skepticism
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Skepticism
Dowsing in genealogy
Last week I put this post aside as being a bit too niche, but then Rebecca posted this great takedown of dowsing and all of a sudden my topic is downright topical. Did you skim past the subtitle and want to guess how dowsing is used in genealogy? Personally, I would have guessed pendulum dowsing to test hypotheses. And I…
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Feminism
The Confidence Gap May Not Predict the Gender Pay Gap: Indignant Thoughts on That PNAS Paper
Why is everyone in the world over-interpreting their data this week and coming for women in science? How can authors get all the way through graduate school and still not understand how not to over-interpret their data? Perhaps in an effort to cause hypertension and make the blood vessels in my head explode, a reader of the blog sent me…
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Activism
Do Not Fall Prey to Nature’s Trap Without Changing Your Behavior
Yesterday I wrote about a problematic new paper from Nature Communications suggesting that trainees are disadvantaged by being mentored by women mentors. This morning, as I try to engage with my laboratory, home school my children, clean the house and do laundry because my physician husband has clinic, and try to eek out some small amount of time for myself,…
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Skepticism
The Dunning-Kruger effect: Misunderstood, misrepresented, overused and … non-existent?
A couple of weeks ago a statement popped up in my Facebook feed that surprised me. New evidence suggests that the Dunning-Kruger effect doesn’t exist – people who don’t know what they’re talking about are aware of that fact. The post came from the QI Elves who delight in posting quirky and unexpected scientific trivia, but rarely include sources and…
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Politics
GOP #SuperSpreader Event is Proof that Amy Coney Barrett Lacks the Judgment for the Supreme Court
The President of the United States is in the hospital, battling COVID-19, because of a completely predictable series of events. He has openly mocked mask wearing, he has eschewed guidance from the non-partisan scientists and physicians that provide expertise to the government, and he has continued to gather crowds. No one who understands the basics of disease transmission would recommend…
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Science
The “Herd Mentality” is Not a Public Health Strategy..
Last night Strange and I tuned into the presidential debate, like many other Americans. Our family has decided (like many readers of this site) who we will support, but it feels like the duty of any responsible American to tune into some basic events – the State of the Union, the Presidential Debates, and statements from the Oval Office. I…
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Activism
Step Away From Your Z-Pack…
Our president is going to get people killed. I don’t say this lightly. His actions today fall nothing short of reckless. Earlier today, President Trump tweeted: ….be put in use IMMEDIATELY. PEOPLE ARE DYING, MOVE FAST, and GOD BLESS EVERYONE! @US_FDA @SteveFDA @CDCgov @DHSgov — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 21, 2020 Yes, calling for the FDA to act…
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Feminism
SoD Cross Post: Gender Studies “Hoax” Shockingly Reveals Scammy Vanity Journals Will Publish Nonsense
This post originally appeared on our sister site, School of Doubt. Read it there or catch the beginning below. When Peter Boghossian and James Lindsay published their recent hoax article “The Conceptual Penis as a Social Construct” in the journal Cogent Social Sciences, they clearly thought they had just majorly dunked on those Foucault-fellating nerds over in the Gender Studies department. “Ha-ha,”…
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