BRAINIAC
NBC
John McCool, a freelance medical editor and big “Seinfeld” fan, knew the unsolicited invitation from Urology & Nephrology Open Access Journal to submit a paper was unscrupulous. The journal has been labeled “predatory,” meaning it trolls researchers for articles then demands high fees to publish the papers they submit, without actually doing any quality control. So McCool decided to troll right back.
He sent in a bogus paper relating the plight of a 37-year-old man with “uromycitisis” — the phony syndrome Jerry Seinfeld invents — as a way to dodge a citation for urinating in public. The authors of the report included Dr. Martin van Nostrand, Kramer’s physician alter ego. McCool also threw in a reference to one G.L. Costanza and the Arthur Vandelay Urological Research Institute.
None of which seemed to faze the journal, which requested revisions and accepted the paper, then asked McCool for $799 plus tax to publish the article.
The rest is, well, yadda, yadda, yadda.
In the age of Trump, American racism and Mexican racism can seem like matter and antimatter. How can both exist at the same time?
Continue reading »It seems that you don’t need to have a wheel to play with the big boys.
Continue reading »It’s too late to try to win an Oscar for the 91st Academy Awards, but are you hoping to win a gold statuette next year?
Continue reading »The beautiful lies of novels, movies, and TV stories have surprisingly powerful effects — and may even help make society tick.
Continue reading »En la era de Trump, el racismo americano y el racismo mexicano pudieran ser materia y antimateria. ¿Cómo pueden existir los dos al mismo tiempo?
Continue reading »The US government used to break up monopolies. Now it lets them flourish. A new movement, alarmed by today’s tech giants, wants to bring antitrust law back to life.
Continue reading »Centuries before Ebola, Cotton Mather faced down another global epidemic with a health tactic from abroad.
Continue reading »The Constitution explicitly guaranteed African-Americans’ right to go to the polls, but states just ignored it. What does it take to turn the law into more than just words on paper?
Continue reading »When fighting a disease is a geopolitical priority, we find a way to make it happen.
Continue reading »