I Think You'll Find It's a Bit More Complicated Than That (48 page)

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

‘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