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

Your Friday Dose of Woo: Help me Obi-Wan. You’re my only hope.

In the year and a half or so that I’ve been doing Your Friday Dose of Woo, I must admit that I’ve come across some truly weird stuff. Stuff so weird that, after reading it, you wonder either, “How on earth could someone seriously think something like this is true or would work?” or “How […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Yet another really bad day for antivaccinationists: This time there’s no link between the MMR and autism

I hadn’t planned on blogging about vaccines again for a while. Really, I hadn’t. Even I realize the risk of beating the proverbial dead horse just one time too often. Also, It seems that I’ve been writing about antivaccination loons a lot lately, even more than usual. However, aside from a prime time spot for […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Quackery Television

At least Eli Stone was good for one thing

I did not watch Eli Stone last Thursday. I didn’t really need to, given that prerelease descriptions made it clear that the show’s pilot episode was nothing more than a load of antivaccination propaganda. Indeed, it was so bad that the American Academy of Pediatrics actually took the step of drafting a public letter to […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

NCCAM: Your tax dollars hard at work funding woo

I used to be somewhat of a supporter of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). I really did. This was back when I was more naïve and idealistic. Indeed, when I first read Wally Sampson’s article Why NCCAM should be defunded, I thought it a bit too strident and even rather close-minded. […]

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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 […]