Accurate Science Headlines

[accuratescienceheadlines]

Skips as of 1:23 AM GMT 10 June 2012

Start: "Honeybee virus: Varroa mite spreads lethal disease"

End: "Ants in 3D: project begins to image every known species"

Statistics:

Already Accurate Science Headlines: 5.5 ± 0.5

Pure Environment Reporting: 1

Technology Reporting: 1

Other News: 3.5 ± 0.5

Does This Count As News?: 0

[accuratescienceheadlines]

Man, I almost put it in the skips for hairsplitting, but really.  If the results are tentative, present it as tentative.  Not too difficult of a concept.

[accuratescienceheadlines]

I was ambivalent about this one.  It could easily have gone in the skips post I've got drafted, in a positive way, but it just feels like there's a subtle disconnect between what the headline says, and what the article is about.

I'd like to discuss what it looks like happened, actually.

This study is heavily on the basic research side of things, which means there isn't necessarily any relation to the life of a typical BBC reader.  It is, at its heart, just a question of what happens.  So, whoever drafted that headline had to condense a moderately abstract result into something simple to convey.  I mean, look what happened when I tried to summarize what looks like an attempt to develop a model population for sociological studies.  That could have real potential to advance basic research across the board, and I have no fucking clue how to popularize it in an accurate fashion.

The worst part is, if I'm not being overly critical in the first place (in which case it's fine), then they got so close.  So close.

[accuratescienceheadlines]

[accuratescienceheadlines]

Skips as of 9:23 PM GMT 7 June 2012,

"Japan's tsunami dock washed up in US state of Oregon"

"Freaky fruit: Nature's weird and exotic foods"

"Geek chic: When fashion meets technology"

"Nobel winning Barre-Sinoussi optimistic about HIV cure"

"'Vampire spiders' spot victims by antennae"

"Green Room: Will Rio +20 make a difference?"

"Denmark's Bornholm island gets rare bison from Poland"

"Ray Bradbury: President Obama leads tributes"

"Genome of 18-week-old foetus deciphered"

"Flame: UN urges co-operation to prevent global cyberwar"

Okay, that was an interesting exercise in perspective, but I'm not doing it again unless I work out a format that doesn't make me feel like an aggregator.

At least we learned a few things: the "Science and Environment" feed brings in stuff that's not terribly relevant to either, in my opinion.  It also has environmental stuff, which is a) completely sensible and b) not the focus of this blog.  Of the ten stories I posted just now, I consider less than half to be science reporting with sensible headlines.  (I'm not giving a precise count, because it's hard to be sure, with some of them.)

I think in the future, I'm just going to list the titles of the beginning and end of my range of consideration, and give rough estimates about the content.  Then I can use more than 30 mathematical operations/equations per report to generate the scoring distribution.

[accuratescienceheadlines]

I think I'm going to put together multiple-links-in-the-body posts indicating everything I skipped.

[accuratescienceheadlines]

Okay, false alarm

I just wasn't looking far back enough.

Back to work on this thing that I'm doing instead of my actual work.

[accuratescienceheadlines]

my feed doesn't match their feed but my feed is their feed but my feed doesn't match their feed but my feed is their feed but my feed doesn't match their feed but my feed is their feed but my feed doesn't match their feed but my feed is their feed but my feed doesn't match their feed but my feed is their feed but my feed doesn't match their feed but my feed is their feed but my feed doesn't match their feed but my feed is their feed but my feed doesn't match their feed but my feed is their feed but my feed doesn't match their feed but my feed is their feed but my feed doesn't match their feed but my feed is their feed but my feed doesn't match their feed but my feed is their feed but my feed doesn't match their feed but my feed is their feed but my feed doesn't match their feed but my feed is their feed but my feed doesn't match their feed but my feed is their feed...　

[accuratescienceheadlines]

Disclaimer: I do not think that is what actually happened.

Note: The actual headline, "

Joseph Stalin's deadly railway to nowhere

" is a fairly accurate summary of the article.  Which leads me to:

Pre-emptive defense: the original point of this blog was to mock sensationalist headline writing.  But what I've seen far more is stories that, in my opinion (and I'm the sole gatekeeper here) indicate a serious lack of commit to science reporting, or the broader "science and environment" WAIT WHAT HOLD ON

THAT URL

IT SAYS "magazine" IN IT.

BBC.

WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOUR FEEDS

HAVE I BEEN GETTING THE WRONG CONTENT

FOR MONTHS

SDLFJHSDKJFHSDKJFHSDF

[accuratescienceheadlines]

There's just not much to say right now

The last few days have been a hodgepodge of conservatively worded headlines, statements largely irrelevant to science, and celebrity obituaries.  Interesting, but terrible grist for this blog.  Anyone want to recommend a source besides the BBC?

If historical trends are any indication, I've got an entire month before I'm likely to get anything good out of this.

[accuratescienceheadlines]

Actually, I can't muster any objections to this, but I think it would be nice to move from "One reactor having a bad time can fuck things up for decades, over a thousand miles away." to "Common failure modes include NOT BLOWING THE FUCK UP, YOU GODDAMN MANIACS."

[accuratescienceheadlines]

I'M BACK

[accuratescienceheadlines]

Guys.  I just want everyone to know.  That seeing the stories that the BBC put up after I was all "Lalala, huge backlog, I'll try to get through."  That almost caused me physical pain.

YOUR TIME WILL COME.

[accuratescienceheadlines]

It's a cheap shot at an unsettling photo, and definitely outside the intended purview.  This post is mostly to declare that I'm still alive, and haven't forgotten this blog, though I am trying to repress my memories of the preposterous backlog.

[accuratescienceheadlines]

Opening up asks because I don't know.  Going to stay on hiatus until college stops kicking my ass.

[accuratescienceheadlines]

BTW

ASH is on hiatus until I get through NaNoWriMo.  I'm using a nicer feed reader, so I might even be able to marathon every story from the month of November when I start back up.

[accuratescienceheadlines]

Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow