Rude Facts

The rawest, crudest of unpopular truths. Science-based criticism

[Rude Facts @FactsRude]

@erikphoel What's so new about the overfitted brain hypothesis?

Overfitting has been around for decades (maybe centuries) in statistics. Sleep as a cleanup for learning is just the Synaptic Homeostatic Hypothesis. You barely combined two established ideas and rebranded that as novel

[Rude Facts @FactsRude]

The US is effectively not a democracy, but an oligarchy/plutocracy:

https://t.co/gk66zzP5zH

[Rude Facts @FactsRude]

Hard sciences are hard because their subject matter is soft. Soft science is soft because their subject matter is hard.

[Rude Facts @FactsRude]

@ScaryOrchard From Blanke et al. Leaving body and life behind: Out-of-body and near-death experience. The neurology of consciousness, 2016. Elsevier

Can I stop doing your homework now?

[Rude Facts @FactsRude]

Seeing the light in a near death experience is a real thing. Out of body feelings are real too. We can recreate them in the lab.

That doesn't mean there's an afterlife or immortal souls floating around. Depersonalized subjects fail extracorporeal perception tests.

[Rude Facts @FactsRude]

We have all heard of Ancient Egypt and Ancient China, even Mesoamerica. But how many of you have heard of Norte Chico? #CradleOfCivilization

[Rude Facts @FactsRude]

At what moment did biophysics become synonymous with molecule simulation?

Why can't biophysics programs share scope with more general mathematical biology topics?

[Rude Facts @FactsRude]

China, the communist country known for its draconian social credit system, has also been the most successful in lifting people out of poverty.

[Rude Facts @FactsRude]

Statistical significance thresholds are as scientific as thinking that passing the legal drinking age makes you ready for alcohol.

[Rude Facts @FactsRude]

You can accept the existence of well-attested spooky phenomena without committing to supernatural and folk "explanations". Science is supposed to be wondrous

[Rude Facts @FactsRude]

The number of people living in poverty (as defined by the UN*) has increased by more than 1 billion from 1980 to 2015.

*Inability to meet basic nutrition needs and normal human life expectancy.

[Rude Facts @FactsRude]

"Using a term like nonlinear science is like referring to the bulk of zoology as the study of nonelephant animals" -Stanislaw Ulam

[Rude Facts @FactsRude]

A vaccine 95% effective is effective on all people 95% of the time, or is it effective all the time on 95% of people?

*If the process is ergodic* the question does not matter: longitudinal behavior is interchangeable with cross-sectional behavior

[Patrick Honner @MrHonner]

Terrific video: "What is ergodicity?"
https://t.co/fybS1Qr5qo

[Rude Facts @FactsRude]

#WomenScienceDay
The more gender-equal the country, the fewer the women who choose STEM.

This arguably occurs because more free and prosperous societies allow people to follow their interests. That is, more gender equality = more sex differences.

https://t.co/2ioZounGGC

[Rude Facts @FactsRude]

It should go without saying, but things can have many names, and a single word can refer to many things.

[Rude Facts @FactsRude]

"With the exception of safe water, no other intervention, not even antibiotics, has had such a major effect on mortality reduction and population growth."

-Susan and Stanley Plotkin

[Rude Facts @FactsRude]

A quick list of delusional charlatans.

In most other areas, making one failed prediction after another would drive you out of business, science above all. Not so much for religion

https://t.co/KvM96ogF6O

[Rude Facts @FactsRude]

OpenStreetMap vs Google Maps

The maps speak for themselves, it's like a contest between Wikipedia and Encarta, not to mention that one is open data.