scientism
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Oh Noes! Seawater to Volcanoes! and…
…newpaper reporters who can’t divide or have any sense of proportion: While also factoring in temperatures and pressures down below, the researchers concluded that 3 billion teragrams — or a billion kilograms — are being pulled down every million years. Lemme see here: 3 billion (3×109) kilograms every million (106) years, works out to an Read more
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Reports of its death are greatly exaggerated
The ability of statistics to accurately represent the world is declining. In its wake, a new age of big data controlled by private companies is taking over – and putting democracy in peril. begins William Davies tale of woe in the Guardian. Unfortunately, he confuses credible statistics with modern state-istics*; and seems impervious to the Read more
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Rating a Published Clinical Trial…
…can be done in 10 minutes or less, using the Jadad score. There’s a full explanation in the original paper, but suffice it to say, it’s pretty easy to identify sketchy studies using this method. Aaron Carroll, writing in the New York Times, shows how this affects the credibility of nutrition research. For those who Read more
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Intellectual Yet Idiot*
Beware the semi-erudite who thinks he is an erudite. He fails to naturally detect sophistry. Nicholas Taleb off on a delicious rant. Tip from Gary Jones, who did make the smallest peep of a comment (so I know he likes it). *I’m more of an intellectu’all. And I DO deadlift. Read more
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Man Invents Fire, Women and Minorities Hardest Hit
No, really. I suppose men standing around the barbecue burning meat and drinking beer is just another ritual of the Patriarchy. Mark Twain was hip to this sort of thinking over a century ago: In the space of one hundred and seventy-six years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. That Read more
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Blinded Me with “Science”
Writing in The New Atlantis, Daniel Sarewitz says “Science, pride of modernity, our one source of objective knowledge, is in deep trouble.” The public has swallowed the myth of scientism and Vannevar Bush’s self-serving rationalization for federally-funded Big Science: Scientific progress on a broad front results from the free play of free intellects, working on Read more
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You say “potato,” I say “po-tah-to”
Looks like potatoes are back on the OK to Eat This list, and the usual thumbsuckers are outraged. Nutritionist Marion Nestle and other progressive reformers called foul, denouncing the change. “Really?” Nestle scoffed. “I have a hard time believing that WIC recipients are suffering from lack of potatoes in their diets.” Several watchdog groups and Read more
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Blinded Me with “Science”
David Warren, like me, is tired of being beaten about the head and shoulders with observational studies masquerading as “settled science.” According to the latest research, he writes facetiously, coffee may be good for your heart….Actual science would show the mechanism by which a specific constituent in coffee, such as caffeine, operates within the human Read more
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A Critique of Scientism
Biologist Austin Hughes hits the nail on the head when the writes of The Folly of Scientism in the New Atlantic. Central to scientism is the grabbing of nearly the entire territory of what were once considered questions that properly belong to philosophy. Scientism takes science to be not only better than philosophy at answering Read more
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The Folly of Scientism
What he said. Read the whole thing, I especially enjoyed the discussion of evolutionary biology. Personally, I think the field is pure bunk. My favorite question for eBiologists is “What were the evolutionary pressures that modified dogs so that they all enjoy riding in cars with their heads out the window? Does it go back Read more
The Random Texan 