Study my arse
I was browsing around this afternoon and came across this.
âResearchers from Oxford University studied the eye sockets and brain capacity of 55 human skulls from 12 different populations across the world and found that the further human populations live from the equator, the bigger their brains.â
Can anyone tell me how this âstudyâ has in any way advanced the sum total of human knowledge? What is the point of it? What fucking idiot came up with the idea of plotting eye socket size against latitude anyway?
Presumably these people are being paid for stuff like that? As itâs Oxford [and I thought they had a good reputation] at least I have the consolation that my taxes arenât going towards it, but somebody must be paying for it. Though it wouldnât surprise me if the fucking EU had a hand in it somewhere, in which case I am paying for it.
The reason these studies piss me off is that every now and then another equally trivial âstudyâ comes up with something that affects me directly. Someone tabulates lifespan against hair colour and decides that salt is bad for you. Someone else tabulates the television programmes we watch against the number of times we sneeze and deduces that we should stop drinking stout. Someone else counts the number of Natterjack Toads being squashed on the road and deduces that the sun only has another couple of billion years to run before burning out, and that we should all live with our curtains drawn to save on the use of sunlight.
Have these people really nothing better to do?
Why donât they just do a definitive study into the idiocy of studies?
i find the more idiotic the “study” the more freakin’ grant money they get i mean eye sockets? what bong fest did that idea come from…seriously..eye sockets??
It’s not possible to draw a statistically significant conclusion from such a small sample. Â It would be like doing a worldwide opinion poll that included only 55 respondents and concluding that the further people lived from the Equator the more likely they were to vote for a particular party.
The further north the bigger the arsehole, the gut, and the meal size.
All done, without a study.
I can do plenty more:
Around the equator area people have to walk sventeen and a half kilometers to get a bucket of water and boy are they fit.
Oop north they drive 1 and a bit yards to get a bucket of Kentucky and boy are they fat.
Solutions are also available at no cost.
Those living in equatorial regions should move closer to the well – job done.
Lardarses in the north – go for a fucking walk that doesn’t entail returning with enough food to feed the whole street.
Brought to you courtesy of,
Bighead Studies with Solutions Ltd.
University of life.
Thumb-up-Bum
Tillit
Herts.
Eye say, Eye say, Eye say – socket to em grandad ………
Cat – That is a fair summary of my own reaction. Â
Ian – Far more serious conclusions are drawn from much smaller samples. Usually the most important feature of a “study” is the result. The methods by which you get there are irrelevant. Now I have to scratch my head and wonder who the fuck wanted to know the brain size of people [by latitude]? Hat manufacturers?
Patrick – The cheque is in the post. £250,000, wasn’t it?
Cardi – Ah! The good old Rowan and Martin Laugh In!!
Newspapers reported many years ago an experiment to determine what percentage of the population believed in a free lunch.
A man stood near the entrance of the Shelbourne Hotel and at random stopped ten passersby. He politely got their attention and asked each: “Would you like to come inside and have lunch with me?”
It seems that nobody took up the invitation.
But there are problems with this kind of experiment. 1. It was only an invitation. 2. The question didn’t make it clear that the inviter would pay the bill in full. 3. No data was collected on reasons given for declining the invitation. 4. No breakdown on how many passersby questioned were women – they might have been cautious about responding to a strange man. 5. Ten passersby out of several hundred who passed that way in a half-hour is hardly a representative sample.
I say, let some higher education institution get a grant from, maybe, the Vincent de Paul Society. Then an experiment with sounder scientific viability could be carried out. Three eating places could be selected by well trained invitation givers: The Shelbourne (a salubrious building), Blooms Hotel (favoured by bankers), and the Penny Dinners eating place run by Capuchins and other do-gooders. At least twenty-five passersby should be politely invited for this street research experiment, men and women of younger and middle age.
Alternatively just donate alms to the charities and let academic researchers turn their attentions to the real world.
Confucius he say: The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.
I, of course, found it all fascinating. Anthropology. You never know where it’s gonna lead you.
I thought this study was funny!
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14370878
Ger – To be honest, if a bloke offered to buy me a lunch he would more than likely end up with a thick ear. I’m not that cheap!
TT – I must point my tame anthropologist in your direction. She would have a field day. 😀
Ian – I meant to include that in my scribble but forgot. I love it! [*hurriedly switches to Firefox*]