01.09.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:03 pm by kevin
Industry money may bias drink studies
Really? What I’d like to know - which this study doesn’t seem to address - is why?
OK, so they’re 8x more favorable… Is it an issue of favorable subject selection? Poor methodology? Tainted data? Suppression of unfavorable studies? Outright fraud? There’s a big difference…
According to the study itself:
These findings suggest that a high potential for bias exists in research into the health benefits or harms of nonalcoholic drinks. It is not clear from this research study why or how this bias comes about, but there are many different mechanisms that might cause it. The researchers suggest that certain initiatives might help to reduce bias, for example, increasing independent funding of nutrition research.
Yes, knowing that bias exists is important. However, the reasons are often just as important, and I’d be more curious about the “why” than the “what” of this finding.
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01.08.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:12 pm by kevin
U.S. automakers battle public bias
A helpful clarification for the author of this puff piece on the poor, misunderstood U.S. auto industry: it’s not “bias” if it’s well-founded (or, to put it another way, there’s nothing wrong with “vicious truths”).
First, he says:
The problem for Detroit is changing perceptions that often don’t match reality.
So, I read with bated breath for the revelation about what precisely people think about American cars that’s no longer true, and I find…
…the performance of American-made cars is now actually very close to those made in Japan and higher than many cars made in Europe, [industry analysts] said.
Yay! Let’s celebrate reaching almost-parity! And hey, as the article later notes, gas prices are slightly down off their peaks. So forget about making actually energy-efficient vehicles, and let’s try to recapture the glory days:
The industry is returning to the types of autos that gave it a sense of “swagger and attitude in the 1960s,” said John Wolkonowicz, an auto industry analyst.
Yeah, that’ll work great. Finally, let’s take a look at the Big Three’s Big Hope:
Justin Watson, a 25-year old laborer and student from Beaumont, Texas, says he is fiercely loyal to American cars.
“My great-grandfather, grandfather and father fought against these people,” he said of countries that are leading competitors of American automakers. “We’re killing ourselves by buying their cars. I drive a Dodge truck, and always buy American.”
How could that lose?
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Posted in Uncategorized at 12:39 am by kevin
New Year, new attempt to keep up with the blog…
While I am generally opposed to capital punishment, the arguments that lead me to that conclusion for criminal cases (even clear ones) simply don’t apply to Saddam - for better or for worse, it was not a traditional criminal process, and I could certainly be convinced that there’s nothing wrong with that outcome. However, I found myself shocked (though perhaps I shouldn’t have been, given the conduct of this enterprise throughout) as the carelessness, brutality and incompetence displayed in the execution.
Two articles really bring the point home:
NYT: Before Hanging, a Push for Revenge and a Push Back
BBC: Divisions deepened by Saddam’s death
So, what’s the problem, really? The problem, in a nutshell, is that Iraq today is sectarian clusterfuck and the manner of the execution has only exacerbated it. First, a little background (many readers will be familiar with the remainder of this paragraph, so feel free to skim down). There are two main “branches” of Islam: Shi’a and Sunni. The specific differences are religiously significant, but not really relevant to this piece (though Wikipedia certainly has a decent summary). Even though Sunnis comprise a majority of the world’s Muslims, they are a minority of Iraqis. However, one member of that minority was Saddam Hussein, who during his lengthy and brutal rule missed few opportunities to advance the interests of the Sunnis at the expense of the Shi’as. After the fall of Saddam, democratic elections resulted in an overwhelmingly Shi’a government, which wasted little time in settling old scores. The recent cycle of violence, often referred to as “the insurgency”, is less a guerrilla effort against the American occupation (though that’s certainly a component) and more a boiling over of the sectarian conflict that has been brewing for a good long while - in effect, a civil war. To be fair, while history made the present outcome somewhat likely, the military and especially political mismanagement of the postwar period has made it considerably worse. For instance, the de-Ba’athisation policy essentially guaranteed that a great number of Sunnis were stripped of their power and thrown to the mercy of the Shi’a majority all at once - a recipe for sectarianism and score-settling.
With that context, the timing and conduct of the execution appears to have almost deliberately stoked this conflict further. Consider:
- Both Sunnis and Shi’as celebrate the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha. However, the Sunnis’ observation begins a day earlier than the Shi’as. What did the Maliki government manage to do? Schedule Saddam’s execution on the worst possible day, symbolically speaking: the one day that it affected the Sunni holiday, but not the Shi’a.
- As has been widely reported, guards and witnesses in the execution chamber chanted “Moqtada”, referring to the Shi’a cleric (and, by the way, not so much a great guy himself). It’s hard to think of a clearer way to signal that the purpose was not justice, but naked revenge. Yes, Saddam was a monster and certainly deserved what he got; I’m not claiming the outcome was un-just. But intent matters, both intrinsically and - especially in this case - politically.
