"Lumber liquidator" and "60 Minuts"

[gellfex]

Basically someone used the Gubberment to attack Lumber Liquidators -- someone with an ax to grind, a fellow competitor, someone with a personal grudge or vendetta...

Tilson, who has been short Lumber Liquidators since 2013, was the one who flagged the story for the "60 Minutes" investigation.

http://www.businessinsider.com/tilson-adds-to-lumber-liquidators-short-2015-3

Re scientists, I cite (Arthur C.) Clarke's first law:
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

It's not quite as good as the 3rd law, one of my favorite sayings: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

[Rosco-P]

Basically someone used the Gubberment to attack Lumber Liquidators -- someone with an ax to grind, a fellow competitor, someone with a personal grudge or vendetta...

Honestly that's all there is to it. LL isn't the only shop out there selling imported fakewood flooring... they just got "off'd" by the government because someone wanted them gone.

Follow the money. Who benefits the most by getting Lumber Liquidators out of the market -- one of the Big Box chains most likely.

That would be The Home Depot, which wants them gone. A company which has no problem spouting dis-information to its own sales people about their competitor. In response LL has tried to open as many new stores as close to every HomDee as they can.

[Paul Alciatore]

What's unfortunate and very confusing in this is that all to many "real" scientists (those with advanced degrees and years of experience in the field) are all to anxious to "prove" that their new theory is, indeed, fact. This has happened many times in the history of science and many times it can take years or even decades for it to be properly resolved. I think global warming/climate change is one of those things. I do not claim that these theories are true, nor do I claim that they are false. I feel that they are far too immature to be properly judged by anyone, including the expert scientists who are claiming them to be one way or the other. And even if the climate suddenly changed dramatically in some direction overnight, there would still be little real evidence as to the actual cause. These things are hard enough to judge after the fact, much less in advance.

I wish those judges good luck. I don't think they will come up with any definite way of deciding these things.

[Left Handed Spud Wrench]

Basically someone used the Gubberment to attack Lumber Liquidators -- someone with an ax to grind, a fellow competitor, someone with a personal grudge or vendetta...

Honestly that's all there is to it. LL isn't the only shop out there selling imported fakewood flooring... they just got "off'd" by the government because someone wanted them gone.

Follow the money. Who benefits the most by getting Lumber Liquidators out of the market -- one of the Big Box chains most likely.

[darryl]

Gubbmint is the worst for making statements about pretty much anything. They are mostly puppets for those who'd like the public to hear what they want them to hear. As far as actual truth being stated, there is very little ever said that hasn't proven to be wrong at some later date, regardless of the integrity or knowledge of the scientist or researcher who said it. There are exceptions of course, but if a book was ever written about 'scientific facts', etc that have later proven to be false, it would probably be a tome.

[tyrone shewlaces]

The big problem with science and news media is that news media have no idea how it works.
Science: form a hypothesis, test, publish, peer review (if anybody is interested enough to do so) which should be done a LOT before claiming any result to be reliable, then acceptance (until new study shows different).
News: read the published test, report as new science. Uuuuh,... NO. No no no a thousand times NO. That's not science, that is news organizations fishing for yet another piece of filler. It sells ads.

There ought to be an exposé about THIS above little tidbit dangit!

One study means almost nothing in the science world other than a single data set. It takes time and the effort of many to show accuracy and significance.

Scientists generally like to prove things wrong and even to have their own results be proven wrong rather than see their early data be taken for a ride on the sensationalist train before it's mature enough to really know anything. It's not scientists' fault, it's ambulance chasers, again, as usual. Unfortunately, since gubbermint lackeys are subject to public opinion, real facts and even scientific "truth" often gets tossed aside when creating legislation and other legal actions. It's really a shame.

[Errol Groff]

Seems to me recall a Mars probe zipping on by because one hand was calculating in feet and the other hand was using meters.

Sigh!

Errol Groff

[J Tiers]

.... Remember scientists said the earth was flat, global warminf(now climate change), smoking is healthy & on & on.

Doctors ridiculed the idea of tiny germs causing disease 200 years ago. Now they say germs DO cause disease. Obviously they were not wrong BOTH times, so "scientists" are also correct about things. Your problem is not necessarily knowing which they are right about and which wrong.

The doctors were first wrong, but had no science to back their opinions. Actually "doing some science" proved that they were wrong, and confirmed the idea of germs causing disease.

There are typical ways to spot bogus science.

http://quackfiles.blogspot.com/2005/07/seven-warning-signs-of-bogus-science.html

[flylo]

It's like the BS about treated lumber & the spotted owl BS. They've studied workers of trated lumber plants for 50 years & haven't found a link to bad health yet. They found spotted owls in new growth timber & swore it couldn't be real spotted owls as they only live in old growth. They make the facts fit their ideas. Remember scientists said the earth was flat, global warminf(now climate change), smoking is healthy & on & on.

[h12721]

The US Lab agency who investigate Lumber Liquidator on the Formaldehyde in the Flooring got the report wrong.
The lab some how got the numbers mixed up from converting to Metric from the US system.
The bad numbers should have been 3X worst. As reported on 60 Minutes to night.
Hilmar