Fallacies

Did I spell that right? I really don't care, so I guess it doesn't matter. Anyways, for some reason I've been hearing some things on the radio that really bother me. Every once in a while, some radio talker-person will feel the need to share the latest scientific study with their listeners. This morning (afternoon I guess) I got to hear about one which has shown that if you eat breakfast in the morning, you're less likely to get sick.

What's so wrong what that, you might ask. Oh, nothing, except I'm sure that this so-called study just polled people as to whether or not they eat breakfast in the morning or not, and then found out how often they get sick. They didn't bother to compare the fact that people who eat breakfast in the morning are going to (on average) have a healthier life than people who don't. But instead of breakfast being a sign of a healthy life, and this being the reason the person doesn't get sick, breakfast is the reason.

Let's see, what was the other one.... oh yeah! Apparently if you sit down to eat as a family five or more times a week for dinner, you're kids are more likely to do well in school, less likely to do crap they shouldn't, and quality of life will all around increase. Now, let's think about how they did this little experiment. Is it see what happens with meals, then use the same family without meals and see what happens? Or is it poll families and see how often they eat as a family, then rate the kids? So once again, we have a sign (generally) a healthy family, blah blah blah, and its taken as the reason.

I probably will name it wrong, but isn't this Ad Hoc. (Yes Will, I do expect correction if I'm wrong, I never did pay attention to those stupid names). And I don't really know why its making me so angry, but it is, so now I've vented, and its out of my system. Until I hear about the next stupid scientific study. Is this what Universities are getting grants for? Because that's pretty lame. They can give me the money and I'll tell them why their tests are stupid.