Categories
Paranormal Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

I know Halloween is coming up soon and all, but…

…I am as appalled as my fellow ScienceBlogger Mark over this horrifically credulous article on ghosts on This Old House at CNN.com. Here’s a small taste, which comes after a long discussion of how to choose a “good” ghost inspector: If natural explanations cannot be found, and it’s determined that there is indeed a presence […]

Categories
Medicine News of the Weird Surgery

“I don’t know how it got there. No, really!”

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a favorite topic for amusement among general surgeons, rectal foreign bodies, particularly the strange things people like to stick up their bottoms for whatever reason. I pointed out at the time that sometimes the excuses such patients make when seeking medical attention are a bit–shall we say?–hard […]

Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Humor Medicine Quackery

Two not-so-different things

As usual, Cectic nails it (click on comic for the full-size version): Although I find it odd that the “mark” in the above comic would be calling for his checkbook rather than his credit card, it never ceases to amaze me how skeptical some people can be when dealing with financial matters while at the […]

Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Friday Woo Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Your Friday Dose of Woo: Who needs statins? Or: Sacrifice the teeth to remove those toxins!

Some woo is very, very complicated. The reason, of course, is that the often self-contradicting complexity of this sort of woo serves to make it harder for people without specialized training to figure out easily that it makes no sense scientifically. It’s more a matter of baffling ’em with bullshit than because such complexity is […]

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

The 72nd Meeting of the Skeptics’ Circle: Sister Mary Elephant strikes

This has been a bad week at skeptics’ school. Apparently, skeptical bloggers have been misbehaving left and right. Apparently we as the skeptical blogosphere have been very, very naughty indeed. Worse, the essays that we’ve handed in are apparently not pleasing to the teacher. Worst of all, we’ve been mischievously copying a screed against homeopaths […]