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The Science News Cycle

Ronald Bailey | 5.21.2009 4:30 PM

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NEXT: Tom Tancredo Questions the War on Drugs

Ronald Bailey is science correspondent at Reason.

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  1. Mister DNA   17 years ago

    This was actually funny.

    Suck it, Chip Bok.

  2. JP   17 years ago

    I like it. Especially the internet response.

  3. Xeones   17 years ago

    This preemptively makes tomorrow's "funny" that much more disappointing, you know.

  4. Warren   17 years ago

    Ha! That's funny. I get how the artist wanted to point the finger at the many different players, but I think we go from: A is weakly correlated with B, to, A kills babies, in about two steps.

  5. J sub d   17 years ago

    Thank you Ron. Phdcomics.com FTW.

  6. Malto Dextrin   17 years ago

    You forgot to close the cycle:
    Grandma talks to her bridge club/church group/coffee klatch,
    They complain to their kids, one of which is a political activist,
    Who then organizes a group "Concerned Nitwits Against A",
    Which group protests to their Congresscritters,
    Which results in a pork barrel item calling for more research into the effects of A,
    Which gets passed, providing funds to the Federal Administration for the Regulation and Monitoring of 'A' Continuously Reliably Accurately and Permanently (FARMACRAP),
    Which issues an RFP to study the effects of A,
    Which you then apply for and win,
    Allowing you to do more research,
    And publish a paper in an obscure journal,
    Thus closing the cycle.

    Which is one of the reasons I got out of academia.

  7. John   17 years ago

    Another important step is peer review.

  8. Rib O\'Flavin   17 years ago

    Well played, Dextrin.

  9. Syd   17 years ago

    Peer review, schmeer review, we have the internet!

  10. Pi Guy   17 years ago

    Who then organizes a group "Concerned Nitwits Against A"

    That would be hilarious if weren't so completely true.

    One suggestion for completeness:
    ...Which results in a pork barrel item calling for more research into the effects of A - the vast majority of which will never end up in the researcher's hands,...

  11. P Brooks   17 years ago

    Most excellent.

  12. Mister DNA   17 years ago

    Don't forget, since "B" causes "A", "B" will need to be taxed to fund the regulation of "A".

    To insure this happens with the least amount of opposition, Concerned Nitwits Against A will need to find a White Girl (preferably a Dead White Girl) whose life was adversely affected by "A". What congressman would vote against "Tiffany's Law"?

  13. ed   17 years ago

    the many different players

    Let's face it, folks. The enemy is us. We're citizens of Retard Nation. It's all downhill from here.

  14. Jeff P   17 years ago

    In Reason terms, this means the science/outrage/regulation cycle is posted by Radley, Katherine, Jacob, Brian, Ronald, and Nick, in that order.
    If it involves history, insert Cathy into that sequence.

  15. Gilbert Martin   17 years ago

    "Peer review, schmeer review, we have the internet!"

    And Joe Biden has the web number.

  16. P Brooks   17 years ago

    Tonight at eleven:

    Courtney Lipgloss, Special Correspondent in Charge of Scaring the Bejesus out of the Rubes*, will take an in-depth look at "A" and how it can Destroy Your Family!

    *(despite the fact she knows absolutely nothing about anything)

  17. No Name Guy   17 years ago

    SPOT ON.

  18. Hammered Head   17 years ago

    Wow sounds exactly like what just happened with lead in childrens merchandise.

  19. skr   17 years ago

    omg lmao

    especially at the boingboing dig.

  20. Art-P.O.G.   17 years ago

    Kudos all around.

    We're citizens of Retard Nation. It's all downhill from here

    doom?

  21. Bronwyn   17 years ago

    Oh, lookit! Lookit! My two favoritest things on the internet came together!

    What a fabulous way to start my day.

    I love PhD Comics. They helped me maintain my sanity during those last years of my dissertation work. Now I can read them and laugh, thinking how smart I was to get out of academia.

  22. Joe_D   17 years ago

    Did anybody else like the fact that the p value shows no correlation at all? Good stuff.

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