#bad studies

[recently-reanimated]

Someone should tell the new york post that this is because of hotdogs georg who ate over 2000 hotdogs at once and just fucking died

[chinesegal]

Debunking a bad study

A few months ago I tried to consult @zoologicallyobsessed about the credibility of the paper “Nomination to list the large macropods as threatened species under the NSW conservation act 1995″ which was written by Ray Mjadwesch, an independent ecologist. Since they said it was simply too much work, I took on the task myself despite having no significant education in ecology or conservation.

Kangaroo culling is a hot topic in Australia, and the paper expresses Mjadwesch’s anti-cull beliefs. He argues that kangaroos should actually be considered a threatened species among other things. However, I found multiple flaws in his work. Here’s a list of them:

1. The author uses government statistics on kangaroo numbers whenever convenient.

Throughout the paper Mjadwesch argues that Australia’s government’s statistics on the number of kangaroos are horribly inflated and that the scientists who conduct the research are incompetent or corrupt. But despite this, he still uses the statistics from “2011 KANGAROO QUOTA REPORT NEW SOUTH WALES” to conclude that the kangaroo populations are rapidly declining by stating that kangaroo numbers have rapidly declined from 2001 to 2010. But if you actually look at the source he cites, you can see that kangaroo populations consistently rise and fall throughout the years with heavy decline being met with high increase.

2. The author’s calculations on pre-settlement populations of kangaroos is horribly inflated.

Mjadwesch claims in the paper based on some calculations of his own that the original kangaroo population of australia before white settlement was around 220 million. Not even the total population of deer in the US pre-contact are that high:

Assuming that the four species of kangaroos the paper focuses on which are eastern grey kangaroos, western grey kangaroos, red kangaroos and wallaroos are equally divided by number, this still leaves them at 55 million each. There are almost no medium to larger herbivore mammals with that population size. 

And how did he come up with the number of around 200 million? He used population estimates for a relatively small area of Australia and applied it to their entire range, with no acknowledgements in regional differences.

3. The author claims that kangaroos can only reproduce slowly using misrepresented data.

Mjadwesch claims that kangaroos can only increase their population by 11% per year using the study “Population ecology of western grey kangaroos in a remnant of wandoo woodland at Baker's Hill, southern Western Australia" and “LIFETIME REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS IN A POPULATION OF FEMALE RED KANGAROOS MACROPUS RUFUS IN THE SHEEP RANGELANDS OF WESTERN NEW SOUTH WALES: ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS AND POPULATION DYNAMICS.“. The first study notes that the population of kangaroos being studied are unique, stating that “fifteen years after this remnant woodland was established by clearing, the subpopulation of kangaroos living in it appeared to be relatively stable in numbers, and certainly was not showing the marked fluctuations known to occur in semi-arid areas of Australia.“. The other study Mjadwesch miscites as saying “Survivorship of juvenile Red Kangaroos in wild populations is “very low””. The quote “very low” never appears in the study, I found that out by downloading it as a pdf and using the search tool. The study does however claim that while the female red kangaroos weaned on average 3,7 young in a lifetime, that only represented 41% of their maximum reproductive potential.

4. Mjadwesch claims that dingoes do not control kangaroo populations.

False, most scientists would state otherwise: https://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/act/study-reveals-importance-of-dingoes-among-natural-predators-20140110-30mug.html and http://www.earthtimes.org/conservation/dingo-kangaroos-nutrient-supplies/3012/ are just some exmples.

At this point, I have lost all respect for the author. He also spouts some bull about how kangaroo meat is neither clean, green nor humane because of the misinformation debunked above and because kangaroos can’t replace sheep as a meat source, but that doesn’t take away the benefits like low fat content and lesser ghg emissions.

[stuffmomnevertoldyou]

The alarm has been sounded: Antidepressants cause autism! Or so one could easily think based on a new study in JAMA Pediatrics. Four researchers in Quebec conclude that “the use of antidepressants, specifically selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors [SSRIs], during the second and/or third trimester increases the risk of [autism spectrum disorder] in children.” In a ResearchGate interview, study senior author and perinatal pharmacoepidemiologist Anick Bérard of the Université de Montréal and the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre firmly advocated avoiding antidepressant use during pregnancy: “Depression needs to be treated during pregnancy but with something other than antidepressants in the majority of cases. The risk/benefit ratio is clearly leaning towards no use.”

Study co-author Bérard, it turns out, has been criticized by a federal judge for cherry-picking results to link antidepressants to birth defects. The press should treat such studies with skepticism rather than leading with their findings. Sober pieces inScience, Wired, and NPR rightly questioned whether the study was significant and whether Bérard’s advocacy for stopping antidepressant usage during pregnancy was justified. In particular, Emily Underwood in Science wisely led off by writing “Many epidemiologists and psychiatrists say the study, published today in JAMA Pediatrics, is flawed and will cause unnecessary panic,” which is the most important point to make about this study. But too many journalists failed to make this point, and with autism research, such credulity is downright dangerous.

Telling pregnant women to stop taking antidepressants is irresponsible

[littlenerdheart]

Almost none of these are habits. Correlation is not causality. This "5 year study" does not take into account the initial income disparity and instead misconstrues unrelated data to impart false wisdom. In conclusion: your study is bad and you should feel bad.

[michaelmaguire0]

My life story (till now)

10/9/13

I'm just like everybody.... I'm just super ordinary ... Just like everybody. There was nothing special, different. I was born on 11/11/1995 at maybe at 12:47 AM, in India, in the state of "Orissa". I was born in a hindu family. Well, I don't really care which religion do I have. I have the religion, which u think. I even may not be having any religion. Anyways...

