Comments for Nellie the Arts Grad

Comment on Caught my eye: links for 2008-10-31 by Outbreak of Popular Science Books Without an Index in the UK « Nellie the Arts Grad

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 10:33:25 +0000

[...] Caught my eye: links for 2008-10-31 [...]

Comment on Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science: Humanities Graduates as Pantomime Adversaries by Outbreak of Popular Science Books Without an Index in the UK « Nellie the Arts Grad

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 10:32:59 +0000

[...] science books? Has the work of editing and printing popular science books been infiltrated by the humanities graduates that Ben Goldacre of badscience.net caricatures in Bad Science. You may recall that Bad Science [...]

Comment on How to Sell to The Poor and Functionally Illiterate by nellietag

nellietag — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:12:02 +0000

It’s difficult to tell what is happening with the legislation, Failed Physicist. Possibly the claims about Horlicks and Maggi Noodles have some degree of truth in countries were malnutrition is a problem but the unspoken part is that pretty much most foodstuffs would be an improvement if people are malnourished.

It isn’t practical or necessarily desirable to have regulation that governs internet marketing but it does mean that it is difficult for some consumers to obtain consistent information on the topic. Yet – it seems as if the nutritional value of a particular foodstuff should be ‘given’ rather than this situational.

Comment on How to Sell to The Poor and Functionally Illiterate by FailedPhysicist

FailedPhysicist — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:39:21 +0000

I’m sure GSK and many other companies impress on their staff some core values they are to live by: honesty, integrity, etc. So, just because some countries haven’t got the “you can’t make unsubstantiated claims” law it is okay to include these in adverts and still live up to the corporate values. Seems like “doublethink” to me.

Comment on Caught my eye; links for 2008-10-28 by nellietag

nellietag — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:44:03 +0000

Lidian – your website is full of quirky and fascinating material that is a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Comment on Caught my eye; links for 2008-10-28 by Lidian

Lidian — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:59:23 +0000

Thanks for the links!

Comment on Who edited Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science? by nellietag

nellietag — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 05:18:27 +0000

Thanks – it is interesting to realise how many irritating episodes of sloppy writing or referencing there are in the book. Nothing on the scale of people whom Goldacre (rightly) criticises but enough to make it difficult to follow up some topics.

Comment on Who edited Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science? by Vicky

Vicky — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:04:37 +0000

Hey, Good column. It’s true that I’ve not read the book yet (it’s on a long, long list) but I do worry that his columns might exclude a huge section of his potential audience, as do a lot of science bloggers. He’s generally quite good at layman explanations but I can see how it might have got a bit incoherent in the course of writing a full stand-alone book. Nice to hear I’m not alone in all this!

Comment on Diary of a Science Ineffectual 2 by nellietag

nellietag — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 10:43:20 +0000

Dirndl skirts? You’ve brought up some very bad memories. Having to use special tacking thread that you were not allowed to knot to anchor it, the special tacking stitch (one large, one small) the parts of which had to be even throughout the run or the sewing teacher would rap your knuckles and order you to redo it.

All the different stitches for different seams. The miles of hemming that seemed to be a barely-concealed subterfuge for the time when our country would need us to sew parachutes. And, in all that time (I don’t know about your mother, but in my school, needlework was compulsory for 3 wretched years), I never once learned how to use stitches that would have been useful for sewing together a jumper (say).

The horror.

Comment on Diary of a Science Ineffectual by Diary of a Science Ineffectual 3 « Nellie the Arts Grad

Diary of a Science Ineffectual 3 « Nellie the Arts Grad — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 10:29:00 +0000

[...] have to say that scenarios like this are the downside of the success of Science Ineffectuals‘ successful viral disinformation campaigns, such as mobile phones ganging up and cooking [...]