Exposing the Link Between Cell Phones and Fertility 112
ApharmdB writes "We frequently gripe about the poor quality of science reporting by the media. A Guardian blogger from the mathematics department at Queen Mary, University of London has made a honeypot press release to see how bad it can get. (Or maybe to have some fun trolling the media?) The statistic used is the strong link between the number of mobile phone masts in an area and the number of live births. Of course, there is no causal link because they are both instead based on a 3rd variable, the local population size. Slashdot readers can keep on eye on news sources over the weekend to see just how much traction the story gets and watch the train wreck in real-time!"
In other news (Score:5, Funny)
.. a whopping 99.44 percent of hardened heroin addicts started out drinking milk!
The study is nonsense! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I wish he wouldn't have admitted it immediately (Score:3, Funny)
Re:In other news (Score:5, Funny)
Possibly unrelated, but there were also no atomic bombs before American women gained the right to vote.
Causal link (Score:5, Funny)
Of course, there is no causal link because they are both instead based on a 3rd variable, the local population size.
Aha, but births cause population. This could be a vicious circle with cell phone towers boosting the birth rate which leads to a higher population which buy more cell phones leading to the construction of more towers.
There's strong evidence to show that the dinosaurs never developed cell phones, and they died out.
All those poor .6 babies! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:All those poor .6 babies! (Score:3, Funny)
A half life.
Definite causality (Score:5, Funny)
Every time my wife sees another tower going up, she says, "Well fuck me! They're putting up another one of those damned towers."