The Earth is flat: dealing with fringe viewpoints in the pervasive internet era

My point is that testing the hypothesis often isn’t as straightforward as it seems, and you can end up doing bad science without realizing. Bad statistical methods are everywhere (see replication crisis) and even when people seem to be using good statistical methods there can be hidden flaws.

Apart from the papers and statistical tests, there is a social layer in science that sometimes works to filter out bad ideas (parapsychology - (man that is typo-prone!)) and sometimes serves to overlook problems (e.g. power poses, much of priming). In the very long run, the data pushes towards correct interpretations, but the process of overcoming the influence of particular personalities or social groups can take decades (“science advances one funeral at a time”).

Edit: People actually have a paper on the funeral effect: Does Science Advance One Funeral at a Time? | NBER

Ah, yeah, it went right by me. I do agree that most folks don’t care about science per se. Gotcha.

Yeah, that I can agree with.

There are a couple current and ex-NBA players who claim to be flat earthers. Shaq O’Neill and Kyrie Irving for two. But I am pretty sure they are just trolling the media.

I propose that we no longer refer to them on this forum as “fringe people” but instead use the more appropriate term…“people of the land. The common clay of the new West.”

Lol!

Solid.

Kinda late to the game here with they reply, but…

At least in the journals my lab publishes in (Science, nature, cell) there is always one pure math / statistics reviewer in addition to the other peers doing review. I think some of fields (like genetics) have upped their game significantly in the last 15 years and are now far more rigorous. That said, doing our best to eliminate bias (by say not selecting a model that makes incorrect assumptions about your data) is the sort of thing that keeps me up at night.

If you can only get your paper published in a low impact/citation journal (that happens to have more minimal peer review) then that can speak to the quality of your work.

These junk sciences don’t get published in credible journals for a reason.

Got to this video by way of Sci Man Dan. Very interesting.

This would need to occur off-screen, of course. But no one ever clarifies whether the Red Pill in The Matrix might work better as a suppository.

I saw an article the other day where NBA star Seth Curry admitted in an internet interview that he thought the moon landing was fake. He was talking with Kyrie Irving, who in the past has claimed the earth was flat.

I work at a university doing economic research, and used to share an office with another researcher who was well-adjusted and intelligent. One day she randomly tells me that she doesn’t think the moon landing was real. I was shocked, but tried to list a bunch of things off the top of my head that would suggest the doubt is baseless. Her only real response was that she doesn’t think back then in the 60s they had the tech to do something like that, it just wasn’t believable (!). I guess the moral of the story is that everyone has their blindspots,

Dear God. It’s Steph Curry, and he was talking to Vince Carter and Kent Bazemore on their podcast (Andre Iguodala was there too), not Kyrie Irving. And it was fairly obvious they were just f’ing around.

I don’t know who any of these people are LOL. In fact I couldn’t name a single NBA player. But ask me about awesome, active scientists and I’ll list a ton :)

Well, you may be right, it was a podcast but the story I read had Kyrie Irving in it. And yea, I knew it was Steph and until now didn’t realize I had written Seth. My bad.

Poor Seth Curry. And Trayce Thompson. In any other families they wouldn’t be the disappointing “other” brother.

They’re both wearing Batman shirts! CONSPIRACY!

The same ideas lead to weird ideas about the pyramids, Stonehenge, and other incredible works humanity has performed for the last 10,000 or so years. But for someone to apply that same thought line to something so recent, when so many people involved are still alive, is also an incredible feat in its own sad way.

Humanity is not advanced enough yet to build the Hardees a few blocks from my apartment. Must have been aliens.

Thanks social media :(