“Why Most Published Research Findings Are False”

[Singularity]

For my own sanity I try not to designate either side as corrupt. Clauswitz et al said that war is the continuation of politics by other means. Insofar as jailing one's "reality combatant" is like one step away from civil strife or bullets (per the historical record)...I really see no utility in using the courts to parse out what is/is not true. The courts become a side-show distraction that, like the Mueller investigation, the society (on each side) waits with baited breath to find out what the true reality is. One side is re-assured, the other left in a cognitive dissonant state. All this rather than just sitting down like more civil folks and agreeing on what's important (people ordinarily agree on the ends, just not the means).

Recall Eisenhow's urgent-important matrix. Ike said (per google) "I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the imporant are never urgent."

[john61ct]

It isn't a question of "sides" so much as the ongoing problems of systemic corruption are now that much more venal, obvious and having a huge impact on a decline of our way of life, accelerating the collapse of our (global Western civilization).

Not to mention distracting from the most important survival issues.

Seems likely that's exactly the trends desired by large and powerful sectors of those pushing us along in this bizarre timeline.

[kmartind]

and we digress into the abyss of politics.


If I was Canadian I would be happy that Americans don't pay attention or care much about drama and scandals of our peaceful brother and sisters up north Canada. Sounds like you guys have your own corruption problems going on in your upper circles. My guess is we will see that in the 2019 corruption rankings.

Beside me getting defensive, these exact conversations are why I want to cruise. I want to leave the drama of the political world circus we live in. Surrounded with an inability to escape political conversations with people who don't realize it's okay to disagree. The sailors I have met though may get into those conversations some how manage to shake it off with a smile and a beer. There is no better way to learn to see and experience the world with your own senses.

[transmitterdan]

Corruption is often in the eye of the beholder. In several countries if you need a permit you have to negotiate with an official and agree on an expedite fee. This is how the official earns his/her living. It is quite often a fair cost because the price is negotiated. No permit no = money for the official.

In other countries that is a pure bribe. And set fees often prevent the poor from getting needed permits. While the fees collected are often wasted.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by transmitterdan

Corruption is often in the eye of the beholder. In several countries if you need a permit you have to negotiate with an official and agree on an expedite fee. This is how the official earns his/her living. It is quite often a fair cost because the price is negotiated. No permit no = money for the official.

In other countries that is a pure bribe. And set fees often prevent the poor from getting needed permits. While the fees collected are often wasted.

the monies from the fees being wasted is not just a third world issue . Wasting money is all to rampant in my state of Washington .

[zboss]

IMO, The most difficult thing in science is trying to figure out how to measure something accurately. A scientist or engineer that is testing a new idea is actually going to spend a great deal of time trying to find a new way or measuring something. Sometimes the way the item is measured is not accurate, so while the paper may contain accurate data, it can’t be accurately analyzed. This is why we do so much work on big data and why we spend so much money building super computers.

[GordMay]

Health research, bankrolled by Coca-Cola, at universities in Canada and the U.S., included provisions allowing the beverage giant to quash studies midway, in a move potentially allowing the firm to shut down projects that are counter to its interests, according to a new study*.
Researchers at Cambridge University and other institutions analyzed more than 87,000 documents obtained from freedom-of-information requests to public universities in North America related to research funding contracts with Coca-Cola between 2015 and 2018.
They found Coca-Cola exercised its right to cancel funding for studies several times; the company did not have to provide reasons for its decision. The contracts gave Coca-Cola licence to terminate research without cause; and the company could keep control over data the researchers gathered.
“Always read the small print”: a case study of commercial research funding, disclosure and agreements with Coca-Cola” ~ by Sarah Steele et al.
* ➥ https://link.springer.com/article/10...71-019-00170-9

[transmitterdan]

Originally Posted by newhaul

the monies from the fees being wasted is not just a third world issue . Wasting money is all to rampant in my state of Washington .

Actually, that was my point. Countries like the US and EU go around the world castigating other countries about “corruption” using definitions that don’t make sense to people in many of those countries. It’s not corruption to fund government services through fees paid by citizens using those services. It’s very efficient when the citizen hands over the fee directly to the official responsible for ensuring compliance. But then the money doesn’t go into the government coffers. Politicians hate systems like that so they call it corruption. When the truth is they simply don’t like systems that do not funnel all the money through the treasury so the politicians can skim and curry favor using the public’s tax money. There is way more corruption in $ terms in the US than almost any country except perhaps Russia. It’s not the third world countries that need scolding about corruption.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by transmitterdan

Actually, that was my point. Countries like the US and EU go around the world castigating other countries about “corruption” using definitions that don’t make sense to people in many of those countries...

