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Bad Science in the Press

Posted by Zonk on from the who-needs-perspective dept.

An anonymous reader writes " An editorial in The Guardian presents a good run down of what is wrong with science reporting today and tries to point out why this is. From the article: 'Why is science in the media so often pointless, simplistic, boring, or just plain wrong? Like a proper little Darwin, I've been collecting specimens, making careful observations, and now I'm ready to present my theory.'"

6 of 647 comments (clear)

  1. yah uhm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    remember when slashdot used to report on alternate consciousness and shit like that?

    yep.

  2. Pot Meet Kettle... by martian67 · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    In related news..

    Slashdot reports on its own editorial incompetence

    (bye karma :( )

  3. Re:Science is complex. by king-manic · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Just like how people are so damn stupid about the fact that dropping the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki actually saved lives, and that the Japanese were not going to surrender after the first but before the second.

    Saved lives? not really. Thats controversial. The Japanese were preparing to surrender but where going to set terms. The soviets were also preparing to invade japan. To prevent the soviets from moving in the Americans dropped the bombs. After the first one japan was preparign to surrender unconditionally. This sped things up, it might have save a few thousand american lives/ a few dozen thousand japanese lives but it directly killed hundreds of thousands.

    I think Japan deserved it and should have had more dropped on them. Almost all their neighbors hate them because they were truly evil conquers. Worse then the Nazi's were. Their neighbors still mostly hate them. While I did think Japan deserved it, I don't think the people that died did. It's a pretty strange idea I know, but the japanese collective psyche deserved the emotional pounding the bombs represented but the citizens of those two cities didn't deserve to go through that. Though if I was in charge in 1945 I'd dropped them too.

    --
    "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
  4. Re:Science is complex. by guybarr · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The Japanese were preparing to surrender but where going to set terms

    Which is practically equivalent to "... were considering surrender, but not at that point in time". Setting terms can take as long as one wants.

    To prevent the soviets from moving in the Americans dropped the bombs

    Now that can be seen as even MORE controversial. I'm not saying your interpretation of the events is wrong, but an interpretation it is.

    --
    Working for necessity's mother.
  5. Interesting... by Dark+Coder · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Hey Doc,

    I ran into this rather demented Slashdotter maintaining a list of not so savory characters...

    http://slashdot.org/~RollcallOfArseholes/foes

    after reading those list and their journals, apparently these 'foes' are very intelligent, but I don't sense a common thread amongst us.

    What is your take?
    ---
    Posted without Karma Bonus.

  6. Re:Science is complex. by PakProtector · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    That's a bold faced-lie. They knew within hours what had happened, not half a day.

    Cities were being plastered with leaflets about more to come.

    The fact is simple: The Japanese did not think that the Americans had more than one bomb, in regard to the Atomic Bomb.

    Also, did you not ever learn that the Military of Japan staged a coup when they heard the news after the second bomb that the Emperor planned to surrender?

    --

    Edward@Tomato - /home/Edward/ man woman
    man: no entry for woman in the manual.
    "Qua!?"