Why Hard Science and Medicine Is Getting Mushy

Why Hard Science and Medicine Is Getting Mushy

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By Jacqueline Leo

Arthur Caplan, one of America’s top medical ethicists, is worried about pollution. Not the kind that ruins our oceans or makes it hard for us to breathe, but the kind that poses a threat to the “trustworthiness, utility, and value of science and medicine.”

Caplan, who directs the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center, wrote a blistering essay in last week’s Mayo Clinic Proceedings, saying, "The pollution of science and medicine by plagiarism, fraud, and predatory publishing is corroding the reliability of research. Yet neither the leadership nor those who rely on the truth of science and medicine are sounding the alarm loudly or moving to fix the problem with appropriate energy."

He goes on to cite three causes of publication pollution, which can undermine these areas of “hard science” that should be sacrosanct.

  • The proliferation of journals that recruit authors who pay to get their articles published. Despite having substandard or no peer view, these "predatory publishers" now comprise an estimated 25 percent of all open-access journals. "Not only do they provide opportunities for the unscrupulous in academia and industry to pad their curriculum vitaes and bibliographies with bogus articles and editorial appointments, they also make it difficult for those involved in the assessment and promotion of scholars to discern value from junk," writes Dr. Caplan.
  • Research misconduct, like falsifying or fabricating data or concealing serious violations. Fourteen percent of scientists report that their colleagues falsify data, and 72 percent report other questionable practices, according to one 2009 study published in PLoS One.
  • Plagiarism, which, according to a 2010 Nature article was "staggering," requiring editors to spend "inordinate amounts of time" checking submissions they receive.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:

Six Reasons Not To Buy an Apple Watch Just Yet

A new iPad is seen follownig a presentation at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California October 16, 2014.  REUTERS/Robert Galbraith
© Robert Galbraith / Reuters
By Andrew Lumby

The Apple Watch is Apple's first entry into an entirely new product category in about five years, and it’s come under much scrutiny during the process of its development and unveiling. Reviewers have finally got ahold of the device and have released a glut of early evaluations. The consensus: The Apple Watch is great — definitely better than most, if not all, of its predecessors — but with some caveats potential buyers should keep in mind. Most critics so far agree that the device seems superfluous, tricky to use, and a little silly at first — but then it quickly grows on you. Reviewers like The New York Times's Farhad Manjoo, The Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern and The Verge's Nilay Patel have extended cautious thumbs up for the product, but still warn that it’s a flawed device that may not be right for buyers just yet. Here are six reasons why the reviewers are hesitant — and perhaps you should be, too:

1. The Cost
The Apple Watch costs a pretty penny: The cheapest model clocks in at $349, with prices for fancier models going all the way up to an ultra-exclusive $17,000. At those prices, you want a device that does a lot more than look cool. “You only get a charging cable, which is lame,” Patel wrote. “For $700, you should get a nice charging stand, like you get with the $249 Moto 360. Apple makes a stand, but it only comes with the $10,000-and-up Apple Watch Edition models. Crazy.”
Watch It: As was the case with the original iPhone, the high price might be part of the appeal for some show-offs. As Joanna Stern says in her review: "After over a week of living with Apple’s latest gadget on my wrist, I realized the company isn’t just selling some wrist-worn computer, it’s selling good looks and coolness, with some bonus computer features."

Related: Apple Watch Could Be Apple’s First Major Flop This Century

2. The Learning Curve
A surprisingly common complaint was the apparent lack of out-of-the-box workability, with many reviewers claiming that it took them several days of tweaking to get things going just right. Said Manjoo: "Indeed, to a degree unusual for a new Apple device, the Watch is not suited for tech novices." Bear in mind, too, that this is an experienced tech writer who has presumably seen way more than his fair share of badly implemented devices with limited documentation, so if he had to spend time tweaking things, you can bet that your average out-of-the-box, "it just works" Apple user is going to be utterly baffled. Give it a year or so, and they'll have ironed out all the kinks and streamlined things a bit.
Watch It: Tech writers may be more critical than the average buyer, and less wowed by Apple’s cool factor. Early adopters in particular may be willing to scale the learning curve while Apple makes improvements for next generations of the Watch.

3. Battery Life Should Be Better
The Watch is on your wrist — it's always there and is intended to consistently be in use — but reviewers have found that the Apple Watch’s charge ran low after a day of heavy use. Stern’s barely managed to last the course of a full day, and that was while leaning on its "power saving mode," which cut features and dimmed the backlight. “Do you want another tiny computer in your life that you have to worry about and charge every day?” Patel asked.
Watch It: Hey, how often do you charge your smatphone? Is it such a big deal to plug in the device at night while we all wait for battery life to improve across all our devices?

Related: 10 Biggest Tech Flops of the Century

4. It's Painfully Slow
Here’s how Patel at The Verge summed it up: "There’s no getting around it, no way to talk about all of its interface ideas and obvious potential and hints of genius without noting that sometimes it stutters loading notifications. Sometimes pulling location information and data from your iPhone over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi takes a long time. Sometimes apps take forever to load, and sometimes third-party apps never really load at all. Sometimes it’s just unresponsive for a few seconds while it thinks and then it comes back."
Watch It: Apple has already claimed that it will be releasing a series of updates to address these issues. Of course, future generations of the Watch will undoubtedly come with hardware improvements as Moore's Law threatens to overtake us all.

