Lili's question for the day

Will one of the men in my latest list be involved in the next sexual harassment accusation scandal to hit the headlines? 

Lili's tip for the day

My new list is up.

Lili's redirection for the day

I have a new list in the works, and when I publish it I plan to post it at my political blog Blond Ambition, for a number of reasons. 

Firstly, my next list is negative in tone, and I don't want to confuse readers by mixing up a negative list with my long-standing and popular lists that focus of matters that are generally positive.

Secondly, the topic of my next list does not sit well with the title of my main blog "Incorrect Pleasures". When I publish it you will see what I mean. 

Thirdly, I figure my new list of famous people should fit well enough into a political blog, because it is full of politicians (distasteful, I know) and as they used to say in the 1970s, the personal is political. 

Lili's amusement of the day

The "Wisdom of the Crowd" indeed! How ironic!

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/tens-wisdom-of-the-crowd-axed-by-cbs-following-allegations-against-jeremy-piven-20171130-gzvwjt.html

Lili's wish for the day

Sad to see that the respected Australian actor Geoffrey Rush, who is one of the interesting people in my famous synaesthetes list and was also recently an Australian of the Year is the subject of allegations of “inappropriate behaviour", a part of an international wave of disclosures of allegations of sexual misconduct among high-profile media identities. At present it appears that the person making the allegations and full details of the alleged behaviour are not publicly known, but two male actors who have thrown their support behind the allegations have been named. Rush has issued a denial. I hope there is nothing behind this accusation, but, like a waxwork figure in a bushfire, the situation is looking uglier by the minute. 

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/geoffrey-rush-accusal-actors-support-woman-who-complained-of-touching/news-story/44b08726f56de1b695d50f90fe55ff5b

http://thenewdaily.com.au/entertainment/celebrity/2017/11/30/geoffrey-rush-allegations-inappropriate-behaviour/

Lili's dismissal of the day

So Mr Burke, past host and founder of the defunct but once highly popular Australian gardening TV show Burke's Backyard, it seems clear that you have been a workplace bully and sex pest for ages, and you claim this is because you're "an Asperger's person"? While I no longer think there's much validity or science behind the labels "autism" and "Asperger syndrome", I do know that workplace bullying and sexual misconduct have never been regarded as features of the conditions, in fact, regardless of level of intelligence, people with these labels are lucky to get anywhere near having a job, let alone being the boss who has the power to get away with such unethical or criminal behaviour.

Your unconvincing excuse gets you nowhere, especially in light of the fact that you've been busy denying as well as excusing yourself. You can't offer an excuse for behaviour that you haven't even owned up to!

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/morning-shows/don-burkes-aspergers-excuse-what-kind-of-human-sinks-this-low/news-story/4fd3530a26741e574a01bea661c271c8


If you have the chance to watch the ABC news interview with Katharine Annear, the chairperson of Autistic Advocacy Australia and New Zealand about Don Burke's recent claims, it is well worth a look. 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-28/don-burkes-claim-of-undiagnosed-aspergers-angers-advocates/9199614

Lili's bewilderment of the day

So amusing when these celebrity sex pests vehemently deny all of the allegations, even when there's a clear pattern of offending among many accounts from numerous victims who share characteristics such as gender, body area groped and their age when the events happened. Who do they think they are kidding? 

Lili's tip for the day

Lili's making a list, she's checking it twice, gunna find out who's naughty or nice…

Questions, questions....

We can't even trust Pub Peer?

https://forbetterscience.com/2017/11/15/call-to-research-integrity-or-at-least-a-minor-revolution-at-cnrs/#more-21908

If universities do what they are supposed to do (allow only real scholarship), then how do we get quackademics?

http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/ubc-journal-retraction-raises-controversial-question-can-an-activist-who-writes-an-anti-vaccine-study-be-a-scientist

https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/quackademic-medicine-at-uc-irvine/

Are South African white farmers being murdered in racially-targeted attacks?

