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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine

The ASCO Meeting: The swag!

Dedicated advocate of evidence-based medicine that I am, I am sometimes labeled by those who do not understand skepticism as a “shill” for big pharma. Of course, such accusations are simply the logical fallacy known as poisoning the well, in which the credulous engage in preemptive ad hominem attacks designed to associate me with the […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Quackery

A myth memorialized (a.k.a. “Simpsonwood Remembered”)

Here is the myth of Simpsonwood being memorialized on the seventh anniversary of the meeting where, if you believe the mercury militia, the CDC, in cahoots with big pharma, tried to suppress the “truth” that thimerosal in vaccines causes autism. it is a myth that was popularized by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s misinformation-laden Salon.com article […]

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Medicine Quackery

I’d pass on this one if I ever got prostatitis

There’s not much to add to this other than…ouch! 1949 was not a good year for the treatment of prostatitis, was it? Hat tip to Modern Mechanix.

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Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture History Humor Medicine Movies Popular culture Quackery

Betty Boop: Homeopath

While reading through a mailing list I belong to, I came across a link that demonstrates that alternative medicine has been ingrained in popular culture since at least the 1920’s and 1930’s. Indeed, I never realized that that icon of flappers, Betty Boop, practiced homeopathy. Don’t believe me? Well, here’s incontrovertible evidence in the form […]

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Entertainment/culture

Paris, please go away

This article in Salon.com sums up my feelings about the whole Paris Hilton fiasco almost perfectly: Even after years of watching Hilton direct the media like her own obedient little phalanx of winged monkeys, it would take a coldhearted cynic to doubt that Hilton was experiencing real pain and anguish upon returning to prison. At […]