Tag: Junk Science

The Politicization and Death of Science

George Noga
Science has failed us – as have academia, media government and religion.
The Politicization and Death of Science
By: George Noga – November 25, 2018

         Government, academia and media have failed us; even religion is politicized; but the cruelest failure of all is science. Problems with science include: (1) junk science; (2) lack of reproducibility; (3) politicization; (4) funding bias; (5) shoddy standards; (6) phony peer-review; and (7) sham journals. Following is a list of over fifty shameful examples of junk science – all subsequently, wholly or mostly, debunked.

         Laetrile, pesticides, fluoridation, overpopulation, BPA, organic food, EMFs, acid rain, global cooling, ozone hole, Alar, silicon breast implants, falling sperm counts, killer bees, GMOs, vaccines and autism, manmade global warming, mad cow, SARS, swordfish overfishing, landfill shortage, avian flu, thiomersal, swine flu, dioxin, PCBs, pink slime, campus rape crisis, artificial sweeteners, cell phones and brain cancer.

         Junk science continues: paper consumption, gender wage gap, Superbowl spousal abuse, anti-packaging paranoia, fracking, plastics, acrylamide, ethanol, bio energy, infant mortality worse than Cuba’s, Keystone XL Pipeline, arctic sea ice, antibiotics in animals, caffeine, Dakota Access Pipeline, nutritional standards, sodium, baby powder and cancer, E-cigarettes, electric blankets, X-ray scanners and ad infinitum.

 

        Science has a reproducibility crisis. Numerous studies show that only 10%-15% of published, peer-reviewed research can be reproduced to yield the same results. Peer-review is equated with the scientific method and confirmation of research results. Not true! Peer-review simply checks whether or not a paper conforms to accepted research protocols. Peer-review has nothing to do with validating results; this rests solely on the principle of independent reproduction. Until a discovery has been independently reproduced (preferably at least twice), it should be accorded little weight.

       Pressure to publish leads to shoddy research techniques. Cherry-picking data is common as is HARKing, i.e. Hypothesizing After Results are Known. Then there is p-hacking, which refers to massaging data until it yields a statistically significant result. Peer-reviewers and journal publishers usually fail to notice when these fraudulent techniques are used, a serious indictment of peer review and science journals.

       Then there is funding bias; if you don’t believe you get what you pay for, I can sell you tickets to see Bigfoot. Government funds $3,000 for every $1 funded by others for climate research, which is rife with cherry-picked and altered data like the infamous hockey stick graph. Any scientist minimizing human causation would be savaged, lose future research grants, be shunned by peers and tarred as an heretical climate denier.

       Finally, there are outright hoaxes, especially in sociology journals. Three ersatz researchers wrote, had peer-reviewed and published: Human Reactions to Rape Culture and Queer Performativity at Urban Dog Parks. Actually, they wrote 20 such articles, all of which were 100% made-up hoaxes. By the time they were exposed, 7 of the papers were peer-reviewed and accepted for publication and 4 more were far along in the process. This tells you all you need to know about peer-reviewed journals.

      The politicization and death of science is but the latest failure of once trusted institutions; it joins media, government, academia and religion in the shameful pantheon of derelict institutions. It explains, in no small measure, the coming apart of America, the crisis of incivility, the Trump phenomenon and a great deal more.

Liberals believe the strangest things – that is our topic for next week.
More Liberty Less Government  –  mllg@mllg.us  –  www.mllg.us

