oracknows | April 3, 2008I thought it was an April Fools' joke, but it wasn't. It was posted one day too late, but there it was staring at me:
On World Autism Day: A Plea for Better Journalism.
On the surface, who could argue with that, particularly with David Kirby's regular carpet-bombing logic and science with unctuous and slimy speculation and prevarication? Definitely, such deceptive antivaccination-sympathetic "journalism" needs to go.
But then I noticed who wrote this article.
Dan Olmsted.
Yes, Dan Olmsted, perhaps the worst journalist ever when it comes to autism, the man who swallowed whole anecdotal and…
oracknows | April 3, 2008Believe it or not, there was a time when I didn't consider acupuncture to be a form of woo.
I know, I know, it's hard to believe, given the sorts of posts I've done recently on acupuncture, but it's true. Certainly, I didn't believe the whole rigamarole about needles somehow "restoring the flow of qi" or anything like that, but I did wonder if maybe there was some physiologic mechanism at work behind acupuncture that produced real benefits in terms of pain relief above that of placebo. Sure, I may have dismissed homeopathy as the pure magical thinking that it was, but acupuncture I wasn't so…
oracknows | April 2, 2008So there I was last night, in the Twilight Zone between wakefulness and sleep, Late Night With David Letterman on the television, blaring in the background. I was vaguely aware that John McCain was Letterman's guest for the evening and that they were chatting back and forth, Letterman asking the usual rather inane questions that entertainment-oriented talk show hosts often ask politicians and Presidential candidates when they have them on their shows and McCain was winding up to hit the softball questions out of the park.
Then I heard it, in the middle of a commentary about how the…
oracknows | April 2, 2008This happened last week when I was feeling under the weather, and somehow I never got around to it. Fortunately, however, I've learned that there may indeed by justice in the case of Madeline Neuman, the 11-year-old child whose parents let her die of diabetic ketoacidosis. This story was widely reported thusly:
"We just believe in the Bible, that's all. This is our faith," said Leilani Neumann, the mother of 11-year-old Madeline Neumann, who died from a treatable form of diabetes after her parents chose to pray for their daughter in place of seeking medical attention.
Madeline Neumann had…
oracknows | April 1, 2008In the three years that I've been blogging, one thing I've learned about myself is that I'm not very good at coming up with good April Fools' Day posts. Yes, I have tried it before. For example, a couple of years ago, I tried to make everyone believe that I had gone soft on woo, that I had had a change of heart.
No one was fooled, for even a moment, and if there's something a good April Fools' Day post has to have if it's going to be believable long enough for the "April Fool!" punchline to be surprising, it's a plausible story. Let's face it, Orac saying he's starting to groove on homeopathy…
oracknows | March 31, 2008I have to admit that this one fell off the radar, even for me. I hate to admit it, but it's true.
I'm talking about the Cancer Research Blog Carnival, which is being hosted by the Skeptical Alchemist this Friday.
So, those of you inclined to write about cancer and cancer research, help a blogger out and submit your work to the Skeptical Alchemist before Friday and then come back to check out the carnival then.
oracknows | March 31, 2008I've never been able to figure out how anyone who claims to be devoted to science and scientific medicine can take homeopathy the least bit seriously. None of it makes any sense scientifically. Its basic principal of the "Law of Similars" has far more basis in the concepts of sympathetic magic than anything that science has to say, while its concept that diluting a substance (with shaking--a homeopath will always tell you that the shaking is absolutely necessary!) far beyond the point where there is likely to be even a single molecule of the remedy left actually makes it more potent has no…
oracknows | March 30, 2008I'm actually surprised it's that high:
Created by OnePlusYou - Free Online Dating
Must be some of the commenters. I have been known on occasion to use the word "bullshit" with reference to, for example, David Kirby, but I really do try to keep this blog fairly clean as far as cussing goes.
oracknows | March 29, 2008Hilarious, particularly "big-pimpin'" Daddy Dennett:
I can't make up my mind if it's meant to skewer Dawkins or whether it's meant ironically as a way of making fun of ID creationists and how they view Dawkins...