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=South_African_farm_attacks&oldid=810649632

https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/farmer-armies-in-the-killing-fields-294873

https://www.scribd.com/doc/284112299/650-PAGE-list-of-names-of-murdered-white-people-in-South-Africa

Does Australia have an unreported safety hazard with car airbags that is a separate issue than the Takata airbag scandal?

https://airbagsafetyinaustralia.wordpress.com/

Could it possibly be true that in 2017 Parliament House in Canberra needs to be modified to accommodate a new MP who uses a wheelchair?

https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/wa/parliament-house-doors-too-small-for-new-greens-mp-wheelchair-ng-71d4555402aea188b7625f36a338de7b

Why does anyone still believe that we have the right to free speech in Australia?
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/australian-publisher-scraps-book-on-chinas-influence-out-of-fear-of-beijing-2017-11?r=US&IR=T

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/professor-clive-hamilton-will-not-appear-at-adelaide-writers-week-after-fears-of-chinese-legal-threats/news-story/1fb5181141f69f7b0f68aff6e14289b6

Is wind turbine syndrome a communicated disease?
http://www.gleebooks.com.au/BookingRetrieve.aspx?ID=291835

Russell Howard asks "Why are girls' toys patronising and shit?"

Lili's political disatisfaction of the day

They say ALP stands for Another Liberal Party.....

http://andrewwilkie.org/self-interest-makes-sorry-sight/

Lili's disappointment for the day

I'm disappointed but not surprised to see that Derek Amato has been featured in a TV doco series that has just started on SBS, The world's most extraordinary people, which is apparently hosted by a real doctor, English surgeon Gabriel Weston, who is also a writer and BBC Two host. A doctor and two reputable TV channels look like fools.

http://www.sbs.com.au/guide/article/2017/09/27/meet-people-who-are-unlike-anyone-else-world

http://www.sbs.com.au/guide/channel/SBS#/program/16212839

Amato is one of an unending collection of supposed "acquired savants" in the fashion of the questionable Daniel Tammet (formerly Daniel Corney). In my ebook about Tammet you can find chapters about many interesting people who have, or who claim to have, extraordinary abilities or talents. Some of those people are genuinely astounding in their achievements, while there's ample evidence that many others have made up stories and taken scientists, publishers and journalists for a ride. Derek Amato one of the world's most extraordinary people? I think not.

Daniel Tammet: the Boy with the Incredible Story

Some threats to "the truth" are cause for celebration....

https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/blog/six-things-challenge-truth

Lili's congratulations of the day

...to Dr Cordelia Fine, winner of the Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize for 2017.

Lili's question of the day

Which book is more worthy of your hard-earned book-spending money and your scarce book-reading time? Daniel Tammet's new release, or my book about the lesser-known facts of his life?

Lili's disappointed but not surprised thoughts for the day

So the shoppies union, the same union which chose to be on the wrong side of history after the ALP split in the 1950s, is in bed with Australia's largest employers, and an Aussie insurance company rips off punters. Golly gee, who would have thought?

http://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace-relations/australias-biggest-union-attacks-reprehensible-shoppies-wage-deals-20170804-gxpo93.html

http://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace-relations/the-man-who-exposed-the-coles-wages-scandal-in-his-spare-time-20160602-gp9zb7.html

https://www.choice.com.au/money/insurance/car/articles/sale-needless-insurance-16m-in-qbe-refunds-020817

Lili's told-you-so moment of the day

Psychopath CEOs maybe not such a great idea after all?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-23/commonwealth-bank-faces-shareholder-class-action/8833860

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-14/commonwealth-bank-ceo-ian-narev-to-retire-by-july/8803302

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2016/03/07/4417757.htm

Lili's pointed question of the day

Cars fitted with potentially-fatally defective airbags have been on the market in Australia since the turn of the century, and what have motor vehicle manufacturers, governments, car dealers, police, car insurance companies and car owners been doing to resolve this problem? SFA I'd say. Insurance companies do more investigations of vehicle accidents than the police. They must have been aware of a pattern of faulty airbags. How long have they been sitting on this information?

http://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/motoring/toyota-mazda-bmw-lexus-subaru-takata-airbag-recall-fix-potentially-lethal/news-story/79de2db220c58c3c23708644d9f8a89e

Let's bring back some, but not all, politically-incorrect, blunt and unfashionbable words and concepts....

