Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Why it’s not a good idea to respond to cranks, quacks, or pseudoscientists

One of the hazards of standing up for science and science-based medicine (and against cranks) is that some of these cranks will try to contact you at work. That’s why I have a policy about blog-related e-mails sent to me work address, and that policy is that I usually ignore them, whereas I might actually […]

Categories
Cancer Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

“Natural” versus CAM “natural”

NOTE: I was on a lovely vacation for three days in Chicago over the weekend, where I visited old haunts. (Bathroom attendants? At one of my favorite pub hangouts when I lived in Lincoln Park, John Barleycorn? Handing out crappy brown paper towels? Plastering the walls there with endless rows of flat screen TVs turned […]

Categories
Anti-Semitism History Holocaust Holocaust denial Religion World War II

Holocaust denial versus free speech

It’s grant crunch time, as the submission deadline for revised R01s is July 5. However, in a classic example of how electronic filing has actually made things more difficult, the grant has to be done and at the university grant office a week before the deadline if it is to be uploaded in time. So, […]

Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Quackery

The return of the microfascists (and their micro brownshirts and microtruncheons)

It’s grant crunch time, as the submission deadline for revised R01s is July 5. However, in a classic example of how electronic filing has actually made things more difficult, the grant has to be done and at the university grant office a week before the deadline if it is to be uploaded in time. So, […]

Categories
Biology Complementary and alternative medicine Evolution Homeopathy Medicine Quackery Science

If randomized clinical trials don’t show that your woo works, try anthropology!

It’s grant crunch time, as the submission deadline for revised R01s is July 5. However, in a classic example of how electronic filing has actually made things more difficult, the grant has to be done and at the university grant office a week before the deadline if it is to be uploaded in time. So, […]