...that Kristjan Wager started a blog. Kristjan, as some may know, is a frequent commenter here, and has even guest-blogged for me about the Danish studies on two occasions. Head on over and check out Kristjan's blog, Pro-Science. I'll be adding it to my sidebar the next time I get a chance to revamp my blogroll.

Apparently, while I've been at this meeting, Mayo Clinics Proceedings has published this systematic review of the scientific literature on the "efficacy" of homeopathy. Its conclusion: The evidence from rigorous clinical trials of any type of therapeutic or preventive intervention testing homeopathy for childhood and adolescence ailments is not convincing enough for recommendations in any condition. Actually, it would have been more accurate to say "not convincing at all." It's inevitably smaller, more poorly designed or non-randomized studies that purport to show treatment effects, which…

It's my last day in sunny Phoenix, and all I've done thus far is to go to conferences, work on a grant, and do a little blogging, usually late at night because I often have trouble falling asleep in hotel rooms, particularly given that the air conditioning always seems to be such that it's either too cold or too warm. I must be like Goldilocks, at least with respect to hotel heating/cooling systems, because it's always ridiculously hard for me to get it "just right." In any case, I bet you were probably wondering if I'd pull off this week's Your Friday Dose of Woo. Actually, I wondered myself…

Here's more evidence. Yeah, I know it's old, but Donohue's popping up again, and I had forgotten what a nutjob he can be. End of rare political rant. You may return to your regularly scheduled medical and science blogging. ADDENDUM: More examples have shown up in my in-box of the "wit" and lack of wisdom of William Donohue: On using Martin Luther King as an example (on YouTube here). On sexual abuse by priests: ""[M]ost 15-year-old teenage boys wouldn't allow themselves to be molested. So why did you?"

Well, here I am in sunny Phoenix, having spent pretty much all of yesterday at the conference, sneaking in alterations to and practicing of my talk in between sessions. All in all not a bad day, although I spent the entire day indoors and didn't get to partake of the bright and cheery warmth, which is sad, because it's particularly welcome given the weather at my present abode. The conference produced one other thing for me as well: A good blogging topic. Not only that, but it's a good blogging topic that fits in with the whole "Just Science" theme of this week. Don't worry, though, no…

I happen to be in Phoenix today, attending the Academic Surgical Congress, where I actually have to present one of my abstracts. That means, between flying to Phoenix last night and preparing for my talk, I didn't have time to serve up a heapin' helping of that Respectful Insolence⢠you know and (hopefully) love. Fortunately, there's still a lot of stuff in the vaults of the old blog begging to be moved over to the new blog; so that's what I'll do today. I'll probably be back tomorrow, given that the conference will likely produce blog fodder. (Conferences usually do.) And, don't worry.…

I happen to be in Phoenix today, attending the Academic Surgical Congress, where I actually have to present one of my abstracts. That means, between flying to Phoenix last night and preparing for my talk, I didn't have time to serve up a heapin' helping of that Respectful Insolence⢠you know and (hopefully) love. Fortunately, there's still a lot of stuff in the vaults of the old blog begging to be moved over to the new blog; so that's what I'll do today. I'll probably be back tomorrow with new material, given that the conference will likely produce blog fodder. (Conferences usually do.) And…

I know, I know. I've been a bad boy. I've been meaning to join in everyone else and produce a couple of "basic concepts" posts. Somehow, I've just been distracted. The problem is, blogging is my hobby. It's what I do for enjoyment. Writing a "basic concepts" post seems too much like work and grant writing (of which I've had way more than my fill lately). Still, I feel obligated to do at least one or two of these posts in my area of expertise. I wouldn't want to be a ScienceBlogs slacker, after all.

Congratulations to Robert Lancaster, purveyor of the fine website Stop Sylvia Browne, a site dedicated to documenting the misadventures and misdeeds of the phony "psychic" known as Sylvia Browne. Apparently she has noticed him. In fact, between Robert, The Amazing Randi, and Anderson Cooper piling on to document her errors and downright callousness towards the people for whom she claims to exercise her "psychic gift," she's clearly feeling the heat. Her screw-up over Shawn Hornbeck, where she told his parents that he was dead only to have Shawn discovered alive recently and her telling the…

I've written a lot about alternative medicine, much of which I consider to be woo; i.e., treatments for which there is no medical efficacy and the belief in which often requires magical thinking. I've expressed my disappointment in medical physicians who fall prey to and become purveyors or woo, doctors such as Dr. Deepak Chopra, Dr. Joseph Mercola, those pushing to "integrate" woo into medical school curricula, and physicians who sell expensive "screening tests" such as breast MRI whose value has not been shown in valid, well-designed clinical trials. All of these activities represent, to me…

