Pseudoskeptica

Well, we’re all sick, so what better to do than peruse the slums of the skeptical internet and point out all the bad arguments pseudoskeptics make in the name of “debunking” pseudoscience. I had taken this up as a hobby a little over a year ago, but, because it’s really too painful to read some [...]

Random John quackery update — I regressed

Bizarre, just bizarre. My canard rating dropped like a stone with just two entries! I didn’t even try. Perhaps I should stop using such terms as “placebo” and “quackery.”

I must be a quack – the quack-o-meter told me so!

I don’t know if I can add anything to this. I think I might go for 10 canards. I wonder what I would have to do… I mean seriously, if a personal blog that espouses critical thinking of a different sort from Robert Carroll and the skeptics circle can get 8 canards out of 10, [...]

Because there’s only one type of altie, right?

Shorter Orac: Gah! Alties want mercury in their own products but no one else’s!

A positive preliminary CAM study, and why we need to study CAM

In an _in vitro_ study, ginger induced death in ovarian cancer cells. Given the amount of time and risk it takes to get a drug from a positive _in vitro_ study to marketing approval, I think we can agree (as the researchers assert) that it will be a long time before doctors send you to [...]

Making fun of CAM claims

To the (pseudo)skeptics who like to make fun of dietary supplement claims (e.g. “immune support”): do you not realize that these claims are “regulated by the FDA”:http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/cfr_2003/aprqtr/21cfr101.93.htm? (Check paragraph (f) and following.) Just asking. It’s ridiculous to make fun of claims that are so covered by regulation. Oh, you don’t think this has any meaning? [...]

Scooped! Sciency debunkery and other pseudoskeptical topics

I’ve believed for a while that self-described “skeptics” are not really “skeptical”:http://www.webster.com/dictionary/skepticism. See also “doubt”:http://www.webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?sourceid=Mozilla-search&va=doubt, especially the noun form: 1 a : uncertainty of belief or opinion that often interferes with decision-making b : a deliberate suspension of judgment Unsurprisingly, I’ve found some similar opinions on the ‘net: Some notes on skepticism Zen and the [...]

Orac

In the past, and in the past couple of days, I’ve posted several articles very critical of “Orac”:http://oracknows.blogspot.com, a well-known quackbuster. I think I need to clarify a few points. I don’t know Orac personally. I don’t know that much about his character except from his own statements and statements that I can read and [...]

Data please: holding quackbusters to their own standards, Part II (Orac, you know)

On to the goods. Let’s start with the title: “More evidence that alternative medicine boosters don’t really want scientific evaluation of their therapies”:http://oracknows.blogspot.com/2005/12/more-evidence-that-alternative.html. Pretty heady title. Looks like we have a hypothesis here: “Alternative medicine boosters don’t really want scientific evaluation of their therapies.” And, presumably, what Orac presents is “evidence” in favor of this [...]

Data please: holding quackbusters to their own standards, Part I (Prometheus unhinged)

First up is Prometheus. bq. Seeing how some people have turned these “renegade” physicians (e.g. “Joseph Mercola”:http://www.mercola.com/forms/testimonials.htm [also see "here":http://www.casewatch.org/fdawarning/prod/2005/mercola.shtml], “Jeff Bradstreet”:http://www.icdrc.org/Bradstreet.html, “Andrew Wakefield”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3513365.stm, “Rashid Buttar”:http://antiagingconference.com/spring/speaker/bios/rashid_buttar/, “Andrew Weil”:http://www.drweil.com/u/Home/ and “Deepak Chopra”:http://www.chopra.com/) into saints (occasionally martyrs), gurus and even saviours has left me wondering. Clearly, these physicians have tapped into a unmet need in the people [...]