Study of Academic Psychology Research Finds More Than Half Unreliable

Psychologists testify in courts making predictions about the future based on personal opinions which cause people to lose their freedom. On Friday August 28, 2015 Rush Limbaugh discussed this story and noted that the same problem exists with other kinds of academic research. Universities like Harvard get $140 million a year in taxpayer funds to do research. How reliable are their published findings? They are permitted to be their own judges. Clueless politicians adore these academic priests and use what they say to make public policy. How strange is that?



[From article]
A major investigation into scores of claims made in psychology research journals has delivered a bleak verdict on the state of the science.
An international team of experts repeated 100 experiments published in top psychology journals and found that they could reproduce only 36% of original findings.
The study, which saw 270 scientists repeat experiments on five continents, was launched by psychologists in the US in response to rising concerns over the reliability of psychology research.
[. . .]
Brian Nosek, a professor at the University of Virgina: “Science is a process of uncertainty reduction, and no one study is almost ever a definitive result on its own.”
[. . .]
In the investigation, a whopping 75% of the social psychology experiments were not replicated, meaning that the originally reported findings vanished when other scientists repeated the experiments. Half of the cognitive psychology studies failed the same test. Details are published in the journal Science.

[. . .]



“Scepticism is a core part of science and we need to embrace it. If the evidence is tentative, you should be sceptical of your evidence. We should be our own worst critics,” [Nosek] told the Guardian.
[. . .]
In 2005, [John Ioannidis, professor of health research and policy at Stanford University] published a seminal study that explained why most published research findings are false.
Marcus Munafo, a co-author on the study and professor of psychology at Bristol University, said: “I think it’s a problem across the board, because wherever people have looked, they have found similar issues.” In 2013, he published a report with Ioannidis that found serious statistical weaknesses were common in neuroscience studies.




http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/aug/27/study-delivers-bleak-verdict-on-validity-of-psychology-experiment-results


Study delivers bleak verdict on validity of psychology experiment results
Of 100 studies published in top-ranking journals in 2008, 75% of social psychology experiments and half of cognitive studies failed the replication test
Psychology experiments are failing the replication test – for good reason
There are many reasons why an experiment might fail to replicate, but more than this, the study has highlighted some issues with academic publishing and modern science.
Ian Sample Science editor
@iansample
Thursday 27 August 2015 14.00 EDT

Cloned Fingerprints Can be Used To Thwart Security, Microsoft Says So What!

Will the cloned fingerprints also be used to place evidence of crimes that a person did not commit? The FBI will love that capability.

Samsung Galaxy S5 flaw allows hackers to clone fingerprints
Biometric information has long been touted as the solution to the ever-fallible password, but new research has shown that it may not be as safe as generally assumed. Hackers may be able to clone fingerprints and gain access to phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S5’s software, according to cyber-security company FireEye. It is possible to steal biometric date, essentially the fingerprint, before it reaches a segmented and encrypted “safe zone” and create copies of people’s fingerprints for further attacks on their phone, Tao Wei and Yulong Zhang claims.

And then there is this:

Windows 10 could kill off the password
The upcoming Windows 10 operating system could do away with passwords, replacing them with biometric authentication like fingerprints. The new Microsoft operating system will support the Fast Identification Online (Fido) system, which allows computers to be accessed using physical and behavioural characteristics, rather than typed-out passwords. Technology companies have long been trying to move beyond the password because they are inefficient for the user, since they require remembering and typing in a long code, and insecure because once found other people can use them to login

Online Popularity Misleading, Easy to Fake

Suicide is an awful tragedy. But relying on social media as evidence of popular support is questionable. It is extremely easy to fake thousands of supporters online. It happens often. Do not be misled by statistics of online support. Wait till election geniuses allow voting online. Fraud will increase exponentially.