Amazing! I had thought that one of my favorite skeptical blogs, Photon in the Darkness, had gone the way of the Dodo. With no posts since last July, I thought Prometheus had given up blogging for good, never to be seen again. Hoping against hope that he'd reappear, I left his RSS feed in NetNewsWire, even as the months ticked by and the application labeled it a "dinosaur," signifying that it hadn't been updated in 60 days. Amazingly, yesterday, I noticed a new entry. So please, let me be among the first to welcome Prometheus back to the blogosphere. Head on over and say "hi" for me, will ya?

Since DaveScot has made an appearance or two in the comments here, annoying everyone he comes in contact with, it's worth pointing out that mine isn't the only cluestick that could be used to pound some science into him about dichloroacetate, the supposed "cure" for cancer that's being "ignored" or "suppressed" by Big Pharma. Since my original article on the subject, two more excellent (and realistic) overviews of the promise and peril of DCA as an inexpensive chemotherapeutic agent to treat cancer have appeared, one of them by fellow ScienceBlogger Abel Pharmboy and one actually appearing on…

Pity poor David Kirby. After all, he made his name by hitching his star to a losing hypothesis, namely that the mercury in thimerosal in vaccines causes autism. He wrote a book about it, Evidence of Harm, back in 2005 and has milked that sucker dry ever since. Most recently, his appearances culminated in a "debate" last month with Arthur Allen, whose book Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver just garnered a very favorable review in the New York Times, during which he did a most amusing dance around the issue by pointing to "other sources" of environmental mercury…

So says this Dalek: Hilarious. Not as funny as the Jamaican Cybermen, but pretty funny nonetheless.

Remember how often I rail against misguided laws that seek to criminalize Holocaust denial, laws such as the one in Austria under which David Irving was imprisoned? I've referred to them more than once as "stomping free speech flat," and I still believe that's what they do. I've also pointed out the danger of a potential slippery slope, an assertion for which I've been criticized, sometimes vigorously. Well, take a look at this (via the History News Network): PEOPLE who question the official history of conflicts in Africa and the Balkans could be jailed for up to three years for "genocide…

Here's a blog that Shelley discovered and that I've been meaning to mention for a week now: Drug Rep Toys. Yep, it's a blog whose purpose is to review and rate the various bits of swag that drug reps hand out to us doctors in the hopes that (I guess) we'll prescribe or use their products. It's mostly pens and lights, though. He's missing some of the--shall we say?--over the top toys. For example, remember this post from long ago? Yes! It's the very first time our intrepid blog mascot appeared, way back in December 2004, when I posted a picture of the stuffed EneMan doll and the multiple…

I know, I know, I said last time that I probably wouldn't post on dichloroacetate and the hype some of the more credulous parts of the blogosphere are falling for over its being supposedly a "cancer cure" that big pharma is either willfully ignoring or actively suppressing. However, when DaveScot and the sycophants on Uncommon Descent join in with the "cure for cancer" hype and conspiracy-mongering (with apparently only one voice of reason trying to counter DaveScot's cluelessness), it's really, really hard for me to resist the urge to introduce the mutual admiration society over at UD to a…

Skeptico announces it's his second blogiversary! Skeptico is one of the premier skeptical blogs out there, and, although he isn't posting as much as he used to, can still be counted on to provide some of the best takesdowns of woo there are. Go on over and say hi and read his retrospective of the most notable unskeptical characters he's written about over the past year.

You know, I really wish I could have made it to The Amazing Meeting this year. It would have been really cool to have a chance to hear in person such skeptical luminaries, such as The Amazing Randi, Penn and Teller (although I do concede that Penn's Libertarianism does occasionally border on credulity for some dubious propositions), and Phil Plait. And who wouldn't want to meet the purveyors of what's become my favorite skeptical podcast, The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, such as Steve Novella and The Skepchick? And, of course, it's been a long time since I've had the opportunity to…

The 53rd Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle has been posted at Slicing with Occam's Razor. Once again, the best skeptical blogging from the last fortnight has been gathered, sifted, and presented in one tight, easy to peruse package. Next up is Action Skeptics, who will host a fortnight hence, on February 15, 2007. If you're interested in adding your name to the increasingly long and distinguished list of bloggers who have hosted in the past, please drop me a line at oracknows@gmail.com. The schedule is here, and what's involved in hosting is described here.