Month: November 2010

Potti: The Final Act

Seth Roberts1 Comment

Dr. Amil Potti has resigned from Duke. The clinical trials based on his (faked) research have been stopped. Duke has not exactly covered itself with glory. The two statisticians who first noticed a problem:

In November 2009, we identified and reported the exact problems now cited for retracting the paper…. Given that Duke knew of these problems, why were (Potti’s) clinical trials reopened in January 2010?”

And:

Experts say that Nevins [“who supported his collaborator Potti through four years of controversy over reliability of their findings”] has admitted that the clinical trials that followed the laboratory research — more accurately described as experiments with human beings — harmed patients. Up until this moment, Duke has steadfastly denied this; and in a Halloween statement, Duke affirmed “we do not believe that patients were endangered.”

Recall that the case against Potti attracted notice only when it was discovered he wrongly said he had won a Rhodes Fellowship. Giving new meaning to the devil is in the details.Â

Assorted Links

Seth Roberts3 Comments
  • Plagiarism by Dr. Shervert Frazier, a Harvard psychiatrist and at one point director of the National Institute of Mental Health
  • David Shenk on talent & genius: why rely on homilies when we have data?
  • Should practice tests have warning labels? Apparently. A University of Central Florida business professor creates a test using a test bank, tells students he wrote the test, and says students who studied questions from the test bank are cheaters!

The New Yorker on Fermentation

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Which is it, New Yorker editors?

Page 66 of the food issue:

Pickled cabbage is not romantic or fashionable.

Page 107 of the food issue:

“This [interest in fermented foods] is a revolution of the everyday,” says [Sandor] Katz, “and it is already happening.”

After zero recipes for sauerkraut in all previous issues of the magazine, this issue of The New Yorker contains two.

Thanks to Tyler Cowen and Dave Lull.

Secrets of Chinese Retail

Seth Roberts2 Comments

In Chinese supermarkets now and then you see a large and a small version of something taped together — for the price of the large version! For example, a quart of milk and a pint of milk taped together, sold at the price of one quart. Wow, you think, for the same price I get 50% more.
Today I looked closely at one of these deals. The milk was several days older than the rest of the milk for sale. I realized it was the Chinese equivalent of putting a day-old sticker on something and selling it at half-price. Day-old stickers have negative connotations (“stale”) but the taped packages have positive ones (“your lucky day”).

Guan Er Dai

Seth Roberts6 Comments

A few years ago the Chinese people invented a new noun: guan er dai (官二代), meaning the children of government officials. There was already fu er dai, meaning the children of rich people.

The reason for the new term is that guan er dai act badly. A few weeks ago at Hebei University, a guan er dai, driving a car on campus, hit and killed a girl. Angry bystanders gathered around the car. “My father is Li Gang!” shouted the guan er dai. Li Gang is a mid-level police official. Not especially powerful, but powerful enough. Hubei University covered up the incident.

Government officials have always been very powerful, said the friend who told me this. But only recently have people become aware of this. This is why guan er dai is a new term.

A few years ago a Tsinghua sociology professor and a graduate student wrote a book about the hierarchy within Chinese society. Government officials on top, below them business people, and so on. Perhaps farmers at the bottom. The government did not allow this book to be published — “we are not on top of society, we are the servants!” said a government official. All that work, down the drain.

More The reckless driver was sentenced to three years in prison. The New York Times has a long article about this.

My Theory of Human Evolution (letterpress printing)

Seth Roberts1 Comment

According to my theory of human evolution, a liking for ceremonies evolved because ceremonies increased innovation. Ceremonies increase demand for hard-to-make stuff, which helps the most skilled artisans make a living.

Stephanie Laursen, a letterpress printer, is an example. Letterpress printing is difficult. Larsen is a skilled artisan. She makes a living from wedding invitations. Without wedding ceremonies, she would probably be doing something else.

For Whom Do English Departments Exist?

Seth Roberts7 Comments

In an account of ghostwriting for students (i.e., term-paper factory) the following story stood out:

Although my university experience did not live up to its vaunted reputation, it did lead me to where I am today. . . . I was determined to write for a living, and, moreover, to spend these extremely expensive years learning how to do so. When I completed my first novel, in the summer between sophomore and junior years, I contacted the English department about creating an independent study around editing and publishing it. I was received like a mental patient. I was told, “There’s nothing like that here.” I was told that I could go back to my classes, sit in my lectures, and fill out Scantron tests until I graduated.

Inconvenient human nature. He wanted to learn something the school didn’t formally teach. The school controlled something precious that he needed — time. The rest of his life was at stake, but it wouldn’t give it to him.

His college was like a diet without necessary nutrients. It stunted growth.

For whom do colleges exist?

Stroke and Saturated Fat

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A 1997 epidemiological study, which I just learned about, found that increases in saturated fat intake were associated with a lower risk of stroke. Sampling from among the papers that cited it, this study found a non-significant change in the same direction. This study found a significant change in the same direction in Japanese, who eat a low amount of saturated fat. This is especially interesting because many people assumed that the high rate of stroke among Japanese was due to high salt intake. This finding suggests it is due to low saturated fat intake.

As I said in a recent post, this sort of consistency across studies on a question of enormous interest argues against the severest critics of epidemiology, such as John Ioannidis.