Empirical evidence vs text-book knowledge

What is the botanical name of ‘Tameshwar creeper’ ? :

Thanks …, I knew i might be setting off an empirical evidence vs text-book knowledge (anecdotal evidence) debate.
This is just to clarify that i am comfortable with both mindsets. To be honest i tend to naturally veer toward supporting the more dominant current paradigm and i like to think that i am constantly looking at ways to simplify the empirical scientific approach such that it becomes a collaborative endeavor involving humans at all levels.
Good clean empirical evidence as i suggested earlier is difficult to find and as … would like to put it most empirical studies that are generated currently are GIGO–garbage in and garbage out and this does bring a bad name to the field and as you rightly pointed out well-funded corporates are quick to cash in on this and continue on their environment destruction spree.
The right answer to them would not be name-calling but actually proving our point with good clean empirical studies (hard work i agree but unfortunately the only clean option).
… is an IIT engineer who left everything behind to work with the Bhils toward establishing a grounded approach to environmental conservation (read his life-struggles in the blog linked here:http://anar-kali.blogspot.com).
He perhaps realized (… feel free to clarify) that he needed empirical data to prove his point and he is currently doing a Phd to carry his activism to the next level where it will not be bowled out by the powers that be.

I was at the receiving end of diagnosis of lung problems from environmental infections day in and day out for more than 40 years, I have seen too much misery…and death. in several continents , and as part of paleo-medicine, across centuries.. and in some cases across millenia… . so its natural for me to sound the alarm…

give me a break and dont be so sensitive, ………………..

if you are writing your thesis on this subject, it would be smart to point out the pitfalls I have lined up and talk about how you have taken precautions to avoid just such calamities…. it would strengthen you viewpoint and argument… ……………………..

it would be good if every body took precautions… like you seem to have done with water proofing of the terrace floor of the leaf mulching.. and now that I have told you about the seeds, dont go experimenting…. did you sterilize the tank lid after the pigeons flew away? you of course know about the ability of bacteria, fungi and mold spores to traverse thru impossible little pores in cement etc… and spaces between the fibre-glass tank and its lid…
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AND …: Tomar lekha pore mone hochhe you think medical THE TEXT BOOKS MAY be ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE?

In some cases its perhaps accepted wisdom, but the infections in meninges and lungs, allergic reaction with proven antibody tires etc ..based on biopsies, csf taps and cultures bronchial washings and culture, get reported as series of cases, or case reports in peer reviewed journals (the case report can be classified as an anecdote, but it has to be supported by tests including culture and histological analysis of the pathological biopsy, hence is a scientific document and not an anecdote that we see on TV ads like ” look I got better by taking this voodoo medicine” type of anecdote”) and then after a series of such reports and its written up in textbooks… do you remember how legionnaires disease was diagnosed and then reported in Philly and then elsewhere and now all over the world and then it got into textbooks…. it all happened in last 30-35 years… solid clinical and lab work has been done in each instance and reported to scientific societies, their journals and center for disease control and state and federal epidemiological units, and also to WHO and then it got into textbooks….

of course you will be right if you tell me Aspirin got into usage and texbooks without any real empirical data, and I grant you that… I have often said it in my lectures that if aspirin were to be patented now, it will perhaps not get patented at all because of all the experiments that the medical researchers and drug companies would have to do to prove the efficacy and do a lot of toxicity assessment, and then if proven useful and non toxic could it be patented as a generalized painkiller and blood- thinner as its used currently.

anyway
this debate can go on…
and it can be a lot of fun…

Thanks … great to touch base with a lively debate after quite a while. 🙂

Its interesting that you should extoll the virtues of case reports because even i believe that a ‘case study approach’ is essential to “portrayal of multi-faceted explorations of complex issues in healthcare.”

Yes … video is a case study subsequently enriched by your pointing out the potential harms and this begs further inquiry. I feel it need not necessarily be pursued through another experimental design as you rightly cautioned but gleaned very well through observational data.

Even a review of literature around the question, “How many households with pigeons (rock pigeons?) roosting and nesting over their water tanks have family members developing fungal pneumonia or meningitis?” may yield something and if not a cross-sectional survey of such households to begin with might?

I won’t push empiricism further on you and we are in the same boat.