Categories
Clinical trials Medicine Science

The difference between the newbie and the old pro

Grant season is upon us. Every day that I’m not in the clinic and the O.R., I find myself holed up in my office pounding my head against my monitor trying to write just that perfect mixture of preliminary data, blarney, and grantsmanship to persuade the Powers That Be to give me just a taste […]

Categories
Entertainment/culture Humor Music News of the Weird Religion

Hide your children! Gay bands are coming for them to make them gay too!

Oh, no! The gay bands are here! Hide your children, and keep them away from this corruption! So sayeth Donnie Davies, an evangelical preacher who runs a website called Love God’s Way: One of the most dangerous ways homosexuality invades family life is through popular music. Parents should keep careful watch over their children’s listening […]

Categories
Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Politics Skepticism/critical thinking

Too fast to label others as “conspiracy-mongers”?

The other day, I did a reality check on a story making the rounds through the blogosphere about an alleged new cure for cancer that, if you believe some hysterical bloggers, is being suppressed because it would cut into their profits. I took one blogger to task for what I characterized as the “utterly ridiculous […]

Categories
Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

You haven’t walked in my shoes!

At the risk of muscling in on Bronze Dog‘s territory, I’ve encountered a phenomenon that ought to be in his list of doggerel but doesn’t appear to be. It appeared in the comments of my post about the Arthur Allen-David Kirby debate and my discussion of how the human tendency to see patterns where none […]

Categories
Medicine Surgery

I’m sure glad that wasn’t my complication

Via Kevin, MD, a picture of a complication I hope I never have: A description of the complication: A 40-year-old man with Crohn’s disease underwent an uncomplicated operation involving lysis of adhesions that were causing intestinal obstruction. After surgery, a cardiologist inserted a central venous catheter through the left subclavian vein. No problems with catheterization […]