I have one of the easy jobs at the university, well paid with pleasant working conditions. It’s not so easy for adjuncts. Ideally, an adjunct professor has a main job and teaches a course on the side, to stay connected … Continue reading
Bob Jervis sends along this fun document he gives to the students in his classes. Enjoy. Theories of International Relations Assume that all the facts and assertions in these paragraphs are correct. Why do the conclusions not follow? (This does … Continue reading
Ivan Oransky points us to this amusing retraction of a meta-analysis. The problem: “Standard errors were used instead of standard deviations when using data from one of the studies”! Actually, I saw something similar happen in a consulting case once. … Continue reading
This is newsworthy because it was reported that Vice President Mike Pence was assigned to coordinate the government’s response to the coronavirus. Paul Alper pointed me to this statement from Pence in 2001: Time for a quick reality check. Despite … Continue reading
A few months ago we reported on two controversies regarding articles in the medical literature on the risks of e-cigarettes (vaping). One of the controversial papers was “Electronic cigarette use and myocardial infarction among adults in the US Population Assessment … Continue reading
It’s been a busy decade for our research. Before going on, I’d like to thank hundreds of collaborators, including students; funders from government, nonprofits, and private industry; blog commenters and people who have pointed us to inspiring research, outrages, beautiful … Continue reading
Episode 2 Brad Rodu writes: The Journal of the American Heart Association on June 5, 2019, published a bogus research article, “Electronic cigarette use and myocardial infarction among adults in the US Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health [PATH],” by … Continue reading
In yesterday’s battle of the Jerseys, Jonathan offered this comment: Sinatra is an anagram of both artisan and tsarina. Apgar has no English anagram. Virginia is from New Jersey. Sounds confusing. And then we got this from Dzhaughn: I got … Continue reading
Someone who wishes to remain anonymous points us to a recent article in the Lancet, “Risk thresholds for alcohol consumption: combined analysis of individual-participant data for 599 912 current drinkers in 83 prospective studies,” by Angela Wood et al., that’s received … Continue reading
Mike Spagat shares this story entitled, “Fudged statistics on the Iraq War death toll are still circulating today,” which discusses problems with a paper published in a scientific journal in 2006, and errors that a reporter inadvertently included in a … Continue reading
Kevin Lewis sends along this article, commenting, “That’s one smokin’ file drawer!” Here’s the story, courtesy of Clayton Velicer, Gideon St. Helen, and Stanton Glantz: We examined the relationship between the tobacco industry and the journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology … Continue reading
Peter Hickman writes: I am a research assistant for an economist, and I just came across something that seems to me to be poor research that is getting media coverage. The Cigna study is here. It’s measuring the degree of … Continue reading
Nick Stockton, a reporter for Wired magazine, sent me some questions about radiation risk and radon, and Phil and I replied. I thought our responses might be of general interest so I’m posting them here. First I wrote: Low dose … Continue reading
In 1960, Irwin Bross, “a public-health advocate and biostatistician . . . known for challenging scientific dogmas” published an article called “Statistical Criticism.” Here it is. A few months ago, Dylan Small, editor of the journal Observational Studies, invited various … Continue reading
Tom Wolfe on evolution: I think it’s misleading to say that human beings evolved from animals. I mean, actually, nobody knows whether they did or not. This is just sad. Does Wolfe really think this? My guess is he’s trying … Continue reading
[cat picture] A reporter was asking me the other day about the Brian Wansink “pizzagate” scandal. The whole thing is embarrassing for journalists and bloggers who’ve been reporting on this guy’s claims entirely uncritically for years. See here, for example. … Continue reading
[cat picture] Paul Alper points in a comment to an excellent news article by James Glanz and Agustin Armendariz: Dr. Carlo Croce is among the most prolific scientists in an emerging area of cancer research . . . a member … Continue reading
For a few years now, I’ve been writing a column in Chance. Below are the articles so far. This is by no means an exhaustive list of my writings on ethics and statistics but at least I thought it could … Continue reading
Jonathan Sterne sent me this opinion piece by Stephan Lewandowsky and Dorothy Bishop, two psychology researchers who express concern that the movement for science and data transparency has been abused. It would be easy for me to dismiss them and … Continue reading
Here they are: What to think about in 2015: How can the principles of statistical quality control be applied to statistics education Stethoscope as weapon of mass distraction “Why continue to teach and use hypothesis testing?” Relaxed plagiarism standards as … Continue reading