Tag: David Shiffman

It’s Just a Joke

Intelligence v Humor by Josh Witten (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Intelligence v Humor by Josh Witten (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

BuzzFeed’s Editor-in-Chief, Ben Smith, seems to be suggesting, in his argument with marine biologists* over a failed parody of shark hysteria, that smart people have bad senses of humor.

Screenshot 2014-06-25 15.44.34

Well, at least we know when to use a scatter plot instead of a Gaussian distribution. Burn.

Based on his opinion of BuzzFeed’s level of humor, it also shows a relatively low opinion of the intelligence of BuzzFeed fans. Granted, he probably knows a lot of details about BuzzFeed fans.

*Identifiable as folks with or working toward a biology PhD who suffer from the delusion that they are pirates.

 

Adjusted for Accuracy

In the wake of the sensational story about a larger shark potentially killing and eating a smaller shark, shark conservation advocate and researcher David Shiffman has posted a series of overwrought shark headlines paired with versions that have been adjusted for accuracy.

My favorite is “Shark seen swimming in ocean. You know, where sharks live”.

David has invited readers to submit their own suggestions.

*Hat tip to Andrew David Thaler of Southern Fried Science.

Science Caturday: Shark Week!

catshark

As everyone with access to the internet or cable surely knows, it’s Shark Week. Although some of the science on TV has been highly questionable, our friend David Shiffman, known to many as @WhySharksMatter, has made it his mission to spread accurate information about sharks. Yesterday, he hosted an epic, 3 hour Reddit AMA all about sharks. Read it here, you’re sure to learn stuff. 

photo via Cheezburger.com

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