[Tris]

EDIT:  Shit, just seen this on the same site.  What a fucking disgrace!

How to ruin a perfectly good car 

Limo's are all wank in my opinion, never been in one and never want to either...

[Jaspersharpe]

That is disgraceful, it doesn't even have a bar.

[Tris]

Watching TV can kill you

Yet more bollocks statistics..

[Tris]

World's First Life-Size 'Sexbot' Unveiled 

[Jim]

World's First Life-Size 'Sexbot' Unveiled 

sweet, if only I could find a buyer for the wife 

[slackline]

Watching TV can kill you

Yet more bollocks statistics..

I disagree (there's a surprise)!

The statistics are perfectly valid, what the headline grabbing title on ABC fails to mention is that this is simply one of many factors that contribute to an increased risk of heart-disease.  The problem is with how the question is asked.  They've taken a complex disorder and asked a very specific question, ignoring all most other factors.

You can read the abstract to the article that they are sensationalising here.

It shows that their study cohort is the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study, what they're trying to do in this paper is use an indicator of sedantry life style to quantify the increase in risk of dying from heart disease. So from the outset its worth bearing in mind that having diabetes increases your susceptibility to heart diseases.  Yes everyone in that cohort will have diabetes, but some may have greater severity than others.

From the abstract you can also see that they adjusted for several co-variates (factors known to affect the outcome)..."age, sex, waist circumference, and exercise."

Now the waist circumference may be taken as a crude indicator of the severity of diabetes, but I don't think thats particularly valid.  But what this also fails to account for is the plethora of genetic determinants that are also known to increase an individuals risk of heart disease (of which there are many, see the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man entry for susceptibility to coronary heart disease.


I could go on, but I've got work to do, but its worth bearing in mind that most popular media outlets are particularly poor at presenting scientific results in context.  It may well be a poor study design in the first instance, but whats far worse is the way in which this media outlet have reported it.  You really can't take such complex problems and simplify them to a few sound bites for consumption by the majority of the population without giving a false impression and loosing context.

Yes scientists have a responsibility to convey the results of their work to the general population in a way that they understand, but mass media also have a responsibility to report news with context and unfortunately the media virtually always fail to do this despite the efforts of researchers to make their work comprehensible to those without the pre-requisite background knowledge.

[Tris]

The statistics are perfectly valid

All I am going to say is that 95% of statistics are made up and 85% of foreigners come from abroad 

[slackline]

The statistics are perfectly valid

All I am going to say is that 95% of statistics are made up and 85% of foreigners come from abroad 

And 100% of mass media reports focus on the 1% of reported statistics that they think will get them the most attention.

[slackline]

Gay Teen Worried He Might Be Christian

 

[dave]

thought everyone might be amused by this quote:

"China's internet is open and the Chinese government encourages development of the internet."

You gotta love the chinese sense of humour.

[Jaspersharpe]

There's always a way.......

[slackline]

I predict a riot

[slackline]

Local Councils in short-sightedness shocker

[cowboyhat]

News or Ultimate Internet?

Well the Telegraph is renowned for its investigative journalism: http://bit.ly/8cCUGp

[Jaspersharpe]

Watch what you say.

[slackline]

Watch what you say.

South Yorkshire Police are a bunch of useless lazy fucking cunts 

EDIT : In anticipation of SYP following West Midlands Police's waste of money efforts.

[Jaspersharpe]

 

[Tris]

Cat called for jury duty in New York

[slackline]

No Jokes Allowed

   Stupid thing to say, but if the police are relying on this sort of evidence to identify potential terrorists then its really a joke.  The fact they didn't even understand what Twitter is shows them for the fools they are.

And surely all the online newspapers that are repeating what he typed should be arrested and investigated too!!!

[Tris]

Alain Robert sets his sights on Dubai

[Sloper]

No Jokes Allowed

   Stupid thing to say, but if the police are relying on this sort of evidence to identify potential terrorists then its really a joke.  The fact they didn't even understand what Twitter is shows them for the fools they are.

And surely all the online newspapers that are repeating what he typed should be arrested and investigated too!!!

What an absolute fucking disgrace, who do they have planning operations someone reliant on a zx81 and box set of Dick Barton Special Agent CD's?

[BB]

"My biggest fear is to waste my time on earth."

{o,o}
/)__)
-"-"-
O’RLY? MONSIEUR ROBERT?


You're quite happy to spend it wasting ours instead though, you irritating, jumped-up, media-whoreing cunt. Fuck off NOW!

[Sloper]

Don't hold back now.

[Tris]

 

I was expecting someone to say something slightly derogatory but BB has exceeded my expectations 

[slackline]

"My biggest fear is to waste my time on earth."

{o,o}
/)__)
-"-"-
O’RLY? MONSIEUR ROBERT?


You're quite happy to spend it wasting ours instead though, you irritating, jumped-up, media-whoreing cunt. Fuck off NOW!

You know you didn't have to waste your time by clicking on it and reading it