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Personal

Bailey discovers squirrels

It’s Saturday and therefore time for some lazy non-science blogging, especially since after I finish this post I’m going to bury myself in grant writing. Multiple grant deadlines are approaching, and, given that most of my grant support expires towards the middle of next year, I have to go full tilt to keep my lab […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Politics Popular culture Quackery

The Huffington Post delves deeper into the woo

Since its very inception, the Huffington Post has been a hotbed of antivaccine lunacy. Shortly after that, antivaccine woo-meisters like David Kirby, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Kimg Stagliano, and, apparently, one of the editors (Special Projects Editor Rachel Sklar) were joined by all-purpose woo-meisters like Deepak Chopra. True, for a brief period of time there […]

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Announcements

The 108th Meeting of the Skeptics’ Circle

Well, there’s something new. After nearly four years, I don’t recall having seen a Skeptics’ Circle meeting quite like this one before. The 108th Meeting of the Skeptics’ Circle has landed at Podblack Cat, and it’s a doozy. In fact, it’s a video podcast. Be sure to go and check it out. Next up is […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Quackery Television

Well, well, well, well…look who’s a pharma shill now!

Because of my stands against dubious medical “therapies” and outright quackery and for science- and evidence-based medicine, I have been the frequent target of what I’ve come to call the “pharma shill gambit.” It’s a pretty stupid and common ad hominem attack in which the attacker, virtually always an advocate of “complementary and alternative medicine” […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

A horrifying breast cancer “testimonial” for “holistic” treatment, part 2

(NOTE ADDED 12/7/2010: Kim Tinkham has died of what was almost certainly metastatic breast cancer.) Three days ago, I decided to take a look at the scientific literature regarding whether any “alternative” therapies do any good for breast cancer. Not surprisingly, I found no evidence that any such therapy did, with the possible exception of […]