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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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Computers and social media

Operating system flamewars

As a longtime Mac head, I’m always rather amused by just how emotionally invested people become over a mere tool like an operating system for a computer. A reminder of this popped up over at Pharyngula today, when in the course of echoing a call from the Mothership for reminiscences of the primitive computers we […]

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Bioethics Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Politics Religion

Abortion and breast cancer: The Chicago Tribune feeds the myth

I approach this topic with a bit of trepidation. I say this not because I’m unsure that I’m correct in my assessment of the article that I’m about to apply some Respectful Insolence™ to. Rather, it’s because the last time I brought up anything having to do with abortion, it got ugly. The topic is […]