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Bioethics Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking Surgery

UCLA fights back against animal “rights” terrorists

Earlier this month, I was remiss in not noting an update to a story about which I had written before, a story of domestic terrorism carried out by so-called “animal rights” advocates who are utterly opposed to the use of animals in research. The series of attacks began with an intimidation campaign against a UCLA […]

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Blogging Complementary and alternative medicine Humor Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

For duty and humanity!

A blogger’s duty calls: (Click for the full-sized version.) It’s true: A skeptical blogger’s work is never done! When pseudoscience or quackery is noticed on the Internet, no mater what time of day or night, this skeptical blogger cannot resist the call to craft a takedown. Just ask my wife.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Intelligent design/creationism Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Media reporting on pseudoscience: When should a newspaper abandon the “report both sides” mantra?

In response to my post yesterday castigating J. B. Handley of Generation Rescue for hypocritically accusing the American Academy of Pediatrics of “manipulating the media” when manipulating the media is Generation Rescue’s raison d’être, Mike the Mad Biologist turned me on to a rather fascinating article in the New York Times by its Public Editor […]

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

Quackademic medicine in the U.S.: The view from the U.K.

David Colquhoun, eminent scientist and maintainer of the excellent blog DC’s Improbable Science, has recently returned home to the U.K. after a trip across the pond to the U.S. and Canada, where, among other things, he gave a lecture at the University of Toronto, as well as the Riker Memorial Lecture at the Oregon Health […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bioethics Medicine Politics Popular culture Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

The American Academy of Pediatrics versus antivaccinationist hypocrisy

Three weeks ago, I wrote about some truly irresponsible antivaccination propaganda masquerading as entertainment that aired in the form of a television show called Eli Stone. This show, which portrayed its hero taking on the case of an autistic boy whose mother blamed his autism on thimerosal (going under the fictional name “mercuritol”) in vaccines […]