What is corruption?
According to Transparency International:
"Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. It can be classified as grand, petty and political, depending on the amounts of money lost and the sector where it occurs ..."
Read More ☞ https://www.transparency.org/what-is-corruption#define

[Singularity]

In general I think this corruption talk is self-servingly fanciful while...I think also relatable to much current scientific angst.

2,000 years ago the critic said that all a population wants is it's bread and circus. It seems that when people get diabetes and the road starts falling apart (or the debt payment gets too high) that they like to form groups to tar and feather the bakers and carnival barkers--not liking to admit that it is they in the masses who were complicit in demanding calories and entertainment in the first place. It's not like the bakers and barkers are conspiring in dark rooms smoking cigars planning this stuff. It's ordinary people's demands that they're satisfying. Scott Adams (Dilbert guy) pointed this out during the 2007 crash (certain others did too).

Who is more corrupt: the politicians and friends who skim the system to line their own pockets creating an economic system known to be non-sustainable for thousands of years, or the masses who demand such systems regardless of the consequences to the future generation? People don't like to answer this question. When times get tough they like to focus attention on locusts, floods covering the earth, comets, genetic purity, etc...and now invisible gasses. Time are tough when there's a problem with the bread/circus supply.

To me...this is the synchronicity at work. Nothing cosmic/magical, just observable patterns in history that fluctuate like the seasons for plainly visible reasons. I guess synchronicity is associated with Eastern philosophy, but the economic system-social strife/existential crisis thing is spelled out in Western religion holy books. YMMV...

[GordMay]

Speaking of diabetes (Singularity) ...
Why desperate Americans are driving to Canada in caravans for insulin
As the cost of insulin continues to skyrocket in the U.S., where pharmaceutical companies can dictate the price, people are making the trek north as an alternative to paying thousands of dollars to stay alive.
Insulin and many other drugs cost less in Canada, thanks to the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board, a federal agency that establishes the maximum price that can be charged for patented drugs ...
... Rachel Nystrom, who has Type 1 diabetes, requires insulin to stay alive. She is on a type of fast-acting insulin called NovoLog, which costs about $300 US a vial. The Canadian equivalent, NovoRapid, is about $30 per vial ...
More ☞ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-...ulin-1.5125988

[Exile]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Indeed!
➥ https://www.beforetheflood.com/explo...imate-deniers/

Not to mention: Wei-Hock Soon, William Happer, Frank Clemente, et al.

The EPA is run by a former coal lobbyist. An ex-oil lobbyist heads the Department of Interior. Betsy DeVos, funder and champion of private religious schools, runs education policy. Steven Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross, billionaires who profited handsomely from the 2008 collapse, are in charge of protecting the economy. And at the Department of Justice, a top official who recommended that the federal government put more immigrants in privately-run detention centers, hopped over to a job at the GEO Group, which pays immigrants $1 for a day of labor but can’t seem to find a way to prevent detainees from dying.

No wonder the United States has plummeted in the corruption ranking maintained by Transparency International. (The Corruption Perceptions Index 2018 finds the U.S. in 22nd place, with a score of 71, right behind France and ahead of the United Arab Emirates. In 2017, the U.S. was ranked 16th.)
➥ https://www.transparency.org/news/fe...lysis-americas

You forgot to include any Nazi references. Previous mod warnings about blatantly partisan references to US politics led directly to thread closures.

Originally Posted by GordMay

What is corruption?
According to Transparency International:
"Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. It can be classified as grand, petty and political, depending on the amounts of money lost and the sector where it occurs ..."
Read More ☞ https://www.transparency.org/what-is-corruption#define

No doubt a correct definition from a purely academic standpoint, but it's also a common refrain used to demonize opposing sides for partisan purposes. It also results in some conflating more overt, malicious forms of corruption with the types that inevitably arise when more subtle incarnations of private gain are in play. For example, professional & personal prestige, career advancement, and increased financial security. There's nothing new about the human propensity for corrupting systems & processes without necessarily being personally corrupt in the more generic/academic sense of the word.