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20150424/NEWS/150428107

Faith in Action column: Conversion therapies' deadly outcomes
By Rev. Irene Monroe
Posted Apr. 24, 2015 at 8:41 AM
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle

Pervasive Misconduct Among Obama's Legal Advisers

[From article]
As Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski has written, prosecutorial misconduct has become “an epidemic.” And evidence has come to light that our president, the nation’s chief law enforcement official, seeks his counsel from the worst.
If ever a picture was worth a thousand words, it is a recently released White House photo of President Obama and his muses—if one only knew the truth behind those muses whispering in the President’s ear as they strategized in the aftermath of the Benghazi tragedy. To understand the (politely-put) “lack of transparency” from the White House, the enormous politicization of the Department of Justice, the release of Taliban leaders from Guantanamo, refusal to cooperate with congressional investigations, the IRS’s harassment of political opponents, and the cover-up of Benghazi, read on.
[. . .]
Disturbingly, evidence has surfaced that the President Obama’s close friend and senior advisor violated her oath “to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” the rules of legal ethics, not to mention the law. As a senior member of the Enron Task Force, Ms. Ruemmler prosecuted four Merrill Lynch executives and sent them to prison on an indictment that was “fatally flawed.” The conduct the prosecutors alleged was not criminal. At the same time, she deliberately hid exculpatory evidence—that is, evidence she was constitutionally compelled to hand over to the defense. Indeed, the prosecutors not only acknowledge the evidence as exculpatory, they yellow-highlighted it as such—then buried it.
[. . .]
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ultimately reversed 12 out of 14 counts of conviction against the executives, acquitting one entirely. All the defendants were released, after having spent up to a year in prison on a sham indictment, while Ms. Ruemmler and her cronies continued both to hide the evidence that defeated the government’s case and to demand that the Merrill executives be prosecuted a second time on the same indictment.
[. . .]
who now heads the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice? Ms. Caldwell spearheaded the destruction of Arthur Andersen LLP and its 85,000 jobs only to be reversed 9-0 by the Supreme Court because of the flawed indictment and the absence of criminal intent.
[. . .]
All of their trials were tainted with Supreme Court and appellate reversals, outrageous abuses of government power, a plethora of prosecutorial misconduct, and even guilty pleas had to be withdrawn because of their over-reaching.
[. . .]
as George F. Will politely described it in the Washington Post, “accident-prone.” Individually or combined, their disregard for truth, for individual rights and liberties, their willingness to hide evidence and intimidate witnesses, and their contempt of Congress and for the Rule of Law, is staggering.

http://observer.com/2014/06/all-the-presidents-muses-obama-and-prosecutorial-misconduct/

All the President’s Muses: Obama and Prosecutorial Misconduct
Chronic bungling by DOJ officials who have the President's ear.
By Sidney Powell

06/13/14 11:25am

Wikipedia Unreliable Research Resource

[From article]
It’s easy to laugh off the Big Apple howlers. But millions take Wikipedia as gospel on more challenging subjects, from Kenya’s Mau Mau war to nuclear fission, which can’t be checked with a stroll around the block. What a travesty for journalism, for education and for what we once called “knowledge.”

http://nypost.com/2013/11/16/dont-trust-anything-on-wikipedia/

Don’t trust anything on Wikipedia
By Steve Cuozzo
November 16, 2013 | 8:30pm
New York Post

Obama's Words Unreliable

[From article]
The Obama administration’s high level of opacity, though typical of
modern presidencies, is troubling precisely because the president was
so clear about his determination to do things differently. As recently
as early last year, some open-government advocates were still hopeful,
presenting Obama with an anti-secrecy award at the White House. But
even then, there were signs of trouble: The award presentation wasn’t
on his schedule and was closed to reporters.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-open-and-shut-administration/2012/12/03/0fe12754-3d9f-11e2-ae43-cf491b837f7b_story.html?hpid=z7

The open-and-shut administration
By Dana Milbank,
Washington Post
Published: December 3, 2012

Man Almost Executed on Flawed Evidence Seeks New Trial

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2200236/Carlton-Gary-The-shocking-Death-Row-injustice-The-Stocking-Strangler.html

No fingerprints and a dodgy confession in a Ku Klux Klan stronghold: The shocking Death Row injustice of 'The Stocking Strangler'
By DAVID ROSE
THE MAN WHO FIRST SAVED CARLTON GARY FROM EXECUTION IN 2009
Daily Mail (UK)
PUBLISHED: 16:00 EST, 8 September 2012 | UPDATED: 16:00 EST, 8 September 2012

It is Possible to Fake DNA Evidence


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/science/18dna.html?_r=1

DNA Evidence Can Be Fabricated, Scientists Show
By ANDREW POLLACK
New York Times
Published: August 17, 2009