Sunday 19 August 2007

Bad science

The most spectacularly wrong-headed scientific paper you are every likely to read. And it's not a spoof. It's utterly genuine. Extract:

Down persons during waiting periods, when they get tired of standing up straight, crouch, squatting down, reminding us of the ‘‘squatting’’ position described by medical semeiotic which helps the venous return. They remain in this position for several minutes and only to rest themselves this position is the same taken by the Vietnamese, the Thai, the Cambodian, the Chinese, while they are waiting at a the bus stop, for instance, or while they are chatting.
There is another pose taken by Down subjects while they are sitting on a chair: they sit with their legs crossed while they are eating, writing, watching TV, as the Oriental peoples do.
Mentioned all over the place, but the full-text version comes via Ben Goldacre at Bad Science.