Thursday 19 November 2009

Research-U-Like

Hot off the production line at Research-U-Like comes the latest on booze. After a lifetime of diligent research in the field, I'd formed much the same conclusion myself - but it's always nice to have one's hunches confirmed.

9 comments:

  1. God bless the scientific method and the BBC. If you don't like the findings of the latest study, just be patient because the precise opposite will be along in a minute. There was a good one recently about Baby Einstein DVDs supposedly harming language development. My guess would be that baby DVDs and crap language development are both symptoms of the same cause rather than one being the cause of the other, but Disney was having to refund them left right and centre.

    When NN Taleb said that he avoids the news because it decreases his understanding of the world, he said a wise thing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ... So does Keith Floyd prove the unscientific reality? I'm so enjoying his wonderful autobiography, Stirred But Not Shaken on Radio 4's Book of the Week. Don't think I've ever heard food (and drink) described with such passion - and always best to die happy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Recognition at last, for decades yours truly has spread the word, few listened, many scoffed, well, Eau de Bacchus to them.
    Mind you, poor old Burton went a tad over, I mean, one bottle of Vodka before brekkie, he could have strung it out as far as elevenses.
    Someone please tell the ScotsNats, they are muttering about charging me for beedoubleozee by the unit!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Floyd didn't seem at all happy on that Keith Allen programme, mind.

    ReplyDelete
  5. But then, who would be happy on a Keith Allen programme?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hunches? That just won't do, Nige. If we are to beat back the barbaric hordes of scientism, we must use more strategic lingo. They will just laugh at talk of hunches and roll over you. The phrase you want is "inductive, experiential knowledge". Drives them nuts and causes them to make a strategic retreat for another conference.

    But remember, like Pandora's Box, inductive experiential knowledge must be handled with great care and caution as it can lead you to come to believe regular alcohol consumption in infants is good for their language development.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Our Euro partners in Germany have a saying 'Gesundheit aus der Flasche', cheers Klaus.
    Red wine has only marginally less antioxidant than pomegranate juice and what sane person would allow that stuff past their lips.

    Peter, inebriation from cradle to grave doesn't seem to have bothered the Scots.

    Proof?, do I hear you say, average life expectancy 55, I rest my case.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Actually, malty, a recent study from the University of Wisconsin suggests early alcohol consumption is indeed good for language development in infants, but only for Gaelic.

    ReplyDelete