No, Dummy, Scientists Didn't Find A Stupidity Virus
Nov 12, 2014 06:21:38 #
mwdegutis wrote:
International Business Times Philip Ross (with VERY tongue-in-cheek changes so dont take it personally)
A virus known to attack green algae in lakes and rivers can also infect liberals brains -- and its making dummies out of them. The virus, called ATCV-1, can impair cognitive activity, learning and memory, essentially making a person who has the virus less intelligent, researchers in the U.S. have found. Scientists said this is the first time the virus has been observed in liberals.
This is a striking example showing that the innocuous microorganisms liberals carry can affect behavior and cognition, Robert Yolken, a virologist at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Maryland, who led the original study, told the Independent. All people have physiological differences encoded in the set of genes each inherits from parents, yet some of these differences are fueled by the various microorganisms we harbor and the way they interact with our genes, Yolken said.
Scientists discovered the virus accidentally while working on an unrelated study into microbes in the human throat. Throat swabs drawn from a study of liberal volunteers showed unexpected traces of ATCV-1 in their DNA. Out of the 92 liberals screened in the study, nearly 44 percent of them had the virus, the authors said.
Liberal participants in the study who had the virus performed around 10 percent worse on cognitive tests. Additionally, researchers noted the presence of the virus was correlated with lower attention spans and a statistically significant decrease in visual processing and visual motor speed. While the virus is found in freshwater, there was no indication swimmers and boaters have it. These are agents that liberals carry around for a long time and that may have subtle effects on their cognition and behavior, Yolken told Healthline. "We're really just starting to find out what some of these agents that they're carrying around might actually do.
Subsequent tests involving mice produced similar results, Newsweek reported. Researchers inserted infected green algae into the mouths of mice and had them perform a series of lab tests. It took animals that had been injected with the virus 10 percent longer to find their way out of mazes. They also spent 20 percent less time exploring new objects than uninfected mice, researchers found.
Singularity wrote:
"Tongue in cheek?" One concludes it must have been ass cheeks to produce this much shit!
Shame on you for promulgating this kind of crap.
Forbes
F.D. Flam F.D. Flam, Contributor
Award winning journalist on math, astronomy, health and sex FULL BIO
PHARMA & HEALTHCARE 11/11/2014 @ 8:47AM |6,252 views
No, Dummy, Scientists Didn't Find A Stupidity Virus
Some rather alarming media accounts yesterday proclaimed the discovery of a virus that makes people stupid though as far as I can tell, no actual scientist used the word stupid, which is not precise enough to qualify as a scientific term.
The announcement that spawned the headlines actually appeared in the scientific literature on October 27. The paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) got little attention then, mostly because the scientists didnt think to call it a stupidity virus.
What the Johns Hopkins University scientists found was that in a small sample of 90 people, some 43% harbored a virus called chlorovirus ATCV-1 in their throats. Though were all colonized by viruses and bacteria that dont make us sick, this was of interest for two reasons. First, it was previously known to infect algae, and viruses arent thought to jump easily from one kingdom of life to the other. And secondly, they found a very small correlation between infection and performance on a couple of cognitive tests. Infected subjects appeared to be slower at processing visual information.
In another part of the study, the scientists showed that mice deliberately infected with the virus were slower to solve certain puzzles thus lending some backing to their interpretation that the virus is having some effect on certain mental abilities.
Purdue University virologist David Sanders said he would need to see this replicated before hed believe the claim. One possible problem is the possibility that samples from the patients might have been contaminated with the algae virus. Contamination wrongly led scientists a few years ago to link a virus called XMRV to chronic fatigue syndrome. That was a total disaster, he said.
He also raised questions about the peer review behind the paper. The journal, PNAS, allows authors to choose their own reviewers in some cases. Something is wrong here I dont know how the experiments happened, he said. This is a whole bunch of random data stitched together with little real basis for making any conclusions.
Its provocative, and perhaps worth a follow up study, but unlikely to have implications for human stupidity. Whats fascinating is that if confirmed, the findings hint that some of those seemingly harmless viruses or bacteria that live with us could have a subtle influence on us after all. Were already getting data suggesting that your intestinal bacteria influence your tendency to store excess fat.
