Mark Hoofnagle has a PhD in physiology from the University of Virginia and is currently a 3rd year medical student. His interest in denialism concerns the use of denialist tactics to confuse public understanding of scientific knowledge.
Chris Hoofnagle is an attorney with experience in consumer protection advocacy in Washington and Sacramento. His interest in denialism concerns the use of rhetorical tactics by various industries in dumbing down policy debates. He is the author of The Denialists' Deck of Cards.
PalMD is a practicing internist in the Midwestern United States. Aside from the great joy he finds in his family and his work, he likes communicating some of that joy to others. He has a special interest in the ways patients---and we are all patients at one time or another---are deceived by charlatans. He aims to change the world, one reader at a time. Previous writings can still be found here.
Please read the disclaimer.
News Links
Science Links
Anti-Denialist
Autism/Mercury
Evolution
Global Warming
HIV/AIDS
Alternative Medicine
9/11 Conspiracy busting
Animal Testing
General Skepticism
Other Blogs I like a lot
Wikis
Resources
Blog carnivals
July 31, 2008
Category: Medicine
My recent post on tobacco poisoning focused on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the cause of about one-third of smoking related deaths. Let's move on to cardiovascular disease (CVD), which accounts for another third. When we talk about CVD, what are...
Posted by PalMD at 5:50 PM • 11 Comments •
Category: Medicine
This is one of those topics I've always sort of avoided, and I'm still avoiding it for now. But that doesn't mean you have to remain silent. Here's the reader comment/question: This is off-topic, but I wanted some doctorly input...
Posted by PalMD at 8:57 AM • 32 Comments •
Category: Skeptics Circle
It's up over at Martin's place. His blog came out of nowhere (don't they all) a few months back, and he's hit the ground running. Just, please, when you get to my section, try not to use your imagination too...
Posted by PalMD at 8:26 AM • 2 Comments •
July 30, 2008
Category: Medicine
Every once in a while I like to do a piece on how real science works. The New England Journal of Medicine was kind enough to serve up a nice example for us this week. Real science is hard. It's...
Posted by PalMD at 7:03 PM • 5 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
One of my favorite pet websites is RationalWiki, which is slowly transforming into it's 3.0 iteration. It originated as a parody/rebuttal site to the execrable Conservapedia (and no, Conservapedia is not a parody, just an example of Poe's Law...
Posted by PalMD at 4:37 PM • 9 Comments •
July 29, 2008
Category: Skepticism
Oh. My. F-ing. God. All the news that's fit to print??? I know some of my readers don't think much of the New York Times (yes, PP, I'm talking to you), but despite some of my reservations, it's still the...
Posted by PalMD at 8:21 PM • 51 Comments •
Category: Medicine
I frequently get questions by email or by comment. If it's simple, I might fire off an answer. If it's about a personal medical problem, I either don't answer, or send a standard disclaimer to seek medical care. If it's...
Posted by PalMD at 12:16 PM • 13 Comments •
July 28, 2008
Category: Medicine
This comes up every day. Everyone's afraid of the big "C", and they should be. Smoking increases a person's risk of dying of lung cancer by about 12-20 times (whatever that means, but it's significant). And while cancer may be...
Posted by PalMD at 1:10 PM • 41 Comments •
Category: Global Warming Denialism
Everyone this morning should check out a new favorite website of mine the International Journal of Inactivism. Frank Bi has created a wonderful little catalog of global warming conspiracy theories that nicely illustrate the fundamental defects of reasoning used by...
Posted by MarkH at 6:41 AM • 1 Comments •
July 27, 2008
Category: Medicine
What could be more important than a good old-fashioned flame war? I'll get to that in a moment, so please stick with me. The recent imbroglio between some of our doctor bloggers and non-physician scientists got me thinking (so it...
Posted by PalMD at 9:03 AM • 24 Comments •
YES! Send me a free issue of Seed.
If I like what I see, I'll receive 5 more issues (6 in all) for just $14.95. That's 50% off the cover price! If I'm not completely satisfied, I'll simply write "cancel" on the invoice and owe nothing. The free issue is mine to keep.
(Non-U.S. subscribers, click here.)
