I Think You'll Find It's a Bit More Complicated Than That
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Celia Mulrow: http://www.bmj.com/content/309/6954/597.full
‘systematic reviews’: http://www.bmj.com/content/315/7109/672.full
the last time: http://www.badscience.net/2011/09/2009/02/the-evidence-aric-sigman-ignored/
deliberately incomplete article: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg8LlUME-IM&feature=player_embedded
Being Wrong
Being Wrong: http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian
research about research: http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/archinternmed.2011.295
John Ioannidis: http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=16014596
Kids Who Spot Bullshit, and the Adults Who Get Upset About It
Kids Who Spot: http://www.badscience.net/2011/06/kids-who-spot-bullshit-and-the-adults-who-get-upset-about-it/
Ryan Giggs’s penis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Giggs
Brain Gym: http://www.badscience.net/2011/06/category/brain-gym/
writing about since 2003: http://www.badscience.net/2011/06/2003/06/work-out-your-mind/
pay hundreds of thousands: http://www.davidcolarusso.com/blog/?p=48
hundreds of state schools: http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22brain+gym%22+inurl%3Asch.uk
Emily Rosa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Rosa
published a scientific paper: http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/279/13/1005.full
Journal of the American Medical Association: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_the_American_Medical_Association
practitioners were deeply unhappy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Rosa
Rhys Morgan: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/sep/15/miracle-mineral-solutions-mms-bleach
www.crohnsforum.com: http://www.crohnsforum.com/
finding official documents: http://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/SafetyInformation/SafetyAlertsforHumanMedicalProducts/ucm220756.htm
The adults banned him: http://thewelshboyo.co.uk/?p=87
The One Show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0yUYOz62wk
Chief Medical Officer for Wales: http://thewelshboyo.co.uk/?p=54
have waded in: http://thewelshboyo.wordpress.com/2010/10/01/bleachgate-more-on-mms-in-the-uk/
evidence-based medicine: http://www.jameslindlibrary.org/testing-treatments.html
tell the world: http://wordpress.com/
Existential Angst About the Bigger Picture
Existential Angst: http://www.badscience.net/2011/05/existential-angst-about-the-bigger-picture/
major review in 2003: http://faculty.virginia.edu/haidtlab/jost.glaser.political-conservatism-as-motivated-social-cog.pdf
study from 2004: http://psp.sagepub.com/content/30/9/1136.abstract
new study: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2 Fjournal.pone.0017349
most recent estimate: http://www.stratongina.net/files/50million ArifJinhaFinal.pdf
systems are imperfect: http://www.badscience.net/2011/05/category/regulating-research/
The Glorious Mess of Real Scientific Results
Glorious Mess: http://www.badscience.net/2010/11/the-glorious-mess-of-real-scientific-results/
Solomon Asch’s legendary studies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asch_conformity_experiments
hints of patterns: http://psycnet.apa.org/?&fa=main.doiLanding&doi=10.1037/0033-2909.119.1.111
a new variant: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/section?content=a922516755&fulltext=713240928
sometimes happens with uncomfortable data: http://www.badscience.net/2009/08/how-myths-are-made/
over 20,000 academic journals: http://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk/index.html
well over a million articles: http://informationr.net/ir/14-1/paper391.html
Nullius in Verba
recent study hunting down: http://www.badscience.net/2010/06/2008/01/washing-the-numbers-selling-the-model/
strengths and weaknesses of the HES dataset: http://www.healthknowledge.org.uk/parta/paper1knowledge/3_healthinformation/3a_Populations/3a2.asp
standard public health exam: http://www.publichealthy.com/partatips.htm
couldn’t find the pattern either: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/14/size-isnt-everything-in-hospital-treatment
Is It OK to Ignore Results from People You Don’t Trust?
