Category: Pseudoscience

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

I love it when an antivax “study” meant to show how “dirty” vaccines are backfires so spectacularly

When antivaccinationists try to pull out the "toxins" gambit, they're trying to make you think vaccines are made this way.

It is an article of faith among antivaxers that vaccines are “dirty” and “contaminated.” So when antivaccine “scientists” try to show how contaminated vaccines are and wind up actually showing how pure they are, I laugh.

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Paranormal Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Alternative medicine for premature ejaculation? Surprise, surprise! It doesn’t work.

Acupuncture
Because sticking acupuncture needles in imaginary channels can cure everything through theatrical placebo effects.

I must admit that the last couple of weeks have been rather grim here on the old blog. Betweemn Donald Trump’s White House spewing , an unfortunate patient embracing quackery, pseudoscience at the VA, and more. So it is that I feel as though it might not be a bad idea to step back for […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine History Holocaust Holocaust denial Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking World War II

Holocaust denial from the White House on International Holocaust Remembrance Day

I always wondered how low Donald Trump could go. Now I know. Only I fear this is nowhere near the bottom.

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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

Is there a reproducibility “crisis” in biomedical research? (2017 edition)

About a week ago, I happened upon a number of stories about a study and project that demonstrates a key difference between science and pseudoscience. They had titles like, “Rigorous replication effort succeeds for just two of five cancer papers” (Science), “Cancer reproducibility project releases first results: An open-science effort to replicate dozens of cancer-biology […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

First China, next the world: The Chinese government gives a big boost to traditional Chinese medicine, just like Chairman Mao did

Mao
Everything old is new again in China. Just as Chairman Mao promoted the "integration" of traditional Chinese medicine with "Western" medicine 65 years ago, the Chinese government today is doing the same thing for the same reasons.

Everything old is new again in China. Just as Chairman Mao promoted the “integration” of traditional Chinese medicine with “Western” medicine 65 years ago, the Chinese government today is doing the same thing for the same reasons.