by Tom | Jan 12, 2010 | Reading, Science
Thanks to Ben for pointing to two travesties on “respectable” news sites.Ancient man had a satnav system (the science bit: you can get these patterns in any suitably large set of geographic coordinates). There was a brilliant equivalent in Moby Dick vs the...
by Tom | Dec 17, 2009 | Science
Now this is how to carry out an argument. Are the CRU data “suspect� An objective assessment. Take the publicly available raw data set, chose two arbitrary subsets and see how the CRU data compares with it. Answer: the CRU adjustments (for entry errors, changes...
by Tom | Dec 8, 2009 | Science
Apparently short sight is an epidemic, with 80% of young adults in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan myopic. After a number of theories were tested and rejected, it seems simply being outside is the critical factor. How marvellous: science working as it should and...
by Tom | Dec 8, 2009 | Personal, Science
In more science news that is likely to be misreported: the latest study of brain cancer incidence and mobile phone usage has shown no observable link between the two after 5-10 years of mobile usage. Despite this, I find my bluetooth headset more comfortable than...
by Tom | Dec 8, 2009 | Personal, Science
Where to start? To my mind the most significant insights from the leaked emails is the level of politicisation of science and the extent to which Feyerabend was right about the process of science. Unanimity of opinion may be fitting for a church, for the frightened or...
by Tom | Nov 30, 2009 | Science
I have seen many reports of a 50% chance of a mild winter. As wiffy says, this means a) precisely nothing unless you can see the rest of the forecasts and b) is sloppy reporting as the phrase is “milder” rather than “mild”. And the (very...
