Category: Scientific method

John Coleman, Charming Weatherman

When I was a young man in Omaha, John Coleman was our weatherman on TV. Channel 7–went on to national prominence then founded the Weather Channel. Now does TV weather again in San Diego.
Great voice, charismatic, great singer too.
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Western Civ Must Survive–Support the National Association of Scholars

This essay about the battle to save Western Civ and meaning of Western Civilization Studies was compelling.
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Is the Academy an Honest Place?

Repeatedly we are reminded of unreliable research in economics, social sciences, even some of the hard sciences.
Political agendas and intellectual passion can result in cargo cult science.
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Paul McHugh on Junk Psychiatry

Paul McHugh is former chair of psychiatry and now University Professor at Johns Hopkins.
Here he talks about Psychiatry and some psych misadventures in junk science.
http://www.albany.edu/~scifraud/data/sci_fraud_3152.html
A little tease from this essay in The American Scholar.
He faults the antipsychiatry psychiatrists, (Tom Szasz and R. D. Laing included) for the
suspicions raised. The psychiatric results of these doubters was to deny needy patients! Patients
became “psychiatrically oppressed.” It became fashionable to ignore the needs of patients and to
focus on psychiatric practice. This was a gross oversimplification. It is not true that
schizophrenics are living their own “life style.” McHugh sees them as “needing care.” Psychiatry
is not a mendacious institution but a loving and caring one. It should promote a sympathetic
understanding of patients. That’s where the emphasis should be: on patients.
He then goes on to examine three major faults of “trendy psychiatry”: the mentally ill homeless,
sex change surgery and, most recently, MPD, the result of childhood sexual abuse.

Hypothermia Therapy for Resuscitation Takes a Hit

In 2002 the American Heart Association came out in favor of hypothermia in cardiac arrest patients resuscitated from a shockable rhythmn based on 2002 research.
Well, like many positive findings in medical research, more research has produced a retreat from that conclusion.
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