--- In [email protected], "Cliff" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
wrote:
> 
> I agree that anything approaching these figures would be a
> stunning proof of a clear effect of directionality.  But the 
research 
> cannot be done by people with a HUGE motivation to find a particular
> result.  There is no credibility in that case.
>

I think the TMO should pay researchers from other schools to do the 
research -- would not cost a lot, but would certainly make the 
credibility factor go way up -- altho your assertion that credibility 
is zero seems unwarranted, as this is what peer review is for prior 
to publication in academic journals. I don't think it would be 
difficult to agree on the protocols of what constituted a home with a 
southern entrance (although really vastu is defined by fences, not 
entrances, and many houses don't have fences, so there may have to be 
some agreement to only count houses with fences which are clearly 
south or east), and burglary stats are obvious enough.
 
> Even if the figure is correct, there are a large number of other
> factors that need to be eliminated.  What neighborhoods were
> considered, for example?  Were houses with different directions
> equally distributed in such neighborhoods?  It would be real
> easy to skew the results by taking all the south-facing houses
> from low-income neighborhoods and comparing them to the
> east-facing houses in gated, high-income neighborhoods.
> 

There was no playing with neighborhoods in the Travis study, and of 
course no one would compare south houses in poor neighborhoods with 
east houses in good neighborhoods. The town would have to be chosen 
so that houses are unequivocally able to be classified as one 
direction or another, and where the right side of the tracks was not 
directionally biased.

> And a researcher with enough motivation to come up with a
> particular result might not even notice they were making
> skewed choices.
>

Well, a researcher who wants to see an improvement in a patient may 
be unconsciously seeing a beneficial effect from a medication that he 
is testing for, but it would be hard to see how a researcher could 
find a house more southy or less burglared because of his unconscious 
desires -- I don't see "double-blind" as being relevant in a study of 
entrances vs. burglary rates -- there's not much wiggle room, as 
there would be in a patient's reported improvement.

 
> --- In [email protected], "Bob Brigante" 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > 
> > --- In [email protected], "Cliff" 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
> > wrote:
> > > 
> > > Why does it strike me as nearly 100% certain that if all the 
> > details were
> > > known on this "research", that it would turn out to be much 
like a 
> > > thoroughly rotten beam - impressive to look at, but without 
much 
> > > substance?
> > 
> > Possibly one item that causes your certainty is the jokey claim 
> > inserted by Dixon that winning lottery tix were sold in east 
facing 
> > bldgs...
> > 
> > Only a much larger study would find any credibility in the 
scientific 
> > community, but a very large study could be definitive, I think, 
if 
> > any number even close to the 75% more burglaries that Travis 
found 
> > were found in a large study.
> >





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