Scientistry is not scientody

Nature reports how more rigorous documentation requirements are demonstrating the intrinsic unreliability of scientistry (the profession of science) and showing how the substitution of scientistry for scientody (the actual scientific process) makes what subsequently passes for science unreliable.

The launch of the clinicaltrials.gov registry in 2000 seems to have had a striking impact on reported trial results, according to a PLoS ONE study1 that many researchers have been talking about online in the past week.

A 1997 US law mandated the registry’s creation, requiring researchers from 2000 to record their trial methods and outcome measures before collecting data. The study found that in a sample of 55 large trials testing heart-disease treatments, 57% of those published before 2000 reported positive effects from the treatments. But that figure plunged to just 8% in studies that were conducted after 2000. Study author Veronica Irvin, a health scientist at Oregon State University in Corvallis, says this suggests that registering clinical studies is leading to more rigorous research. Writing on his NeuroLogica Blog, neurologist Steven Novella of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, called the study “encouraging” but also “a bit frightening” because it casts doubt on previous positive results.

Irvin and her co-author Robert Kaplan, chief science officer at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in Rockville, Maryland, focused on human randomized controlled trials that were funded by the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The authors conclude that registration of trials seemed to be the dominant driver of the drastic change in study results. They found no evidence that the trend could be explained by shifting levels of industry sponsorship or by changes in trial methodologies.

Translation: there is good reason to be dubious about more than 7 in every 8 historical corporate sponsored medical trials. Keep this in mind when you are basing an argument in support of the safety and efficacy of vaccines on research published by the pharmaceutical industry.

This higher standard of documentation is very welcome, but it underlines the way in which that the human factor is the weak link in the scientific process. No amount of “training” can substitute for forcing scientists to be completely transparent about their work.

Reconquista 2.0: the beginning

Europe is no longer accepting Muslims:

Slovakia has said it will not accept any Muslims under an EU scheme to share migrants more evenly between member states.

“We want to help Europe with the migration issue. We could take 800 Muslims but we don’t have any mosques in Slovakia so how can Muslims be integrated if they are not going to like it here?” Ivan Metik, an interior ministry spokesman, said.

Slovakia is to host 200 migrants under an EU plan to redistribute 40,000 away from Italy and Greece, which are overwhelmed with the numbers arriving across the Mediterranean.

The Slovakian government said it plans to ask the migrants their religion on arrival.

I give it less than 18 months before the Germans start to get unpleasant as they’re on track to have nearly one million “refugees” invade Germany this year. We already know that the Greek and Italian navies are starting to secretly sink boats. If the pro-immigration European governments don’t back down, they will be overthrown.

Don’t blame the nationalists for any future bloodshed. Blame the open borders idiots.

Unfair and untrue

SJWs just can’t seem to fairly characterize my positions on anything:

Princess Content ‏@ContentPrincess
I just didn’t think any of them would really go.  I mean they aren’t fans.

John Scalzi ‏@scalzi
If they pay for a membership, then they can go. If they make trouble, they’ll get the boot. If they don’t, they can stay.

Princess Content ‏@ContentPrincess
I would not feel safe in a place where someone was openly admitting association with @voxday or his minions.

Vox Day ‏@voxday
Then you’d better flee. There are more than a few there.

Princess Content ‏@ContentPrincess
i didn’t go.  You ruined it.  and you don’t even care.  You don’t care at all that you have hurt people.

Vox Day ‏@voxday
That is totally unfair and untrue. I am rather pleased at hurting the people who claim to have been hurt.

Princess Content ‏@ContentPrincess
aren’t you supposed to be a cruelty artist? Doesn’t throwing around old memes make you a cruelty hack? #notcreative

Vox Day ‏@voxday
Quoting the classics doesn’t make one a hack. Ripping them off does. Of course, no @scalzi fan would grasp the difference.

Race is in the politics of the beholder

This makes for a fascinating juxstaposition. One of the nastiest SJWs at File 770 is actually dumb enough to try to play race police:

Aaron on August 19, 2015 at 5:48 pm said:
Also the comment that the Pups are led by “a latino, a white, and an indian”. They keep pushing that line of bullshit like they think it will convince anyone outside their little circle-jerk.

I have to admit, it’s a line of argument I’d never considered. If I was Aaron, I would simply explain to critics that my “half-savage” remark about N.K. Jemisin could not possibly be considered racist because she is not black.

I have asked Mike Glyer to warn Aaron about his race-policing lies because “that line of bullshit” happens to be absolutely true. I am without question an American Indian. I have the family tree, the DNA results, and the tribal connections to prove it beyond any shadow of a doubt. I am not a one-sixteenth Cherokee princess, as the New Republic’s Jeet Heer and others have suggested.

Larry Correia is Portuguese, concerning which “Brazilians, who do not speak Spanish, are Latinos, but
Portuguese who share the Iberian Peninsula with Spain may not want to be
called “Latino” or “Hispanic.” And the U.S. Department of Labor also
allows people to self-designate as a Hispanic, if they are Portuguese,
and it cannot be contested.” 