Sense of responsibility


Sick


Diseased


Catch a disease


Infected


Dead


Dead people


Lunacy


Lunatic

Insane


Psychiatric


Maniac


Manic


Senile


Senility


Demented


Unhappy


Sad


Desolate


Inconsolable


Neglect


Neglected child


Abandoned


Drunk


Alcoholic


Drug addict


Intoxicated


Inebriated


Slob


Thug


Despot


Tyrant


Tyranical


Wimp


Sook


Wife


Husband


Married


Unmarried


Childless


Spouse


Single


Miss


Master


Young lady


Young man


Educated


Uneducated


Civilized


Uncivilized


Personal standards


Discipline


Common


Crude


Obscene


Foul-mouthed


Polite


Good manners


Refined


Deportment


Elocution


Disreputable


Prostitute


Tart


Kerb-crawler


Promiscuous


Philanderer


Sleaze


Smut


Smutty


Filthy


Dirty old man


Pervert


Child molester


Exhibitionist


Serendipity


Getting fleeced


Daylight robbery


Matronly


Stout


Plump


Rotund


Portly


Gaunt


Thin


Skinny


Rich


Poor


Destitute


Scientism


Fanatic


Fanaticism


Religious fanatic


Rejoice


Jubilation


Hallelujah


Forgiveness


Gratitude

Trust me, I'm a doctor.....

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-18/australian-health-practitioner-regulation-agency-rogue-doctors/8718572

Lili's question of the day

Who spends the most time enjoying the sweet perfumes of the purple bearded iris and the heliotrope in your garden? You or your weeding lady?

Trust me, I'm a doctor.....

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/neurosurgeon-suspended-for-drug-use-after-fatal-overdose-of-doctor-friend-20170628-gx0jep.html

Come Home (Cardinal Pell) - Tim Minchin

Is this professor a leader?

I'm annoyed to see Professor Peter Hoj from the University of Queensland as the guest speaker at the National Press Club of Australia blabbering on about Australian research universities, while I know full well that he never did a proper job of investigating all of the research publications by discredited researchers Dr Caroline Barwood and Prof. Bruce Murdoch, who falsified an entire study of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation as a therapy for Parkinson's disease, no less. After this scandal broke into the headlines, Prof. Hoj claimed later that he checked all of the (other) studies by this pair:  

"Mr Hoj says a review of about 100 studies published by Dr Barwood and Professor Murdoch has so far found no evidence of incorrect or non-existent data."

Prof. Hoj couldn't have done much of a job of checking. The 2010 journal research report titled "Improved language performance subsequent to low-frequency rTMS in patients with chronic non-fluent aphasia post-stroke" by the discredited researchers Barwood and Murdoch, and other researchers, is still published in full text displaying a very obvious discrepancy that looks like a clear indication that there's been some monkey business done with the data, a discrepancy that was pointed out at this blog way back in 2013 by Tomas, an anonymous commenter at this blog.

And today this Professor Hoj is speaking to the nation, as though he is some kind of leader in the world of science, universities, research and learning. Lili says "Horseshit".

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-07/uq-investigates-fresh-claims-of-research-misconduct/5077276

http://incorrectpleasures.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/you-cant-believe-everything-that-you.html

[See comments]

http://incorrectpleasures.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/lilis-investigative-thought-for-day.html

http://incorrectpleasures.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/look-again-professor-hoj.html

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/exprofessor-found-guilty-of-fraud/news-story/7a6561bada1bf52f517d97164e140f35

https://npc.org.au/speakers/professor-peter-hoj-2/

Lili's recommendation of the day

More fun for neurosexism and Baron-Cohen watchers in this new book about sexism and science:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/06/inferior-how-science-got-women-wrong-angela-saini-review-and-the-new-research-thats-rewriting-story

Lili recommends one of her own under-appreciated old posts:

New wave and old-fashioned sex segregation in everyday Australian life, and around the world

More depressing reading about the state of science....

http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2017/06/05/paul-glasziou-and-iain-chalmers-can-it-really-be-true-that-50-of-research-is-unpublished/

http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2016/01/14/paul-glasziou-and-iain-chalmers-is-85-of-health-research-really-wasted/

The crisis in science continues.....

"I think predatory publishers pose the biggest threat to science since the Inquisition. They threaten research by failing to demarcate authentic science from methodologically unsound science, by allowing for counterfeit science, such as complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to parade as if it were authentic science, and by enabling the publication of activist science."

More straight-talk from the world's most famous librarian (actually, the world's only famous librarian):

http://www.biochemia-medica.com/2017/2/273

Lili's ponders the big questions

Why does hand sanitizer smell like fruit yoghurt, and why does fruit yoghurt smell like hand sanitizer?

Lili's next political thought of the day

Not sure why so many people thought it impossible that a gray-haired bloke who seems sincere could lead a labour party capably in a nation-wide election, maybe even succeeding much more than his predecessors. Something like this once happened in Australia.

