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Study "Proves" Parachutes Ineffective

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday December 23 2018, @03:55PM   
from the Science-Interpretation-Guide dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k5094

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/12/22/679083038/researchers-show-parachutes-dont-work-but-there-s-a-catch

A study has been done, and the surprising result is that parachutes are no more effective than a backpack in preventing injuries when jumping out of an airplane.

It's "common sense" that parachutes work, so it has been a neglected field of science. This surprising and counter-intuitive result is an excellent example of the importance of doing science.

... or maybe it's a perfect example of how top-line study headlines can be mis-representative, especially when portrayed by the mass-media, and how understanding study scope and methodology is important.

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Original Submission

• Re:It's funny, people! (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday December 25 2018, @06:23AM

  by khallow (3766) on Tuesday December 25 2018, @06:23AM (#778275) Journal

  As always, the problem is capitalism.

  I wonder how long it'll take for people to get a clue [soylentnews.org]?

  I love witnessing this echo chamber of people who can't figure out that the government doing something isnt capitalism. Its like nothing is wrong about what you are saying except you are applying the wrong label since you were somehow taught the wrong definition.

  Capitalist "science" (p-hacking [xkcd.com], small sample size, extrapolation errors [xkcd.com], look at the recent artificial sweetener study with a good sample size but questionably throwing all kinds of different zero-calorie sweeteners [was stevia even studied?] into one amorphous group and now we gotta wonder if the study was funded by the sugar lobby, etc) is not science.

  And all that paid for with government dollars. It's not capitalism when the public pays for it, people.

  Parent