Final update on Medical Hypotheses article

As promised ( :o ) a final update on this Asians & Down Syndrome story. I had decided that this article was crap and that Mr Bruce Charlton's answer was absolutely not sufficient, so off I went and did a Google search for all the editors listed on the editorial board.

I did not get an answer from:
Peter Andras
Roy Calne
Arvid Carlsson
David L Hull
J Lee Kavanau
Mehar Manku
V.S. Ramachandran
Jack Scannell
Gavin Spickett

I did get an answer from:
David Healy
David Pearce
William Bains
Antonio R Damasio
Jonathan Rees
Andrew Miles

Not available:
Mark A Notturno (email account was full)
James Willis (didn't find his email address)

I was a bit surprised that I did not receive more reactions, but that might be because people thought that I should have taken the usual way, meaning entering a rebuttal via the official way (Mr Bains, Mr Miles (absolute meanie if I may say. He went from calling me oversensitive to hysterical to arrogant and he cc-ed all his emails and forwarded mine to Mr Charlton *rolleyes*. He also insinuated that anybody who took offense at the article was oversensitive, because he as a redhead was also the victim of jokes, but he didn't make such a fuss about it. - Sure, his experiences as redhead are as bad as the racism that minorities face.) and Mr Rees recommended me to take this step). In my opinion this would not have been enough though. My argument is that this article was racist and in no way scientific and should never have been published in an academic journal in the first place, therefore it would have been the responsibility of the editors of this magazine to react and to take appropriate steps, for example, withdrawing the article and clarifying their position on this issue; just printing a rebuttal from a reader does not strike me as sufficient. By not distancing themselves from the content of this article they were supporting it.

The only two who did respond positively to my complaint and took it seriously were Mr Healy (a very very nice and understanding person) and Mr Pearce (I couldn't help noticing that out of only two positive responses one of the writers has a picture on his website posing as a bunny. I bet he is fun :D). Mr Healy was so kind to contact Mr Charlton various times to discuss this matter with him, but it became clear that resolving the issue of having bad article slip through can not be that easily resolved as the amount of articles is enormous coming in from very different fields and the editors are not paid, meaning the responsibility for selecting the quality stuff depends on the lead editor and there is no real possibility that someone else can check on him. In his opinion what should be encouraged is that anybody who takes offense with an article should be free to publish his view, thus including the readers into the peer review process. It also seems Medical Hypotheses does publish all replies, which according to him is much better than with other peer reviewed journals. I had to agree that it made sense what he said and he also told me that he appreciated that his awareness about this issue had been raised. He made his point to Mr Charlton and I am hopeful that his effort will be rewarded with a bit more attention among the editors.

Update on "Asian people and Down Syndrome" article

So, I'm one of the worst bloggers in the world, which is not really any news, but yesterday while trying to clean up the mess that is in the background, meaning all the drafts and unfinished posts I had started and that you have never been able to see, I stumbled over this post and I realized that I had not posted it (it's from 24 November 2007 - oh...). I think I need to go to bed earlier and sleep more. I'm such a scatterbrain.

That's the post and it's not up to date at all, because I did write an email to all the editors, but right now I think I'm a bit too tired to write anything longer and coherent, therefore I'll just post this old update now and write a new update on this topic as soon as possible. Stay tuned, I will tell you who is the nice guy and who sucks. :D Ok, just kidding, sort of. :D

--
Ok, I contacted Mr. Damásio who told me he had not been involved with this article at all and had no clue about, but was so kind to recommend me to contact the editor-in-chief, Dr. Bruce Charlton, who in his own words he considers "a reputable and serious scientist". Mr Charlton's answer was:

Thank you for your communication. I do not have any statement to make. The web site for Medical Hypotheses states: "In Medical Hypotheses, the authors' responsibility for the integrity, precision and accuracy of their work is paramount."

http://intl.elsevierhealth.com//journals/MeHy/

So, the authors of an article are responsible for their work. The Correspondence section of the journal is a venue for submission of scientific critique of articles we have published.

