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Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Oh, joy. His Royal Quackiness will be gracing us with his presence in March

Oh, goody. Here’s something we didn’t need here in the US. While Australian skeptics have successfully been rallying to put a stop to a series of lectures from American antivaccine activist Sherri Tenpenny, we’re going to have to put up with a far bigger name in quackery showing up right here in the good ol’ […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

In which I am called an astroturfer and generously offered a chance at unconditional surrender by antivaccine cranks

Ever since the Disneyland measles outbreak hit high gear last month and permeated the national consciousness, the antivaccine movement has, justifiably, been on the defensive. We’ve been treated to the spectacle of a truly despicable cardiologist spewing antivaccine nonsense with an added dollop of contempt for parents of children with cancer who are worried about […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Popular culture Quackery

The Food Babe: “There is just no acceptable level of any chemical to ingest, ever”

It’s been a while since I’ve taken notice of Vani Hari, a.k.a. The Food Babe, the misguided “food safety” activist who sees chemicals, chemicals, chemicals everywhere and raises fears about them all, especially the ones that she can’t pronounce. The first time I took any significant notice of her was about a year ago, when […]

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Medicine

Gordie Howe: How not to report about dubious stem cell therapies

And now for something completely different… (Yes, there’s been enough vaccine blogging for the moment.) The date of the Kinsman Sports Celebrity Dinner in Saskatoon is fast approaching on February 6. It reminded me of my discussion of how Gordie Howe was flown to Tijuana to undertake a dubious stem cell therapy for his serious […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Naturopathy Quackery Television

Dr. Oz’s “green coffee bean extract” scammer guest must repay $9 million

If there’s one aspect of 2014 that I enjoyed, it’s that it was a very bad year for our old friend, America’s quack, a.k.a. Dr. Mehmet Oz. It seemed that, finally, some of the chickens were coming home to roost and Dr. Oz was starting to suffer a bit for his promotion of quackery and […]