Lili's thought of the day

An empty Comcar pulled up at Parliament House in Canberra, and when the door was opened, out stepped Bill Shorten.

Pants on fire...

Anti-vaxers and climate-change deniers are irrational and tiresome, and don't respect evidence....

.....just like so many self-described skeptics and other assorted purveyors of 21st century scientism....

https://platofootnote.wordpress.com/2017/05/24/an-embarrassing-moment-for-the-skeptical-movement/

Ignorance inside the medical profession is a choice

https://www.ted.com/talks/jen_brea_what_happens_when_you_have_a_disease_doctors_can_t_diagnose

Lili's thought of the day

For a psychologist, Paul Bloom has a lot of common-sense:
https://www.vox.com/conversations/2017/1/19/14266230/empathy-morality-ethics-psychology-science-compassion-paul-bloom

It's late at night....

It’s March 2015 and I’m still here at my computer at a ridiculous hour of the night. I’m using YouTube to view a science documentary which was produced several years ago. I’m looking at one of countless recordings of a popular documentary which people have uploaded over the years. The subject of the documentary is a young man presented as a savant displaying many amazing talents, which are attributed to a mysterious brain condition related to epilepsy and autism. I’m sitting here at this late hour because science is one of my interests, but I’m not watching this made-for-television film as a casual viewer. I’m viewing the credits at the end of the documentary because I feel that I need to check something. Close to the end of the documentary there are a few frames showing the man who is the subject of the documentary lying down on what looks like a grey slab designed to go into an MRI machine. After that there are slightly gruesome shots of moving images of a head and brain scan beside images of a man’s face from two odd angles, one an upside-down profile. I notice that the face in the inverted profile appears not to be the face of the man featured in the documentary, with the face’s hooked nose, receding chin and large ears. Holding a mirror to a frozen video frame confirms that it’s not his face. I know that none of the fMRI studies of this man that I’m aware of would have been conducted during the period of the filming of this documentary. This mismatched face is just one of countless details in this story which don’t ring true, but this isn’t the detail that I’m looking out for.

Next in the documentary a likeable doctor/expert with a grandfatherly face says something inspiring, and then there’s a shot of the star of the film sitting in a large and futuristically white and shiny building, with an artsy visual effect accompanying a voice-over of the star saying something inspiring, then it’s back to the expert, Dr Darold Treffert who has written extensively on the subject of autistic savants, saying more inspiring words about the future direction of research, and then there’s the bit that I’m looking for – the closing credits. As they zoom up the screen I struggle to pause the images in time to check the names of some neuroscientists among those in the credits, and I also spot the name of one of the world’s most accomplished competitors in memory sport, Dominic O’Brien. It seems odd that his name should be listed here, because I know what Mr O’Brien looks like and I swear that I never saw him making an appearance in this television documentary, but the appearance of his name in the credits does back up what I’ve read about this documentary – that a critical interview with this memory sport champion was filmed but was left out of the final product. That’s interesting but I’m really interested in what the credits have to say about the associate producers of the film, because I have read that the publicist of the man who is the subject of the film was also an associate producer in the documentary project, which seems like a conflict of interest to me. I had expected more of a science documentary, but perhaps that just shows that I’m a bit naïve. The swiftly ascending names of members of the crew are suddenly squashed beyond recognition, as the screen showing the recording of the Channel 5 broadcast of the documentary is compressed to make space for a TV channel promo for an upcoming TV show about “the woman with the 14 stone tumor”. I can just make out that there were four names under the heading “Associate Producer” but I can only barely perceive the name of the publicist because I already know what to look for as a result of fact checking at the IMDb database. A moment later the credits are readable again, just in time to make the names of the documentary director and producer legible, and then I’m struck by a thought. Is it just a coincidence that that particular potentially controversial part of the credits is illegible? My late-night idea seems like some far-fetched conspiracy theory, but it does fit nicely with a detail that I’ve noticed about the autobiographical book written by the star of the documentary. In the UK edition of his book I cannot find the name of his publicist, but in the later US edition the author Daniel Tammet thanks his publicist by name in the acknowledgements section of his book. The Channel 5 broadcast of this documentary would have been broadcast in the UK and the publicist’s name is illegible in the credits, while the US version of the documentary, released under the title Brainman and broadcast on the Science Channel, has the name of the publicist shown as clear as day in credits ascending the screen at a leisurely pace. It would appear that perhaps there was a lack of motivation to publicise the role of the publicist to British viewers and readers. Was there any intention to hide any conflict of interest? I can’t help wondering. Who would have thought that watching the credits of a dated science documentary in the small hours would be so thought provoking?

