palmd
Posts by this author
May 21, 2009
OK, that's an exaggeration, but I'll explain. First, some colleagues and I have been talking about two related issues: how to continue to build readership, and what attracts or repels certain groups of readers. I love my readers and commenters, but are there things I could be doing to attract…
May 20, 2009
I've been reluctant to write about the Daniel Hauser case. I don't even want to imagine what his parents are going through. If you're not a parent, I can't explain it to you, so you'll have to trust me---having a kid with a life-threatening illness can drive you to do the unimaginable.
And…
May 18, 2009
Blogging requires a thick skin. So does life, so I don't get personally worked up about shit that happens on line. But some things do piss me off.
Chapter One: Blinded by...
I wrote a little piece about the Obama/Notre Dame flap. I wanted to look beneath the putative reasons for the protest (…
May 18, 2009
In relation to my recent bits about Jenny McCarthy and her antivaccination nonsense, reader Isabel asks the following:
I've been following this discussion for awhile, PalMD, and while I agree that JM sounds like a nut, and while I feel sorry for her kid for being stuck with her as a mother, it's…
May 17, 2009
So, President Obama is getting an honorary degree and giving a commencement address at the University of Notre Dame, and some folks aren't too happy about that. Why? The stated reasons is his support of limited abortion rights. Let's examine why this stance is hypocritical and nonsensical, then…
May 15, 2009
People who identify themselves as having "morgellons" syndrome claim to have fibers and parasites emerging from their skin. As my commenters have pointed out, it's a rather simple task to evaluate such samples in a laboratory. If "morgellons" "researchers" wish to illuminated this "novel" "…
May 14, 2009
I've decided I love Jenny McCarthy's Oprah-blog. It's like watching a mad scientist---you know he's gonna blow something up, but still, those Tesla coils have a beautiful inutility. Her latest piece is truly a monument to stupidity, and if she really keeps this up, I'll never run out of blog-…
May 14, 2009
I really didn't mean to get dragged back in to the Morgellons controversy. Really. But I made a flippant comment on a recent post, and here I am. Let me put down some brief thoughts here:
1) There exists a loosely affiliated group of people who are suffering from diverse and (to them)…
May 13, 2009
I love my commenters. Some of them are really, really smart. I'd like to share an exchange with you, but first the context.
Morgellons syndrome is a label created by an American woman to describe a group of people who all believe they have mysterious fibers coming out of their skin. I've posted…
May 13, 2009
Sorry I'm short on content right now. It's really busy around here and I don't want to torture you with reposts. Stay tuned.
May 11, 2009
Apparently not much. From her new Oprah-fied blog:
If I can really do it I will officially have a diet that looks like this...
No wheatNo dairyNo refined sugarNo caffeineNo alcoholNo smokingNo yeast
I can forgive simple category errors, like putting smoking in the diet column. I'm certainly…
May 10, 2009
Libel law in the UK seems very odd to Americans, with our emphasis on free speech. But, hey, we've had our own country for two hundred and almost two score years now, and I'm happy to report that, at least over here, we can still call a quack a quack. But in England, you can't even allude to it…
May 9, 2009
I had this great idea for my PalCast today, but I have a cold and my voice is squeaking like a twelve-year-old boy, so I'm just going to have to write. I woke up a little early---I love mornings. I opened up the back door to listen to the wind blowing through the new leaves, to the birds, and to…
May 8, 2009
I can't tell if it is a trend yet, but it seems there has been a bit of a decrease in the outright quackery published in the Huffington Post lately. But that doesn't mean it's disappeared, and the poor quality of the writing more than makes up for the decreased quantity.
Case in point: Why We…
May 7, 2009
In a recent post, Dr. Free Ride made some excellent points about conflict of interest and medical professionalism (emphasis mine):
What I find more interesting, and problematic, here is [the authors'] unexamined premise that it is a bad thing that medical experts have a certain kind of monopoly.…
May 5, 2009
I recently had a pleasant, brief email exchange with Kris Newby, the producer of the latest medical advocacy pic, Under Our Skin. There's been a number of similar movies lately, mostly about quacky cancer therapies. This one is apparently much better made, and follows the controversy regarding "…
May 4, 2009
My recent rantings about the Huffington Post have been picked up by both the Left and the Right.
How funny is that?
May 4, 2009
The news broke this weekend about the unholy alliance of Elsevier and Merck to publish a fake medical journal. You can read the details from the links at the bottom of this page. We all agree that creating deceptive, fake medical information is a "bad thing". What worries me, however, is what…
May 4, 2009
I haven't forgotten about you, gentle readers, but I just got back to town after a week of vacation and it turns out there was this "swine flu" thing going on while I was gone and now I have to explain to everyone in the world why they probably don't have the flu and why they probably don't need…
May 1, 2009
Remember the Quack Miranda Warning? You know, the magic phrase that makes all the crappy and dangerous medical advice you're about to give OK?
Well, look what HuffPo's doing:
Author's note: This swine flu story on alternative and complementary medicine is not meant to replace anything you hear…
April 30, 2009
Sent by a friend, posted without further comment (original pic here).
April 30, 2009
I'd like to remind everyone that the PalCast, after a brief hiatus, is up and running again. Given the chaos of life and work (and the fact that work is likely to get even busier very, very soon) the schedule may be a tiny bit erratic, but tune it...you might like it.
The PalCast (coined by Isis…
April 30, 2009
Physicist Matt Springer might not know much about borborygmi, shifting dullness, or a succussion splash, but the man knows his science.
You've got to read his piece on poop. You won't regret it.
April 30, 2009
The time is now. The gauntlet of idiocy rests at our feet. Shall we turn and walk away, or shall we bend down, pick it up, and accept the challenge? What? What's that you say? Turn from the forces of darkness?
ARE WE NOT WO/MEN?!?
We must not turn from the task before us. The Huffington Post…
April 29, 2009
Pursuant to my policies, I am reprinting an email, with identifying details redacted. I thought it would make for a nice conversation.
A few comments first. The tone and intent of the letter is, I would say, very nice. The content, however suffers from all kinds of being wrong, and contains…
April 29, 2009
Here at ScienceBlogs we have a (very) informal agreement to try to avoid profanity-laden titles. Personally, they don't bother me at all, but I can see the point---there are lots of folks who probably don't want their feed reader to pop up with what I'm about to say.
What the FUCK hath swine flu…
April 28, 2009
Minnesota's dimwitted gift to humanity, Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R--but did you have to ask?) had this to say regarding swine flu (H/T Steph Z):
I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another Democrat president Jimmy Carter. And I'm not blaming…
April 28, 2009
We have a lot to cover today, but first things first: the Big Question. If you'll cast your memory way back (thanks, Van) you'll remember that a good question to ask altmed followers is the one of abandonment: what would it take for them to abandon a modality? Well, the answers are in, and the…
April 27, 2009
I tuned into a CDC conference call this afternoon. It was interesting. As is often the case with emerging diseases, what we don't know vastly outweighs what we do. For the best public health information in the blogosphere, and the best flu updates, go to Effect Measure.
The CDC emphasized that it'…
April 27, 2009
It's going live shortly, the wifi gods willing.
Conference here.
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