Humor is without doubt a redeeming breath of fresh air into life. But it's clear that different people have different perceptions of what is funny. The variation comes from background, history, gender, age, etc. Really funny people cut across these lines of difference though, I think. Really funny people are really talented and brilliant and important people. Here's a list of some supposedly funny entertainments that I think are...and some that aren't:
FUNNY
Gabriel Iglesias
Jon Stewart
Stephen Colbert
Christopher Titus
Richard Belzer
Big Bang Theory
Bill Murray
Charles Bukowski
Seinfeld
Curb Your Ethusiasm
Cheers
Jonathan Winters
Richard Pryor
Monty Python
Key & Peele
Lenny Bruce
Woody Allen
George Carlin
Louis CK
NOT FUNNY
30 Rock
Tosh
How I Met Your Mother
Rules Of Engagement
Jay Leno
David Letterman
Conan O'Brien
Saturday Night Live
Don Rickles
Phyllis Diller
Russell Brand
Howard Stern
Ricky Gervais
Jeff Foxworthy
Larry the Cable Guy
Animal House
Adam Sandler
Jack Black
Seth Myers
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Honeybees and cellphones II
Well it's a wonder the interest that my post about cellphone effects on honeybees generated. I find it a mystery and continue to scratch my head. The sample size is still extremely small, but it makes me wonder about what's going on out there.
I confess, I started this blog in hopes of getting some buyers for my books - that was rather foolish - not as a science blog. But as a scientist I can't help but comment occasionally on things scientific and pseudoscientific. The pseudoscientific prickles me more, no doubt.
Anyway, I encountered another study claiming to show the negative effects of cellphone usage on honeybee fitness. Unlike the previous study, this one has not appeared in countless blog posts, for reasons not immediately apparent.
Also unlike the previous study, this one actually DID show negative effects on hive function and reproduction.
Unfortunately, it really doesn't mean very much.
Firstly, in scientific experiments we like to have replication - repeated executions of the same experiment at the same time under the same conditions - to account for random deviations from a result reflecting a real phenomenon - this one only had 2.
Piss-poor.
We like to have statistical tests of significance as well - does it really mean anything, or is it just chance? - something that's hard to do with N = 2 replications. This was not done, of course.
But other than that there wasn't anything too horrible about the science in this study...except that it is IRRELEVANT!
Cellphones are not found inside honeybee hives! However well designed a study might be, if it replicates nothing resembling reality it is not likely to be of much use.
It doesn't help that that the researchers appear to have already reached a conclusion prior to collecting any data by repeatedly referring to 'electrosmog' in their introduction.
As before, read it yourself:
media.withtank.com/a49823b5aa.pdf
I confess, I started this blog in hopes of getting some buyers for my books - that was rather foolish - not as a science blog. But as a scientist I can't help but comment occasionally on things scientific and pseudoscientific. The pseudoscientific prickles me more, no doubt.
Anyway, I encountered another study claiming to show the negative effects of cellphone usage on honeybee fitness. Unlike the previous study, this one has not appeared in countless blog posts, for reasons not immediately apparent.
Also unlike the previous study, this one actually DID show negative effects on hive function and reproduction.
Unfortunately, it really doesn't mean very much.
Firstly, in scientific experiments we like to have replication - repeated executions of the same experiment at the same time under the same conditions - to account for random deviations from a result reflecting a real phenomenon - this one only had 2.
Piss-poor.
We like to have statistical tests of significance as well - does it really mean anything, or is it just chance? - something that's hard to do with N = 2 replications. This was not done, of course.
But other than that there wasn't anything too horrible about the science in this study...except that it is IRRELEVANT!
Cellphones are not found inside honeybee hives! However well designed a study might be, if it replicates nothing resembling reality it is not likely to be of much use.
It doesn't help that that the researchers appear to have already reached a conclusion prior to collecting any data by repeatedly referring to 'electrosmog' in their introduction.
As before, read it yourself:
media.withtank.com/a49823b5aa.pdf
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