science | SovietMen

The Woomera

Posted on October 14, 2024 by Nikolai Vladivostok

[This is a retelling of an old story]

Poor old Gurumarra. He was just as brave as the other boys. In fact, he was a man now that he’d completed the initiation. He could throw just as accurately. He could stalk as well as anyone.

The problem was, Gurumarra was tiny.

It didn’t matter that he couldn’t run as fast as the others on his short little legs, because kangaroos are stupid. They hop away a short distance then look back, giving the hunter ample opportunity to throw his spear. Also, you don’t have to run after a goanna up a tree because it’s not going anywhere. You don’t have to run after a baby crocodile on the surface of a billabong. You just need to sneak up on it. Gurumarra could do that.

The trouble was, his arms were short, too.

All the other boys could throw a spear much further than he could. They’d fell roos before he could get into range. They could knock down goannas from higher up in the trees. They could nab crocs that were far out across the water.

The other young men teased Guramarra. “Go collect yams and witchitty grubs with the women,” they taunted him, “if you can reach them with those little arms of yours.”

Guramarra fumed. If he were a coward or threw wide or anything else, he might be able to fix it, but no amount of practice or fortitude would make his arms grow longer.

Retvrn to aristocratic scientists

Posted on June 19, 2024 by Nikolai Vladivostok

**^{Reginald Clyde, discoverer of clydonium}**

Long time readers of this blog will be familiar with the problems of peer-reviewed journals

As a reminder or for newcomers, these problems include: p-hacking and academic fraud.

Some problems are more mundane, but equally pressing. In the professional science model, you make a career through constantly publishing slight increments to the existing body of work, manipulating algos for citations and always keeping both eyes on what will likely win the next funding grant.

This video breaks it down succinctly:

Everything you know is wrong

Posted on December 21, 2023 by Nikolai Vladivostok

I recently passed my 20^th anniversary of not going to a dentist. The last time I went it was because I thought I should get a checkup before an extended trip to India. The dentist gave me all sorts of caps and cleaning and x-rays and whatnot, and said I have to get a wisdom tooth out.

I ran out of time to get it done before the flight, kept forgetting about it once I got back, and the errant tooth is still there today. Twenty years and no major problems. I got a painful inflammation in Africa so I borrowed my colleague’s drugs she had leftover from after her dental surgery. My gums got better straight away and I felt gooooood. Should have got the name of that stuff.

I’ve always attributed my total lack of toothaches and other dental ailments to my diligent oral hygiene habits. Realistically, it’s probably just genetics and luck.

I’d always been told to brush my teeth right after eating. When I was a kid, our dentist even informed us that there was no point brushing 20+ minutes after a meal because by then the saliva would have done its job anyway. It was especially important to brush immediately after eating something sweet.

Now it seems that’s all wrong. Apparently acidic food weakens your tooth enamel and brushing right after eating can damage it. You’re supposed to wait 60 minutes, or at least 30.

Until they change it again.

Real science, personified

Posted on March 29, 2022 by Nikolai Vladivostok

We live in a time where science has become The Science, a regime-affiliated religion whose purpose is to justify ill-gotten profits and tyrannical policy.

This goes together with many other failures: bias due to funding, the replication crisis, p-hacking, the pressure to publish positive results and data falsification. Here is a good summary to get you started on the scale of the problem (HT).

What a perfect opportunity to recall and admire real science. The following story is a perfect example.

Scientists were once certain that stomach ulcers and gastritis are caused by either stress or too much acid – the sources vary. Perhaps they thought the stress caused the acid.

In any case, these conditions were treated with antacids, antidepressants or psychotherapy.

A gastroenterologist from Perth, of all places, thought that was wrong. Barry Marshall reckoned that it was caused by harmful bacteria, based on earlier research that had shown a weird type of spiral microbe was present in sufferers.

Researchers taking the piss

Posted on September 22, 2021 by Nikolai Vladivostok

There’s a bloke called Jeffrey Long who claims to have scientific evidence that near-death experiences prove some form of afterlife.

So what, you ask? Whatever you think about the soul, you probably assume that he’s just another crackpot.

In fact, Jeff is a medical doctor specializing in oncology who has compiled many accounts of near-death experiences. His research is dismissed by his colleagues and his career has no doubt been limited by his obsession.

Jeff reckons he’s the victim of bias because medical journals refuse to publish his research even though it meets their criteria in terms of methods and statistical significance.

He’s written a book on the subject and is big in mystical, new age circles but sources very close to him suggest that there’s more here than meet the eye.

How The World Will Really End

Posted on September 21, 2015 by Nikolai Vladivostok

Bárðarbunga_Volcano,_September_4_2014_-_15145875322.jpg

How are you enjoying the Holocene? It’s the warm, interglacial period we’re currently experiencing. It’s been going for about ten thousand years, or the totality of human civilization plus a bit. I like it. Crops are growing well, supporting huge cities. An urban population leads to learning, professions and all the technology we have today. Like scissors.

Don’t get too attached to all that, though. Interglacial periods don’t always last very long. Read More