Earning their pay: Speaking of inane studies, a team of Dartmouth Medical School researchers recently linked movies to teen smoking. Apparently, teens who watch movies with many depictions of smoking are more prone to tobacco use than teens who do not view the movies. Nevermind that many of these movies are rated R and PG-13�restrictions that should keep these kids from watching them in the first place. But that’s the subject of another study. Dartmouth, however, has hyped this seminal work despite its obvious flaws. Check out Darren Thomas’ analysis.

Why Dartmouth researchers find these anti-tobacco studies so appealing is anyone’s guess�perhaps they ran out of ideas concerning tanning beds.