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Humor Pareidolia Skepticism/critical thinking

Lamest pareidolia ever? Satan appears on a bathroom tile in Budapest

It’s no secret that I’m a bit of a connoisseur of pareidolia. The various shapes and contortions the human mind can impose on clouds, stains, pancakes, trees, toast, Lava lamps, toilet seats, and even medical imaging tests never ceases to amaze me. We are pattern-seeking creatures, and our brains will go to great lengths to […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

The UT-M.D. Anderson Cancer Center embraces quackademic medicine

I’m a cancer surgeon. I started out as a general surgeon, but my passion and scientific interest goaded me into specializing in cancer. Ultimately, I ended up subspecializing even more, ultimately becoming a breast cancer surgeon, but through it all cancer, not just breast cancer, has remained my clinical and scientific passion. So has science-based […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine

Price et al roundup: Blaming mercury in vaccines for autism is so…2005

Yesterday, I had a bit of fun while taking on a serious topic, namely yet another study that failed to find a link between mercury in vaccines and autism. Fortunately, though, I wasn’t the only one. Oh, no, not by any means. Liz Ditz has done what she does best and provided a comprehensive linkfest […]

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Physics Religion Science Skepticism/critical thinking

What’s next? Flat earth?

Regarding this whole skeptic thing, if there’s one thing I’ve learned about pseudoscience and bizarre, unscientific beliefs, it’s that, just when I think I’ve seen it all, the world slaps me in the face (facepalm, to be precise) to show me that I haven’t seen it all after all. Such was what happened when a […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

The big pharma conspiracy once again crushes the idea that mercury in vaccines causes autism

THE PAST IS PROLOGUE Location: Central New Jersey, deep within the brick and steel of a secret pharma base. Year: 1999. A shadowy figure dressed in gray, bald, and stroking a white cat enters a nondescript room in the middle of which sits a massive conference table. More than a dozen men and women leap […]