oracknows | March 29, 2008Nasal drone Ben Stein, as you would be hard-pressed not to know if you are a regular reader of ScienceBlogs, is hosting what looks to be a truly execrable crap-fest called Expelled!: No Intelligence Allowed. The movie basically consists of two themes: (1) Whining about "intellectual oppression" by those evil "Darwinists" directed against any valiant "intelligent design" creationist or anyone else who "questions" Darwin and (2) lots of blaming the Holocaust and other atrocities (but mainly Hitler and the Holocaust) on "Darwinism," replete with lots of shots of Nazis, Ben Stein clumsily emoting…
oracknows | March 28, 2008I tell ya, I get sick for a few days, and the antivaccination cranks come out of the woodwork. This time around, it's über-crank Vox Day entering the fray (or, as I like to call him Vox "hey, it worked for Hitler" Day). We've seen him in action before. Be it using the example of Nazi Germany as a reason why we could, if we so desired, round up all the illegal immigrants in the country and eject them, labeling women as "fascists" who shouldn't have the right to vote, or falling hook, line, and sinker for an evidence-free antivaccination claim, when it comes to an inflated opinion of his own…
oracknows | March 28, 2008I have good news and bad news for you.
First, the good news. The devastating death crud that has kept me in its grip for nearly a week now appears to be receding. For the first time, "whining" or not, I start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Whether it's due to PalMD's kind offer of Pranic Healing or not, I don't know, but things are on the mend.
And now the bad news. There will be no Friday Dose of Woo this week. The reason is simple. My mucus-laden head continues to pound, and my hacking cough continues to put me into an ill mood. This makes it very difficult to attain and…
oracknows | March 27, 2008Today is the first day where I'm starting to think that the worst is past, as far as the death crud that's had me in its grip since last weekend goes. It's possible, of course, that the virus could just be toying with me, giving me a false sense of hope, but I'll remain optimistic. In the meantime, since I still don't have the energy right now to do what I do best (at least not in the lengthy doses of not-so-Respectful Insolence that you've come to know and either love or hate), I give you the next best thing: Panda Bear, MD's take on "alternative medicine" promotion by the American Medical…
oracknows | March 27, 2008I have to hand it to Mike, the host of this week's Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle. He's decided to do something that I never would have thought possible: He's gotten Ben Stein to introduce the entries to this week's festival of skeptical thinking--which is why you're all "expelled"! (I wonder what Matt would think of this "frame.")
Go check it out and be amused. I find, however, that it helps to get the full effect if you imagine Stein's whiny, monotone nasal voice reading it to you.
Next up to host is Archaeoporn on Thursday, April 10. (Archaeoporn? Oh, no, the word "porn" is in there!…
oracknows | March 26, 2008A "magician" trying and failing to kill a skeptic with black magic.
It must have been hilarious to watch, especially if one speaks the language. Maybe they'll find a way to show it on American TV. Maybe I'll search YouTube when I feel better.
oracknows | March 26, 2008I just can't shake it. Try as I might to get rid of it, it just continues to grip my body like a tick that just won't let go.
I'm talking about the death crud, which I had thought originally to be a nasty cold but is now looking more and more like the flu. It descended upon me Friday night/Saturday morning and intensified over the last couple of days to the point where I did something both yesterday and today that I almost never do: Cancel afternoon meetings and come home early. In fact, I did it two days in a row--unprecedented. Naturally, a sane person might ask why I even went into work at…
oracknows | March 25, 2008Sadly, the death crud continues apace, although at a low enough level that I feel I can eke out a brief post, mainly because it relates to what I've been saying all along about a group blog that I tend to dislike. Both Shifting Baselines and DrugMonkey have pointed out that Huffington Post blogger David Sloan Wilson has asked if it should have a science section. As part of the article, he offers the "only" argument why not:
The only argument against creating a "Science" section, as far as I can see, is that it would be B-O-R-I-N-G. Sure we should know about science, and we should also eat our…
oracknows | March 25, 2008The annoying death crud that has gripped me continues apace. Fortunately, I happen to have a rather interesting guest blog post that I've had lying around a while, and now seems like the perfect time to use it. It comes from Dr. Arnon Krongrad, an expert in prostate cancer and minimally invasive surgery. I'm publishing it because he has a rather interesting observation about the use of supplements and how it may contribute to the development of aggressive prostate cancer. Here is Dr. Krongrad's contribution:
What would you pay to have erections? Would you pay with your life? A report from…