Unsought Input

Earlier one of our writers stumbled on a report that claimed gas-guzzling Hummers were better for the environment than hybrids like the Toyota Prius. This is one of those great stories that everyone loves - where the conventional wisdom is wrong, and we can all have a good laugh knocking someone or something off it’s high horse.

This story has been passed furiously around the Internet for a week or so, by email and blog, featured on Digg and Slashdot. It’s a good anecdote about unintended consequences and a little boost to Hummer owners who are sometimes criticized for their very conspicuous consumption.

It’s also pretty much a load of crap.

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Right now, you and I have access to more information than anyone else in the history of humanity. The richest man alive in the year 1800 could not get the amount and quality of information that a janitor with a $20/month DSL connection has at his fingertips today.

This is all so amazing and wonderful that we mostly take it for granted. But it brings up new problems. No one can argue about the amount of information that’s just a Google search away, but the quality of what comes up can be a big question mark. Luckily, we also have in place the most successful model of judging the quality of information in the history of man: the peer-reviewed academic journal.

So we have an embarrassment of riches, and a great model to follow that has brought constant improvements in science and technology. So what’s the problem? Actually performing academic research is horribly broken, and what’s worse, there’s no good reason. Read on to find out just how broken the system is.

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