There are also hints that a common parasitic infection called toxoplasmosis could change peoples personalities or put them at higher risk of mental illness. The parasite is acquired from contaminated food, water, soil or from scooping the litter used by an infected cat hence a spate of recent headlines along the lines of Is your cat making you crazy.
There are other infectious agents that can cause mental illness syphilis and rabies, to name two. But those are pretty diseases. Theres something about stealthy agents influencing is that seems to cause a lot of angst.
But what made this algae virus news go viral was the decision on the part of someone to frame it as a stupidity virus. Heres Wired, for example:
Researchers at the John Hopkins Medical School and the University of Nebraska have discovered a virus that infects our brains and makes us more stupid.
Whats misleading here is the story never reveals who is being quoted saying makes us more stupid. The implication is that its the scientists or someone in authority. But theres no such phrase in the paper or the press release from Johns Hopkins University, nor does the story seem to include an interview.
The source may have been Newsweek with its story, American Researchers Discover Stupidity Virus. It says:
American scientists have located a virus that attacks human DNA, which may cause those infected to be less intelligent, impairing brain activity, learning and memory.
This is not exactly what the study said. For one thing, as Sanders pointed out, the virus doesnt attack human DNA and the researchers never make that claim in the paper.
Why would the researchers even think to look for an effect on cognitive traits? The paper said that since the cohort being tested was taking part in a cognitive study, the scientists had a bunch of cognitive data available.
Because the individuals in the study cohort were also participating in a study of cognitive functioning (15), we examined the association between detection of ATCV-1 DNA and performance on a battery of cognitive tests.
They found statistically significant but very small difference on several of the tests including measures of visual information processing speed and attention. I couldnt find the word stupid in any form, and the only time I could find the word intelligence was when the researchers admitted that infected and uninfected scored the same on a test called the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale.
It may be there was no real hypothesis being tested but that the study is what scientists call a fishing expedition. Those can be useful for generating hypotheses to be tested but any correlations they turn up need to be confirmed.
Studies of this type can lead to spurious correlations through a problem called the multiple testing effect or the look elsewhere effect, depending on the field. If scientists are fishing through a large number of possible correlations, they increase their odds of finding some kind of pattern. Think about how unlikely it is to get 7 heads in a row if you flip a coin seven times. Now think about how likely it would be to get seven heads in a row eventually if you tossed the coin 1000 times. If you have a group of people with the infection and without, and you test them on enough things, some differences will inevitably turn up by chance.
That may not be the case here. Its possible that this common virus is having a deleterious effect. Scientists should follow up this with a bigger study. The fact that some huge portion of the population (at least in Baltimore) carries this virus is surprising. There seems to be little understanding of how one acquires it or avoids it. Nor does anyone seem to know how long its been tagging along with people or how it ever got from algae to people. Its worth a closer look.
mwdegutis wrote:
International Business Times Philip Ross (with VERY tongue-in-cheek changes so dont take it personally)
...
Singularity wrote:
Don't attack others, or specific groups of others personally, and perhaps there will be no "appearance" of personal insult.
International Business Times Philip Ross (with VERY tongue-in-cheek changes so dont take it personally)
A virus known to attack green algae in lakes and rivers can also infect liberals brains -- and its making dummies out of them. The virus, called ATCV-1, can impair cognitive activity, learning and memory, essentially making a person who has the virus less intelligent, researchers in the U.S. have found. Scientists said this is the first time the virus has been observed in liberals.
This is a striking example showing that the innocuous microorganisms liberals carry can affect behavior and cognition, Robert Yolken, a virologist at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Maryland, who led the original study, told the Independent. All people have physiological differences encoded in the set of genes each inherits from parents, yet some of these differences are fueled by the various microorganisms we harbor and the way they interact with our genes, Yolken said.
Scientists discovered the virus accidentally while working on an unrelated study into microbes in the human throat. Throat swabs drawn from a study of liberal volunteers showed unexpected traces of ATCV-1 in their DNA. Out of the 92 liberals screened in the study, nearly 44 percent of them had the virus, the authors said.
