Welcome to autumn. The calendar says that summer is over, but here in New England, we are enjoying a warm spell. The swimming has been some of the best of the year.

My September “Behavior & Belief” column for Skeptical Inquirer is “Improving Psychological Science Through Adversarial Collaboration.” It is not uncommon for researchers to study the same topic and come to completely different conclusions. Rather than looking for a way to bridge these gaps, researchers often dig in and design studies that support their pet theories. Thankfully, a new technique, adversarial collaboration, has the potential to move researchers away from their opposing positions and closer to the truth. This movement is still quite new, but it is a very positive development.

And now for something a little different. Last week, I came across a photo that sent me on a sentimental journey about someone who briefly passed through my life over fifty years ago. I memorialized that interlude in a short essay on Medium called “One That Got Away.” 

If you want to go down a similar sentimental path, I recommend this version of the Tom Waits song “Martha” by Lisa Hannigan. It was performed live in Dublin on New Year’s Eve, 2012. The pianist is Cormac Curran. It is a wonderful song, and Hannigan’s version is—in my opinion—even better than the original. It makes me cry every time.

That’s all for now.

SV