So, our racial affiliations are being denied by self-appointed race police even as another fake African-American SJW has been unmasked, this time by Milo.

International media went nuts today when Breitbart revealed evidence suggesting that prominent Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King is in fact white — and that, when challenged, King did nothing to deny the allegations that he is Caucasian.

Over a hundred media outlets from all over the world, including the Daily Mail, the Daily Beast, the New York Daily News, Salon, Sky News and the New York Post, covered our explosive scoop, which also alleged that King misled media mogul Oprah Winfrey by applying for and accepting an “Oprah scholarship” to historically black Morehouse College.

My favorite response is the ridiculous defense offered by vox.com, which is that race “isn’t derived by biology”:

A person’s race isn’t derived by biology; it is instead set by society and a person’s own identity. As Jenée Desmond-Harris previously explained for Vox, Americans embraced the concept of race to justify treating some people better than others. And since race is arbitrary, different people can genuinely disagree over who counts as white, black, brown, or any other racial identity…. Although race may have no biological basis, social perceptions of race play a huge role in people’s lives — and could impact King’s place in the Black Lives Matter movement.

Remember, SJWs not only think they’re morally superior to you, but they’re smarter and better-educated too. In fact, they’re delusional and operating in complete defiance of history, science and observable reality.

UPDATE: There goes the SJW Narrative. Again:

Shaun KingDuring a segment on #BlackLivesMatters activist Shaun King and the allegation he isn’t black at all, CNN host Don Lemon revealed that he had spoken to a family member of King’s who confirmed he was white. “A family member tells CNN that both of King’s parents are white,”Lemon said on Wednesday night’s edition of CNN 

Go ahead and talk to my family members about whether I’m Indian and Mexican. Hell, you won’t even have to talk to them. 

Call it justice, call it karma

Regardless, it exists. You may recall Sam Biddle as one of #GamerGate’s primary targets:

Earlier this week Gawker lost “thousands of dollars” in advertising after a poorly worded tweet was posted by one of its writers. Sam Biddle, one of the more sarcastic employees among the sarcastic throng at Gawker Media, tweeted out a joke:

    Ultimately #GamerGate is reaffirming what we’ve known to be true for decades: nerds should be constantly shamed and degraded into submission
    — Sam Biddle (@samfbiddle) October 16, 2014

He immediately followed it with:

    Bring Back Bullying
    — Sam Biddle (@samfbiddle) October 16, 2014

Naturally, the Twitterverse pounced. While the issue goes into convoluted gamergate territory, it didn’t make Gawker, the intellectual fraternity of the internet that invites people to their parties only to make them buy the booze, look good. Adobe pulled its sponsorship in response to the uproar, which was followed by multiple posts by site editors attempting to explain the situation, apologizing and admitting they “fucked up.”

Now the nerds are shaming back twice as hard.

Grummz ‏@Grummz
Oh hey, the Sam Biddle on Ashley Madison story is trending in the US.

Grummz ‏@Grummz
Sam Biddle had an account on Ashley Madison, but he never inhaled.

It’s okay, he was only on there for “research”. That’s a new one. He registered in 2012 and I’m sure he’ll have the well-researched expose ready any day now.

A Latino, an Indian, and a White man

Walk into a room. How does NPR describe them? As three white men. Because badthink:

The prestigious Hugo Awards, which honor science fiction and fantasy writing, will be held Saturday. Lately, they have been given to more and more women and writers of color as the world of sci-fi opens up — and that’s prompted a backlash from a group of mostly white male writers who call themselves the “Sad Puppies.”

Listen to the rest of it here if you like, I’m not going to bother. The funny thing is that if you look at the original Evil Legion of Evil, it’s not accurate to say it is a group of mostly white male writers.

Supreme Dark Lord: not white male
International Lord of Hate: not white male
Grand Strategikon: white male
King in Yellow: white male
Beautiful but Evil Space Princess: not white male
Token Liberal: white male

Of course, if NPR reported it accurately as a group that was “half white males”, they couldn’t realistically portray it as a Bad and Terrible Thing that Must Be Stopped.

Scott Adams predicts President Trump

And also Vice-President Cuban, which would be nearly as amusing:

If you’re keeping score, in the past month Trump has bitch-slapped the entire Republican Party, redefined our expectations of politics, focused the national discussion on immigration, proposed the only new idea for handling ISIS, and taken functional control of FOX News. And I don’t think he put much effort into it. Imagine what he could do if he gave up golf.

As far as I can tell, Trump’s “crazy talk” is always in the correct direction for a skilled persuader. When Trump sets an “anchor” in your mind, it is never random. And it seems to work every time.

Now that Trump owns FOX, and I see how well his anchor trick works with the public, I’m going to predict he will be our next president. I think he will move to the center on social issues (already happening) and win against Clinton in a tight election.

I also saw some Internet chatter about the idea of picking Mark Cuban as Vice Presidential running mate. If that happens, Republicans win. And I think they like to win. There is no way Trump picks some desiccated Governor from an important state as his running mate. I think Cuban is a realistic possibility.