Liberal participants in the study who had the virus performed around 10 percent worse on cognitive tests. Additionally, researchers noted the presence of the virus was correlated with lower attention spans and a statistically significant decrease in visual processing and visual motor speed. While the virus is found in freshwater, there was no indication swimmers and boaters have it. These are agents that liberals carry around for a long time and that may have subtle effects on their cognition and behavior, Yolken told Healthline. "We're really just starting to find out what some of these agents that they're carrying around might actually do.
Subsequent tests involving mice produced similar results, Newsweek reported. Researchers inserted infected green algae into the mouths of mice and had them perform a series of lab tests. It took animals that had been injected with the virus 10 percent longer to find their way out of mazes. They also spent 20 percent less time exploring new objects than uninfected mice, researchers found.
Singularity wrote:
"Tongue in cheek?" One concludes it must have been ass cheeks to produce this much shit!
Shame on you for promulgating this kind of crap.
Forbes
F.D. Flam F.D. Flam, Contributor
Award winning journalist on math, astronomy, health and sex FULL BIO
PHARMA & HEALTHCARE 11/11/2014 @ 8:47AM |6,252 views
No, Dummy, Scientists Didn't Find A Stupidity Virus
Some rather alarming media accounts yesterday proclaimed the discovery of a virus that makes people stupid though as far as I can tell, no actual scientist used the word stupid, which is not precise enough to qualify as a scientific term.
The announcement that spawned the headlines actually appeared in the scientific literature on October 27. The paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) got little attention then, mostly because the scientists didnt think to call it a stupidity virus.
What the Johns Hopkins University scientists found was that in a small sample of 90 people, some 43% harbored a virus called chlorovirus ATCV-1 in their throats. Though were all colonized by viruses and bacteria that dont make us sick, this was of interest for two reasons. First, it was previously known to infect algae, and viruses arent thought to jump easily from one kingdom of life to the other. And secondly, they found a very small correlation between infection and performance on a couple of cognitive tests. Infected subjects appeared to be slower at processing visual information.
In another part of the study, the scientists showed that mice deliberately infected with the virus were slower to solve certain puzzles thus lending some backing to their interpretation that the virus is having some effect on certain mental abilities.
Purdue University virologist David Sanders said he would need to see this replicated before hed believe the claim. One possible problem is the possibility that samples from the patients might have been contaminated with the algae virus. Contamination wrongly led scientists a few years ago to link a virus called XMRV to chronic fatigue syndrome. That was a total disaster, he said.
He also raised questions about the peer review behind the paper. The journal, PNAS, allows authors to choose their own reviewers in some cases. Something is wrong here I dont know how the experiments happened, he said. This is a whole bunch of random data stitched together with little real basis for making any conclusions.
Its provocative, and perhaps worth a follow up study, but unlikely to have implications for human stupidity. Whats fascinating is that if confirmed, the findings hint that some of those seemingly harmless viruses or bacteria that live with us could have a subtle influence on us after all. Were already getting data suggesting that your intestinal bacteria influence your tendency to store excess fat.
There are also hints that a common parasitic infection called toxoplasmosis could change peoples personalities or put them at higher risk of mental illness. The parasite is acquired from contaminated food, water, soil or from scooping the litter used by an infected cat hence a spate of recent headlines along the lines of Is your cat making you crazy.
There are other infectious agents that can cause mental illness syphilis and rabies, to name two. But those are pretty diseases. Theres something about stealthy agents influencing is that seems to cause a lot of angst.
But what made this algae virus news go viral was the decision on the part of someone to frame it as a stupidity virus. Heres Wired, for example:
Researchers at the John Hopkins Medical School and the University of Nebraska have discovered a virus that infects our brains and makes us more stupid.
Whats misleading here is the story never reveals who is being quoted saying makes us more stupid. The implication is that its the scientists or someone in authority. But theres no such phrase in the paper or the press release from Johns Hopkins University, nor does the story seem to include an interview.
The source may have been Newsweek with its story, American Researchers Discover Stupidity Virus. It says:
American scientists have located a virus that attacks human DNA, which may cause those infected to be less intelligent, impairing brain activity, learning and memory.
This is not exactly what the study said. For one thing, as Sanders pointed out, the virus doesnt attack human DNA and the researchers never make that claim in the paper.
