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Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Humor Quackery Science fiction/fantasy Skepticism/critical thinking Television

The 100th Meeting of the Skeptics’ Circle: The trouble with Orac

It’s the 100th Meeting of the Skeptics’ Circle, and Orac is unleashed!

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

There’s no such thing as viruses?

I was in a bit of a crappy mood last night. There were a number of reasons for this, including frustration at work trying to put together two grants, trying to revise a manuscript to resubmit it, dealing with collaborators and various other headaches. Indeed I had a splitting headache by the end of the […]

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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

That’ll teach ’em for using an actual valid placebo control

I almost feel sorry for acupuncturists these days. Almost. Well, not exactly. Clearly, given the infiltration of woo into academic medicine, acupuncturists are in demand even in the most allegedly “science-based” of academic medical centers. After all, acupuncture is what I like to refer to as “gateway woo,” an unscientific placebo-based therapy that has somehow […]

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Biology Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Evolution Intelligent design/creationism Medicine Movies Politics Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

The (not-so-)Beautiful (un)Truth: The “alternative” medicine movement gets an Expelled! to call its very own

The things I do for my readers. I’m referring to a movie entitled The Beautiful Truth, links to whose website and trailers several of you have e-mailed to me over the last couple of weeks. Maybe it’s because the movie is only showing in New York and Los Angeles and hasn’t made it out of […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Following 50 woo-ful facts: Nine woo-ful myths

I had been planning on taking on a couple of articles about breast cancer to start out the week. However, between having to deal with a tsunami of leaves before Monday, when the giant trucks come along to pick them up today and a number of other issues, I didn’t have time. As much as […]