Comment Re:Morons (Score 1) 137
You can't know your data is bad when doing experimentation. That's the point of experimentation - you control variables and observe others to test a hypothesis.
The point at which you can KNOW data is bad is the point at which you know all of the variables and all the details of the phenomena observing. It's like "experimenting" with 1+1 on a calculator. When it give you a 12 you know you've got bad data (you keyed in 11+1 or 1+11 or something), but that's only because you know the entire system and what it's supposed to do. It's not an experiment at that point, and there's no fucking point in doing it.
If you're experimenting on something then you don't know the entire system. If you don't know the entire system then you cannot know for sure whether any data is bad or not.
Even without going to that extreme. "bad data" - even obviously "bad data" - is merely a failure to control variables. The methodology and experiment as a whole is then suspect. Repeat with better control and methodology, or deal with the small amount of ugliness in the graph that the "bad data" may have contributed.