Bad Science/Lies, Damned Lies and Science

Joanne recommends two wonderful books to give you tools to be able to analyze and interpret scientific news and claims we are confronted with daily. Dr. Ben Goldacre's book Bad Science goes beyond your usual debunking to arm you with information in the face of spurious health claims. Dr. Sherry Seethaler's incredible manual is the perfect all in one curriculum to train you to understand science and the media's interpretation of it. Highly recommend both books!!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Bad
• Science
• Lies
• Damned
• Ben
• Goldacre
• Sherry
• Seethaler
• science
• media
• Joanne
• Manaster

[Euclidianify]

Careful Joanne, you might be merging your Harry Potter with your science mission, and Ben Goldacre is definitely on the dark side. Nice how you bring the educational side of things into Scientism, (bringing science into the ideological realm), which you ardent logical thinkers tend to naturally do. I think you're creating evangiscience! Ask a mother whose child has been cured by a homeopathic antidote to MMR how much she cares about logical scrutiny. There's a lot of them out there.

[joannelovesscience]

@Euclidianify What you may not know is I have a child on the autistic spectrum. I have hung in circles with mothers of children with autism. My heart goes out to their desire to make a connection with their child, no matter what it takes. There is a balance between empathizing with the pain and then making appropriate, rational decisions. Anyone will take money from a desperate mother hoping for a cure. I watched it quite often.

[joannelovesscience]

.....or wait for the US version...this was well written!

[oldeubank]

Well done. Excellent reviews so thanks for that. I've already read Goldacre's book and it's very good indeed.

I hadn't head of Lies, Damnded Lies and Science until I watched this video, so I'll go out and get that.

Thanks once again Joanne.

[teslaandlyne]

We have never seen the work of Nikola Tesla even though his accomplishments are still being suppressed and fancied about by agents that have restricted free energy as talked about by Tesla. Did he just talk or was there substance.

[parasitesarefunny]

I would not listen to anyone who spreads the Holocaust Lie, Moon Walk Lie or 9/11 Lie.

How can LIARS tell the truth? They cannot, they can only spread more bullshit they cannot see through.

[grantdrummond]

@joannelovesscience Nice vid. I would recommend to you The March of Unreason: Science, Democracy, and the New Fundamentalism by Dick Taverne (although it's another book by one of us damned Brits so you may have to import it too :) ). Is of the same ilk as Bad Science but takes in things like GM crops, irrational enviromentalism, etc. Sort of a Bad Science+ if you like. Keep up the good work :)

[WhelkDoctor1]

Checkout Goldacres' associates, especially Simon Wessely before you believe anything he says. Goldacre is a junior doctor desperate to make a name for himself. To make an informed decision on a subject as wide ranging and complex as science from the opinions of somebody who specialises in dumbing-down the subject is, quite frankly, "bad science".

[prez58]

@Euclidianify

Damn....science flails helplessly against your unassailable anecdotal evidence.

From now on scientists should just go to the pub and ask some bloke "what he reckons".

[ilsaloving]

@Euclidianify I'm sorry, but how did pharmaceuticals get into this? Effectiveness of pharmaceuticals is a different topic entirely. My point is quite simple and specific, and that point is homeopathy is fraudulent. Practitioners sell very expensive water and claim all sorts of benefits, ALL of which have been demonstrated to be false. Please cite these supposed "good" studies. If you can get me drunk on homeopathic beer, then maybe I'll believe you.

[Euclidianify]

@ilsaloving I'll tell you what does: Claiming that drugs are the ONLY way to go based on their "research". Well it happens that many drugs aren't well studied, or they're used for something they're not meant for anyway. Or when studies are continued they are shown to become not better than placebo. And the whole fraction of the story on vaccinations yet the commie-push to distribute them: thats the definition of "snake oil". And using terms like "unequivocally" in the face of many good studies.

[ilsaloving]

@Euclidianify Actually, snake oil very much relates to homeopathy. Actually, that's not true. Snake oil may actually have some beneficial elements to it. Homeopathy has been unequivocally demonstrated to not have any benefit whatsoever compared against placebo. Homeopathy practitioners continually present their supposed craft as cures to a variety of illnesses, and this amounts to fraud. If this doesn't meet the generally accepted definition of 'snake oil', I dunno what does.

[Euclidianify]

@tooyjfwn Whose life? There you skeptics go again, speaking for everyone and everything. And immediately assuming I'm "promoting" homeopathy. Your kind are the ones who want to promote some hyperbolic agenda of taking care of the world and protecting it with with double blind placebo checks. I'm simply giving perspective and illuminating an insidious and harmful ignorance. "Scientism" perfectly represents that kind of thing. "Snake oil", conversely, doesn't relate whatsoever with homeopathy.