Sure, there aren't enough safety checks in place to prevent this kind of thing from happening, but I'm not sure it's ever entirely avoidable. Ultimately, one can fake any data given enough effort.
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Sure, there aren't enough safety checks in place to prevent this kind of thing from happening, but I'm not sure it's ever entirely avoidable. Ultimately, one can fake any data given enough effort.
There's a difference between being not entirely avoidable, and:Quote:
Originally Posted by Loki
That is a serious problem, it seems.Quote:
In a survey of more than 2,000 American psychologists scheduled to be published this year, Leslie John of Harvard Business School and two colleagues found that 70 percent had acknowledged, anonymously, to cutting some corners in reporting data. About a third said they had reported an unexpected finding as predicted from the start, and about 1 percent admitted to falsifying data.Also common is a self-serving statistical sloppiness. In an analysis published this year, Dr. Wicherts and Marjan Bakker, also at the University of Amsterdam, searched a random sample of 281 psychology papers for statistical errors. They found that about half of the papers in high-end journals contained some statistical error, and that about 15 percent of all papers had at least one error that changed a reported finding — almost always in opposition to the authors’ hypothesis.
It's a serious problem that's hardly unique to psychology (I had a discussion with someone about a similar problem in epidemiology, where it seems to be worse). I think a large part of the problem is the dearth of theory, which means that people are happy to accept statistical findings that do little more than provide a correlation between two variables. And using a 95% significance level, we can expect even that to fail, since you have over a 50% chance of at least one false positive when using 14 variables (let alone more).
Maybe we need some more scandals, then :p
Bah! I just spent 15mins having a good old fashioned rant to my twin brother about him not going to collage today. Towards the end he sounded quite emotional about it, made me feel a little sucky :sour:.
Man I wish he just stuck with something, the guy is supremely gifted at things I could only wish I was strong with. I just don't get it :(.
That's the only aunt buried, then
Wasn't really close to her, but the worst part was seeing her children, knowing next time I'll be on the other side of that mirror. Sigh.
Sorry Nessus :(
It's 5:30AM on a Sunday. It's not right to be up before the sun!
:(Quote:
Originally Posted by Nessus
Death and Funerals are part of life. The sucky part. Even burying those we loosely call "relatives" forces us to face the future of losing ones we do love quite dearly. It also sparks thoughts of....our own mortality. And who will bury us, or mourn that we are gone.
I hardly slept, woke up at 6AM to catch the bus and trains, subsequently had a one hour delay in the trains :down: and now I'm finally at work, and we're out of coffee :mad::down:
Your netbook is running Windows 7, but only has 2gb of memory and dualcore 1ghz cpu.
Why in the fuck would you think its a good idea to have it come preloaded with over a dozen auto starting crapware and monitoring software packages?
My sister left for Istanbul today :( to teach English there and possibly other European countries since she's always wanted to go travelling around Europe. Kinda miss her, and it's a bit strange at home since it's just my mum and I now. But what is really 'messing with my groove' is the fact that we paid $16 at the airport today for just over an hour of parking, and my mum had to pay $40 for 2 hours of parking in the city for some job interview! So $56 gone to parking for the damn day:mad:
Ugh, forgot to bring my laptop charger to work, and of course only have 20% of battery remaining. Also forgot to bring a book, DVDs, or pretty much ANYTHING to kill time, except my phone. Ugh.
We have a new co-worker in our lab, and I'd rather he worked somewhere else. Anywhere, really, just not here.
Things he's not too good at:
Calculating concentrations, yields, etc.
Washing glassware.
Not smashing commonly used pieces of glassware.
Taking the still salvageable pieces of broken glassware to glassblower
Following instructions.
Grasping the idea that you have to open a gas valve if you need that gas to flow through a pipeline.
Grasping the idea that after you're done using the gas, the valve should be shut.
Putting bottles in the shelf (yes, really).
Not opening the terribly reeking fridge every now and then for extended periods of time just to look inside and take/put in nothing.
Column chromatography (-"do you know how to run a chromatography column?" -"Sure, it's a routine operation for me" *fucks up the column*).
Grasping the concept that if a wash bottle is labeled "E" and contains a liquid that has a distinct ethanol smell, the "E" most likely stands for "ethanol", not "ethyl acetate".
Not pouring toxic reagents down the sink, expecially if they are volatile and on contact with hot water are likely to convert the lab into a gas chamber for a few minutes.
Entering the building (I wish I was kidding)
Things he is good at:
To be established in the future, if any.
you guys has a glassblower to fix your beakers and shit? Thats pretty badass.
Out of curiosity, what goes wrong with putting bottles in the shelf, and entering the building?
I think glassblowers are pretty normal for universities with chemistry departments? I know we have 'em, too. I would guess using them for standard beakers is a bit of a waste, but for the non-standard stuff.
Honestly, I wouldn't know. Still think its cool, and its first time I've heard of it.
-------------------
Saw this when I logged into Steam today. Fuckin' A!
November 10th, 2011
Dear Steam Users and Steam Forum Users:
Our Steam forums were defaced on the evening of Sunday, November 6. We began investigating and found that the intrusion goes beyond the Steam forums.
