when the original
is surpassed by the follower
Category Archives: Joke
Papers that should have been retracted, not corrected
It has been mentioned many times before and has been even officially published by COPE
Science is either replicable or not. If not, it should be corrected. If faulty or fabricated, it should be retracted.
Continue reading Papers that should have been retracted, not corrected
“How come the Muggles don’t hear the bus?”
This is a quote from Harry Potter book about the Knight Bus
The Knight Bus is a triple-decker, purple AEC Regent III RT that assists stranded individuals of the wizarding community through public transportation. It operates at a very fast speed and obstacles will jump out of its way. To hail the bus, a witch or wizard must stick their wand hand in the air in the same manner that a Muggle might do to hail a taxi. The Knight Bus’ conductor is Stan Shunpike, who greets passengers and handles baggage. It is driven by Ernie Prang.
How come the Muggles don’t hear the bus? Because they don’t look for it. Nobody looks for a bus moving at the speed that the Night Bus moves at.
U.S. science is moving at Night Bus speed when the White House issued a new policy yesterday that will require, by 2026, all federally-funded research results to be freely available to the public without delay.
This research, which changes our lives and transforms our world, is made possible by American tax dollars. And yet, these advancements are behind a paywall and out of reach for too many Americans. In too many cases, discrimination and structural inequalities – such as funding disadvantages experienced by minority-serving colleges and institutions – prevent some communities from reaping the rewards of the scientific and technological advancements they have helped to fund. Factors including race, age, disability status, geography, economic background, and gender have historically and systemically excluded some Americans from the accessing the full benefits of scientific research. To tackle this injustice, and building on the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to advance policy that benefits all of America, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released new policy guidance today to ensure more equitable access to federally funded research.
What about the German muggles BMBF, DFG, the major German academies, research and ethics organizations? How come that muggles don’t hear the bus? Because they don’t look for it. Nobody looks for a bus moving at the speed that the Night Bus moves at.
When intelligence hurts
This is a real title of a scientific paper “When intelligence hurts and ignorance is bliss‘
Higher intelligence may have a downside in the modern world, by allowing life satisfaction to be more vulnerable from being better able to comprehend the severity of problems that did not exist in the ancestral world.
which isn’t an unexpected conclusion – although Gelman notes some circular argument as in earlier Kanazawa papers
In the past few years, Satoshi Kanazawa, a reader in management and research methodology at the London School of Economics, published a series of papers in the Journal of Theoretical Biology with titles such as “Big and Tall Parents Have More Sons” (2005), “Violent Men Have More Sons” (2006), “Engineers Have More Sons, Nurses Have More Daughters” (2005), and “Beautiful Parents Have More Daugh-ters” (2007). More recently, he has publicized some of these claims in an article, “10 Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature,” for Psychology Today and in a book written with Alan S. Miller, Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters.However, the statistical analysis underlying Kanazawa’s claims has been shown to have basic flaws, with some of his analyses making the error of controlling for an intermediate outcome in estimating a causal effect, and another analysis being subject to multiple-comparisons problems.
While I wholeheartedly agree with Gelman, his objection nevertheless confirms the hypothesis…
I have not failed, but found 1000 ways to not make a light bulb (Edison)
so beware of shortcuts…
Academic age
Ever heard of this term? Here it comes
Another feature that was rated useful was evidence of applicants’ ‘academic age’. This was defined as the number of full-time-equivalent (FTE) years for which they’d worked in academia and was calculated from the year of their first academic publication, rather than the year they got their graduate degree.
So while the new Swiss granting scheme looks really nice, I expect that other funders will use the idea and divide impact factor by academic age…
Ghost authors
We all know that there are animal co-authors in the scientific literature like the dog of Polly Matzinger. Here is another example, see a further nice story of Sophie Fessl …
Happiness and Working Hours
A phantastic idea by Lisa deBruine – a Rosling type plots which look very much like a negative association.
I rearrange facts so they resemble truth more than in reality
Take care – category joke here.
This article won’t change your mind
I remember looking at her and thinking, ‘She’s totally lying.’ At the same time, I remember something in my mind saying, ‘And that doesn’t matter.’
Don’t miss Werner Herzog…
True scientists
Significant phrases to hide a non significant result
It’s all too much
Charles Day in Physics Today (which is already my view in biomedicine 5 years ago)
Their main conclusion is sobering: As the number of papers in a field increases, researchers find it harder to recognize innovative work. Progress seems to be slowing.
Der neue Forschertyp
Das LJ Editorial zitiert Charlton’s “Why modern scientists are so dull”
Auf jeder Stufe von Ausbildung und Karriere gibt es die Tendenz, wirklich schlaue und kreative Menschen auszuschließen, indem man vor allem gewissenhafte und kontaktfähige Leute vorzieht. In dem Maße, in dem Wissenschaft immer stärker durch Peer-Review-Mechanismen dominiert wird, erlangt der pro-soziale und konsensfähige Forscher immer mehr Vorrang vor dem brillanten und inspirierten – oft aber auch schroffen und rebellischen – Typ des Wahrheitssuchers, der früher unter den besten Wissenschaftlern so weit verbreitet war.
cum grano salis… denn es sind nicht vor allem die gewissenhaften sondern die gewissenlosen. .. Die Empfehlung im Original
A further vital ingredient is therefore necessary: devotion to the transcendental value of Truth. Elite revolutionary science should therefore be a place that welcomes brilliant, impulsive, inspired, antisocial oddballs – so long as they are also dedicated truth-seekers.
Yea, yea.
How to buy papers
It is incredible – but probably some kind of advanced fee scam only.
500€ would be clear bargain compared to the 9500€ that you have to pay here
although there is a surplus of 6000€ for the science writer at fiverr and another 50,000€ lab funding to one of the numerous “science charities” and “patient alliances”.
Scientific discipline controversies
Are there any? Sure, a recent Twitter thread asked for it
