Here is an interesting interview with a Tufts Medical School epidemiologist, and author of an Aug '05 PLOS Medicine article entitled, "Why Most Published Research Findings Are False." http://www.abc.net.au/rn/healthreport/stories/2008/2312092.htm#transcript He hits on many of the confounds, pitfalls, and misleading practices that would be mentioned in any good research design course (that professional medical researchers found it to be controversial perhaps speaks to how poor basic research training is "over there"), but I think it would be good listening or reading for students in psychological stats and research design courses to reinforce those ideas. (There is another item on weight-loss diets first, but it does not last long.)
Also (since we get a limited number of posts per day), here is an article from the New York Times about a parent of children in the New York City school system who, as form of protest against its various ridiculousnesses, started posting on his blog parody news items about the district itself, claiming that stuff was going on crazy enough to make parents (and trustees) call in, but not so crazy (in the context) as to make people dismiss it immediately as false. http://tinyurl.com/5kf774 Crazy things like: "Nearly 50 New York City school principals were fired immediately in what Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein declared a "warning shot across the bow." Blackwater USA was awarded a no-bid contract to take over school security. And a national education foundation offered a $100 million endowment to any university that established a degree in "high-stakes test-taking."" This strikes me as a good way to measure the level of craziness has come to be accepted as a matter of course in a given environment. If our jobs weren't at stake, I would love to see us do it at our own schools. Chris -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ "Part of respecting another person is taking the time to criticise his or her views." - Melissa Lane, in a /Guardian/ obituary for philosopher Peter Lipton ================================= --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