We learned that intruders obtained access to a Steam database in addition to the forums. This database contained information including user names, hashed and salted passwords, game purchases, email addresses, billing addresses and encrypted credit card information. We do not have evidence that encrypted credit card numbers or personally identifying information were taken by the intruders, or that the protection on credit card numbers or passwords was cracked. We are still investigating.
We don’t have evidence of credit card misuse at this time. Nonetheless you should watch your credit card activity and statements closely.
While we only know of a few forum accounts that have been compromised, all forum users will be required to change their passwords the next time they login. If you have used your Steam forum password on other accounts you should change those passwords as well.
We do not know of any compromised Steam accounts, so we are not planning to force a change of Steam account passwords (which are separate from forum passwords). However, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to change that as well, especially if it is the same as your Steam forum account password.
We will reopen the forums as soon as we can.
I am truly sorry this happened, and I apologize for the inconvenience.
Gabe.
Considering how expensive the more complex glass wares are, it's not that "badass". Also consider that stuff like distillation columns has to be created manually.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ominous Gamer
Yes, they're pretty standard. I know that I perused their services on two occasions. Once for a glas valve that was insisting on being irrationally shut. And another time for a glass valve which insisted upon breaking off when turning it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Flixy
Yeah. I believe most chemistry institutions have those (our university doesn't, though, at least I haven't heard that it does), as glassware tends to get damaged very often, and most of the time the damage is quite easy to repair - small cracks, chipped edges, etc. Also, lab glassware, apart from simple beakers and flasks, is very, very expensive, so hiring a glassblower saves quite a lot of money.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ominous Gamer
It was actually a cabinet, not a shelf. It's the kind with the face frame, so the door is slightly smaller than the actual cabinet. When putting in taller bottles, one has to move them in "head first", tilting them slightly, so that they fit through the door opening, and once inside the cabinet, they can be turned upright and stored that way. Somehow, this was complicated enough that I had to walk over and demonstrate this.Quote:
Originally Posted by Flixy
As for entering the building, we have a proximity card-operated turnstile at the entrance. Understanding how such a device works is not exactly rocket science. Still, he managed to get stuck in it.
Oh, I just remembered he's not too good at holding the bottles of reagents upright while reading the labels, either. For some reason he tilts them almost horizontally, which in case of bottles with ground glass corks (and to lesser extent, in case of those with leaky screw-on caps) may cause a spill of whatever reagent he's holding.
:cry:Quote:
Originally Posted by BalticSailor
Don't you guys have selection, or can anyone just walk in and get a job? :p
In this case I'd place a leaky bottle with DMSO mixed with something nasty somewhere and hope that he manages to spill some of it on his skin.Quote:
Originally Posted by BalticSailor
I've never thought of using a glassblower before, but we didn't really have relatively expensive glassware either in my lab. That's pretty cool!
I feel for you Baltic. It's frustrating to have an oaf in the lab. (Though I am clumsy myself, I at least made an effort to be very careful around expensive things and dangerous chemical mixes)
It's even more frustrating when someone repeatedly makes the same mistakes, even after you write down every little direction with check boxes like it's elementary school. I wanted to jump for joy when one of my coworkers told me he had found another job. I was always worried he would blow up the place with his lack of carefulness or ability to follow directions in a timely manner. Hopefully he didn't do so at his next employer.
I'm quite sure he doesn't need my help. I have reasons to believe he is also unaware that that little skull and bones on some bottles doesn't mean "pirates".Quote:
Originally Posted by Khendraja'aro
What's messing with my groove today is, I accidentally dropped a small flask containing solution of one of my target compounds. That was the only sample, it is a pain in the ass to obtain, and I'm all out of the precursor for it. I have to start from the beginning of the synthetic route, which will likely take a month or so.
Good grief. Then he'll probably think that this:Quote:
Originally Posted by BalticSailor
http://www.umweltschutz-bw.de/images.../GS_umwgef.jpg
is a symbol for chemicals which allow you to catch fishes.
A month. Damn. And I thought our preparation processes which took 3 days were bad (one of which I promptly messed up - also had to redo the whole thing from scratch).Quote:
What's messing with my groove today is, I accidentally dropped a small flask containing solution of one of my target compounds. That was the only sample, it is a pain in the ass to obtain, and I'm all out of the precursor for it. I have to start from the beginning of the synthetic route, which will likely take a month or so.
RIP Peter Roebuck.
The man dubbed the "Bard of Summer" by cricket loving Aussies as they became accustomed to his recognisable voice and his honest views on the game of cricket he has been a regular commentator during Australian cricket seasons for as long as I can remember - sadly Peter took his own life in a hotel in Capetown on the weekend.
We're about a week away from Thanksgiving and it's over 80° outside. Where's the cooler weather? :mad:
84F here, cool weather hit a week to soon :(
We had about two weeks of 70 and below, but it's been 80+ the last two days. :(
Echo must live in the East Coast. It was 78 here today. But of course I'm stuck inside with a head cold so I couldn't go out and enjoy it. Damn library kids and their germs!
Yep. I'm in South Carolina.
Students who can't be bothered to read a freaking 15 pages in a week, despite knowing there will be a quiz on those readings.