Categories
Medicine Politics

Taking pay for performance to a ridiculous extreme

This story‘s been floating around the blogosphere for a few days now, and I’ve been wanting to weigh in. Basically, Medicare is saying that it will no longer pay for conditions and treatments that result from hospital errors. Sounds reasonable on the surface, right? After all, if a surgeon leaves a sponge in a patient, […]

Categories
Anti-Semitism Entertainment/culture Evolution History Holocaust Intelligent design/creationism Movies Politics Pseudoscience Religion Science Skepticism/critical thinking

The fall of Ben Stein

You know, even though I know he’s been a Republican talker for a long time, that he worked for the Nixon administration as a speechwriter and lawyer, I’ve always kind of liked Ben Stein. My wife and I used to like to watch Win Ben Stein’s Money, and he was quite amusing as the principal […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Justice may yet prevail in the case of Abubakar Nadama

Good news! Dr. Roy Kerry, the quack whose careless use of intravenous chelation therapy for autism resulted in the death of a five year old autistic boy named Abubakar Tariq Nadama, will be charged with involuntary manslaughter: PITTSBURGH – A doctor was charged with involuntary manslaughter Wednesday for administering a chemical treatment that state police […]

Categories
Announcements Blogging Skepticism/critical thinking

R.I.P. Perry DeAngelis

It’s been brought to my attention that Perry DeAngelis, regular contributor to The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe podcast, member of the New England Skeptical Society has passed away unexpectedly at far too young an age. I don’t know any of the details, although as a regular listener to the Skeptics’ Guide podcast I knew […]

Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Essential reading on HIV/AIDS denialism

Fellow SB’er Tara Smith, and academic neurologist Steve Novella have written an essential primer on the dangerous pseudoscience and quackery that is HIV/AIDS denialism. It’s published in PLoS and is entitled HIV Denial in the Internet Era. It makes a number of excellent points about the deadly quackery that is HIV/AIDS denialism, including how its […]