Tim Lambert
tlambert
Posts by this author
January 11, 2006
Michael Schwartz writes about the rules of engagement in Iraq:
A little over a year ago, a group of Johns Hopkins researchers reported that about 100,000 Iraqi civilians had died as a result of the Iraq war during its first 14 months, with about 60,000 of the deaths directly attributable to…
January 10, 2006
In Lott's latest column he cuts and pastes his previous cherry picking on England, so I'll just repeat my correction: He carefully picks his numbers to avoid mentioning the dramatic decline in violent crime in England since 1996. As for Australia, he finds yet another way to avoid mentioning how…
January 9, 2006
Andrew Cockburn reports on an analysis of the raw Lancet data by Pierre Sprey who used a non-parametric method (so it was not necessary to exclude Falluja) and found:
"So, applying that simple notion to the death rates before and after the US invasion of Iraq, we find that the confidence intervals…
January 8, 2006
Tim Blair professes not to give a damn about global warming but also reckons it a scam and has over twenty rather confused posts in just the last month attacking the concept. In his latest post he seems to think that only the Arctic is warming, quoting John Christy.
"It just doesn't look like…
January 7, 2006
One of the features of the endless stream of articles about the nonexistent DDT ban is the way they all cite each other instead of cracking open a textbook or checking with an actual scientist. I call this the disinformation cycle. As far as I can tell, it is nearly 100% efficient and there is…
January 6, 2006
Could some kind reader send me (lambert-AT-cse.unsw.edu.au) a copy of this article:
J Toxicol Environ Health A. 2003 Jul 25;66(14):1295-339.
Human health risk and exposure assessment of chromium (VI) in tap water.
Paustenbach DJ, Finley BL, Mowat FS, Kerger BD.
This post will self destruct when I…
January 6, 2006
John Allen Paulos writes about Iraqi war deaths:
Another figure in the news recently has been the number of Iraqis killed in the war. President Bush mentioned last month that in addition to the more than 2,100 American soldiers killed so far in Iraq, that there were approximately 30,000 Iraqis…
January 6, 2006
New Scientist has an article on sock puppets (subscription required):
IF YOU thought sock puppets were made merely for the amusement of small children, think again. In cyberspace, a sock puppet is a vandal's alter ego, an additional account that they use to pose as a different user and tamper with…
January 5, 2006
Peter Gleick argues that global warming skeptics are practising pseudo-science because no matter how much evidence piles up for warming, their position does not change. John Quiggin says that the latest evidence ends the scientific debate. Evidence for this can be found at Backseat Driving ,…
January 4, 2006
It would be crass to post a top ten list where your own blog was number one. But if you posted a list where some other blog was number one and then that other blog returned the favour, well, that wouldn't be crass would it? Anyway, here are the top ten Alexa-ranked-by-traffic right-wing…
January 4, 2006
Flashman has declared Jan 28 to be Grogblogging 3 night. I plan to be there. In true blogging style, a controversy about the location has already broken out.
January 3, 2006
Eli Rabett has scored Essex and McKitrick's briefing for Taken By Storm at Global Warming Skeptic Bingo. Alas, they don't win. I reckon their book will do better. For example, they get another box at bingo with this passage (from page 134 of their book):
There are enemies of T-Rex who think that…
December 25, 2005
Here's Silas with his Christmas present. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my readers.
Blogging is likely to be light to non-existent this week because I'll be in Perisher on holidays. It's a National Park so poor Silas can't come and has to stay home with the house sitter.
December 21, 2005
After seeing yet another
href="http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/JohnStossel/2005/12/14/178999.html">ignorant column about how banning DDT killed millions and millions and millions of people. I've been inspired
to create DDT Ban Myth Bingo to make reading these stupid articles more…
December 20, 2005
The Washington Post continues its sorry record on the Lancet study with this piece by Sarah Sewall:
The Lancet study relied on a door-to-door survey of Iraqi households in 33 neighborhoods. The surveyors asked for details of deaths in the months before and after the invasion and found a…
December 20, 2005
In his latest op-ed Lott continues his misrepresentations about crime in Australia and England:
The British government banned handguns in January 1997 but recently reported that gun crime in England and Wales nearly doubled in the seven years from 1996 to 2003. Since '96, the rate of serious…
December 19, 2005
David Kane asked Les Roberts for the data for the Lancet study. He CC'd it to me, so
here it is.
December 18, 2005
I wrote earlier about a particularly dumb argument against global warming--the argument that an unusually cold day shows that global warming just isn't happening. Well, there doesn't seem to be an argument dumb enough that someone can't make it dumber. Take it away, Tim Blair:
Comical protest…
December 17, 2005
Stephen Dubner reports that Freakonomics is the 7th best-selling book for 2005. According to Nielsen BookScan, it is has sold 584,000 copies so far this year.
Freakonomics discusses the survey that Lott claims to have conducted in 1997, but that he appears to have fabricated. Lott says that eight…
December 16, 2005
It is frequently claimed that the World Health Organization opposes the use of DDT against malaria. Even if we just confine ourselves to articles at Tech Central Station, the claim has been made by
Paul Driessen,
Nick Schulz,
Roger Bate,
Tim Worstall,
Duane Freese,
James Glassman,
Richard Tren and…
December 15, 2005
Democracy Now has an interview with Les Roberts about his survey. Roberts comments on Bush answering a question about Iraqi deaths:
I guess, politically, he has to downplay this issue, but for him to say a number, that of the eight estimates out there is probably the lowest one, really is not a…
December 14, 2005
Peter Baker in the Washington Post writes:
The Iraqi death toll has been the subject of considerable debate. A group of British researchers and antiwar activists called Iraq Body Count estimates civilian casualties between 27,383 and 30,892, not counting Iraqi troops or insurgents, by tabulating…
December 13, 2005
The Sydney Morning Herald reports
Asked about the Iraqi death toll, Bush said about 30,000 Iraqis have been killed since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
It was the first time Bush has publicly offered such an estimate. His aides quickly pointed out the president was not offering an…
December 12, 2005
Fumento has now made three posts on his blog and a whole pile of comments on other blogs in response to my revealing his use of a sock puppet. He has called me a liar, claimed that I am insane and falsely accused me of using sock puppets myself. What he hasn't done is deny that Tracy Spenser was…
December 10, 2005
Steve Levitt has a post with a detailed response to Foote and Goetz's paper. They construct a new, better, measure of abortions under which more abortions are associated with less crime. They conclude:
The results we show in this new table are consistent with the impact of abortion on crime that…
December 7, 2005
We last saw Fumento blundering around in a field of rakes. Now read on. John Fleck commented on the situation:
The thing is, Fumento is, at times, a quite talented journalist. But then, over and over again, he shows himself to be a complete tool.
My first encounter with his work was a solid take-…