The Reality Check Episode 76

Graphology/Handwriting Analysis + Kosher Food + Drinking/Pregnancy

Graphology

Part 1:

The science of handwriting. 

There are actually 2 kinds of determining your personality from handwriting. One kind is forensic analysis by a computer, which compares handwritings and tells you the results. The other kind if graphology, which is the pseudoscientific study and analysis of handwriting especially in relation to human psychology. In the medical field, it can be used to refer to the study of handwriting as an aid in diagnosis and tracking of diseases of the brain and nervous system. The term is sometimes incorrectly used to refer to forensic document examination. 

Graphology is claimed to be useful for everything from understanding health issues, morality and past experiences to hidden talents and mental problems. However, "in properly controlled, blind studies, where the handwriting samples contain no content that could provide non-graphological information upon which to base a prediction, graphologists do no better than chance at predicting... personality traits...." And even non-experts are able to correctly identify the gender of a writer about 70% of the time.

There are a variety of techniques used by graphologists. Even so, the techniques of these "experts" seem to be reducible to impressions from such things as the pressure exerted on the page, spacing of words and letters, crossed t's, dotted i's, size, slant, speed and consistency of writing. Though graphologists deny it, the content of the writing is one of the more important factors in graphological character assessment. The content of a message, of course, is independent of the handwriting and should be irrelevant to the assessment.

Graphology is another pipe dream of those who want a quick and dirty decision making process to tell them who to marry, who did the crime, who they should hire, what career they should seek, where the good hunting is, where the water, oil, or buried treasure is, etc. Graphology is another in a long list of quack substitutes for hard work. It is appealing to those who are impatient with such troublesome matters as research, evidence analysis, reasoning, logic, and hypothesis testing. If you want results and you want them now and you want them stated in strong, certain terms, graphology is for you. If, however, you can live with reasonable probabilities and uncertainty, you might try another method to pick a spouse or hire an employee. - The Skeptic's Dictionary

Kosher Food Signs

Part 2: 

So, what is Kosher food?

Kosher foods are those that conform to the regulations of the Jewish Halakhic framework. These rules form the main aspect of kashrut, Jewish dietary laws. Reasons for food being non-kosher include the presence of ingredients derived from non-kosher animals or from kosher animals that were not properly slaughtered, a mixture of meat and milk, wine or grape juice (or their derivatives) produced without supervision, the use of produce from Israel that has not been tithed, or even the use of cooking utensils and machinery which had previously been used for non-kosher food. These might include utensils and machines used for making pork or other non-kosher foods.

According to the Jewish, this kind of food if much healthier for people. But, it's actually not true. It's actually not better or worse for people. It's just a list of things that they are allowed to eat.

Science Myth of the Week:
So, does drinking during pregnancy effect the baby?
Of course it does! How can it not? Alcohol messes up our bodies.