>> ^rgroom1:

I have to say, the samples that he collected and sent in looked to be from a "tarball" and a lot of surface foam. This may be making the problem look much worse than it is. I would rather have the sample be under the foam in the water.
I'm not downplaying the problem, just pointing out bad science.


so instead of 150x the lethal ppm its say a factor of 10x less... only 15x the lethal ppm
get me my swimming trunks

>> ^rgroom1:

I have to say, the samples that he collected and sent in looked to be from a "tarball" and a lot of surface foam. This may be making the problem look much worse than it is. I would rather have the sample be under the foam in the water.
I'm not downplaying the problem, just pointing out bad science.


When solvents are being used, that doesn't matter.

http://videosift.com/video/TED-The-Gulf-Oil-Spill-s-Unseen-Culprits-and-Victims

I am not trying to be contrary with everyone, but the spill is most likely far worse than we can even imagine right now. And getting worse with each passing day. And will stay horrible for generations to come. I have the same kind of hopeful denial that others seem to be expressing here, but it is really, really bad.

I have to say, the samples that he collected and sent in looked to be from a "tarball" and a lot of surface foam. This may be making the problem look much worse than it is. I would rather have the sample be under the foam in the water.
I'm not downplaying the problem, just pointing out bad science.

I, personally, would like to see this test done with other types of people, race and apparent wealth so we could see a bigger picture. Understanding that the experiment was meant to test reactions, I would like to see see how people would react in all instances. I found the examples to be a bit inconclusive and cherry picked just to prove something we already knew - some people react, some people don't, some people would like to but are afraid. Personality type plays a huge role here as well as race and I don't feel any sort of conclusion was made here.

Great for a TV segment, which it was, but bad science.

As I've always said, Scientology is living breathing proof that humans are so stupid they will believe anything. Almost all other religions at least have the excuse of being thousands of years old, but this crap was made up in the last 50 and by a BAD science fiction author at that. Even LDS is more believable than this insanity and that's really scrapping the barrel.

Oh and "over 5 million" people have watched the Tom Cruise video because its HILARIOUS not curious. It's not often you get to see crazy on that level.

Wow, I smell a brewing love story here. Maddow and Beck sitting in a tree K I S S I N G.

Both sides can stick it up their fucking asses.

Real Science doesn't deal with politics it deals with measurements, observations, and hypotheses. It has no time for touching the hearts and minds of people, or creating propaganda.

Politicians, racketeers, and media perpetuate bad science. I like my science straight from the source, and not the news.

Manufacturing consensus.

But of course, even the article below is from a far right politicized website. For fucks say; give me some goddamn politically independent resources.

http://neveryetmelted.com/2009/12/19/manufacturing-consensus/


Interesting read, however suspect; it would seem that science publications are not without their vile tactics. If you don't like it, control the monopoly of publication. I thought if it was bad science then you publish it and let the bad science speak for itself.

buyhisbook, buyhisbook, buyhisbook

Ho yeah, and, er, nice post and all.

No seriously, buy Bad Science, it's like 3 quids on amazon.co.uk, and apart from happily thrashing "alternative" medicine (and regular big-pharma businesses, for that matter) it actually has a chapter on the placebo effect. Its only (minor) flaws are its Brit-centrism, and the fact that it should be actually titled Bad Medicine. I bought a box of these which I distributed to my homoeopathy-loving family. I hope I don't get disowned.

Thanks for the promote beastie!

In reply to this comment by cybrbeast:
I really enjoyed Ben Goldacre's book Bad Science. Nice interview.
*promote

I really enjoyed Ben Goldacre's book Bad Science. Nice interview.
*promote

For me, Sunshine was criminally overlooked by most people. Granted, a lot of people have issues with the last third of the film, but I think it's a sci-fi masterpiece. I can easily overlook little bits of bad science in sci-fi films. If sci-fi films stuck to real-world physics, some classics would be reduced to some very boring movies indeed.

I see Sunshine as a beautiful piece of cinema, and its cinematic scenes like this that emerge me even more. It's breathtaking to watch on the big screen.

>> ^chilaxe:
I'm all for statistics being respected even if they're considered undesirable - because otherwise what we're doing isn't science


I agree that it shouldn't be taboo just to tabulate those kinds of statistics that Cohen presents. The focus should be more on his bad science than his undesirable hypotheses.

I knew going in it was going to be a "bad movie" It's exactly WHY I went to see it! My friend and I had a B L A S T laughing at the story, physics and general bad science going on. She actually wrote a great blog piece about it "How To Survive a Disaster" Check it out...

Phrenology and Physiognomy were science too, are now rejected as their claims held false. Macro-economics was unable to foresee stagflation because it's view of economy is flawed. Bad science should be thrown away, period.

I've added
Bad Science: A great book about the things that go wrong in the scientific process, and the reporting on that process by the media. It focuses on medicine and diet in particular.

A Short History of Nearly Everything: Really well written and amusing history of scientific progress and understanding.

The Singularity Is Near: About the profound changes that will happen relatively quickly due to the exponential progress in IT technologies. The writing is a bit dry, but the point he is trying to make is profound and supported with convincing arguments.

Freakonomics: Really interesting and amusing book about applying principles of economy to study issues of every day life and human behavior.

Alien Hand Syndrome: A damn interesting collection of great and often humorous articles on interesting and surprising subjects that you probably didn't know about before reading it. Published by the blog www.damninteresting.com