My Alar Epiphany Thanks to Meryl Streep

George Noga
Junk science flourishes because progressive dogma is antithetical to objective reality.
My Alar Epiphany Thanks to Meryl Streep
By: George Noga – February 4, 2018
       The zeitgeist of 21st century America (and the world) is the increasing inability to distinguish fantasy from reality, junk science from genuine science, witch doctors from authentic doctors and fake news from real news. Like most Americans, I once trusted science and the media; however, I had an epiphany during the 1989 Alar hysteria. I will share my personal journey with you; but first, bear with me as I remind you about some of the more notable examples of junk science during my lifetime.
       Laetrile, pesticides, fluoridation, overpopulation, BPA, organic food, EMFs, global cooling, acid rain, ozone hole, Alar, silicon breast implants, falling sperm counts, killer bees, GMOs, vaccines and autism, global warming, swordfish overfishing, mad cow, SARS, landfill shortage, avian flu, thiomersal, swine flu, dioxin, satanic day care child abuse, PCBs, pink slime, campus rape crisis and artificial sweeteners.
      The list goes on: paper consumption, cell phones and brain cancer, gender wage gap, Superbowl spousal abuse, anti-packaging paranoia, fracking, plastics, acrylamide, ethanol, bio energy, infant mortality worse than Cuba, Keystone XL Pipeline, Arctic sea ice, antibiotics in animals, caffeine, Dakota Access Pipeline, baby powder and cancer, E-cigarettes, electric blankets, X-ray scanners, sodium and ad infinitum.
      I still trusted science and the media in the mid-1980s when a neighbor, whose children attended the same day care as ours, contacted me about EMF (electromagnetic field) risks from high voltage transmission lines – then being hyped by the media as the panic du jour. Our children’s day care facility was located directly under such lines. I researched the issue and concluded there was nothing to worry about; nevertheless, we both withdrew our children. The EMF scare turned out to be 100% junk science.
       Although chastened by my EMF experience, I continued to drink the kool-aid until 1989 when mass hysteria erupted over Alar, a chemical sprayed on apples to prevent rotting. I was in agriculture and knew people who used Alar. After much research, I concluded Alar was harmless; my conclusion soon was ratified by, inter alia, the UN, AMA, Surgeon General, FDA, WHO and the National Academy of Sciences.
      The Alar panic began when 60 Minutes ran a segment claiming 6,000 preschoolers may get cancer caused by Alar-treated apples. CBS showed an image of an apple with a skull and crossbones. Phil Donahue said, “We’re poisoning our kids“. Meryl Streep, a NRDC stooge, testified in Congress and raised the panic to a new crescendo. People worldwide quit buying apples and apple juice; both disappeared from grocery stores. The industry lost $2 billion. Hysterical parents called state troopers, who dutifully stopped school buses to confiscate apples from students’ lunch boxes.
      The Alar episode was a media-fueled hoax based on junk science perpetrated by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an extremist environmental group backed by Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. Alar never posed any risk whatsoever to health. Despite the Alar panic being a total fraud, extreme environmental groups today regard it as a success story. Neither 60 Minutes, Redford nor Streep has ever recanted.
     Since my Alar epiphany, I am uber-cynical about science and media. All the science scares listed supra proved to be either totally or mostly junk science. We are in a new age of unreason because progressivism is antithetical to objective reality; it much prefers dogma, mythology and political correctness. Progressives have transmogrified into 21st century witch doctors, corrupting science, the media and now sports. I learned to distrust science and the media in 1989 – thanks to Alar and Meryl Streep.
Our February 11th post takes on the cosmic issues facing government.

Warming Observed Throughout the Solar System

George Noga
 By: George Noga – December 8, 2013
       Several recent MLLG postings about global warming have referenced temperatures throughout our solar system moving in near lockstep with Earth’s. This has been cited by MLLG as proof that warming is caused by solar phenomena and not man. Some  readers have asked to see the evidence because, if indeed the assertion is true, that appears to provide conclusive evidence that warming is not manmade in any significant part.
      Proof of warming throughout our solar system was the final evidence I needed back in 2007, when I wrote the very first MLLG blog, to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that manmade  global warming was junk science, a very bold assertion indeed way back in 2007. Following are the data and the critics’ reactions. We begin with the moon and work our way outward to Pluto.
  1. Moon: Temperature sensors were placed on the moon by Apollo 15 in 1971; additional probes were deployed by Apollo 17 in 1972 at a different lunar site. They reported rising temperatures year after year for as long as they operated. Moreover, the observed lunar temperatures were comparable to the long term warming trend on Earth. Candor however compels me to report there are SUVs on the moon – detritus from Apollo missions.

  2. Mars: NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions in 2005 showed the south polar icecap receding each year. Recently the Mars Rover mission reported much higher than expected temperatures. NASA scientists say Mars has warmed by the same amount as Earth since the 1970s. Critics blame higher Martian temperatures on dust storms, albedo (reflection coefficient)  and a host of other things. They also point out that the Martian north polar icecap has been increasing. Well – so has Earth’s south polar icecap. Oh yes – there also are some SUVs on Mars – jetsam from various NASA missions.
  3. Jupiter: Jupiter is developing a second red spot which scientists attribute to warming. Some parts of Jupiter now are 6 degrees warmer than before. Data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the Keck II telescope show Jupiter in the midst of a significant warming trend. Critics blame shifts in internal turbulence – whatever that means.
  4. Saturn: Recently temperatures jumped several degrees based on data from Voyager 2 and the later Cassini probe. Critics say the warming is momentary and due to orbital position.
  5. Neptune and Triton: Voyager 2 observed the atmosphere of Neptune and Triton (a moon of Nepture) in 1989. Recent data from Hubble confirm that Neptune and Triton have warmed considerably since Voyager 2 took readings in 1989; thus at least since 1989 Triton has been warming. More recent Earth-based measurements show the surface temperature has increased up to 5%. Critics haven’t yet responded to this data.
  6. Pluto: In recent decades Pluto has warmed considerably based on studies by scientists from MIT, the University of Hawaii and Cornell – and this is occurring despite the fact Pluto is moving away from the sun. The study was conducted by telescopes based at Mauna Kea, Lick, Lowell and Palomar Observatories. Critics blame Pluto’s orbit.
  7. Elsewhere in the solar system: There are data showing warming on Titan and Enceladus  (both moons of Saturn) and Dysnomia, a moon of dwarf planet Eris. There is not one single measurement anywhere in our solar system showing lower temperatures.
“There has been observed warming on our moon, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Triton, Pluto, Titan, Dysnomia, Eris, Enceladus and elsewhere. There is not one instance of observed temperature decrease anywhere in the solar system.”
      If the preceding data do not convince everyone warming is a solar phenomenon, I don’t believe anything ever can. How can it be possible for any scient person to see these data and continue to believe global warming is anthropogenic to any significant degree? And don’t forget – per the United Nations IPCC – warming is a net benefit to both man and planet.