Perhaps you might be wondering if all of these details about a publicist’s role are of any real consequence. I think they could be, because it is the Channel 5 broadcast of that documentary, with the UK title The Boy with the Incredible Brain, and the UK edition of the autobiography Born on a Blue Day which were cited as sources of information by the authors of one of the most influential published science journal papers about the man in the documentary. This journal paper was published a couple of years after the documentary was first broadcast. Some of the authors of this influential research paper from the University of Cambridge were involved with, and were filmed and shown in the documentary, but they could conceivably have been unaware that the publicist of their study subject was also involved in that documentary. This group of brain sciences researchers certainly appear to have had many deficiencies in their background knowledge of the person they wrote two research papers about. Neither of those published papers noted that the subject, Daniel Tammet, had changed his surname from Corney in the year 2001 and neither of the papers mentioned that Daniel Corney had been a competitor in the World Memory Championships in the years 1999 and 2000. Neither paper mentioned that Tammet had already been one of the subjects in a study of “superior memorizers” which was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience in the new year period of 2002-2003, in which a team of memory researchers found that the superior memorizers were superior due to their training using well-known memory techniques rather than any structural peculiarity of their brains. I’m happy to assume that the Cambridge team didn’t mention these elements of Daniel Tammet’s life history in their journal papers because they were unaware of them, and I’m also happy to assume that had they known about these biographical facts they would not have been so keen to label Mr Tammet as an autistic synaesthete savant.

A team of English researchers led by a professor who is internationally recognized as an expert in the area of autism appear to have made some embarrassing oversights in their studies of one research participant who is famous for having an exceptional memory. This is interesting, but is it anything to lose sleep over? Even the most strident advocates of a scientific world view acknowledge that science isn’t perfect and neither are scientists. Science is supposed to be a process in which errors are made but progress in the wrong direction is corrected in the long run by the criticism and scrutiny of other scientists.

That’s a nice idea, and I wish I could believe in it, but all these years later in 2017 I’m still waiting for that correction to the fanciful story of Daniel Tammet to ring out from the heart of the brain sciences community. Instead, all that I’ve found is largely-ignored corrections from people who are experts but are definitely not scientists, a mountain of breathless coverage of Tammet by mass media sources (including the world’s most prestigious newspapers and top-rating current affairs television shows), and an arc of influence of Tammet and his life story that spans the globe and has lasted over a decade, leaving it’s mark on popular culture and the brain sciences alike. This looks like a story about the conquest of science by showbiz values and commercial interests. This is not the way science is supposed to work. Science has been made to look a fool. Back in 2015 I found this story fascinating for what it revealed about the sociological dimension of contemporary psychology and neuroscience and problems that needed fixing, but from the viewpoint of April 2017 it looks like the opportunity to redeem the image of science is long-gone. Populist movements in the world’s most powerful nations are challenging the authority of science and other social institutions that are described as elites. An anti-intellectual President is doing his best to slash the funding and influence of science in the United States.

From this point we seem to have two choices; we could defend science by saying the same flattering things that we’ve always been saying about science, or we could turn around and have a good, hard look at the many things that are wrong with science. Scientists could own up to stupidly and wastefully running up too many blind alleys of improbable theories in the past. Scientists could acknowledge (with red faces) that some important areas of science are markedly influenced by popular culture and commercial interests. Scientists and journalists alike could put their hands up and own up to publishing crap and later failing to retract crap. I believe you will find nor read no more instructive example of the sciences of the human mind screwing up than the “incredible” story of Daniel Tammet. How did this debacle happen? Read the book.

At 360 pages and over 148,000 words, the 2017 edition is almost double previous editions, with many added chapters focusing on individuals whose personal stories add to our understanding of the Tammet phenomenon: researchers who have studied and published about Tammet, memory champions and record-breakers whose achievements far exceed Tammet's, and individuals who have claimed fame as acquired savants with stories that echo Tammet's incredible story. A big story about science going wrong just got bigger!

