I thought you might be interested in this job advert from the Independent. Read the rest of this entry »
The Wakefield MMR verdict
Here’s a very brief piece I bashed out for the Guardian newsdesk today on the Wakefield finding, the further reading below will be more helpful if you’re interested in the story.
Ben Goldacre, The Guardian, Thursday 28 January 2009
In medicine, “untoward incident inquiries” tend to look for systems failures, rather than one individual to blame. Read the rest of this entry »
12 Monkeys. No… 8. Wait, sorry, I meant 14.
Ben Goldacre, The Guardian, Saturday 23 January 2010
Like many people, you’re possibly afraid to share your views on animal experiments, because you don’t want anyone digging up your grandmother’s grave, or setting fire to your house, or stuff like that. Animal experiments are necessary, they need to be properly regulated, and we have some of the tightest regulation in the world. Read the rest of this entry »
LlewTube
Brief note to say I’m a guest on LlewTube this week with Robert Llewellyn (or Kryten off of Red Dwarf if you prefer). The show’s great generally, and a galaxy of nerds, recent guests include Patrick Stewart, Graham Linehan, Martha Lane Fox, Adrian Edmondson, Brian Cox, and the rest. It’s also a genius format for interviews: cars are an intimate space where eye contact is not mandatory and occasional silences are acceptable. I mean, we didn’t talk about anything intimate. I’m just saying.
Anyway, video is right here, clicketyclick Read the rest of this entry »
Voices of the ancients
Ben Goldacre, The Guardian, Saturday 16 January 2010
Every now and then you have to salute a genius. Both the Daily Mail and the Metro report new research analysing the positions of Britain’s ancient sites, and the results are startling: primitive man had his own form of “sat nav”. Researcher Tom Brooks analysed 1,500 prehistoric monuments, and found them all to be on a grid of isosceles triangles, each pointing to the next site, allowing our ancestors to travel between settlements with pinpoint accuracy. The papers even carried an example of his map work, which I have reproduced here.
If you want to be trusted more: claim less
Ben Goldacre, The Guardian, Saturday 8 January 2009
“Public sector pay races ahead in a recession” shouted the front page of this week’s Sunday Times. “Public sector workers earn 7% more on average than their peers in the private sector — a pay gulf that has more than doubled since the recession began.” The Telegraph followed up with a copycat story a few hours later.
In reality, this is one of those interesting areas where anybody who makes a firm statement is wrong, because there is not sufficient evidence to make a confident assertion in either direction.