Why would the researchers even think to look for an effect on cognitive traits? The paper said that since the cohort being tested was taking part in a cognitive study, the scientists had a bunch of cognitive data available.
Because the individuals in the study cohort were also participating in a study of cognitive functioning (15), we examined the association between detection of ATCV-1 DNA and performance on a battery of cognitive tests.
They found statistically significant but very small difference on several of the tests including measures of visual information processing speed and attention. I couldnt find the word stupid in any form, and the only time I could find the word intelligence was when the researchers admitted that infected and uninfected scored the same on a test called the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale.
It may be there was no real hypothesis being tested but that the study is what scientists call a fishing expedition. Those can be useful for generating hypotheses to be tested but any correlations they turn up need to be confirmed.
Studies of this type can lead to spurious correlations through a problem called the multiple testing effect or the look elsewhere effect, depending on the field. If scientists are fishing through a large number of possible correlations, they increase their odds of finding some kind of pattern. Think about how unlikely it is to get 7 heads in a row if you flip a coin seven times. Now think about how likely it would be to get seven heads in a row eventually if you tossed the coin 1000 times. If you have a group of people with the infection and without, and you test them on enough things, some differences will inevitably turn up by chance.
That may not be the case here. Its possible that this common virus is having a deleterious effect. Scientists should follow up this with a bigger study. The fact that some huge portion of the population (at least in Baltimore) carries this virus is surprising. There seems to be little understanding of how one acquires it or avoids it. Nor does anyone seem to know how long its been tagging along with people or how it ever got from algae to people. Its worth a closer look.
mwdegutis wrote:
International Business Times Philip Ross (with VERY tongue-in-cheek changes so dont take it personally)
...
Singularity wrote:
Don't attack others, or specific groups of others personally, and perhaps there will be no "appearance" of personal insult.
Nov 12, 2014 06:37:45 #
WTF????????? Why on earth would anyone want to post some crap like this? It is a shame. We all already know that LIBERALS are totally brain dead, there is no virus doing it...LIBERALS just happen to be IGNORANT and STUPID all on their own. NO Virus needed.
Now if someone finds a real article on what LIBERALS can do to correct their brain dead pathetic life, please do come forward and state your name for the record......
Now if someone finds a real article on what LIBERALS can do to correct their brain dead pathetic life, please do come forward and state your name for the record......
Nov 12, 2014 06:53:10 #
America Only wrote:
WTF????????? Why on earth would anyone want to post some crap like this? It is a shame. We all already know that LIBERALS are totally brain dead, there is no virus doing it...LIBERALS just happen to be IGNORANT and STUPID all on their own. NO Virus needed.
Now if someone finds a real article on what LIBERALS can do to correct their brain dead pathetic life, please do come forward and state your name for the record......
Now if someone finds a real article on what LIBERALS can do to correct their brain dead pathetic life, please do come forward and state your name for the record......
Fuck you and the horse that rode you.
Nov 12, 2014 09:24:48 #
Singularity wrote:
Fuck you and the horse that rode you.
There you go...showing proof no virus did that it was all on your own miserable piss poor manners. How now...BIG fat Cow?
I am not sure, but for some reason if that picture in your avatar is really you, but you remind me of a 1953 Buick that we had in the family and restored.....must be the grill and headlights remind me of that face....the car had been smashed in the front of the car.
Nov 12, 2014 12:56:10 #
Singularity wrote:
Fuck you and the horse that rode you.
I'd need to be plenty drunk and put a BAG over that head of yours and then I still do not think I could stomach anything intimate with someone as nasty fugly as you.....now the Horse maybe but I hate to worn you, his male member is about three foot long, do you think it is enough? Want to have a bucket of sand to toss in there to make sure it is?
Nov 12, 2014 13:06:27 #
wisepapa
Loc: Long Beach, CA
This tome of veiled political insult seems to remind me of the principal in Eastern Philosophy that sees conservatism as being one step above death - not tongue in cheek.
Nov 12, 2014 13:06:29 #
America Only wrote:
I'd need to be plenty drunk and put a BAG over that head of yours and then I still do not think I could stomach anything intimate with someone as nasty fugly as you.....now the Horse maybe but I hate to worn you, his male member is about three foot long, do you think it is enough? Want to have a bucket of sand to toss in there to make sure it is?