Sincerely, Yours, Bruce Charlton

That seems to be his usual response to anybody who asks about this article (by the way, he did not even bother about any kind of salutation). I was somewhat speechless... I've considered contacting all the editors in this magazine and informing them about this article, but I wonder if they would be interested at all.

My first socks

Pattern: Garter Rib Socks from "Sensational Knitted Socks" by Charlene Schurch
Yarn: A merino/alpaca 4-ply sock yarn from eBay
Color: Pink
Price: 7.38 €/100 g
Amount: less than 65 g
Needles: 2,5 mm
Gauge: 5.5 stitches/inch
Dimensions: European shoe size 37
Modifications: none

It's a great book. With the help of this book I managed to finish my first pair of sock. I have tried it before, but somehow I never really understood what I was doing... In this book you will find very clear instructions for various combinations of these factors:

1. Foot circumference (5" - 12")
   
2. Gauge (5.5 stitches/inche - 10 stitches/inch)
   
3. Pattern with x stitches (4, 5, 6, 8, 12 stitch count repeats (or how do you say?), plus some Fair Isle and cabled pattern, etc.)
   
4. 4 or 5 dpns or two circulars

For example, I had a gauge of 5.5 stitches/inch, the circumference of my foot is a around 8.5 inches, I wanted to use a pattern with 4 stitches and knit with 4 dpns. It was all in the book. I only had to follow the instructions and got my socks in the end. Oh boy, that's so easy. :)

Some of you might have remembered my post about a racist article in Medical Hypotheses. I've decided to write to one of the editors, Mr António Damásio, and ask him for a statement. Why him? Because I happened to have a discussion about him on another blog, he is famous enough that I recognize his name (I had no clue who the others on the editorial board were) and he has a good reputation as a scientist, which in my opinion implies greater responsibility for the things that happen in one's name, because the impact on the public is simply greater. There's a difference between reading racist articles in cheap magazines and reading them in an academic journal with an editorial board consisting of scientists (and no, I don't care that it's not peer-reviewed). And finding a name like his on the board is even worse.

He used to work at the University of Iowa, but has moved to the University of Southern California. I got his contact information from here (I'm not saying that you have to contact him, but hey, if you happen to be a bit pissed off, too, and have his email address handy...? :D).

Asian people and Down Syndrome

I read a review of an article today on www.badscience.net that really upset me; not the post, but the article. It's published in Medical Hypotheses, an academic journal by Elsevier, and the title is "Down subjects and Oriental population share several specific attitudes and characteristics" (if you want to read the whole article go to the badscience blog post unless you have a subscription for this journal or want to purchase the article separately).

What it's all about:

Summary:

Down’s syndrome is characterized not only by a typical “habitus”, mental retardation of variable gravity and several alterations of the cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrenteric and immunitary system, but also by specific attitudes and characteristics that are in common with the Oriental population. Starting from the origin of the term mongolism, replaced with other terms such as Trisomy 21, Down’s syndrome, and anomaly of Down because of the racist use made in the last century, we propose, in the light of modern knowledge about the heredity of features, a reflection on those aspects and attitudes which highlight a very particular twinning between a Down person and Asiatic peoples.

Proof of this claim:

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.

Where the hell did these dimtwits get their observations? Marco Polo? These bumpkins probably never set a foot to Asia.

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.

I very much doubt that this is something that is passed genetically, rather it seems like a cultural thing.

Another aspect of Down person that remind the Asiatic population, are alimentary characteristics. Down subjects adore having several dishes displayed on the table and have a propensity for food which is rich in monosodium glutamate (a salt of glutamate), such as parmigiano, beef broth, tinned food, etc. The Chinese food abounds in monosodium glutamate that seems to be responsible for the fifth taste or ‘‘umami taste’’

Parmigiano? You mean, the Parmesan cheese from Italy and that is found in abundance in dishes like spaghetti?

The tendencies of Down subjects to carry out recreative–reabilitative activities, such as embroidery, wicker-working ceramics, book-binding, etc., that is renowned, remind the Chinese hand-crafts, which need a notable ability, such as Chinese vases or the use of chop-sticks employed for eating by Asiatic populations.

I’d like to take my knitting needles now and shove them up someone’s no man’s land where it really hurts.