What is this I don't even



  • Recent failblog post

    The original article (read the comments at the bottom)

    Take of it what you will, I'm too tired to think about it too much right now. But I think there's some sort of WTF involved somewhere.



  • Here's why.

    NSF funding only goes to the top 95% of submitted research proposals, and believe me they get a lot of them; just because ABC News is "not entirely clear" on the purpose of the shrimp-on-a-treadmill doesn't mean that the people who are doing the research have no idea why they're doing it; as part of the NSF grant proposal process, they must have written a very good justification for the study, and since such grant proposals are in the public domain it's kind of weird that ABC couldn't get the purpose from that.

    And fundamentally, the whole thing falls foul of Amdahl's Law. The NSF gets less than 1% of the federal budget; cutting things in it is not going to have a significant effect on anything, besides killing American research even more.



  • My main question with this is, who let Starr Keshet get near a keyboard and allow him to post on what seems to be a tech blog, and how can a fairly popular website like failblog just copy that as a "fail" without much research?

    Okay, so failblog is based on a upview system, and mods just quickly look over the submissions to censor cuss words. And admittedly, most stuff on failblog is just kids hurting their heads. Still I find it disturbing that this made frontpage.



  • I'd say this video is worth $500k, easy. Maybe more.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    I'd say this video is worth $500k, easy. Maybe more.

    True that.



  • With that subject name, I was thinking this thread had better be good.  I was not disappointed.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    I'd say this video is worth $500k, easy. Maybe more.

     

    Great video.  A couple of observations:

    1.  The song is called "Yackety Sax",  why people don't get that right is beyond me.

    2.  Upon seeing live shrimp, I almost don't ever want to one again.



  • @frits said:

    1.  The song is called "Yackety Sax",  why people don't get that right is beyond me.

    +1
    @frits said:
    2.  Upon seeing live shrimp, I almost don't ever want to one again.

    On the Moon



  • @frits said:

    1.  The song is called "Yackety Sax",  why people don't get that right is beyond me.

    You realize that the song can be named Yackety Sax and simultaneously be the Benny Hill theme, yes? If someone talks about the Monty Python theme do you get all pissy, demanding that they call it The Liberty Bell? TURNS OUT THINGS CAN HAVE MORE THAN ONE NAME!

    Pedantry is one thing, but pedantry that isn't even correct in the first place is on a whole new level.



  • [url=http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/998264--why-it-s-important-to-put-a-shrimp-on-a-treadmill]A more sensible article.[/url]



  • My question is, why does the shrimp feel obligated to actually move on the treadmill? It's in water, there's no reason it couldn't just swim away!



  • @Scarlet Manuka said:

    A more sensible article.

    For anyone too lazy to read it, the article says the research was conducted years ago. The actual treadmill only cost about $48 and was used to simulate the shrimps normal level of activity in the wild. This was simply a tiny portion of a much larger study on bacterial issues the shrimp were encountering.



  • @Soviut said:

    For anyone too lazy to read it, the article says the research was conducted years ago. The actual treadmill only cost about $48 and was used to simulate the shrimps normal level of activity in the wild. This was simply a tiny portion of a much larger study on bacterial issues the shrimp were encountering.

    Are you telling me that a blog and ABC News just ran some made-up story, just for pointing fingers at politically-correct research gone mad, instead of trying to figure out what it was about and if there might have been some goal to the original grant application? Well, sad to say, but that figures. Most research is very specialized, and news reporters, and very, very many bloggers, are totally incapable of getting it. It's sad that they then try to whip up popular discontent anyway.

    Bad science journalism, there's a real Worse Than Failure.



  • @TGV said:

    Are you telling me that a blog and ABC News just ran some made-up story, just for pointing fingers at politically-correct research gone mad, instead of trying to figure out what it was about and if there might have been some goal to the original grant application? Well, sad to say, but that figures. Most research is very specialized, and news reporters, and very, very many bloggers, are totally incapable of getting it. It's sad that they then try to whip up popular discontent anyway.

    Bad science journalism, there's a real Worse Than Failure.

     

    That and most journalists just take whatever tiny, tiny, tiny piece of an overall researched topic will make the best story and blow it up into a full blown expose.  It's the one downside to a commercial based media, they have to compete and thusly have to get your attention, and unfortunately, most American's aren't interested in factual reading.

     



  • @blakeyrat said:

    @frits said:
    1.  The song is called "Yackety Sax",  why people don't get that right is beyond me.
    You realize that the song can be named Yackety Sax and simultaneously be the Benny Hill theme, yes? If someone talks about the Monty Python theme do you get all pissy, demanding that they call it The Liberty Bell? TURNS OUT THINGS CAN HAVE MORE THAN ONE NAME!

    Pedantry is one thing, but pedantry that isn't even correct in the first place is on a whole new level.

    I wasn't getting all pissy, just making a silly observation.  I couldn't care less about arguing about it or even being right. 

    I liked the video, BTW, and appreciate that you posted it.



  • @frits said:

    With that subject name, I was thinking this thread had better be good.  I was not disappoint.


    FTFY.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    TURNS OUT THINGS CAN HAVE MORE THAN ONE NAME!

    But isn't it easier if everything has the same name?



  • @Someone You Know said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    TURNS OUT THINGS CAN HAVE MORE THAN ONE NAME!

    But isn't it easier if everything has the same name?

    Everyone should be named "me".

     



  • @frits said:

    I wasn't getting all pissy, just making a silly observation.

    Nope! You ain't shaking the hook this easily!

