Crack Down on Scientific Fraudsters

I am shocked, shocked I tell you.

www.nytimes.com/2014/07/11/opinion/crack...fraudsters.html?_r=0

"DONG-PYOU HAN needed impressive lab results to help his team at Iowa State University move forward with its work on an AIDS vaccine — and to continue receiving millions of dollars in federal grants. So Dr. Han did what many scientists are probably tempted to do, but don’t: He faked the tests, spiking rabbit blood with human proteins to make it appear that the animals were responding to the vaccine to fight H.I.V.

The reason you’re reading about this story, and not about the glowing success of the therapy, is that Dr. Han was caught."...

ScienceChic wrote: Shocked at what, may I ask? That there is fraud that happens, that little is done to punish those guilty of wrongdoing, that money isn't paid back, or something else?

I'm all for cracking down on fraud, it gives decent scientists a bad name. The good thing about science is that it corrects for itself and is bigger than the tiny, flawed humans conducting it. No one gets away with lying about results for long - as soon as the next person tries to repeat the experiments and can't, they're exposed, their results disregarded, and the science continues. And they should be kicked out, but will that reduce the likelihood of it happening again? Probably not. Just like business men and women and politicians getting caught lying, stealing, etc, they don't suffer punishment either.

You say that like it is ok. IT IS NOT. Stop the insanity, vote tea party.



" While responsibility unhinged from authority creates hapless victims, authority without responsibility creates monsters. People who can make decisions for which they can never be held accountable have the potential to be incredibly destructive of the organization and of the lives of its members.

The sense that one has responsibility---for one's family, job, possessions---without the ability to make things come out right is pervasive in society today. The panacea promised to people with a strong sense of victimhood is all too often the opposite evil: authority without responsibility."

Beware of peer-review from some places too...

A scientific journal has retracted 60 papers linked to a researcher in Taiwan, accusing him of “perverting the peer-review process” by creating fraudulent online accounts to judge the papers favorably and help get them published.

Sage Publications, publisher of The Journal of Vibration and Control, in which the papers appeared over the last four years, said the researcher, Chen-Yuan Chen, had established a “peer-review and citation ring” consisting of fake scientists as well as real ones whose identities he had assumed. It said that in at least one case, Mr. Chen, who also uses the first name Peter, reviewed his own paper using one of the aliases.

www.nytimes.com/2014/07/11/science/scien...view-fraud.html?_r=0

Nope, I'm not knocking science other than saying there are frauds you need to watch for like any place else. And I don't see what any of this has to do with the Tea Party.

pineinthegrass wrote: And I don't see what any of this has to do with the Tea Party.

It is real simple. Accountability.

Apparently the tea party is immune to fraud.
Who knew?

Photo-fish wrote: Apparently the tea party is immune to fraud.
Who knew?

Strawman much?

www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/10/va-ove...rkers_n_5564766.html

"WASHINGTON -- The scandal-plagued Department of Veterans Affairs is systematically overpaying clerks, administrators and other support staff, according to internal audits, draining tens of millions of dollars that could be used instead to ease the VA's acute shortage of doctors and nurses.

The jobs of some 13,000 VA support staff have been flagged by auditors as potentially misclassified, in many cases resulting in inflated salaries that have gone uncorrected for as long as 14 years.

Rather than moving quickly to correct these costly errors, VA officials two years ago halted a broad internal review mandated by federal law. As a result, the overpayments continue."...


reason.com/blog/2014/07/11/irs-fines-mar...merchants-for-refusi

"State-licensed marijuana stores, which began serving recreational customers in Colorado at the beginning of the year and in Washington this week, are criminal enterprises under federal law. But as Al Capone could have told you, Uncle Sam still wants his cut: Selling marijuana is a felony, and so is failing to pay taxes on the money you earn by selling marijuana. The government does not make it easy to comply with federal tax laws, however. Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code, for example, bars marijuana merchants from deducting standard business expenses (although they are, rather counterintuitively, allowed to deduct the "cost of goods sold," including the cost of growing or obtaining marijuana). And when a business pays federal taxes withheld from employees' paychecks, along with the employer's share of payroll taxes, the Internal Revenue Service insists that it be done via the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS), which requires a bank account. Cannabusinesses have trouble obtaining bank accounts, what with being criminal enterprises under federal law. The IRS does not consider that a good excuse, so when marijuana merchants pay the monthly taxes in cash, they are charged a 10 percent penalty. That is how Allgreens, a Denver dispensary, ended up owing the IRS more than $20,000 in penalties."...