Daniel Tammet: the Boy with the Incredible Story

by Lili Marlene

Why are we waiting....for a cure for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

"Today is the 25th anniversary of May 12th International Awareness Day for Chronic Immunological and Neurological Diseases. They include Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity / Environmental Sensitivities."

https://www.facebook.com/may12th.awareness

I do not have any of these diseases, but I know enough to be sure that these people are not spending their lives in and out of beds, foregoing careers, livelihoods, recreational activities, travel, family life, for some the opportunity to marry and have kids, some for decades, just for a lark. I ask you, in the entire history of psychiatry or medicine, has there ever been such a phenomenon? Do perfectly fine people just give up on life for no apparent reason? Even the most badly affected depressives often manage to lead busy lives.

I'm furious about they way that science and medicine and governments have defamed and neglected and ignored these people! Read the things linked to below, and I'm sure you will feel the same way. Most people with CFS and fibromyalgia are women. Most doctors are men. Is misogyny a factor? Of course it is! There's a group of researchers who deserve to lose their professions and jobs.

http://theconversation.com/how-a-study-about-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-was-doctored-adding-to-pain-and-stigma-74890

https://jcoynester.wordpress.com/2017/05/11/patients-writing-about-their-health-condition-were-abused-by-a-peer-reviewer-and-silenced-by-bmj/

http://forums.phoenixrising.me/index.php?threads/coyne-patients-writing-about-their-health-condition-abused-by-a-peer-reviewer-silenced-by-bmj.51373/

https://www.statnews.com/2016/09/21/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-pace-trial/

http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/human-body/how-alem-matthees-letter-helped-solve-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-mystery/news-story/eb566e1a0f6bcaadb362818a12c2e386

Lili's thought for the day

Trust me, I'm a doctor:

http://www.nature.com/news/macchiarini-scandal-is-a-valuable-lesson-for-the-karolinska-institute-1.20539

https://forbetterscience.com/2016/02/21/macchiarini-and-karolinska-the-biomedical-ethics-meltdown/

https://forbetterscience.com/2016/05/07/macchiarinis-patients-the-real-situation/

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/01/celebrity-surgeon-nbc-news-producer-scam

Lili's thought for the day

Trust me, I'm a doctor:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/28/ian-paterson-charmed-patients-scrimping-treatments-funding-luxury/

Lili's thought for the day

Do developed countries like the USA and Germany have freedom of the press, freedom of speech and academic freedom? Naaah!

https://forbetterscience.com/2017/04/06/judge-in-jungebluth-trial-announces-to-uphold-his-injunction-dismisses-all-evidence/

http://www.nature.com/news/controversial-website-that-lists-predatory-publishers-shuts-down-1.21328

http://theconversation.com/who-will-keep-predatory-science-journals-at-bay-now-that-jeffrey-bealls-blog-is-gone-71613

https://forbetterscience.com/2016/09/14/beall-listed-frontiers-empire-strikes-back/

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v544/n7651/full/544416b.html

Lili's thought of the day

An empty Comcar pulled up at Parliament House in Canberra, and when the door was opened, out stepped Malcolm Turnbull.

A very pointed observation from a New Scientist interview article

But the idea that emotions are hardwired and universal underlies many things...

Very much so. The example that really gets me is the training of autistic children to recognise the stereotyped expressions stipulated by the classical view. This training is supposed to improve children's social functioning. But nothing changes for these kids because these facial expressions don't generalise outside the lab.

Professor Lisa Feldman Barrett interviewed by Shannon Fischer for New Scientist

March 11th 2017 Issue 3116 p. 40-43

Lili's thought of the day

I read Jason Padgett's book so that you don't have to:

Daniel Tammet: the Boy with the Incredible Story

Lili's sarcastic remark of the day

Ancient technique can dramatically improve memory, research suggests.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/mar/08/ancient-technique-can-dramatically-improve-memory-research-suggests-memory-palace

Ya don't say!

Lili's question for the day

Did neuroscience researchers inadvertently give Daniel Tammet a malingering test? 

A revised and massively added-to 2017 edition of my ebook about Daniel Tammet and his "incredible story" is now available!

Daniel Tammet: the Boy with the Incredible Story

Lili's thought of the day

Trust me, I'm a doctor.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/central-coast/fake-doctor-kicked-off-11year-run-as-impostor-at-central-coast-hospitals/news-story/c79a174ef1b584c60ba244413d575913

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-08/fake-doctor-also-worked-for-pharmaceutical-giant-astrazeneca/8337002

Lili's question for the day

How much has the world of (academic) science contributed, directly or indirectly, towards the creation or development of memory techniques used by memory sport competitors and memory record holders?