    @frits said:

    I couldn't care less about arguing about it or even being right.

    Then why did you make it half the content of your post? I'm-a callin' you out, pedant!



  • @blakeyrat said:

    I'd say this video is worth $500k of someone else's money, easy. Maybe more.
    FTFY.@frits said:
    1.  The song is called "Yackety Sax",  why people don't get that right is beyond me.
    Also, the "Tetris theme" is a Russian folk song called Korobeiniki. This is relatively well known.

    "Mahna Mahna" isn't a Muppets original either. So says Wikipedia:

    "Mah Nà Mah Nà" debuted as part of Umiliani's soundtrack for the Italian mondo film Svezia, inferno e paradiso (Sweden: Heaven and Hell [lit. Hell and Heaven]) (1968), a pseudo-documentary about wild sexual activity and other behaviour in Sweden. The song accompanied a scene in the film set in a sauna which gave its original title "Viva la Sauna Svedese" (Hooray for the Swedish Sauna).


  • @blakeyrat said:

    @frits said:
    I couldn't care less about arguing about it or even being right.
    Then why did you make it half the content of your post? I'm-a callin' you out, pedant!

     

    Half?! It was only...wait a minute!



  • @Zecc said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    I'd say this video is worth $500k of someone else's money, easy. Maybe more.
    FTFY.@frits said:
    1.  The song is called "Yackety Sax",  why people don't get that right is beyond me.
    Also, the "Tetris theme" is a Russian folk song called Korobeiniki. This is relatively well known.

    "Mahna Mahna" isn't a Muppets original either. So says Wikipedia:

    "Mah Nà Mah Nà" debuted as part of Umiliani's soundtrack for the Italian mondo film Svezia, inferno e paradiso (Sweden: Heaven and Hell [lit. Hell and Heaven]) (1968), a pseudo-documentary about wild sexual activity and other behaviour in Sweden. The song accompanied a scene in the film set in a sauna which gave its original title "Viva la Sauna Svedese" (Hooray for the Swedish Sauna).

    Yeah, yeah...

    Also, what I used to think was called "The Road Warriors Walkout Theme" is really called "Iron Man".



  • @frits said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    @frits said:
    1.  The song is called "Yackety Sax",  why people don't get that right is beyond me.
    You realize that the song can be named Yackety Sax and simultaneously be the Benny Hill theme, yes? If someone talks about the Monty Python theme do you get all pissy, demanding that they call it The Liberty Bell? TURNS OUT THINGS CAN HAVE MORE THAN ONE NAME!

    Pedantry is one thing, but pedantry that isn't even correct in the first place is on a whole new level.

    I wasn't getting all pissy, just making a silly observation.  I couldn't care less about arguing about it or even being right. 

    You were right anyway: it wasn't the Benny Hill theme. It was simply featured in that show on numerous occasions.



  • @bertram said:

    @frits said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    @frits said:
    1.  The song is called "Yackety Sax",  why people don't get that right is beyond me.
    You realize that the song can be named Yackety Sax and simultaneously be the Benny Hill theme, yes? If someone talks about the Monty Python theme do you get all pissy, demanding that they call it The Liberty Bell? TURNS OUT THINGS CAN HAVE MORE THAN ONE NAME!

    Pedantry is one thing, but pedantry that isn't even correct in the first place is on a whole new level.

    I wasn't getting all pissy, just making a silly observation.  I couldn't care less about arguing about it or even being right. 

    You were right anyway: it wasn't the Benny Hill theme. It was simply featured in that show on numerous occasions.

    But he was also wrong, because it's spelled "Yakety", not "Yackety".



  • @Spectre said:

    @bertram said:
    @frits said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    @frits said:
    1.  The song is called "Yackety Sax",  why people don't get that right is beyond me.
    You realize that the song can be named Yackety Sax and simultaneously be the Benny Hill theme, yes? If someone talks about the Monty Python theme do you get all pissy, demanding that they call it The Liberty Bell? TURNS OUT THINGS CAN HAVE MORE THAN ONE NAME!

    Pedantry is one thing, but pedantry that isn't even correct in the first place is on a whole new level.

    I wasn't getting all pissy, just making a silly observation.  I couldn't care less about arguing about it or even being right. 

    You were right anyway: it wasn't the Benny Hill theme. It was simply featured in that show on numerous occasions.
    But he was also wrong, because it's spelled "Yakety", not "Yackety".

    It actually was the theme music for The Benny Hill Show, so it looks like I'm wrong all around.  Good for me.

     



  • @toth said:

    My question is, why does the shrimp feel obligated to actually move on the treadmill? It's in water, there's no reason it couldn't just swim away!

    It's not in a very big tank.



  • @Master Chief said:

    @TGV said:

    Are you telling me that a blog and ABC News just ran some made-up story, just for pointing fingers at politically-correct research gone mad, instead of trying to figure out what it was about and if there might have been some goal to the original grant application? Well, sad to say, but that figures. Most research is very specialized, and news reporters, and very, very many bloggers, are totally incapable of getting it. It's sad that they then try to whip up popular discontent anyway.

    Bad science journalism, there's a real Worse Than Failure.

     

    That and most journalists just take whatever tiny, tiny, tiny piece of an overall researched topic will make the best story and blow it up into a full blown expose.  It's the one downside to a commercial based media, they have to compete and thusly have to get your attention, and unfortunately, most American's aren't interested in factual reading.

     

    the guest (@11:25) on wednesday's daily show talked about something relevant to this

     


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