Thinking Blogger Award Nominations

I've been nominated again for a Thinking Blogger award. This meme was floating about a few months ago and has appeared again. Big thanks to Dr. John Grohol at Psych Central for the nomination. In his nomination, he wrote:

CL Psych provides excellent analysis into the clinical psychology/psychiatry study of the week (sometimes more than one a week), often pointing out how naked the emperor really is. We enjoy an academic who knows his statistics and research design and doesn’t hold back in his critique of poorly designed studies that draw ridiculous conclusions that reflect the researcher’s own bias more than the data.

That was quite flattering and I appreciate the feedback greatly. I am especially honored given that Psych Central is truly the granddaddy of psychology websites. It has been around a long time, is linked to by everyone, and is very well-respected. The site is the biggest psychology presence on the internet -- yes, I say bigger and more important than the American Psychological Association website. Thank God the APA is sinking a bazillion dollars (actually, $ 7.6 million) into renovating their site.

The Rules

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme

Please, remember to tag blogs with real merits, i.e. relative content, and above all — blogs that really get you thinking.

This all started at: http://www.thethinkingblog.com/2007/02/thinking-blogger-awards_11.html

The blog that tagged me is: http://psychcentral.com/blog/

This is the link to the entry in which I was tagged is here.

To avoid the appearance of quid pro quo, I won't nominate Psych Central and I won't re-nominate the excellent sites I nominated a few months ago. In random order:

Carlat Psychiatry Blog
Daniel Carlat is a psychiatrist who regularly blasts the continuing medical education industry for its sham attempts to "educate" physicians. It's truly breathtaking to consider the degree to which physicians are blasted with commercial propaganda that passes for education.

Pharmalot
Frankly, Ed Silverman (author of Pharmalot) scares me. The man is a workhorse who covers the drug industry in a nearly compulsive fashion. He cracks stories on his own and links to virtually every drug industry-related story worthy of discussion. The man is a machine.

Mind Hacks
Vaughan and the crew at Mind Hacks present neuroscience in a manner that is fascinating and digestible for the general public, which is no easy feat. I learn something new every time I visit.

Seroxat Secrets
The author of this site performs investigative work, often regarding the relationship between consumer advocacy groups and the drug industry with regularity. Whatever drug companies and their related PR firms are attempting to try under the radar is often exposed to daylight on this site.

Pharma Giles
There are a few good pharma parody sites. Of them, Pharma Giles gets the nod because of the sheer volume of hilarious posts and how closely they mirror reality. The combination of tragedy and comedy on his site helps to drive home the need for change in a way that makes me want to laugh and cry simultaneously.

No disrespect intended to the excellent sites that I did not nominate!