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John Oliver: Scientific Studies

Mojo said:
yt;dw

Any chance if a summary?
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It's about 20 mins of John Oliver making funny on poor science reporting.
Things like:
  • News always saying "A new study shows", with little sourcing.
  • The point that there is not much interest in follow-up on such studies.
  • How even these results get misquoted all the time.
  • A fun alternate to TED talks: TODD talks.
It's worth a watch.
 
Mojo said:
yt;dw

Any chance if a summary?
Click to expand...

"Scientific studies are routinely ripped from their context and their conclusions oversimplified and blown out of proportion to the point of absurdity by the news media. And the public - the vast majority of whom are laymen - get their information from the media, so they tend to believe what they hear.

Moral of the story: never trust some news pundit who says "A new study shows *fill in the blank*.

Does that sound fair?
 
Excellent as always.

Well, I'm off to drink some red wine and champagne. Better than working out every day. Thanks science!
 
Puppycow said:
Excellent as always.

Well, I'm off to drink some red wine and champagne. Better than working out every day. Thanks science!
Click to expand...

When is comes to the red wine thing it wasn't just bad science reporting, the scientists themselves were overhyping the studies. Enough so to lead to this massive failure: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirtris_Pharmaceuticals. The scientists and venture backers made out like bandits on that one.
 
Last edited:
Recognized a voice during that episode and had to check. Wow... so that's what the voice of Sterling Archer looks like.

He was one of the Todd talks speakers, the balding bearded guy.
 
Denver said:
It's about 20 mins of John Oliver making funny on poor science reporting ...
Click to expand...


But... if the media gets it that wrong on the reporting of scientific matters... why do we think the media's reporting on other subjects is really any better?
 
lobosrul said:
Recognized a voice during that episode and had to check. Wow... so that's what the voice of Sterling Archer looks like.

He was one of the Todd talks speakers, the balding bearded guy.
Click to expand...

My wife points out that Jon Benjamin is the only Archer voice actor who doesn't strongly resemble his character. Maybe with the other exception of Amber Nash.
 
Goddamnnit, and here I've been huffing other people's farts for years thinking it's cancelling out my smoking habit. Well, I've been had.
 
Corsair 115 said:
... why do we think the media's reporting on other subjects is really any better?
Click to expand...
Don't include me in that "we". I have been in the belly of the beast and it's even worse than you think.

"One cannot hope to bribe or twist,
Thank God, the British journalist.
But given what, unbribed, they'll do,
There's really no occasion to".
 
Jim_MDP said:
Don't forget the coffee... it cures cancer.
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Coffee at least has a decent amount of studies indicating some health benefits. At the very least, my wife, who works with liver disease, says coffee is really good for your liver.
 
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