- Saddam was executed for a relatively narrow scope of crimes: his massacres against Shi’as in a particular town. While overwhelmingly barbaric, objectively speaking these weren’t the worst crimes of his regime. The purpose of the Saddam tribunal as Americans and much of the world perceived it was to be an Iraqi Nuremberg - an airing of all the regime’s evils, exposed in all their mundane horror. Instead, by executing Saddam before the trials for other massacres (especially against the Kurds) and war crimes even commenced, the Iraqi government robbed pretty much everyone outside the Shi’a community of their opportunity to document, expose and convict the regime.
In short, by executing Saddam at a time and in a manner so clearly prescribed by sectarian passions rather than justice itself, the Iraqi government has only inflamed those passions, which form the greatest threat to Iraq, further.
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11.29.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:03 pm by kevin
U.S. bans sale of iPods to North Korea
This really reads like an Onion article.
Is the crux of our North Korea really to annoy Kim Jong Il into submission? And do we really think that he won’t be able to obtain iPods, Jet Skis, et. al. on the sly?
If countries can evade sanctions on friggin’ nuclear materials, I suspect North Korea will be able to sneak in a few bottles of Hennessy.
All this isn’t to say that there’s any harm to trying (other than potentially pissing Kim off even more, which seems pretty irrelevant anyway given current attitudes); I just really hope there’s more to our policy than restricting toys.
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11.28.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:08 pm by kevin
Christian Coalition pres.-elect leaves
The president-elect of the Christian Coalition of America has declined the job, saying the organization wouldn’t let him expand its agenda beyond opposing abortion and gay marriage.
Very interesting. I’m not sure what to make of this - I suppose it depends on whether the Christian Coalition or Hunter (the erstwhile president-elect) is more indicative of the mainstream. To put it another way: the meaning of this is dependent on whether the CC represents the stalwart majority, or the desperate minority of the American evangelical community.
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11.25.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 2:26 pm by kevin
Despite Fewer Lockups, NYC Has Seen Big Drop in Crime
There’s always a question of correlation vs. causation, but it’s interesting nonetheless - particularly since the trend in most of the rest of the country has been a deeply disturbing dose of self-congratulations at crime reduction via mass incarceration.
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11.16.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 7:05 pm by kevin
US town bars foreign flags in swipe at immigrants
So, yeah, as the guy quoted in the article points out, there’s no way this is constitutional.
My theory? Parhump (which, incidentally, has a flashly splash page to an altogether dizzying web site) was just getting jealous of their less-than-stellar portrayal on the soon-to-be-canceled Studio 60, and so decided to “change the story” by passing a law that can only be described as, well, stupid.
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11.15.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:17 am by kevin
O.J. Simpson to discuss killings
I know I haven’t been posting as much lately, which is mostly the fault of work being rather busy. But this story actually caused me to do a spit-take.
Apparently, O.J. - yeah, that guy - has a new book coming out, called “If I Did It”… and, of course, an interview to promote the book (on Fox, natch).
All I can say is… seriously? WTF?
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11.02.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 6:10 pm by kevin
Big Tobacco’s Anti-Smoking Ads Boost Teen Smoking
Seriously? You mean tobacco companies aren’t looking to self-immolate?
Man. Who would’ve thunk it?
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09.13.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:37 pm by kevin
Perhaps someone can solve the following mystery.
Last weekend at Costco, I saw a box of 100 first-class $0.39 stamps for $38.75. For those of you keeping track, that’s a savings of (a whole!) quarter.
For almost any other product, I wouldn’t think twice about a discount for bulk purchases - particularly a discount that small. Stamps, however - well, stamps are special. For some reason (and unfortunately I can’t seem to find any official documentation to back this up), I thought stamps were never, ever sold for under face value. Indeed, you can buy a coil of TEN THOUSAND (10,000) first-class stamps - a whopping $3,900.00 worth of postage and it’ll still cost you exactly $0.39 per stamp.
I suppose that the Costco stamps could be a loss leader, but this situation doesn’t conform to the usual criteria: the stamps are easily accessible (they were near the check-out), they last pretty much forever, they’re undifferentiated, and they don’t really lead to sales of anything else.
So, I’m curious if anyone has a clue - does Costco get some sort of super-special deal on stamps? Are they selling them as a loss leader in some sort of bizarre bet that a .65% (that’s a little over half a percent, not 65 percent) discount on stamps will get people to shell out the $50 membership fee? Or is there another reason that I’m just not seeing?
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