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News of the Weird

A sign of the times, part 2

This story’s being sent about as an example of stupid criminals, à la News of the Weird, but I just view it as a sign of the times: Bellacino’s Pizzeria closes at 9 p.m. That’s when one of the employees left work out a back door, where his car was parked. He was approached by […]

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

Your Friday Dose of Woo: The quantum homeopathic gyroscopic circle is complete

In my rigid, Western, scientific way of thinking, things generally have a beginning, a middle, and and end, the arrow of time marching relentlessly onward. However, it occurs to me that this is the very last edition of Your Friday Dose of Woo of its first year. Last June, when I started this, almost on […]

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Bioethics Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Here we go again: More radiation for Starchild Abraham Cherrix

I’ve written extensively before about Starchild Abraham Cherrix, the (now) 17-year-old who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease when he was 15 and who, after one course of chemotherapy, refused any further evidence-based medicine in favor of the quackery known as Hoxsey therapy. His refusal led to a big legal battle in Virginia, and the court […]

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

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has declared a crank-off!

Has it really been two years? Amazingly, it has indeed. On June 16, 2005, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. deposited the biggest, steamingest, drippiest (not to mention stinkiest) turd I had as yet seen in my then young blogging career, specifically an article published simultaneously by both Salon.com and Rolling Stone entitled Deadly Immunity. Along with […]

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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

Acupuncture and blood pressure

Having exhausted myself for the time being on two things that irritate me a lot (namely creationist neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Egnor and the antivaccination pseudoscience being presented as “evidence” that vaccines cause autism at the Autism Omnibus), it’s time for a change of pace. For all my tendency to deride certain “alternative medicine” modalities as […]