5. It's Not Yet Ubiquitous Enough to Be Needed
The marketing of the Apple Watch frames it as a time-saving panacea: Swipe it at an Apple Pay-enabled checkout counter and complete your purchase without having to whip out your wallet; tap it against a hotel room door to gain entry without fussing with a keycard; or hail an Uber with a quick wrist-call to Siri. The thing is, none of those things have been put in place yet, at least not on a universal scale, so for now the Watch mainly serves to tell the time, browse Twitter, check e-mails and remind you of appointments. There are plenty of other devices that can handle that in the interim.
Watch It: Much like the slow takeover of the smartphone, though, we'll probably see an increased adoption of the technology as developers scope out the market and adoption grows. Have you checked out the App Store lately?

Related: What the Apple Watch Will Do for Apple

6. The Backlash
It's the curse that befalls all early adopters in the wearables industry: No matter how cool or slick a product may be, it’s kinda hard to wear out in public without attracting stares. Early adopters of Google Glass faced similar issues, becoming the unfortunate targets of the derogatory pseudonym "Glassholes." When the day-one fanboys start sitting on public transit, talking into their wrists like a low-budget Dick Tracy, it's hard to imagine they won't come under some kind of ridicule. If you think you can handle a bit of mockery and attention, more power to you.
Watch It: First off, Apple has made a concerted effort to make the Watch as aesthetically pleasing as possible at all points along the price spectrum. Second, those stares and questions are part of the appeal for some buyers. And even if you aren’t looking for added attention, it might not be long before the Apple Watch just becomes part of our everyday scenery. How many people are still asking to look at your iPhone 6 Plus?

Top Reads From The Fiscal Times:

6 Traits of an Emerging Millionaire: Are You One?

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By Jacqueline Leo

It’s not just Wall Street bankers, hedge fund traders and corporate raiders who will join the one percent.    Nope.  By now you may have heard that the new look of affluence in America is kind of… girly. The 7th Fidelity Millionaire Outlook found that today’s emerging high rollers are 66 percent female and 25 percent non-white. 

The Fidelity Outlook identified 6 wealth-building traits that multi-millionaires have in common: Their starting point—a mere $250,000 in assets. 

Related: Americans Are About to Get a Nice Fat Pay Raise

1   Time Horizon: On average, emerging affluent investors are just 40 years of age with 27 years left before they reach the normal retirement age of 67. Only one percent of the emerging affluent is retired.

2.   Career: Many of the emerging affluent have pursued similar professions to today’s millionaires, including information technology, finance and accounting. While they might be at lower-level positions than millionaires, they have a number of years in front of them to move up the ladder.

3.   Income: At $125,000, the median annual household income for the emerging affluent is 2.5X the median U.S. household income8 and is nearing the income of today’s millionaires ($200,000 for those still employed). 

Related: The 10 Best States for Taxes in 2015​​​ 

4.   Self-Made Status: Approximately eight in 10 emerging affluent investors have earned or increased their assets on their own, a trait they share with millionaires and deca-millionaires.

5.   Long-Term Focus: The emerging affluent share millionaires’ long-term focus, with three in four of both groups focused on the long-term growth of their assets, and three in 10 focused on supporting the lifestyle they want in retirement.

6.   Investing Style: Similar to deca-millionaires, the emerging affluent display a willingness to invest aggressively to help maximize returns, as well as a willingness to set aside a significant portion of their portfolio for riskier investments that promise a bigger payoff. The emerging affluent and deca-millionaires were also most likely to describe themselves as “self-directed” investors, seeking hands-on involvement with their investments.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:

TSA Made $674,841 from Travelers’ Loose Change Last Year

REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
By Yuval Rosenberg

That loose change in your pocket really adds up…for the government: The Transportation Security Administration collected $674,841.06 in quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies left behind by busy travelers at airport security in fiscal 2014.

In 2005, Congress allowed the TSA to put unclaimed money toward its security operations. The agency says it “makes every effort to reunite passengers with items left behind at the checkpoint, however there are instances where loose change or other items are left behind and unclaimed.” That money is turned into the TSA’s financial office.

Related: 10 Outrageous Items Confiscated by the TSA in 2014

The amount collected has been climbing each year since 2010. The 2014 total is almost $37,000 more than the agency collected the previous year and nearly $300,000 more than was left behind in 2008. In all, over the past seven years travelers have gifted the TSA $3,557,538.39.

Yes, that’s $3.5 million in spare change the agency has added to its coffers courtesy of harried travelers.

Maybe the yearly total have been climbing because travelers are increasingly engrossed with their smartphones, or maybe it’s a sign that the economy has perked up a bit so they no longer care to scoop up those nickels and dimes. Maybe it’s just that getting through a TSA checkpoint is such a hassle that travelers are willing to donate a few coins to be done with the process several seconds sooner.

Whatever the reason, here are the 20 airports where travelers left behind the most spare change in 2014:

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:

Baseball in 2015: Record High Revenues

A man speaks with a job recruiter at the Nassau County Mega Job Fair at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York October 7, 2014.  REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
By Andrew Lumby

e 2015 Major League Baseball season gets underway on Monday with the sport dealing with an aging, shrinking television audience—yet league revenues, franchise valuations and player salaries are all rising faster than the stock market.

With the average MLB team now worth more than $1.2 billion and the average salary breaking $4 million, let's take a look at how the business of baseball has changed in the last few years.

A shrinking, aging television audience

"The five most-watched World Series aired in the five-year period between 1978 and 1982," said Brad Adgate of Horizon Media. All five averaged more than 38 million viewers. Contrast that with the 2014 World Series audience—a skinny 13.8 million—down 64 percent despite an increased U.S. population. Media buyer Adgate said that's "unlike the Super Bowl, which has set an audience record in five of the last six years."

Related: Madison Bumgarner: Exhibit A in Baseball’s Screwball Salary System

Not only is the audience declining, but it's aging too: Last year's World Series had a viewer with a median age of 55.6—a new high. Just five years prior, it had been sub-50 at 49.9, and was in the 44-46 range during the early 1990s.

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