26 MAY 2015 by ideonexus

 Internalize the Goal of Seeking Challenging Cognitive Env...

There is one way in which individuals can make their own luck. Internalize the goal of seeking challenging cognitive environments — seek intellectual challenges all the way from choosing the right leisure activities to wanting to marry someone who is intellectually stimulating. The best chance of enjoying enhanced cognitive skills is to fall in love with ideas, or intelligent conversation, or intelligent books, or some intellectual pursuit. If I do that, I create within my own mind a stimul...
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18 JAN 2013 by ideonexus

 The Journalist's Responsibility in Health Science Reporting

Given that published medical findings are, by the field’s own reckoning, more often wrong than right, a serious problem with health journalism is immediately apparent: A reporter who accurately reports findings is probably transmitting wrong findings. And because the media tend to pick the most exciting findings from journals to pass on to the public, they are in essence picking the worst of the worst. Health journalism, then, is largely based on a principle of survival of the wrongest. (Of...
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If 2/3rds of research papers are wrong, then reporters are communicating bad and dangerous data to readers of their health news. Even worse, with conflicting research on different health issues, reporters are able to craft any thesis they like by cherry-picking for the journals.

20 MAY 2011 by ideonexus

 Scientists Do Not Work for the Benefit of Humanity

This leads me to comment upon the opinion, held by many people, that the scientist is a completely altruistic being, devoting himself selflessly to the pursuit of truth, solely in order Jo contribute to the welfare of humanity. I do not intend it as a derogation of men whom I cherish when I say that this is, in my experience, not really the basic motivation for any of them, and as additional motivation it is more often absent than present. That they do, in fact, expend themselves in activitie...
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They work out of curiosity, we're just lucky that they also benefit society.