Comments on: Flawed science

By: H&R

H&R — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:03:39 +0000

Another lump of easy coal in the Melb v Syd locomotive. Starve it of attention and we may just start to get the media we think we deserve.

The ABC of all bodies…

By: Adrien

Adrien — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 05:59:27 +0000

That’s right FDB. That’s why we need to keep those 4WDs running 24/7.
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Poor Graeme. I’m sure this isn’t what he wanted to be when he grew up.

By: FDB

FDB — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 05:50:08 +0000

True Adrien.

Or least it used to be – who knows anymore in this brutal and pulverising ice-age?

By: Adrien

Adrien — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 05:46:49 +0000

Everyone knows that Melbourne gets much more rain than Sydney and this could be expected to show up in a greater volume of grey matter in Melburnians’ brains due to greater moisture content.

I thought that was a myth. That Sydney actually got more rainfall but people thought it rained more in Melbourne because it rains more often.
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Just not as much.

By: steve h

steve h — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 05:40:20 +0000

Hi Robert,
Brain size probably results from Melbournites having electrically powered brains (induction from the Trams), while all Sydneysiders have are the stray hydrocarbons from another jam on the F3
Paul N – what you’ve forgotten is the Mr Potato-head factor. Melbournians brains are well watered, lush havens of growth :-p
It is a pretty funny article.

By: Ambigulous

Ambigulous — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 03:27:27 +0000

Don’t be concerned about Andrew Bolt: he’s the joke that just keeps on giving, all year round.

More interesting are these penguins
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml;jsessionid=BMK0SWHVASNJLQFIQMFSFFWAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2008/04/01/npenguin101.xml&site=5&page=0
where the sample size far exceeds 20.

By: Blair

Blair — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:55:49 +0000

An example I always enjoy using to illustrate correlation not implying causation is that there is (or was, the last time I checked) a 0.75 correlation between the all-Australian mean annual rainfall and my fastest time running around the Tan in Melbourne in the year concerned.

(As with many spurious correlations, this one can be blamed on a single outlier – in the severe drought year of 2002 I was injured for almost the whole year).

By: Adrien

Adrien — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:40:18 +0000

They’ve got the causation the wrong way ’round. They don’t have shrunken brains ’cause they’re Sydneysiders. They’re Sydneysiders ’cause they’ve got shrunken brains.
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What’s that song?

By: FDB

FDB — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:21:37 +0000

Yes, Chris, your calendar reading skills are on the money.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:21:33 +0000

In other April 1st news, Andrew Bolt announced his candidacy for Higgins:

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/an_announcement_from_the_seat_of_higgins/

By: David

David — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:20:18 +0000

What Chris said.

I’d be more interested in a study of Adelaide brains anyway (which I suspect would be bigger than those from either Sydney _or_ Melbourne). (removes tongue from cheek.)

By: Paul Norton

Paul Norton — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:17:26 +0000

I would have expected the researchers to have taken account of the effects of atmospheric moisture and rainfall patterns. Everyone knows that Melbourne gets much more rain than Sydney and this could be expected to show up in a greater volume of grey matter in Melburnians’ brains due to greater moisture content.

P.S. I know that the Bureau of Meteorology and the Australian Bureau of Statistics claim that Melbourne gets much less rain than Sydney. The scandalous use of taxpayers’ money to support the propagation of such a lie is second only to the theft of taxpayers’ money for funding of the CSIRO and bodies like the IPCC to spread lies about so-called global warming.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:05:48 +0000

Apologies if I point out the obvious, but it is April 1st….

By: Katz

Katz — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:03:26 +0000

Yes Robert, this is very bad science.

At the very least, you would expect some comparative measurement of Melburnians and Sydneysiders’ brains over time.

Who knows, in the past Sydneysiders’ brains may have been even smaller comparatively, and they may indeed be catching up with Melburnians’ brains.

So this may in fact be a very good news story for Sydneysiders.