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Did they add the site's tagline after most of these HN comments were made? It clearly reads, "Help to make sense of the Daily Mail's ongoing effort to classify
by mcantor 16y ago
Did they add the site's tagline after most of these HN comments were made? It clearly reads, "Help to make sense of the Daily Mail's ongoing effort to classify every inanimate object into those that cause cancer and those that prevent it," which makes it pretty obvious that they're poking fun. Everyone here seems to be reacting as if this site is claiming to be a reputable source of information about cancer-causing materials.
EDIT: Oops... looks like acangiano beat me to it: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1495362 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1495362
We even both used the term "tagline," which is kind of interesting, since it could just easily have been called a "subtitle" or something.
- tcdent 16y agoSure, The Daily Mail, just like any other mainstream news source creates sensationalist headlines to shock you into reading. That doesn't make the studies cited any less accurate. Nor should it prevent us from having an on-topic conversation about something more in-depth.
- bruceboughton 16y agoThe Daily Mail is more than just sensationalist. Not quite as bad as today's Daily Express headline though: http://www.express.co.uk/ourpaper/view/2010-07-08 http://www.express.co.uk/ourpaper/view/2010-07-08
- nevinera 16y ago>That doesn't make the studies cited any less accurate. No, but it does make it statistically more likely that they are inaccurate. It's known as 'study selection bias'.
- joe_the_user 16y agoStatistics should only be applied to fairly uniform and understandable phenomena. Applying statistical likelihood in this instance is stretching the bounds of statistics considerably more than The Daily Mail stretched them.
- nevinera 16y agoNo, applying statistical methods to this instance is unreasonable. Observing that selection bias skews the probabilities involved is perfectly reasonable, and indeed almost necessary to rational discussion.
- acangiano 16y ago> We even both used the term "tagline," We were clearly meant to be best friends, Mr. Cantor. :-P
- mcantor 16y agoSo, wanna hang out later[1]? 1 - http://xkcd.com/165/ http://xkcd.com/165/
- threedaymonk 16y agoNope, I haven't changed anything. You can check the git commits if you don't believe me ;-)