Repeat: “utilize” is NOT the same thing as “use.” Note that. That is all.
Squishy!
An informal lesson in reading “squishy science” papers touting “associations” and “correlations” would include looking at data sources and the means of obtaining them. For example, this sentence, in a posting of a paper’s abstract (followed by the paper itself) touting some rather scary statements is a red flag:
“Extensive dietary information was collected approximately every 4 years with a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire.”
1. Self-reporting. 2. “Squishy” term: “semiquantitative.” Those two things alone, quite apart from the simple fact that no mechanism for the squishy report “results” was even suggested by the questionable data means that the paper might be interesting, but not all that interesting. It might give someone a place to start making guesses, but there’s nothing that would be as firm as a hypothesis lurking anywhere in this or other “squishy” papers.
There are tons and tons and tons of squishy “peer reviewed” papers out there, hiding the facts of poor data and little real information in statistical manipulation and other squish.
No, I’ll not link the paper. Heck, you can probably find it by searching on the one sentence I quoted, so maybe that’s just petty of me. 😉
Just a Wee FYI
Just an FYI: you probably (almost certainly) do not know everything you think you know. (I know I do not, which, perhaps, makes learning new things daily much easier for me in a way.)
No one’s knowledge is exhaustive, even in areas of professional specialization. KNOWING that there is always more “out there, somewhere” to learn about every topic one is aware of (there are many topics that you and I aren’t even aware are areas of knowledge–think on that one, eh? 😉 ) can, if one lets it, encourage one to just keep on learning.
A day w/o learning something new–even, or perhaps especially, when it is something new about something “old,” old knowledge to us–IMO, is a day wasted.
Just sayin’.
Quick Fix for “Cold Coffee Syndrome” ;-)
Sometimes, when I have yet to reach Optimal Coffee Levels, I set my mug down and. . . forget to sip The Holy Brew while it is at the proper temp. I used to keep an electric cup warmer on my desk for those times when my mind wandered, but my last use of such a thing was ~20 years ago, so. . .
REALY effective “silver bullet” thermos that holds a coupla mugs full of coffee. Pour some into a teensy lil eleven ounce cup and sip. Even if my mind wanders to something task-oriented and I let it cool, it’s usually only a coupla ounces that are cool and easily warmed up to nearly optimal temp with a refreshing from the thermos.
I know, I know: it’d be better to just practice better coffee/memory discipline. *shrugs* Lazy, I guess.
FYI: Just for Those Who Do Halloween Stuff
Be warned:
“Orange and Black is a registered trademark of the Black abd Decker Corporation”
Now you know.
Off the Left Field Wall
I hate allergies. A sneeze-cough while eating some delicious red beans and rice seasoned with freshly chopped habanero pepper. You got it. Habanero pepper bits caught in sinuses. *sigh* Grateful fir ready-mixed, lightly-pressurized nasal wash. *heh*
(BTW, the pressurized air-fryer/instapot did a great job with all elements of the red “beans and rice”–from caramelizing onions, to sauteeing the “polish” sausage, to bringing it all together on a “stew” setting–rice previously cooked, and I used canned red beans).
Blurb for “That’ll Leave a Mark”
“That’ll Leave a Mark”–the gripping tale of a proofreader who lapsed into a comma, overcome by excessive punctuation.
“Pro” Tip
If you live in a jurisdiction where “one party” recording rules apply, whenever interacting with any “authority figure,” record the interaction. If the interaction is with a LEO, record it no matter what (1st Amendment and due process protections should apply, at least according to some recent federal court decisions). Just in case, ya know.
Oh, and having one’s own dash cam? Great idea. I got lucky once, about 30 years ago, and had a judge who was very familiar with a particular stop sign (it was in his neighborhood and he stopped at it all the time) and KNEW the LEO could NOT have seen what he testified he saw.
Sometimes, it’s the little things, ya know?
*smh* at an otherwise quite competent writer who committed two wrongs in a recent work: consistently misusing “surly” when meaning “surEly” and failing to hire a competent proofreader (or editor). Apart from that consistent error, this particular piece is actually pretty good. Still. . . it’s little things like this that irk–sometimes more than major gaffs.
Am I becoming my mother?
Oh [explains self], I called one of the cats by another cat’s name today. *shrugs* I figured out which name was which eventually.