Harvard University Produces & Promotes Junk Science

Posted: 1/12/2019

Just read this astonishing article in the Harvard Gazette: Researcher finds Coke’s fingerprints on health policy in China. This professor did not find any fingerprints!

Harvard University professor Susan Greenhalgh offers only scant/sketchy evidence to corroborate her allegations that Coca Cola engages in illegal activities to undermine government activities to combat rising pandemic obesity in China.

“A complex network of research funding, institutional ties, and personal influence allowed Coca-Cola, through connections with a nonprofit group, to exert substantial influence over obesity science and policy solutions in China, nudging government policy into alignment with the company’s corporate interests, a Harvard study has found.” (emphasis added)

Chinese communist party officials are probably laughing their ass off about this!

““There have been decades of work on how Big Pharma and Big Tobacco have tried to influence science and dictate policy, but the research on Big Food and Big Soda is just now emerging,” said Greenhalgh” (emphasis added)

Looks like this professor is a professional conspiracy theorist and draws liberal analogies!

““When I reviewed China’s policies, I could see them using the very same language Coke did,” she added. “For example, they talk about energy balance and making physical activity part of medical treatment or balancing eating and moving … their policy aligns very well with Coke’s interests, and it’s out of alignment with some of the policies advocated by the World Health Organization.”” (emphasis added)

Does the professor perhaps suffer from paranoia?

“Greenhalgh conducted extended interviews with obesity and public health experts in China to gauge their concern on possible industry bias. Most were unfazed.

“The vast majority said there was no conflict of interest,” she said. “There were a tiny handful who believed that whenever corporations are funding science it will inevitably be biased, but they were very much in the minority, and most asked me not to use their names because they were afraid of possible consequences … because the political culture in China is very business friendly and pro-West.” (emphasis added)

So the presumably leftist professor does not like when Chinese officials are pro free market?

To blame the serious obesity crisis in such a manner on Coca Cola, although a variety of factors have contributed to this crisis, is quite unprofessional.

Copyrights And Massive Anachronism Of The European Parliament

Posted:

Trigger

Just read EU UND URHEBERRECHT : Ein guter Tag (roughly EU and copyrights: A blessed day). Today (9/12/2018), the EU Parliament voted by a large majority (438 yes to 226 no votes) to apply controversial, legacy copyrights to the Internet.

The journalist, who wrote this article for a leading German news media outlet, is in full praise of this measure. As so often, journalists are not the brightest, but they think they are.

Here is another, more critical article: EU Parliament just voted on controversial Copyright Reform — the outlook is grim

To quote (emphasis added; disclosure: I did not ask for permission to quote from this article):

1. “... Article 11 (a.k.a. link tax) will force anyone using snippets of journalistic online content to get a license from the publisher first — essentially outlawing current business models of most aggregators and news apps. This can also possibly threaten the hyperlink and give power to publishers at the cost of public good.”
2. “On the other hand, Article 13 (a.k.a. censorship machines) will make platforms responsible for monitoring user behavior to stop copyright infringements, but basically means only huge platforms will have the resources to let users comment or share content; there’s a worry that this could lead to broader censorship, with free speech vehicles — like parody, satire, or even protest videos — potentially untenable under this system”

A Massive Anachronism

Caveat: I have not followed this momentous development in much detail. Pardon my ignorance

1. European politicians have again demonstrated that they think or pretend that Europe is still the navel of the world (axis mundi). An arrogance unbecoming
2. European politicians demonstrated their huge ignorance of the digital age by applying outdated copyright laws to the Internet instead of reforming or adopting the outdated, legacy copyrights (which are extremely excessive, I blogged about it several times, e.g. here)
3. This law may also be an expression of dim witted European animus towards large social media corporations or the dominance of U.S. corporations, which they appear to loath
4. It is perhaps another acknowledgment of continued European decline and irrelevance on the world stage
5. Among other things, I understand this new law would hold e.g. social media companies responsible for users’ who violated copyrights.
6. For hundreds of years, copyright laws were used by governments to control information and to stymie human progress and the exchange of ideas. Copyrights are extremely one sided and stacked in favor of publishers and authors against consumers or the public at large
7. It would be an irony or a so called (expected) unintended consequence if this law does not in effect promote or strengthen the position of large Internet companies at the expense of smaller rivals