Originally Posted by GordMay

Speaking of diabetes (Singularity) ...
Why desperate Americans are driving to Canada in caravans for insulin
As the cost of insulin continues to skyrocket in the U.S., where pharmaceutical companies can dictate the price, people are making the trek north as an alternative to paying thousands of dollars to stay alive.
Insulin and many other drugs cost less in Canada, thanks to the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board, a federal agency that establishes the maximum price that can be charged for patented drugs ...
... Rachel Nystrom, who has Type 1 diabetes, requires insulin to stay alive. She is on a type of fast-acting insulin called NovoLog, which costs about $300 US a vial. The Canadian equivalent, NovoRapid, is about $30 per vial ...
More ☞ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-...ulin-1.5125988

There are many complex reasons behind disparities in prescription drug costs, but I understand why it's used to support the partisan meme that it should all be blamed on capitalistic profiteering in the US. As usual, that's only part of it, and such rationales -- while convenient for politicians -- ignores that true costs of prescription drugs must be paid, whether by individual consumers or collectively with socialized health care systems. There are costs & benefits to both. And in the case of diabetes, it ignores that much if not most of the epidemic of the disease derives from obesity, which in turn mostly (but not totally) derives from individual choices. I found Singularity's most recent post particularly insightful in this regard.

There's nothing new under the sun about the nature of humankind. Accepting that well-established fact would help reduce divisiveness and improve the chances of reaching consensus in achieving common goals.

[transmitterdan]

Originally Posted by GordMay

What is corruption?
According to Transparency International:
"Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. It can be classified as grand, petty and political, depending on the amounts of money lost and the sector where it occurs ..."
Read More ☞ https://www.transparency.org/what-is-corruption#define

That is not the definition used in the FCPA.

[Singularity]

Originally Posted by Exile

...There are many complex reasons behind disparities in prescription drug costs, but I understand why it's used to support the partisan meme that it should all be blamed on capitalistic profiteering...

I have to respectfully strongly disagree with this, sort of. True complex reasons are at play, true the issue is routinely used to support partisan divide, but also true that at least most of it (>51%) should be blamed on profiteering.

If I must pay $30,000 in Texas for a brand new made in Detroit Chevrolet car, when I can buy the exact same brand new car (made on Detroit on the same line 1 position behind the aforementioned car) in Peru for $4,000....and if neither the Peruvian government or some middleman subsidized the deal....well....this is nonsense. I'm not saying this for partisan reasons, I'm saying it because people in certain parts of the globe are getting seriously ripped off such that they can afford fewer things to promote their own health/safety.

Recognizing that this is a boating forum, I think the above example is very analogous to fees mariners pay to electronic charting companies. It's not like Garmin has a fleet of satellites, aircraft, and boats roaming the globe. In the aviation world (and I assume boating world) smaller ~map compiler companies have sprung up and then been bought out by the big guys. Back to the idea that it's hard to get someone to understand something when understanding the thing forces them to re-calibrate their worldview (i.e. particularly in realizing that they've been getting ripped off on something).

But so true that having your nose rubbed in it ordinarily puts the fists up where previously the hands may have been down and open...

[Exile]

Originally Posted by Singularity

I have to respectfully strongly disagree with this, sort of. True complex reasons are at play, true the issue is routinely used to support partisan divide, but also true that at least most of it (>51%) should be blamed on profiteering.

If I must pay $30,000 in Texas for a brand new made in Detroit Chevrolet car, when I can buy the exact same brand new car (made on Detroit on the same line 1 position behind the aforementioned car) in Peru for $4,000....and if neither the Peruvian government or some middleman subsidized the deal....well....this is nonsense. I'm not saying this for partisan reasons, I'm saying it because people in certain parts of the globe are getting seriously ripped off such that they can afford fewer things to promote their own health/safety.

Recognizing that this is a boating forum, I think the above example is very analogous to fees mariners pay to electronic charting companies. It's not like Garmin has a fleet of satellites, aircraft, and boats roaming the globe. In the aviation world (and I assume boating world) smaller ~map compiler companies have sprung up and then been bought out by the big guys. Back to the idea that it's hard to get someone to understand something when understanding the thing forces them to re-calibrate their worldview (i.e. particularly in realizing that they've been getting ripped off on something).

But so true that having your nose rubbed in it ordinarily puts the fists up where previously the hands may have been down and open...

I couldn't properly apportion the costs involved in the prescription drug market, nor attempt to explain the nuances of other markets, so couldn't knowledgeably agree or disagree. Maybe it's just the hyper-politicized & polarized times we're living through, but I find myself almost immediately skeptical when I sense partisan motives are involved. Maybe that's unwarranted in some cases, but what's always necessary is looking to the motives of parties or interests advancing or defending some cause. It's rarely a question of "good" or "bad" as some like to portray, but the quite predictable human inclination to advance one's own interests. Oftentimes it's nothing more than the selfish interest of wanting to claim superior morality over others. But even that all too often comes at someone else's expense.