Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

The “Jenny McCarthy effect”: More credulity towards autism quackery

I was thinking of calling this post Jenny McCarthy and Julie Deardorff: Two crappy tastes that taste crappy together, but I’ve already used that joke with Jenny McCarthy and Oprah Winfrey. Besides, Julie Deardorff isn’t nearly as famous as Oprah, although, as I’ve discussed before, she’s probably even more credulous than Oprah towards the lastest […]

Categories
Evolution Intelligent design/creationism Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

Jeffrey Dahmer: “Darwin made me do it.”

I must lead a sheltered life, at least when it comes to the creationism-evolution wars. Sure, I’m more than aware about how much creationists and their more common (these days, at least) bastard offspring “intelligent design” creationists like to cherry pick, twist, and mangle data to make it seem to support their case, or, when […]

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

Your Friday Dose of Woo: Reprogram your DNA!

DNA is an amazing molecule. How evolution could have, over eons, fashioned such an amazingly simple yet complex method of storing biological information and coding the proteins that carry out the functions of life is one of the great wonders of biology. Harnessing the power of DNA, through genetic engineering, the study of the genome, […]

Categories
Medicine Surgery

Conflicts of interest among department chairs in academic medical centers

Via Health Care Renewal, I’ve learned of a study that, certain people may be surprised to learn, troubles me. Published yesterday in JAMA, it is, as far as I know, the most comprehensive quantification of one type of tie between industry and academia, specifically how many department chairs have ties to industry and what kind. […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Television

Is Bill Maher really that ignorant?

Work and a conference intervene to prevent a fresh dose of Respectful Insolence today. Fortunately, there’s still classic Insolence from the archives that hasn’t been moved over to the new blog. This one originally appeared on March 7, 2005. The short answer is: Yes. The long answer is below. When I first posted on this […]