I was employing the term metaphorically AND in an autoerotic context. In that case I would not be present and your dilemma is resolved!
Enjoy yourself.
For the sake of peace, may we agree you were employing Biblical imagery to assert an esoteric point? Friends?
Nov 12, 2014 13:16:53 #
America Only wrote:
There you go...showing proof no virus did that it was all on your own miserable piss poor manners. How now...BIG fat Cow?
I am not sure, but for some reason if that picture in your avatar is really you, but you remind me of a 1953 Buick that we had in the family and restored.....must be the grill and headlights remind me of that face....the car had been smashed in the front of the car.
I am not sure, but for some reason if that picture in your avatar is really you, but you remind me of a 1953 Buick that we had in the family and restored.....must be the grill and headlights remind me of that face....the car had been smashed in the front of the car.
Funny. In 1983 I lost control of my car on an icy hill. Little cheap car accordianed on impact with a telephone pole, my choice, rather than a car with a family of four... My face contacted the windshield in spite of the seatbelt. Several surgeries later over the years, I look damn good, Asshole. Plus I can finally breathe through my nose! Medical science is awesome! You should have seen how "God" had put things back together. I was ugly for a long time. You can't hurt me with that bullshit.
Nov 12, 2014 13:16:57 #
Nov 12, 2014 14:16:26 #
Singularity wrote:
Funny. In 1983 I lost control of my car on an icy ... (show quote)
Oh wow...go back and tell them you demand a refund and a good pair of glasses.....
Nov 12, 2014 14:17:22 #
Singularity wrote:
I was employing the term metaphorically AND in an autoerotic context. In that case I would not be present and your dilemma is resolved!
Enjoy yourself.
Enjoy yourself.
I have plenty of friends and I damned sure know WHO my enemies are.
Nov 12, 2014 15:14:33 #
America Only wrote:
I have plenty of friends and I damned sure know WHO my enemies are.
I thought this was just a friemdly preliminary pissing contest. But obviously it cant be friendly. You are mean spirited and proudly lascivious. I am wimpy at dealing with that and don't enjoy it. I concede the discussion and award you the title on the basis of your superior dickishness.
If you count me as an enemy you are clearly delusional as well as homiciddal and should be locked away for public safety.
Goodbye.
Nov 12, 2014 17:57:24 #
Singularity wrote:
I thought this was just a friemdly preliminary pissing contest. But obviously it cant be friendly. You are mean spirited and proudly lascivious. I am wimpy at dealing with that and don't enjoy it. I concede the discussion and award you the title on the basis of your superior dickishness.
If you count me as an enemy you are clearly delusional as well as homiciddal and should be locked away for public safety.
Goodbye.
If you count me as an enemy you are clearly delusional as well as homiciddal and should be locked away for public safety.
Goodbye.
Keep off that cheap gin...take a deep look in the mirror and you may be able to really sober up after having a good look....
Drunks normally do have accidents but damned,....who ever put that face together must have been thinking "MAC TRUCK".....geezus wow...fugly as all hell.
Nov 13, 2014 06:47:27 #
America Only wrote:
Keep off that cheap gin...take a deep look in the mirror and you may be able to really sober up after having a good look....
Drunks normally do have accidents but damned,....who ever put that face together must have been thinking "MAC TRUCK".....geezus wow...fugly as all hell.
Drunks normally do have accidents but damned,....who ever put that face together must have been thinking "MAC TRUCK".....geezus wow...fugly as all hell.
Weird how much you remind me of another recent poster's style, syntax, subject choice and inability to let go off a stray topic as long as you have one more clever insult. I didn't like that game then. I'm not playing now.
Nov 18, 2014 01:56:24 #
wisepapa wrote:
This tome of veiled political insult seems to remind me of the principal in Eastern Philosophy that sees conservatism as being one step above death - not tongue in cheek.
Change a few words around....lets have it read....you are heading back into you TOMB and taking your koran and sitcking it where the sun don't shine...MUSLIM FREAK DEMOCRAP.....stone any women lately? If so...you should have included this fugly sack pf poison, singularity....good name...I hope there is not another one...or we would have STEREO fugly......
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