APRIL 1, 2013

Explaining my April 1, 2013 blog:

I was alone in my beautiful office at Thebes (where I live)*. I really didn’t have the time to spend on a jokey April 1 post, but given this blog has only been in existence a year and one-half, I felt I should try for some kind of “tradition” on April fool’s day, especially in case I had a great idea next year. Last year 
 http://errorstatistics.com/2012/04/01/3102/ had many fooled, so lest I let people down, I tried to think of a wild joke that related to our topics, and came across “The Sin of Bad Science” –“bad science” being a frequent theme around here.  But the more I read the Tilberg Report to which it led, and passages from Stapel’s book, the less my idea seemed wild after all, but rather, all-too-believable.  I had no time to come up with something else, and decided to design the post with a productive end: to get people to read section 5 of the Report.

The IG is imaginary, but not so far-fetched (given the interviews in the Report). Thus, the April Fool’s joke is partly on me! Finding the European Association letter (a link to which was only added after Kent Staley’s comment on the post) nearly does derail at least part of (what I thought was) my wild and zany idea.

If people do not see how this state of affairs is promoted by the trends in philosophy of science and statistical practice over the last 15 years or so, they should think again. For examples, scan the blog:

For an index to Jan-Feb: http://errorstatistics.com/2013/03/10/blog-contents-2013-jan-feb/.

*Spoof on Diederik’s memoir.