). Skimming
makes both comprehension and
taking pleasure in words or ideas
next to impossible. Why read
fiction at all if you don't want to
enjoy the language and the ideas?
Who would want to hire a physician
or lawyer who skimmed rather
than read his or her texts?

<snip>

further reading

reader comments

RAPID READING  Checklist of Symptoms.

SUGGESTIONS FOR I
MPROVING READING SPEED
Speed Reading Self-Pacing Methods

TIPS FOR INCREASING READING SPEED
Influential Studies in Eye-Movement Research by
        Eric J. Paulson Kenneth S. Goodman

Measuring reading speed
Robertson, Blair Anthony.
"Speed-reading between the lines,"
Sacramento Bee, October 21, 1999, front page.

The complete article may be read at the URL above.

Sincerely,
David Dillard
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
jwne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NetGold/>
<http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/ringleaders/davidd.html>
<http://www.kovacs.com/medref-l/medref-l.html>

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