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Complementary and alternative medicine Humor Medicine Politics Quackery

The best trial of Qi Gong ever?

In responding to Deepak Chopra’s “integrative medicine” nonsense from last week that I “https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2009/01/the_three_musketeers_of_woo_meet_dartagn.php,” Derek Lowe proposes the best trial of Qi Gong ever: “Chronic pain is one of the major sources of worker’s compensation claims costs, yet studies show that it is often susceptible to acupuncture and Qi Gong. Herbs usually have far fewer […]

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Announcements Biology Evolution Science

Here’s a cool idea: Blogging the Origin

Here’s a cool idea. Take a newbie, who has never read Charles Darwins’ On the Origin of Species, and have the newbie actually read the book. Then have him blog each chapter. That’s exactly what John Whitfield, London-based freelance science writer, is doing, and ScienceBlogs has him over at Blogging the Origin. Check it out. […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

The Three Musketeers of Woo meet d’Artagnan to fight for woo on the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal

The seemingly never-ending quest of advocates of unscientific medicine, the so-called “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) movement is to convince policy makers, patients, and physicians that, really and truly, it no longer deserves the qualifier of “alternative,” that it is in fact mainstream and even “scientific.” That very search for respectability without accountability is the […]

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Announcements

The first Meeting of the Skeptics’ Circle of 2009 is fast approaching

It’s amazing how fast the time passes. The year 2008 is now history. 2009 is nearly two weeks old. But, for purposes of this blog, most important of all is that the very first Skeptics’ Circle of 2009 is fast approaching. It will be held at Bug Girl’s Blog on Thursday, January 15, a mere […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Politics Popular culture Quackery Television

An actual pro-vaccine storyline? On ABC?

I don’t watch Private Practice. I didn’t like Grey’s Anatomy, which, every time I caught part of it, struck me as the cheesiest sort of medical soap opera, a General Hospital transplanted to prime time. Given that Private Practice is a spinoff of Grey’s Anatomy, I never saw any reason whatsoever to watch. However, on […]