Is it OK: http://www.badscience.net/2010/03/when-is-it-okay-to-ignore-people-you-dont-trust/
three month period in 2002: http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/research/publications/health_in_the.html
systematic review on the subject: http://iospress.metapress.com/content/x880352113361jk4/
Legacy Tobacco Documents Library: http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/
The importance of younger adults: http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu:8080/e/y/n/eyn18c00/Seyn18c00.pdf
Youth cigarette – new concepts: http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu:8080/o/y/q/oyq83f00/Soyq83f00.pdf
Two researchers, Schairer and Schöniger: http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/30/1/31
Foreign Substances in Your Precious Bodily Fluids
Foreign Substances: http://www.badscience.net/2008/02/foreign-substances-in-your-precious-bodily-fluids/
calls it a ‘poison’: http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/Fluoride39poison39-says-Wear-MP.3745368.jp
lead and arsenic: http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,1 556071,00.html
speaking way beyond the evidence: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/335/7622/699
the benefits of fluoridation: http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/fluorid.htm
‘overwhelming evidence’: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23435556-details/Fluoride+to+be+added+to+all+Britain%27s+tap+water+to+tackle+tooth+decay/article.do
Alan Johnston says: http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iJ2QJhA7EJ_HT5WiESAO3L1bla6Q
people are misrepresenting: http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/fluoridnew.htm
Further references:
The most readable overview on the poor quality of the data is this article by Cheng, Chalmers and Sheldon. Prof Sir Iain Chalmers founded the Cochrane library, for anyone who seeks to doubt his badassness: www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/335/7622/699
The Taiwan study is here (the authors attribute the increase in risk to a problem of multiple comparisons): http://www.science direct.com/science/article/pii/S0013935199940185
The York review is here: www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/fluorid.htm. You’ll see that for several years now they’ve been trying to point out that people are misrepresenting their work: http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/fluoridnew.htm
And if you want a particularly good example of someone pompously overstating the evidence, try this doozy from the Sunday Mirror: www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/columnists/opinion/2008/02/03/fluoride-the-whole-tooth-98487-20307072/
How Myths Are Made
How Myths are Made: http://www.badscience.net/2009/08/how-myths-are-made/
successfully used a court order: http://speakingofmedicine.plos.org/2009/08/05/guest-blog-from-adriane-fugh-berman-plos-medicine-and-the-new-york-times-victorious-in-court-public-will-have-access-to-ghostwriting-documents/
Such an analysis: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/339/jul20_3/b2680
Publish or Be Damned
Publish or be Damned: http://www.badscience.net/2005/08/publish-or-be-damned/
Academic Papers Are Hidden from the Public. Here’s Some Direct Action
Academic Papers are Hidden: http://www.badscience.net/2011/09/academic-papers-are-hidden-from-the-public-heres-some-direct-action/
piece on academic publishers: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/29/academic-publishers-murdoch-socialist
pay up front: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=417266&c=1
Aaron Swartz: http://blog.demandprogress.org/2011/07/federal-government-indicts-former-demand-progress-executive-director-for-downloading-too-many-journal-articles/
federal indictment document online: http://web.mit.edu/bitbucket/Swartz,Aaron Indictment.pdf
harvest
academic papers from JSTOR: http://about.jstor.org/news-events/news/jstor-statement-misuse-incident-and-criminal-case
Pirate Bay: http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/6554331/Papers_from_Philosophical_Transactions_of_the_Royal_Society__fro
Royal Society Papers: http://royalsociety.org/about-us/reporting/
BIOLOGISING
Neuro-Realism
Neuro-Realism: http://www.badscience.net/2010/10/neuro-realism/
When the BBC tells you: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11620971
‘normal’ sex drive http://amzn.to/doM9h8
‘hypoactive sexual desire disorder’: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypoactive_sexual_desire_disorder
tells the Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1323730/Is-women-dont-like-make-love-Scientists-discover-low-libidos-behave-differently.html
In the Metro: http://www.metro.co.uk/lifestyle/845156-women-with-low-sex-drive-have-different-brains
‘fMRI in the Public Eye’: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1524852/
The Stigma Game
The Stigma Game: http://www.badscience.net/2010/10/pride-and-prejudice/
looked for chromosomal deletions: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736%2810%2961109-9
including that in the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/sep/30/hyperactive-children-genetic-disorder-study
said Professor Anita Thapar: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/sep/30/hyperactive-children-genetic-disorder-study
Read and Harre: http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09638230123129
Read and Law: http://isp.sagepub.com/content/45/3/216.full.pdf+html
Walker and Read: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12530335
Dietrich and colleagues: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1440-1614.2004.01363.x/abstract
review of the literature to date: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0447.2006.00824.x/full
‘Genetic Bases of Mental Illness’: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0166-2236%2802%2902209-9
Pink, Pink, Pink, Pink. Pink Moan
Pink Moan: http://www.badscience.net/2007/08/pink-pink-pink-pink-pink-moan/
every single newspaper in the world: http://news.google.co.uk/news?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&rls=org.
