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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Fun with phone surveys and vaccines

J. B. Handley never ceases to amaze me how much he is willing to torture me with his abuses of science, never mind his childish attempts to annoy me by cybersquatting domain names that he thinks I want. So there I was, all set to blog about a rather amusing homeopath that I’ve come across, […]

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Medicine Science

And now for some NIH science wonkiness

If you’re not into the ins and outs of applying for NIH funding, this one may be a bit too wonky for you. I’m linking, however, to a rather interesting discussion of how to go about getting funding from the NIH in this presently hostile funding climate. One spot-on point is this in reference to […]

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Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

The Autism Omnibus: The difference between real scientists and crank scientists

The Autism Omnibus trial continued last week, which was devoted primarily to the government’s case. Consequently, there were a variety of real experts, as opposed to the pseudoexperts called by the prosecution last week. With only the occasional hiccup, they are taking serious bites out of the plaintiff’s case, as documented on a near daily […]

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Medicine News of the Weird

I have this syndrome!

Finally, there’s a word for a feeling that many people have no doubt experienced many times: Some call it “phantom vibration syndrome.” Others prefer “vibranxiety” — the feeling when you answer your vibrating cellphone, only to find it never vibrated at all. “It started happening about three years ago, when I first got a cellphone,” […]

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Medicine Pareidolia Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

A pareidoliec blast from the past

After attending the ASCO Meeting in Chicago over two weeks ago, I can’t believe I forgot to post about this. More than two years ago, back in my favorite city (Chicago), a vision of the Virgin Mary appeared. It appeared, oddly enough, as such visions are wont to do, in a rather mundane spot. Specifically, […]