Lili's exasperation of the day

C'mon everybody! Who believes that Mem Fox being detained by immigration officers in the US had nothing to do with having a convicted paedophile for a husband?

Did you see her on The Project the other night, playing the victim? I didn't notice any hard questions from the panel, which generally consists of entertainers, commentators and a token old shock jock, who present the news as a form of light entertainment.

Lili's mere afterthought of the day

I guess this is Jason Padgett's 13 minutes of fame:
https://youtu.be/7H6doOmS-eM

Lili's tip for the day

BBC Radio 4 giving Daniel Tammet air time:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04sxc6v

Lili's contrary thought of the day

Rather than slapping Sir David Attenborough on the back and naming things after him, maybe we should be asking the famous Sir David exactly what he knew about the illegal, prolific and unconscionable activities of the famous BBC TV host and serial paedophile Jimmy Savile, whose child molestation apparently peaked in the 1970s, in a time period overlapping Attenborough's term as the BBC's Director of Programmes. Why did Attenborough choose to return to making programmes in 1973, when his career could have gone even further, to the top of the heap of BBC administration? Was there some nasty mess that he didn't want to have to confront, as a senior administrator?

Lili's reminder of the day

If you've been watching this TV doco series:

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/outback-er/

maybe you should also consider this:

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/systemic-bullying-at-broken-hill-hospital-nurses-claim-20150930-gjxyrg.html

Lili's book-look of the day

Dr Cordelia Fine's new book Testosterone Rex is in some shops but I haven't had a chance to read it yet.

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/testosterone-rex-review-cordelia-fine-takes-issue-with-the-making-of-men-20170123-gtwzc4.html

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jan/18/testosterone-rex-review-cordelia-fine

Lili's recommendation for the day

The Stupidity Paradox : The Power and Pitfalls of Functional Stupidity at Work
by Mats Alvesson and André Spicer
https://profilebooks.com/the-stupidity-paradox.html

It looks at varieties of stupidity that are lifestyle choices or occupational hazards, not inborn disorders

It's alarming

It's funny

It's psychological

It's a business book

It appears to be based on scientific evidence

It's written by professors at universities

So far it's been unremittingly negative on every page

The authors would be sacked from most jobs for being half as negative as this

It's one of those books that busts the brightly-coloured balloons full of hot air

It's the best book I've read all year

Lili's link for the day

GetUp! have created this online tool in response to the robodebt scam from Centrelink:

https://fraudstop.com.au/

Lili's told-you-so moment of the day

So, now I've found out that the bail justice who let free the violent young man who later mowed down and killed people in Victoria with a stolen car was a volunteer bail justice filling in after hours for the regular paid ones. Can you believe that? A job as crucial to public safety and justice as that, being left at times for volunteers to fill! I have no wish to make any sweeping statement vilifying or questioning the capability of volunteers, but any role of importance in our community should be done by a paid and carefully selected and fully qualified and experienced worker or professional practitioner. Apparently these voluntary bail justices can be very young or unqualified. This is madness and it must stop! This news is astounding enough, but I also find myself agreeing without qualms with today's editorial from The Australian newspaper! This does not happen often.

I've been writing and ranting about the exploitation and stupidity of workfare and excessive use of volunteers in this blog for ages, but there has been no better time than today to demand a stop to this epidemic of unfair, dangerous and recession-mongering over-reliance on unpaid labour and services in Australian society. Businesses large and small exploit the young and inexperienced and the unemployed in unpaid internships and prolonged unpaid training or probationary periods. Training given under such arrangements can be redundant, demeaning or non-existent. All levels of government in Australia: local, state and federal, use the services of volunteers or advertise unpaid internships or cadetships. While these positions can be sought after, competed for and subject to written applications, interviews and clearances just the same as hiring for a paid job, the fact that people are willing to fill these roles in government departments, museums, events, legal roles, welfare roles etc, for zip pay does not excuse the fact that it is not legal to fill roles that are in every way like a job while offering no pay. Sure enough, such roles might offer valuable work experience or "a foot in the door", but that still does not make it acceptable or legal to offer the kind of role that would have once been a paid job as an internship or volunteer role today. There was a day when young people could expect a choice of job opportunities that they could walk into and start earning from, while they were also trained and mentored on the job.

