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Entertainment/culture News of the Weird Science

Animal rights activists: Impossible to parody

I’ve written about their antics, both silly and vile, many times before. Animal rights activists in general and PETA in particular. In doing so, I’ve come to the conclusion that they are so far off their rockers that they are simply impossible to parody. Just yesterday, to reinforce that point, PETA wrote an open letter […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine

David Kirby smacked down–and not by me!

As you may have guessed, I’m tired of David Kirby. I’ve slapped down his nonsense so many times before, but, like the Energizer Bunny, he keeps going and going and going, spewing his pseudoscientific antivaccine nonsense, all the while asking that we really, truly believe that he isn’t “antivaccine.” He just repackages standard antivaccine tropes […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Cancer Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

Yawn. Yet another worthless acupuncture study for hot flashes in breast cancer patients

Here we go again. Tuesday night and yesterday, you probably saw it, plastered all over the media, in the newspapers, on ABC, on the radio, in press releases, and around the blogosphere. Yes, it was another bit of science by press release, with news outlets practically falling all over themselves to hype the results of […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Quackery Television

Ask Jenny McCarthy a question!

Thanks to our “friends” at the Age of Autism, I’ve learned something interesting. I knew that antivaccinationist “mother warrior” and Indigo Child Supreme Jenny McCarthy was slated to appear tomorrow, September 24, on the television show that arguably serves as the most powerful and pervasive promoter of woo, magical thinking, and dubious health advice in […]

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Clinical trials Medicine

Publication bias in clinical trials used for FDA approval

If there is one difference that defines scientific medicine compared to “alternative medicine” it is the application of the scientific method to health claims. Science and the scientific method require transparency: transparency in methodology, transparency in results, transparency in data analysis. Because one of the most important aspects of science is the testing of new […]