said The Times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2294539.ece
The study took 208: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2007.06.022
Bem Sex Role Inventory: http://www.neiu.edu/~tschuepf/bsri.html
Anyone can take this test online: http://garote.bdmonkeys.net/bsri.html
Further references:
The academic paper is here: Anya C. Hurlbert and Yazhu Ling, ‘Biological components of sex differences in color preference’, Current Biology, Volume 17, Issue 16, 21 August 2007, Pages R623–R625, dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2007.06.022
STATISTICS
Guns Don’t Kill People, Puppies Do
Guns Don’t Kill People: http://www.badscience.net/2010/02/guns-dont-kill-people-puppies-do/
3 babies on same date: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/157444/Mum-beats-odds-of-50m-to-one-to-have-3-babies-on-same-date-
725,440 births: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=369
‘Who is Having Babies’: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/births 1209.pdf
‘Dog Shoots Man’: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/01/ap/strange/main6162474.shtml
‘Dog Shoots Man in Back’: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,291687,00.html
another in Iowa: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7068549.stm
Puppy Shoots Man: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5950304
Datamining for Terrorists Would Be Lovely If It Worked
Datamining for Terrorists: http://www.badscience.net/2009/02/data mining-would-be-lovely-if-it-worked/
This week Sir David Omand: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/25/database-state-ippr-paper
described how the state: http://www.ippr.org/publicationsandreports/publication.asp?id=646
what statisticians call the ‘specificity’: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensitivity_(tests)
Benford’s Law: Using Stats to Bust an Entire Nation for Naughtiness
Benford’s Law: http://www.badscience.net/2011/09/benfords-law-using-stats-to-bust-an-entire-nation-for-naughtiness/
something called Benford’s Law: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benford%27s_law
61,838,154 in 2009: http://www.google.co.uk/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=sp_pop_totl&idim=country:GBR&dl=en&hl=en&q=uk+population
think about why this happens: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benfords_law
testingbenfordslaw.com: http://testingbenfordslaw.com/
Twitter users’ follower counts: http://testingbenfordslaw.com/twitter-users-by-followers-count
books in different libraries: http://testingbenfordslaw.com/total-number-of-print-materials-in-us-libraries
countries’ economic data: http://econpapers.repec.org/article/blagermec/v_3a10_3ay_3a2009_3ai_3a_3ap_3a339-351.htm
the results were published: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0475.2011.00542.x/abstract
hat-tip to Tim Harford: http://timharford.com/2011/09/look-out-for-no-1/
macroeconomic data: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/esa95_supply_use_input_tables/data/workbooks
online repository Eurostat: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/esa95_supply_use_input_tables/introduction
run several investigations: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/product_details/publication?p_product_code=COM_2010_report_greek
repeat the analysis for yourself: http://rstudio.org/
The Certainty of Chance
The Certainty of Chance: http://www.badscience.net/2008/09/the-certainty-of-chance/
Sampling Error, the Unspoken Issue Behind Small Number Changes in the News
Sampling Error: http://www.badscience.net/2011/08/untitled-1/
“Worrying” Jobless Rise: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14558369
‘Labour Market’ figures: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=1944
in a PDF document: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/lmsuk0811.pdf
Scientific Proof That We Live in a Warmer and More Caring Universe
Scientific Proof: http://www.badscience.net/2008/11/scientific-proof-that-we-live-in-a-warmer-and-more-caring-universe/