The fact that today applicants outnumber paid jobs does not justify the existence of this slave economy. The volunteer economy is a false economy, because when people work for nothing, they cannot participate in the economy as consumers and thus the money does not go around, and they are also kept reliant on welfare income, which is paid for by taxes. There are other obvious reasons why the slave economy is a stupid idea. It is demeaning and demoralising to the unpaid workers who have no recognised responsibility or standing in workplaces. It is also stupid to expect this unpaid and unrecognised "ghost labour" to perform to the occupational standards, abilities, reliabilities, initiative, levels of responsibility and accountability of hired and paid workers. Can they be held legally responsible for mishaps on their watch? Who knows?

If every mug in Australia who works for nothing solely to stop their dole being cut off, to create work experiences to write into a resume, to train for a job that they have never been offered or to have a life and identity beyond parenting or retirement or a shit marriage all decided today to ask to be paid for their work, what would happen? Some people might gain secure, dignified, safe, paid jobs, rather than no people gaining secure, dignified, safe, paid jobs. That would be something at least.

Lili's backpeddle of the day

So today it looks like I've judged the Victorian police too harshly over the Bourke Street rampage, as I read in today's paper that the murderer was out on bail at the time, and bail had been opposed by police. I hope the bail justice today feels the leaden weight of guilt for their central role in this tragedy and is now drafting a resignation letter. We all know that much too often the legal system undoes many hours of work done by police, leaving dangerous people at liberty to cause serious harm to more victims. Did the Lindt Café siege and the murder of Jill Meagher leave the legal profession with no lessons learned? To the Victorian Police Force - I apologise for suggesting your organisation did little to prevent the Bourke Street tragedy, but all the same, it would have been nice to see a cop or two at the scene before it was too late to prevent harm.

This isn't the only obvious and urgent question arising out of yesterday's horror. Why was an offender with a long history of offending and psychiatric disorder and drug use not incarcerated securely inside a psychiatric facility that was able to address both the mental disorder and the drug abuse problems? Australia is too poor a country to afford to create and use as needed such institutions? Bullshit! The trouble is that in the crusade to "take the stigma" out of "mental health" and popularise the idea of psychiatric labelling led by chattering attention-seekers such as McGorry and Hickie, the dangerously insane have been lumped together into the same category as harmless public servants who freeze with fear at the thought of public speaking and neglected children with joyless lives who correspondingly feel joyless. We all know there isn't room in any psychiatric ward for all of these people, so we are forced to accept life with the insane amongst us.

We should also ask, with countless mind-altering drugs available for prescription and psychiatry regarded as a science, with countless millions of dollars spent world-wide on research into the workings of the brain and the mind, why can't irrational murderous anger, from drug use or other causes, be diagnosed as a serious psychiatric disorder and treated effectively? As far as I know, only recently has a psychiatric disorder with unfounded anger been formally recognized as a mental disorder, even though it has been recognised as one of many possible symptoms of epilepsy probably as long as epileptics have been identified and shunned. Only days ago the science journal Nature featured a story titled "lasers activate killer instinct in mice". Predation behaviour in mice can reportedly be switched on and off with stimulation to the central amygdala in mice, and there's every reason to believe the same kind of activation of a specific part of the brain could activate aggressive behaviour in humans. So why can't psychiatry switch such behaviour off in humans? Ask your doctor, ask the directors of mental health services and brain research institutions, ask state and federal ministers for health, but don't expect any sensible or substantial answer.

Lili's fury for the day

So at this stage it looks like young men armed with a baseball bat and unarmed pedestrians did more to try to prevent the Bourke Street tragedy from happening than the Victorian police. Useless fucks!

Please, readers, do not be impressed by all the work done by countless police officers to investigate this crime, and the countless hours of work done by countless WA police officers to investigate the Claremont serial killings, because the preventable harm has already been done, and it is too late, way too late. Convictions hardly matter if they are not related to the prevention of crime.

Lili's outrage of the day

Just when I thought the federal government couldn't get any scummier....

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jan/04/heartless-core-autistic-man-chased-centrelink-debt-collectors

Lili's thought to start the year

Nice debate about the pros and cons of empathy:


Bloom, Paul and Zaki, Jamil (2016) Does Empathy Guide or Hinder Moral Action? New York Times. December 30th 2016.

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/12/29/does-empathy-guide-or-hinder-moral-action