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v.i. 1. To shoot at targets selected at whim. 2. To deflate media hyperbole, sometimes with more hyperbole. Pages
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Remember Henery Hawk, that little chicken hawk who was always pestering Foghorn Leghorn? That’s the image that should come to mind the next time you read of a little 12-person (or 20-rat, or 40-mouse) study claiming to have found a cure for cancer, wrinkles, or even boredom. It’s not that small studies are worthless [...]
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While I was working on the previous post (introducing the you-are-not-goo tool), I ran across a textbook case study for Tool #1, and a reminder of how useful this one simple rule can be. ABC News (the Australian Broadcasting Company) online ran an article reporting on an experiment involving nano-sized metals (like the type commonly [...]
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At the risk of getting fire-bombed by PETA, let me describe Tool #1 this way: test tube goo and lab rats are not people. This seems pretty self-evident, doesn’t it? Yet you’ll be amazed (and infuriated) at how many breathless media reports of fabulous new discoveries don’t bother to explain whether the miracle [...]
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Last weekend I met an actual, real-life cancer researcher, at an NBCC ProjectLEAD workshop. She was smart, and pretty, and earnest — sort of how you imagine cancer researchers when you’re sitting there with your chemo I.V. running and wondering who dreamed up that wonderful-wretched drug. In the course of conversation, I asked her [...]
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Health News Tool #3: What KIND of People?