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Tuesday, March 22, 2005 |
Researcher admits faking data: 'Egregiousness' of conduct over
almost 15 years leads to first-ever lifetime ban on US grants, by
Doug Payne, The Scientist.
A well known obesity researcher with more than 200 articles
to his name will plead guilty to making material false statements in a
1999 grant application worth $542,000 from the US National Institutes
of Health, according to a plea bargain
announced Thursday (March 17) in Vermont. Eric Poehlman said he
fabricated data in 17 applications for US federal grants and agreed to
be barred for life "from seeking or receiving funding from any federal
agency in the future, including all components of the Public Health
Service."
Poehlman is expected to be arraigned either this week or next. The
criminal charge—an unusual step for investigations of scientists—of
fraud to which he agreed to plead guilty could see the researcher go to
jail for up to 5 years.
However, it is possible he will serve little or no jail time. Stephen
Kelly, a prosecutor in the US Attorney's office in Vermont, told The
Scientist that his office's policy has been to ensure "that the
scientific record is as accurate as possible." In addition, he said,
"we do feel, and will report to the court, that Dr. Poehlman has been
cooperative and will try to redress the serious wrongs he has
committed." According to a joint
release from the Office of Research Integrity and the Justice
Department in Vermont, Poehlman also has "to submit numerous letters of
retraction and correction to scientific journals related to his
scientific misconduct."
Poehlman . . . . . conducted research related to exercise physiology
and metabolism funded primarily by grants from federal public health
agencies and departments.
UVM began to investigate Poehlman's work after one of his research
assistants, Walter DeNino, questioned study data. DeNino became
suspicious in the fall of 2000 after being asked to analyze data in a
study on aging in Vermont. He subsequently reported Poehlman to the
university, which began an investigation in December 2000 that ran
until April 2002. Poehlman resigned his tenured professorship in 2001,
taking a Canada Research Chairs endowed chair worth CDN $1 million (USD
$825,000) over 5 years, at the Université de Montréal, which knew
nothing about the UVM investigation and was eager to highlight his
work.
. . .
The
list of the papers affected by Poehlman's misconduct includes
publications in 10 journals. Among the best known studies cast into
doubt is Poehlman's
longitudinal menopause study, published in the Annals of Internal
Medicine in 1995, in which he claimed that he had tested 35 healthy
women for the effects of menopause on resting metabolic rate and other
variables and that he had retested them six years later. He fabricated
the results for 32 of the women. As a result of the university
investigations, the article was
retracted in 2003.
Fran Carr, the vice president for research at University of Vermont,
characterized Poehlman's actions as "betraying the trust of his
colleagues, his subjects, the university, and the entire scientific
community." . . . .
2:34:23 PM 
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P2P: Music's Death Knell or Boon?.
Technology optimists and pessimists duke it out at the South by Southwest conference. While some music insiders have high hopes for new revenue streams, others say peer-to-peer song sharing continues to wreak havoc. Michael Grebb reports from Austin, Texas.
[Wired News]
7:30:18 AM
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Bitmunk lets you make a profit with legitimate P2P.
 Back in August we reported on Bitmunk, a new music service a la iTunes Music Store or (the new) Napster. Details were few back then, but now it looks like Bitmunk is up and running, and here’s the twist: When you buy a song from Bitmunk, you can turn around and sell it to others, with a part of the transaction going to the artist and the rest going into your pocket (as demonstrated by the scary cartoon on the right, from Bitmunk’s official documentation).
Bitmunk seems to have gotten most (all?) of its music through a deal with CD Baby. Unfortunately, the site is fairly dismal when it comes to finding good music, with an absence of user ratings, Top 10 lists, or even a search button, and the process to get started buying and selling music looks pretty convoluted, but if they can get their act together, they just might be on to something.
Via The Peer-to-Peer Weblog [unmediated]
7:29:56 AM
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my IOU to Fiona Apple.
Dear Fiona,I owe you approximately $US 10 for downloading your album "Extraordinary Machine" which has been suppressed by your record company Sony. I will pay for this as soon as Sony decides to respect your artistic ability and release this...
[explodedlibrary.info]
7:29:17 AM
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New Personal Search Engine(s).
Pretrieve is an amazing free search engine of public records that returned way too much personal data on me, including home address, phone number, former professional affiliations, quotations in the media, publications. [Via Robert Ambrogi]
ZoomInfo
offers a free search engine that "profiles 25 million people," according to a write up on BeSpacific. BeSpacific notes that the data returned is of variable currency and accuracy. I, myself, find that I am listed as holding the job that I left 5 nearly five years ago, while my current job is listed as an affiliation. Still, it's a little disturbing how much information is so easily assembled about me - and though much of it is out of date, at first glance I only saw a few items that were downright wrong, pertaining as they do to another individual with the same first and last name. [Via BeSpacific]
I don't know which is scarier, the accurate information, the outdated information, or the erroneous information, all returned to whoever may ask, in a few seconds.
Note - These two engines seem related, as when you run certain searches on Pretrieve, the results pop up in a screen entitled ZoomInfo.
[Life Tenant: Amateur Blogger's Field Notes]
7:28:16 AM
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TidBITS isn't a blog,
it's an email newsletter, a website, and an RSS feed. It's been published for well over a decade. And with all the blogs and Mac fan sites it's possible that some Mac users don't know about it. Regulars include Adam Engst, Matt Neuburg and Glenn Fleishman. It's not flashy, but it sure is smart. Their report on podcasting was definitive.
[Scripting News]
7:27:39 AM
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What's a hit worth?.
Jerry Romano sent me a short news clipping, "19 Entertainment owns the format rights to Pop Idol, here known as American Idol, and pulls in an estimated $1 billion annually in merchandising, ad sales, sponsorships, etc." along with a simple personal message,"WOW!" What is more remarkable: the fact that American Idol is can gross $1B annually or the fact that it is a simple talent show with a slight twist?
I think the lesson to be learned from 19 Entertainment is that there is nothing more powerful than a simple, time-tested concept, well executed. Reinventing the wheel is fun, but perfecting the packaging is genius. We know the old adage, "Artists create, pros steal and genius steals from itself." The international distribution and protection of the Idol format is truly genius and the revenue is simply a measure of how well the company has executed its plan.
There's not much else to learn from this. Their success is unique to their team and execution. You can intellectualize the idea that you need to have a hit, but you can't manufacture them. Hits have one component that can not be intellectualized ... magic. You can call it what you want, but magic, an extraordinary power or influence seemingly from a supernatural source, will do just fine. Consumers make hits, not producers. So, kudos to 19 Entertainment for a job well done, but following their business plan will not guarantee you the same results.
[unmediated]
7:20:04 AM
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