Categories
Autism Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Mercury and autism: Well, look at what the Geiers are up to now

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that it’s been a while since I’ve written a substantive post on the fear mongering and bad science that are used by activists to support the claim that mercury in the thimerosal used as preservatives in vaccines is the cause of an “autism epidemic.” The closest I’ve […]

Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Random thought about the “Health Freedom Expo” in Chicago

A couple of days ago, I wrote about a megafestival of altie woo taking place in my favorite city. It just occurred to me right now: If I were in Chicago right at this very minute, I could be in Hulda Clark’s workshop (which is starting right now) learning how to cure all cancers and […]

Categories
Blogging Personal

Getting to know the newbies (a.k.a. the “pi” meme)

Janet started it. John and Mike picked it up. Afarensis used it to avoid working on a post. John and Bora quickly chimed in as well. Well, given that it’s a Sunday and that I usually don’t do any heavy duty science or medicine posts on Saturdays and Sundays, it looked like a perfectly good […]

Categories
Humor Music News of the Weird

The science of sound in action

I’m probably going to catch some crap for this one, but it’s kind of amusing. So what the heck? From Australia: Officials think the “Mandy” singer’s music will keep teens from hanging out and revving their engines in parking lots. Officials in Rockdale, Australia will pump the music of Barry Manilow through speakers in their […]

Categories
Humor News of the Weird

One quarter of my heritage at its finest

I’ve probably never mentioned it before, buy I’m 1/4 Lithuanian. Here’s something one of my cousins sent me to make me “proud” of that heritage: VILNIUS, Lithuania – Lithuanian police were so astonished by a breath test that registered 18 times the legal alcohol limit, they thought their device must be broken. It wasn’t. Police […]