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Announcements Skepticism/critical thinking

Don’t forget: The Skeptics’ Circle is fast approaching

Well, 2008 is off to a great start with the Skeptics’ Circle. It’s fast approaching the time to see if the momentum can be maintained. Yes, it won’t be long before the next Skeptics’ Circle comes around the pike. Indeed, the next meeting of the Skeptics’ Circle will appear on Thursday, January 17 and will […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Friday Woo Medicine Religion Skepticism/critical thinking

Your Friday Dose of Woo: Holy Koranic Dr. Emoto, Batman!

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about woo in the more than a year and a half that I’ve been doing this regular Friday feature, it’s that there’s definitely a religious element to virtually all woo. In essence, it requires believing in something that cannot be demonstrated scientifically, often despite science outright refuting it. For […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Another example of the arrogance of ignorance

The other day, I mentioned what Prometheus termed the “arrogance of ignorance,” in which people with no training in a complex, scientific issue have the hubris to think that they know enough to be able to lecture medical scientists on shortcomings of their research. Here’s another example of just such arrogance by antivaccinationist Barbara Loe […]

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Medicine Surgery

Surgery: Past performance is no guarantee of future results

In recent years, there has been a lot of interest in improving surgical outcomes. One strain of research tends to examine the “volume-outcome” relationship, which in essence asked the question if the volume of cases that a surgeon or hospital does has a relationship outcome. In other words, are mortality rates lower, survival rates better, […]

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Blogging Medicine

A finalist for the 2007 Best Medical Weblog

I’ll admit that I’ve been a bit oblivious to honors and awards in the blogosphere lately, but it’s come to my attention that I’m actually a finalist for Best Medical Weblog. I also note that the competition is fierce. Fellow surgeon Sid Schwab is there for Surgeonsblog, as is one of the pioneers of medical […]