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Biology Medicine Politics Science Surgery

Animal rights terrorists may have struck again…

…and this time it’s a home invasion. Abel Pharmboy at Terra Sig pointed me to this incident, which has all the markings of still more animal rights terrorism. This time, the attack occurred at the University of California Santa Cruz and involved a home invasion by masked intruders: SANTA CRUZ – A UC Santa Cruz […]

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Bioethics Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking Surgery

UCLA fights back against animal “rights” terrorists

Earlier this month, I was remiss in not noting an update to a story about which I had written before, a story of domestic terrorism carried out by so-called “animal rights” advocates who are utterly opposed to the use of animals in research. The series of attacks began with an intimidation campaign against a UCLA […]

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Bioethics Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Quackademic medicine in the U.S.: The view from the U.K.

David Colquhoun, eminent scientist and maintainer of the excellent blog DC’s Improbable Science, has recently returned home to the U.K. after a trip across the pond to the U.S. and Canada, where, among other things, he gave a lecture at the University of Toronto, as well as the Riker Memorial Lecture at the Oregon Health […]

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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Essential reading: Why prior probability is important in considering the results of clinical trials of so-called “complementary and alternative medicine”

I’ve become known as an advocate for evidence-based medicine (EBM) in the three years since I started this little bit of ego gratification known as Respectful Insolence™. One thing this exercise has taught me that I might never have learned before (and that I’ve only reluctantly begun to accept as true) is one huge problem […]

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Biology History Hitler Zombie Humor Intelligent design/creationism Pseudoscience Religion Science Skepticism/critical thinking

After a year’s absence (except in reruns), the monster returns…for real

In nondescript dressing room in a nondescript studio in a nondescript office building in in a nondescript industrial park, a short, pudgy 63-year-old man with the stereotypical demeanor of a particularly boring economist was trying to squeeze into a pair of shorts. “Why oh why did I agree to do this?” he muttered in a […]