Tuesday 10 September 2013

Talking B*ll*cks

I'm indebted to Brit (it's that man again!) for this story from the incomparable BBC Science website, which he describes, accurately enough, as 'beyond parody'. Like most such 'stories', it proceeds from confidently assertive headline through a process of gradual deflation to a long tail of caveats and provisos that are as good as saying 'Take no notice of any of the above'. You have to wonder why it crossed their minds to investigate testicle size in the first place - was it part of a more general experiment, or just the one measurement? And how exactly does one measure testicle size/volume? Is there special equipment? The mind boggles... For myself I'm quite sure that men with larger noses make more hands-on fathers - I think this hypothesis should be put to the test without delay. These things matter!   

4 comments:

  1. This explains the Luftwaffe's ultimate defeat. It had nothing to do with the heroism of "the few" or American prowess. Hermann kept missing High Command strategy meetings to bath little Edda and change her nappies.

    It's now automatic for me with these kinds of reports of scientific epiphanies to scroll down looking for the disclaimer that more research is needed. It's there. Good work, gents, more jobs for the boys. At least, I hope they're for the boys.

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  2. Ho ho - of course! And Himmler was very similar...

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  3. Note the size of the sample, too - "70 men who had children between the ages of one and two".

    Is that really a quorum?

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  4. There is a well proven link between the utterances of academia and the size of it's funding gap.

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