I remember once, my grandma told me that, when I was born, I had different  shape of my skull, it was kinda long and oval. Then, they (my grandma and other relatives) just resized/reshaped my skull!!! Kinda STRANGE !!! And they said they did it with the help of heat and their hands. I didn't know that skulls can be shaped like clay!!! Well, then I should be thankful to her for giving me a nice round face/scull. :P

I spent almost a month in my native village. Then, me and my family (we are just 3, me, my mon and dad) moved to another state called "Bihar". I lived their for like 5 years. We just had 1 room,there was nothing like bedroom or drawing room; and 1 kitchen and of course 1 washroom :P . Oh oh I remember, there was a black & white TV too. I studied there till 1/2 session of 1st grade. And then I moved to a city called Chandigarh. Then I continued from 1st grade in a private school - DAV Model School. Previously, I had joined a small community school. But soon I realized, it was way too much low standard. So I left it. I did my 1st-10th in DAV School. Meanwhile, my life has been really normal, in the sense that nothing much was happening, I had the same routine like everybody else. When I got into 7th grade, I joined the school's volleyball team. It was great fun. :) .... And when I got into 10th grade, I got the chance in participating in interschool matches. Our team never used to get to the 2nd round. But we still used to have lots of fun playing volleyball. I still love volleyball. I used to always score above 90% in exams (except once in 8th grade I scored 87%) and I was really consistent in always securing 2nd position in the class. Then, for 11th grade, I got into the top school of the city - Government Model Senior Secondary School. (but I'm tellin u it was nothing special.... The reason why it was called the best school was because all of the best students of the city used to take admission in that school *through student selection board*... Students used to do their job on their own, there was nothing much for teachers to do...) AND BOY!!!! It was really hard to even secure more than 70% ... I only scored 68%... But at that point of time I had become numb to all the failures in the academics... It was also the worst year in my entire life. The course was 5 times the course of 10th grade, and it was really a burden for me... I think my classmates had the same experience... Nothing was working out. I started listening to heavy metal, for satisfying my anger and frustration. At one point of the year... I had suicidal feelings (it was really really depressing)!!!! But I nevev cut my self because I know it's stupid, I want to live. Now, some of you might be laughing, about this whole suicidal thing, but it was very serious matter for me. It was a hell hole... But I didn't know that 12th grade was also going to be the same. Now, I'm in the middle of my 12th session. In these 2 years, I have realized that I have become a super lazy guy, it has sucked out creativity from me. I have become a machine (a rusted one). The reason I'm still alive is because of the music that I used to listen too.

As far as I can remember, it was in 5th grade that my dad bought a colored phone. I used to listen to music from that phone. I used to listen to hindi songs on the radio. Back then, I had never heard of english songs, I didn't have computer to download anything. Maybe it was in 7th grade when I first listened to english songs. I used to sing everytime used to listen to music. Singing used to give me the happiest feeling. And still I sing with all my heart.

So here I am.... Sitting in front of my study table like a couch potato. Realizing that my life is not moving. It's also true that I'm the only one who can change my life. And Now-a-days I'm trying to steer my life in a direction. A direction, ... Which I think is the right one. A direction, where my heart pushes me to go. I'm gathering courage, to head in that direction (I'm filled with motivation already). Its gonna be a tough jorney. But I can bet that I'm never gonna regret,... Heading in this direction....!!!!!!!

But that's what I say to myself.... JUST DO IT !!!!

[freedomtomarry]

"The two million kids being raised by 1 million gay parents in this country are doing great, and would do even better if their parents didn't have to deal with legal discrimination such as the denial of the freedom to marry, and ongoing attacks such as this kind of pseudo-scientific misinformation and the disinformation agenda that's funding it."

- Evan Wolfson, discussing a flawed and misleading study that suggests that the children of gay and lesbian parents face more challenges and difficulties than children of different-sex parents. 

[soycrates]

As Scientific American points out, there could be alternate explanations for the study subjects choices. Previous studies have found that sugar can make people more altruistic and all of the non-organic/’comfort’ foods shown in the experiment were sweet. Another possibility is that eating unhealthy comfort foods like ice cream and cookies can trigger feelings of guilt, thus making them more empathetic. Lastly, there’s the fact that the group that participated in the study was very small and consisted only of undergraduate students, which is by no means a wide-ranging sample.

No matter how valid the conclusions of this study may be, I suppose the takeaway here is that the next time you’re done shopping at the farmer’s market or health food store and are feeling all smug about yourself and your pesticide free, non-GMO diet, you may want to keep any potential jerk-like tendencies in check. But that’s probably good advice in general, no matter what your food choices are, right?

Where’s the study drawing links between billions of people making uniformed food choices, in spite of all the moral, environmental and health reasons to choose more consciously? Now, that’s some research worth spending time and money on.

I was both pissed and impressed by the article when I first saw it, seeing as it affirms many "oh you're a holier than thou organic vegan" yellers in their beliefs and gives them a nice pat on the back for calling someone a jerk, simply because other people are out there trying to do some good. It's a nice ego boost saying "You're awesome because you don't try at all! Ethics:0 PARTY HARDY:1!"

While on the other hand, it sends a message to people buying and living ethically to think about their choices outside of the veggie aisle. Think about what you could be doing in your everyday life as an active effort to make the world a better place. Your conscience shouldn't begin and end with what's on your plate, or what shampoo you're using - it should extend to non-commercial choices.