‘Down’s births increase in a caring Britain’: http://www.timeson line.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5219174.ece
when diagnosed with Down’s: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1088774/More-mothers-choosing-babies-diagnosed-Downs-Syndrome.html
said the Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/downs-parents-think-again-1032193.html
said the Mirror: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2008/11/24/babies-born-with-down-s-syndrome-on-increase-115875-20919849/
Radio 4 documentary: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fkx0m
her what plays Ruth Archer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/archers/whos_who/actors/actor_felicity_finch.shtml
National Down Syndrome Cytogenetic Register: http://www.wolfson.qmul.ac.uk/ndscr/
took the story to pieces: http://www.wolfson.qmul.ac.uk/ndscr/
National Down Syndrome Cytogenetic Register: http://www.nhs.uk/news/2008/11November/Pages/DownssyndromeQA.aspx
Radio 4 website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/
Drink Coffee, See Dead People
Drink Coffee: http://www.badscience.net/2009/01/drink-coffee-see-dead-people/
7 cups of coffee a day: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/79820/utter-cock-as-usual
in almost every national newspaper: http://news.google.co.uk/news?q=coffee+hallucinations+location%3Auk
exactly what the researchers did: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2008.10.032
survey is still online: http://psychology.dur.ac.uk:82/srj/caffeine2.html
&
nbsp; ‘Launay-Slade Hallucination Scale’: http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Launay-Slade+Hallucination+Scale
alternative explanations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confounding_variable
the academic paper: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2008.10.032
the press release: http://www.alphagalileo.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=readrelease&releaseid=535120&ez_search=1
‘multiple comparisons’: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_comparisons
no one was there: http://www.thinkgeek.com/caffeine/accessories/5a65/
draw a target around them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_sharpshooter_fallacy
Voices of the Ancients
Voices of the Ancients: http://www.badscience.net/2010/01/voices-of-the-ancients/
Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1240746/Prehistoric-sat-nav-set-ancestors-Britain.html
the Metro: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/807855-did-prehistoric-satnav-help-britons-find-their-way
Matt Parker: http://www.standupmaths.com/
applied the same techniques: http://bengoldacre.posterous.com/did-aliens-play-a-role-in-woolworths
BIG DATA
There’s Something Magical About Watching Patterns Emerge from Data
There’s Something Magical: http://www.badscience.net/2011/06/theres-something-magical-about-watching-patterns-emerge-from-data/
British Medical Journal: http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.d2983.full
first NHS reforms: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/nhs
Give Us the Data
A consultation is under way: http://c561635.r35.cf2.rackcdn.com/A-Consultation-on-Data-Policy-for-a-Public-Data-Corporation.pdf
foolishly restrictive: http://pdcconsult.ernestmarples.com/
everyday government data: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/government-data
forbidden to repurpose it: http://hadleybeeman.net/2011/01/26/uses-for-open-data/
TheyWorkForYou.com: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/
all our postcode information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcodes_in_the_United_Kingdom
the house-number boundaries: http://ernestmarples.com/blog/2010/01/postcode-petition-response-our-reply/
make the government: http://pdcconsult.ernestmarples.com/
Care.data Can Save Lives: But Not If We Bungle It
greatest need in the NHS http://www.theguardian.com/society/nhs
at risk by the bungled: http://www.nature.com/news/power-to-the-people-1.14505?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20140116