Category Archives: Science

Office design, and the theoretical person I am not like

Posted on 06/08/2018 by ValeryNorth

In my last post, where I had a bit of a rant about badly-designed hand driers, I promised a bit more about the new office building where my current temp placement has me toiling away. This is so very obviously … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Philosophy, Science, Social so-called life | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Digging into the pollsters (GE2017)

Posted on 04/06/2017 by ValeryNorth

So a few days ago I remarked on the YouGov article about how the different polling companies are all using different methods to weight their samples this time around, after the generally accepted model they all used in 2015 led … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Science | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The agency of personality: in defence of MBTI

Posted on 26/05/2015 by ValeryNorth

Edit to add: When I originally wrote this, I was unaware of the white supremacist views of Myers and Briggs. I stand by the interpretation and use of MBTI and KTS that I ascribe to here, but recognise that the … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Politics, Science | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Albert, Bernard, Cheryl and the theory of mind

Posted on 15/04/2015 by ValeryNorth

I love a good maths/logic puzzle. I love it even more when it becomes a language puzzle as well, and it seems social media has picked up on one such today. Known as the Cheryl Birthday Problem, you get a … Continue reading →

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Brain science, touch and some questions on BDSM

Posted on 11/04/2015 by ValeryNorth

I’m about 5 weeks behind in reading New Scientist articles, having just finished the 28 February edition. One article in particular in that edition struck me as interesting from the point of view of understanding BDSM in a neurological or … Continue reading →

Posted in Body, Kink, Science | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Early indications from “36 Questions” online dating experiment

Posted on 13/02/2015 by ValeryNorth

For the past couple of weeks, I have been following a simple formula for my first contact messages on Plenty of Fish, which is a freebie (i.e. ad-funded) dating website. I used the “36 questions to fall in love” concept … Continue reading →

Posted in Dating, Science, SCW | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Deriving web dating from 36 Questions

Posted on 25/01/2015 by ValeryNorth

In my post about the “36 Questions to Fall in Love” article last week, I wrote that, “I want to come back to this, and see if I can construct a way of using the concepts in dating. For instance, … Continue reading →

Posted in Dating, Philosophy, Science, SCW, Social so-called life | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Lab-grown intimacy: does one size fit all?

Posted on 15/01/2015 by ValeryNorth

The other day, I found an article from the New York Times about Arthur Aron’s experiments in intimacy, and how the writer (Mandy Len Catron) had tried it for herself. The idea is that, given the right conditions, it is … Continue reading →

Posted in Dating, Language, Science, SCW | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Hey, look! 2014 in review, Valery North stylee

Posted on 30/12/2014 by ValeryNorth

I found this rather fun and entertaining. Perhaps the most useful stat is that I only posted on a Monday 28 times, which means I’ve missed my target dates for posting nearly half the time. But mostly I’ve done quite … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Uncategorized, Writing about writing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Selection bias and #SamaritansRadar

Posted on 04/11/2014 by ValeryNorth

There is a concept in statistics, and especially useful in social science when dealing with populations, of “selection bias”: that sometimes the way that you choose your sample affects the results you get, and may mean that what you find … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Science | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment