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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

When PARADE goes woo

Having been sucked into the blogosphere for over four years now and having gotten the majority of my news online or from newsmagazines or the New York Times, I frequently forget that I’m not like the vast majority of people. Neither, I daresay, are my fellow ScienceBloggers or my readers. We don’t get our information […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

When faith in “alternative medicine” endangers children…

When confronted with skeptics who refuse to stay silent in the face of quackery–I’m sorry, “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM), a large proportion of which is unproven if not outright quackery–shruggies frequently ask, “What’s the harm?” I can reply that so many of these modalities are no more than elaborate placebos reinforced with magical thinking. […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Quackery Television

Most credulous news report on an “alternative medicine” treatment ever?

Just as a quick followup to my post on Tong Ren, the quackery that combines acupuncture, “energy healing,” and, in essence, the stereotype of voodoo dolls in a veritable potpourri of woo, take a look at this news report done by the FOX News affiliate in Boston: If you want horrible, credulous, idiotic reporting, the […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Tong Ren: An unholy union of acupuncture and voodoo

After four years and five days of nearly continuous blogging about skepticism, quackery, science- and evidence-based medicine, and a variety of other topics, you’d think there wouldn’t be much that I haven’t seen before. Certainly, lately, I’ve been wondering lately if there was anything left that could surprise me or horrify me anymore, and jaded […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Intelligent design/creationism Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Monday afternoon mandatory reading

Three goodies on skepticism and science: Skeptical Battlegrounds: Part III – Alternative Medicine. Suffice it to say, Steve agrees with me. He just lays it all out in one post instead of ten. Once again, Egnor and Tautologies. Blogchild Mark Chu-Carroll takes on our favorite creationist neurosurgeon, Dr. Egnor. This time he deals directly with […]