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Medicine Paranormal Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Dr. Phil follows Dr. Oz’s descent into psychic woo

Will it never end? First we had “America’s Doctor,” Dr. Mehmet Oz, credulously featuring psychic medium scammer John Edward on his show last year. Sadly, but typically, Dr. Oz was completely taken in by Edward’s cold readings, even the most transparent ones. Even if his previous shows featuring Joe Mercola and a faith healer weren’t […]

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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

CAM, placebos, and the new paternalism

Three and a half years ago, I bought a new car. The reason why I mention this as a means of beginning this post is because that car had something I had never had in a car before, namely Sirius XM satellite radio preinstalled. Curious, I subscribed, and I now barely listen to regular radio […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Biology Complementary and alternative medicine Evolution Medicine Physics Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

HuffPo now has a science section, and I remain skeptical that it changes anything.

It’s no secret that I’ve been highly critical of The Huffington Post, at least of its approach to science and medicine. In fact, it was a mere three weeks after Arianna Huffington launched her blog back in 2005 that I noticed something very distressing about it, namely that it had recruited someone who would later […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine

Legal thuggery, antivaccine edition, part 3: Andrew Wakefield rallying the troops

I realize I’ve already written two posts about Andrew Wakefield suing investigative journalist Brian Deer, the first one pointing out how it’s just another example of cranks trying to silence criticism not through producing good science to defend their views but rather through abusing legal process and starting frivolous libel suits, the second one pointing […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine

Legal thuggery, antivaccine edition, part 2: An interesting connection

The plot thickens. Earlier, I discussed how disgraced, struck-off anti-vaccine physician Dr. Andrew Wakefield, deciding that being humiliated once by the courts in a libel action wasn’t enough, has apparently decided to have another bite at the apple. Given that he was so thoroughly humiliated in the notoriously plaintiff-friendly (for libel cases, at least) British […]