Quote:
Originally Posted by Irenicus
Don't blame researchers. They're doing their job -- research, experiment, collect data, and yes, revise. The worst scientist is the one who knows everything and is always correct.
Blame the media; few journalists [watch out for TRL's rebuttal!?  ] know the science they're reporting, and there's a tendency to exaggerate or draw decisive statements out of preliminary conclusions. It comes with journalistic writing I suppose; too many if's and but's cut down on clarity and they can't afford that, even when the actual subject demands that there be no clarity yet. |
I had a 3,000-page essay prepared for such challenges... but it seems to have melted away into the ether.
.
.
.
.
.
What can I say? I'll just paraphrase what the Money Desk editor once told me: If we were any good with numbers, we'd be acountants, not journalists (and a lot richer too).
By extension, we'd also be infallible scientists and not wicked storytellers.
Climate-change chief won't apologise
Quote:
London (Feb 3): The embattled chief of the UN's climate change body has hit out at his critics and refused to resign or apologise for a damaging mistake in a landmark 2007 report on global warming.
In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said it would be hypocritical to apologise for the false claim that Himalayan glaciers could melt away by 2035, because he was not personally responsible for that part of the report. "You can't expect me to be personally responsible for every word in a 3,000 page report," he said.
He has come under fire for the error, with even Mr John Sauven, director of Greenpeace UK, a former ally, calling on him to step down. The IPCC has issued a statement expressing regret for the mistake, but Dr Pachauri said a personal apology would be a "populist" step.
"I don't do too many populist things, that’s why I'm so unpopular with a certain section of society," he said, in an apparent reference to climate-change sceptics.
- GUARDIAN
|
======================
Quote:
Originally Posted by SaintessHeart
Even if TRL makes some sort of rebuttal, it wouldn't even matter. I have seen a few local articles in our local news that is so sensationalised that it totally ignores scientific and logical sense. I.E : They published the article about Rapelay and calls it porn, and even imply that the game can be won by making the girls pregnant. But if they don't publish the article, nobody would buy their papers to read. Being well-informed means to inculcate a doubt in everything one reads, and constantly bait others for counter arguments so everyone actually learn something from the different sources they read from.
|
Mea culpa.
Just to clarify, though, from what I can remember, the story was picked up from the wires — it wasn't entirely our fault that it was written that way. And, besides, we've got Digital Life deputy editor Oo Gin Lee relishing his violent games, very publicly, on a regular basis. So... it kind of evens out, right?
