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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

Suppression of speech through legal intimidation, anti-vaccine edition: Barbara Loe Fisher sues Dr. Paul Offit, Amy Wallace, and Condé Nast for libel

In general, one of the biggest differences between those defending science-based medicine and those defending pseudoscience, quackery, and anti-science is that science inculcates in its adherents a culture of free and open debate. In marked contrast, those advocating pseudoscience tend to cultivate cultures of the echo chamber. Examples abound and include discussion forums devoted to […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine History Humor Medicine Quackery World War II

Hitler discusses the evidence for the chiropractic treatment of infant colic…

Given my long known weak spot for Downfall parodies (even though they are an Internet fad whose time has come and probably already gone), how on earth did I miss this? PodBlack Cat shows me that, believe it or not, Hitler was a chiropractor. He’s been asked to talk about the use of chiropractic for […]

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Medicine

Happy New Year 2010!

Well, it’s finally happened. 2009 is now in the dustbin of history. It was a thoroughly awful year, which is why hope springs eternal that 2010 will be better. Given that it would be difficult for 2010 to be worse than 2009, it’s a pretty sure bet that it probably will be better, but I […]

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Cancer Medicine

Radiation from CT scans: Balancing risks and benefits

NOTE: Orac is on semi-vacation this week, trying very hard to recharge his Tarial cells. Actually, although he is at home, he is spending much of his time in his Sanctum Sanctorum (i.e., his home office) working on an R01 for the February submission cycle. Given that the week between Christmas and New Years Day […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Anti-vaccine activism, not autism activism, part 2

You know, when Age of Autism starts announcing its yearly “people of the year” awards, there’s always a lot of blog fodder there to be had. Given that this is the time of year when I ramp the blog down a bit and, trying to relax a little, don’t spend as much time doing detailed […]