Bad science ....

[Digit]

It's perhaps relevant to point out olly that more genuine scientists signed the Manhattan Declaration than signed the first IPCC report as well.

Roy.

[Paul mabbott]

Bad news folks. After taking some medical advice from the Daily Mail, I've started reading their womens pages. Here's a good bit entitled "Being a vegetarian makes you proky .... " Being a veggie makes you porky: Why this nutritionist says meat-free Mondays could lead to a very big surprise... | Mail Online

Claims to be from a qualified nutritionist. Concludes that eating meat makes you slim whereas being a vegetarian makes you fat. Patent nonsense but the false logic is easy to overlook: note para 9 -
This was the recipe for the handles I didn't love as a teenager. When I wasn't stuffing my face with pasta and cheese, it was toast and butter, stodge that was guaranteed to pile on the pounds.

So what she's saying is that all vegetarians only eat cheese and other dairy products .... patently untrue, especially for vegans ....

So what she's saying is that if you give up (or reduce) eating meat then you also have to give up (or reduce) cheese intake .... but that wouldn't go down well with the farming industry, would it?

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid,
it is true that most stupid people are conservative."
John Stuart Mill

[Paul mabbott]

One of the rguments used by those in denial is that the temperature and CO2 data are biased towards industrial areas in the Northern Hemisphere ..... but it's okay to deduce old temperature rates to the price of wheat!

It also ignores the fact that wheat prices had a lot more to do with economics and politics - read up on the Corn Laws.

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid,
it is true that most stupid people are conservative."
John Stuart Mill

Originally Posted by Digit

It's actually one of the longest continuous records on weather Bullseye, and unlike some of the more suspect temps that have been recorded in the past, not really open to much in the way of errors.
Way back it was noticed that sun spot activity mirrored the price of wheat in England due to the harvests being affected.

Roy.

[Paul mabbott]

Originally Posted by Hobjob

.....................
At a slight tangent, radio 4 this morning was quoting figures from an as
yes unpublished study from St John's, Durham, some amazing
statistics about the ignorance of the public for the major Bible stories.

75% own a Bible
But
9% do not know Whitsun is
85% do not know the significance of Advent calendars
57% do not know about Josph and his banishment

to Egypt - even one the interviewed had seen the musical!

Sadly the UK is well dummed down. Even if not professing Christiantiy
surely we should have greater understanding of our cultural heritage?

I would have thought our cultural heritage derived mostly from Greece through the arabs and the Rennaissance; and/or from the Celts. Don't quite see the significance of the history/myths of a wandering middle-eastern tribe - even to Christians.

What musical?

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid,
it is true that most stupid people are conservative."
John Stuart Mill

[Paul mabbott]

Originally Posted by pressld2

......... No study has ever "disproved" a link between MMR and autism. Numerous studies have failed to find a link but that is emphatically NOT the same as disproving a link.
..........
Dave P.

Sorry, let's get back to this 'disproving' business.
It is impossible to disprove a negative - although the proposition may be so unlikely as to be ignored anyway.
However, most scientific analysis will start off by testing the null hypothesis. i.e. can we demonstrate/detect a difference between two sets of results/individuals/whatever which have been treated differently. If the two sets do not differ then the null hypothesis has not been disproved - not the same as saying that it has been proved but, in effect, showing that there is nothing to test/investigate further.

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid,
it is true that most stupid people are conservative."
John Stuart Mill

[Herd900rd]

Probably way off topic, but the conclusion I would draw from the MMR debate in particular and medicine in general is DON'T HAVE KIDS. Be content with your own life and the lives of those already around you.

[Hobjob]

Originally Posted by Herd900rd

Probably way off topic, but the conclusion I would draw from the MMR debate in particular and medicine in general is DON'T HAVE KIDS. Be content with your own life and the lives of those already around you.

Odd conclusion! It has never been medically safer for our pregnant mothers,
newborns and children generally. Life expectancy continues to rise.

We just get obsessed about tiny risks these days - or, IMO, the media
whips up anxiety.

[treecreeper]

Originally Posted by Herd900rd

Probably way off topic, but the conclusion I would draw from the MMR debate in particular and medicine in general is DON'T HAVE KIDS. Be content with your own life and the lives of those already around you.

I think Shakespeare had it right when he said it's through having our own children that we cheat death, in that we live on in them. It's in the early sonnets, but the WAB poetry enthusiasts will know more about this. I have very close relatives who have not had children and my impression is they regret it. And when we're old, does anyone other than our spouse and children really care if we're alive or dead?

[treecreeper]

Going back to the original question...the endless gush of green hypocrisy from politicians has something to do with this. People are so irritated they will sieze on any counter argument, good science or not. This morning I had to go to Arrowe Park hospital to get my eyes checked. The hospital now charges £2 for car parking. Hospitals charging patients for parking came up in Parliament a couple of months ago. The minister, with a straight face, said the charges were part of the government's climate change objectives. Doesn't that make you want to buy a herd of cows and feed them sprouts?

[Herd900rd]

The government is imposing a charge to act as a deterrent to drivers and encourage use of public transport I would imagine