"Scientific Studies" Whiplash: Wine Causes Cancer! Wine Prevents Cancer!
I have concluded that too much money is being spent to pay for "scientific studies," which after all, have to find something to report to earn their keep. This often leads to much confusion. Take for example a new study that looked into the life-course of women, reports that drinking even one glass of wine a day can increase cancer, to the tune of 15 extra cases per 1000. From the story:
Consuming just one drink a day causes an extra 7,000 cancer cases--mostly breast cancer--in UK women each year, Cancer Research UK scientists say. The risk goes up the more you drink, whether spirits, wine or beer, the data on over a million women suggests. Overall, alcohol is to blame for about 13% of breast, liver, rectum, mouth and throat cancers, the researchers say.But wait! A similar study published a few years ago showed that drinking moderately has no impact on cancer. Moreover, according to studies relied upon by the National Cancer Institute, drinking red wine can reduce cancer. Except a different study said even one large glass of wine increases cancer risk. I'm getting whiplash.
The moral of the story is that we have too many studies.
We are all going to die, and if we live moderately, the time of that great passing will be postponed. Or maybe not. I think we should give some academic a $5 million grant to conduct a study on the question.
Labels: Scientific Studies.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 8:22 AM
7 Comments
7 Comments:
I'm glad I'm not the only person on Earth wondering about all these studies spending millions of dollars to learn absolutely nothing.
Don't get them started on chocolate again!
I deeply question if such studies fit the definition of "science". I think we should be critical of such "science", which often lacks rigorous controls, known system parameters, connection to broader knowledge, and clear causality correlation. Such researchers (and I hesitate to call them scientists) seem to have a tendency to go after the low hanging fruit. Often, it seems a waste of time and (our/society's) money and resources. This is a good question to raise and I hope it is raised more often.
Plus they often are (not this one) advocacy pieces masking as "scientific studies."
I, too am relieved to find that a scientist is critical of the number of "scientific" studies. I think it is one more example of how we have turned something that we call "science" into a mystical, magical potpourri of tidbits to keep us constantly stimulated and amused.
(This is also tangentially related to my pet theory that the number of people getting PhD's multiplied by the requirement that the dissertation be a completely new work has led to the reality that people are just making s--t up to get the job done, not to mention the exponentially increasing levels of obscurity that these things entail. OK but this is OT, so, I'll stop.)
Holy Terror,
.........Wesley, I'm sorry! HT, you're right on so many levels, because it's the same in Literature! They keep coming up with new "theories" so that people can look at the same text and still write something that doesn't come off as being done to death. Queer theory, feminist theory, Marxist theory, Constructionism, Deconstructionism, Post-modernism (I'm a Myth Critic myself; that was my focus of study in the U). They're making it up on the fly, and science is *worse* because science is supposed to be something we apply to daily life to improve ourselves. This is so much claptrap!
...ahem. Excuse me, I have to go crawl under my rock now.
There are too many people, and too many feeling entitled to be "educated" and "have careers." That's the problem. If we cut off trade with China and started making our own products, did actual WORK here, didn't have material success as a goal, if "science" hadn't become revered since WWII, we wouldn't HAVE all these problems, or the great gap between the rich and the poor. Migrant workers wouldn't be abused, people on welfare would be doing actual work and having self-respect, there wouldn't be drug problems, kids wouldn't be alienated and dressing up like Goths and mutilating themselves, professionals such as doctors and lawyers would still be professionals rather than regarding themselves as in business, people wouldn't be enriching the pharmaceutical companies and poisoning their kids, the military wouldn't be advertising as if they were offering career paths rather than the reality of what the military is supposed to be for, the incompetent creeps in credentialed positions who have destroyed this society would be exposed...yes, it would be like the Walgreen's ad. And what's wrong with that? What we've got now comes from "the American dream" and too many people feeling above actual work. Stop all this internationalism, reinstate the draft, and have people actually doing work that has to be done and isn't being done, and the "studies" and "cost considerations" and "bioethics" and "assisted suicide" nonsense would be starved out, instead of people being dehydrated, starved to death, and otherwise euthanized, and abortion for conenience's sake wouldn't be such a problem, either. That was part of women wanting to enter the workforce and have "careers," even though careers don't involve worthwhile work any more. What is so terrible about living on a farm? Working on an assembly line? Actually MAKING and DOING things? If people were doing those things they would value life. The more money and success have been made priorities, the more respect for and valuation of life has declined. The ones who think they are too good to do actual work are the ones who aren't good enough to do it competently. The whole way society looks at things has got to change, and the things people actually have to DO has to change in order to defeat the death culture.
WELL THIS IS PART OF THE ARGUMENT AGAINST ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION. THEY DO THE STUDIES TO DO THE STUDIES SO THAT THEY CAN CONTINUE TO HAVE JOBS AND SO THAT THEY CAN ADVANCE THEIR CAREERS. NOT "TO HELP MANKIND." MEANWHILE THE ANIMALS SUFFER HORRIBLY, FOR NO REASON OTHER THAN THE ONES JUST MENTIONED, WHEN THEY DO THIS. THAT SAME CALLOUSNESS, SELFISHNESS, MERCINARINESS, PUTTING THEIR CAREERS AHEAD OF WHAT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING, AND DEVALUATION OF LIFE ENDS UP KILLING HUMAN PATIENTS!!! AND THEN WE WONDER WHY THERE IS A DEATH CULTURE? I've said it over and over, stopping the animal experimentation will stop the nonsense that goes on in science and medicine, and in much of society, and put the brakes on the death culture. But Nooooooobody Listens To Meeeee.....except for those who already understand it....I am a voice crying out in the willllderneessssss....Helloooooooo.....Can anybody heeearr meee......Hellooooooo.....Hellooooooo....
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