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Science Skepticism/critical thinking

James Randi, anthropogenic global warming, and skepticism

Remember how yesterday I said that sometimes writing this blog depresses me? At the time, I made that observation because there are times when the unending constant onslaught of pseudoscience, anti-science, and woo leads me to despair that the human race will ever overcome its cognitive defects. However, there are other times when blogging depresses […]

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Announcements Blog housekeeping Blogging History Science

The ScienceBlogs collective teams up with National Geographic

My benevolent overlords at Seed Media Group yesterday announced (to me at least) a surprise new initiative. But, then, I’m always one of the last to find out about these things. In any case, it would appear that we’re teaming up with National Geographic to share blog content and various other initiatives. The press release […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Pseudoscience Science Skepticism/critical thinking

The anti-vaccine movement shows just how low it can go

I debated whether or not to blog about this. The reason is that I suspect that gathering a lot of attention and controversy is exactly what Generation Rescue wanted when it posted what I’m about to blog about. On the other hand, no matter how low my opinion is of the principals who run Generation […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Evolution History Holocaust denial Intelligent design/creationism Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

The “vindication of all kooks” corollary to the principle of crank magnetism

A couple of years ago, fellow ScienceBlogger Mark Hoofnagle over at Denialism Blog coined a most excellent term to describe all manners of pseuodscience, quackery, and crankery. The term, “crank magnetism,” describes the tendency of cranks not to mind it when they see crankery in others. More specifically, it describes how cranks of one variety […]

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Medicine Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Update on “coma man” Rom Houben: Dr. Steven Laureys still just doesn’t get it

The day before the Thanksgiving holiday, I wrote about a serious contender for the worst medical reporting of the year, if not the decade, specifically how credulous reporters had swarmed all over the case of a Belgian man named Rom Houben. If you don’t remember or haven’t heard about the details, feel free to peruse […]