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Announcements Complementary and alternative medicine Evolution Medicine Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

The 67th Meeting of the Skeptics’ Circle: The Giant Robot Edition

Yes! As intelligent and powerful as he is, Orac has always lacked something, and that’s mobility. He’s always been more or less at the mercy of the humans with whom he travels when it comes to locomotion. In short, being a clear box of blinking lights, he has to be carried everywhere, sometimes in a […]

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

The Enemies of Reason, Part I: Slaves to Superstition

It’s here, and it’s on Google Video. I watched it last night, and it was a blistering attack on the irrationality that is so common in our society: Part I begins with Richard Dawkins sitting in on some sort of New Age chanting ceremony (the discomfited look on his face is priceless to watch), after […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

I guess it’s not just Andrew Wakefield who doesn’t do controls when running PCR

Remember a couple of months ago, when I discussed testimony at the Autism Omnibus trial that showed how Andrew Wakefield had failed to do the controls when running PCR that would have revealed that the results that he interpreted as the presence of the measles virus from a vaccine strain in the guts of autistic […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

Government-funded woo

It’s that time of year again! Time for the one Center of the NIH dedicated to studying “remedies,” regardless of how scientifically implausible or lacking in evidence to support them, the National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) to put forth its budget request for FY 2008. What’s the bill for government-funded studies of […]

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Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

I thought they were just kidding…

This is disturbing. Yesterday, I did a rather light-hearted edition of Your Friday Dose of Woo about “ionic foot detoxification.” A reader pointed out that in a story in which Randi had also discussed this woo, there was a comment along the lines of “I think autistic children should really do this.” How prophetic! Sadly, […]