He’s certainly demonstrated himself to be a master of rhetoric. Whether that is sufficient to bring the Republican Party establishment to heel, I do not know. Regardless, one can certainly learn a lot from the man; he is like a walking, talking exemplar of Aristotle’s Rhetoric brought to life.

The entertainment apocalypse


Allum Bokhari ‏@LibertarianBlue
@Nero asked me to get him some Skittles and then refused to eat them until I did this. Send help.

Space Bunny ‏@Spacebunnyday
Stop enabling him.

Milo Yiannopoulos ‏@Nero
shut up woman

I have to admit, Milo probably would make for a pretty damn entertaining reality show. He already has cameras and bomb threats following him around everywhere he goes. The problem is that I have this horrible suspicion that Spacebunny’s cameos and the two of them sniping at each other would turn out to be some of the most popular parts of the show, leading to a producer give her more air time and get on my case to do something other than sit on my scarlet throne and plot the demise of my enemies.


This week on “The Fabulous”, Allum is sent out on an emergency condom run at 4 AM in the red light district of Caracas that goes hilariously awry, Spacebunny and Milo spend an afternoon drinking margaritas and making cruel comments about women who really shouldn’t be wearing bikinis on Barra da Tijuca Beach, and after running out of Ristretto capsules, the Supreme Dark Lord is forced to dip into his emergency supply… that turn out to be Vanilla! 

Speaking of entertainment, we have 150 people registered for the Rabid Puppy Hugo Party where we’ll be celebrating the Awards ceremony online in an Open Brainstorm event. If you want to join us, you can register here.

UPDATE: And speaking of Sasquan, Hugo Nominee and Riding the Red Horse contributor Ken Burnside gives his “Physics and Space Combat” talk at 8 PM on Thursday.  Strongly recommended. Ken will be hosting an informal get together after the talk that may be of interest to Puppies, Ilk, Minions et al.

An absence of evidence

Paul Craig Roberts is suspicious about the contradiction between the evidence and the mysterious vanishing confession in the Boston Bomber trial:

I have been contacted by attorney John Remington Graham, a member in good standing of the bar of the Minnesota Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court. He informs me that acting in behalf of Maret Tsanaeva, the aunt of the accused Tsamaev brothers and a citizen of the Kyrgyz Republic where she is qualified to practice law, he has assisted her in filing with the US District Court in Boston a pro se motion, including an argument of amicus curiae, and an affidavit of Maret Tsarnaeva. The presiding judge has ordered that these documents be included in the formal record of the case so they will be publicly accessible. The documents are reproduced below.

The documents argue that on the basis of the evidence provided by the FBI, there is no basis for the indictment of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The FBI’s evidence clearly concludes that the bomb was in a black knapsack, but the photographs used to establish Dzhokhar’s presence at the marathon show him with a white knapsack. Moreover, the knapsack lacks the heavy bulging appearance that a knapsack containing a bomb would have.

As readers know, I have been suspicious of the Boston Marathon Bombing from the beginning. It seems obvious that both Tsamaev brothers were intended to be killed in the alleged firefight with police, like the alleged perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo affair in Paris. Convenient deaths in firefights are accepted as indications of guilt and solve the problem of trying innocent patsies.

In Dzhokhar’s case, his guilt was established not by evidence but by accusations, by the betrayal of his government-appointed public defender Judy Clarke who declared Dzhokhar’s guilt in her opening statement of her “defense,” by an alleged confession, evidence of which was never provided, written by Dzhokhar on a boat under which the badly wounded youth lay dying until discovered by the boat owner and hospitalized in critical condition.

I’m always mildly suspicious whenever the alleged perpetrators are found quickly before being killed in a lethal shootout. If only the police could track down missing children so effortlessly.

And suspicion would appear to be justified considering “he could not find a single attorney in the state of Massachusetts who
would sponsor his appearance before the Federal District Court in
Boston.”

What is it that they fear? What is it that they know?

The War for the West

As with most wars, winning this one will be a matter of will, not strength or numbers:

The six-page policy paper, to secure America’s border and send back aliens here illegally, released by Trump last weekend, is the toughest, most comprehensive, stunning immigration proposal of the election cycle.

The Trump folks were aided by people around Sen. Jeff Sessions, who says Trump’s plan “re-establishes the principle that America’s immigration laws should serve the interests of its own citizens.”

The issue is joined, the battle lines are drawn, and the GOP will debate and may decide which way America shall go. And the basic issues – how to secure our borders, whether to repatriate the millions here illegally, whether to declare a moratorium on immigration into the USA – are part of a greater question.

Will the West endure or disappear by the century’s end as another lost civilization? Mass immigration, if it continues, will be more decisive in deciding the fate of the West than Islamist terrorism. For the world is invading the West.

Ignore all the shrieking cuckservatives and Corporate Republicans. If the immigration issue is not addressed, if the mass movement of people is not stopped, if the tens of millions of invaders, legal and illegal, are not repatriated, none of the other policy issues matter.