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Announcements Blog housekeeping Blogging Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Don’t forget: The Skeptics’ Circle is fast approaching

Don’t forget, once again the time is fast approaching. Soon yet another installment of the Skeptics’ Circle will be upon us. In fact, it’s less than a week away and due to land at the Holford Watch on Thursday, November 8. Skeptical bloggers, there isn’t much time left for you to get your entries done […]

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Blogging Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Crank argumentation

Arguing with cranks can be an extremely frustrating experience, which is why I don’t do it very often anymore except on my terms on this blog. Yes, I did cut my skeptical teeth, so to speak, for several years doing just that in the totally unmoderated and wild free-for-all known as Usenet before I dipped […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Friday Woo Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Your Friday Dose of Woo: Oxy-woo and the energized sound

In retrospect, I feel a little guilty about last week’s edition of Your Friday Dose of Woo. As a couple of commenters pointed out, the guy responsible for the woo seems as though he’s a bit disturbed, as evidenced by the ransom note-style literature on his website and the news story that mentioned how his […]

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Humor Politics Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

A blast from the global warming past (on this blog, that is)

Over the summer, I got into a bit of an argument with a certain Libertarian comic named Tim Slagle who doesn’t seem to accept the scientific consensus that anthropogenic global warming is happening or that it is a potentially grave problem. In a perilous bit of criticism, given that comedy often depends on saying stupid […]

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Cancer Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Vitamin D and cancer: The difference between cranks and mainstream science

Despite the diatribes that appear here on a regular basis bemoaning the unscientific and sometimes dangerous claims made for so-called “alternative medicine” modalities, I’ll be among the first to admit that in some cases it’s not always clear what is “alternative” about some therapies. Indeed, there seems to be an intentional effort to “rebrand” some […]