oracknows | January 9, 2010So many adherents to "alternative" medicine detest modern medicine, which they see as not being "natural." In contrast, herbalism, homeopathy, acupuncture, various forms of "energy healing," are touted as being highly in tune with nature. They're right about one thing. Throughout the vast majority of human history, humans have relied on unscientific treatments for illness that were indeed much more "in tune" with nature (mainly because they didn't have the knowledge to do much else). Indeed, it's only been in the last 100 to 150 years that science advanced to the point where real advancements…
oracknows | January 8, 2010I realize that I haven't done an installment of Your Friday Dose of Woo for a while--well over a month, in fact. Because of the gap between woo installments, I had been thinking that today was the time. There are at least a couple of really good candidates (and a host of halfway decent ones) in my Folder of Woo. However, sadly, another installment in the unfortunately never-ending story of YFDoW will have to wait at least another week. You see, the Bat Signal went up (or should I call it the Woo Signal?), and duty calls. What is the particular instance of someone being wrong on the Internet…
oracknows | January 7, 2010I've been criticizing the grande dame of the anti-vaccine movement, Barbara Loe Fisher, for her cowardly attempt to shut up vaccine expert Dr. Paul Offit and to intimidate journalists into not writing exposes of the anti-vaccine movement by suing Dr. Offit, Amy Wallace, and WIRED Magazine for Wallace's excellent article in which Dr. Offit was quoted as saying "She lies" about Loe Fisher. Such is her commitment to free speech that she is trying to shut down criticism through legal bullying.
That's why Barbara Loe Fisher's latest screed overloaded yet another of my irony meters and sizzled that…
oracknows | January 7, 2010As 2009 ended and 2010 began, I made a vow to myself to try to diversify the topics covered on this blog. Part of that vow was to try to avoid writing about vaccines and the anti-vaccine movement for more than a couple of days in a row. Unfortunately, even in the middle its very first full week, 2010 has already conspired to make a mockery of any "plans" I thought I might have for the blog, with a flurry of vaccine-related news items relevant to the pseudoscience that is the anti-vaccine movement coming fast and furious. Oh, well. I might as well just go with the flow and do what I do best--…
oracknows | January 6, 2010With 2009 now safely in the history books, it's time to look back on the year and "honor" some of the most egregious offenders against science and reason. Fortunately for us, Skeptico has presented his second annual Golden Woo Awards.
I was disappointed to see yet again that surgeon who has led me time and time again to want to put a paper bag over my head or even forge a Doctor Doom mask to hide my face in the shame that he brings upon the honorable profession of surgery. Yes, I'm talking about everybody's favorite creationist neurosurgeon, Dr. Michael Egnor, who, through the principle of…
oracknows | January 6, 2010One of the key claims of the "autism biomedical" movement is that something about autism derives from or is exacerbated by the gut; i.e., that there is some sort of link between GI problems, particularly inflammatory diseases of the GI tract, and autism. Although I may not be as versed in the history of this claim as I could be, as far as I can tell, even if this idea didn't originate with Andrew Wakefield, he certainly did a lot to popularize it. Indeed, a common misconception about his misbegotten 1998 Lancet paper that launched the anti-MMR anti-vaccine movement in the U.K. is that it…
oracknows | January 5, 2010After yesterday's post about how anti-vaccine grande dame Barbara Loe Fisher is suing Dr. Paul Offit, almost certainly in order to harass and intimidate him into silence, there was something that still bugs me, and that's the issue of jurisdiction. The defendants live in three different states: Paul Offit in Pennsylvania, Amy Wallace in California, and Condé Nast in New York. For instance, get a load of this tortuous justification for suing in Virginia, straight from Loe Fisher's complaint:
8. This Court has personal jurisdiction over Defendants under Va. Code § 8.01- 328.1(A)(4) because…
oracknows | January 4, 2010Over the holidays, I stayed at home for a combination of some relaxation and some grant writing. (I know, weird.) As I was perusing some of the links I saved during that time, it occurs to me that I totally forgot about one particularly amazing bit of hilarity, courtesy of our old "friend" Deepak Chopra. Given that it was over a week ago, it's probably not worth going into the full Orac mode on it any more, old news and all, but I couldn't let it go completely unremarked upon because it's just so amazingly, hysterically funny. Appearing two days after Christmas, Chopra's post was entitled Woo…
oracknows | January 4, 2010Heh. Leave it to xkcd to sum it up perfectly:
(Click for full comic)
You know, I happen to love CSI:Miami as much as the next guy. In fact, it's one of my guilty TV pleasures. But any time there's a lab scene on that show (or any of the other CSI shows) it cracks me up. Beautiful people in pristine white lab coats delivering DNA sequences in an hour! Loud rock music blaring over cuts so fast that they induce seizures and would be considered too hyperactive even for a music video or a Michael Bay movie. Multi-colored Eppendorf tubes back lit so that they glow. These sorts of scenes have…
oracknows | January 3, 2010In general, one of the biggest differences between those defending science-based medicine and those defending pseudoscience, quackery, and anti-science is that science inculcates in its adherents a culture of free and open debate. In marked contrast, those advocating pseudoscience tend to cultivate cultures of the echo chamber. Examples abound and include discussion forums devoted to "alternative" medicine like CureZone, where never is heard a discouraging word--because anyone expressing too much skepticism about the prevailing view on such forums invariably finds himself first shunned and…
oracknows | January 2, 2010Given my long known weak spot for Downfall parodies (even though they are an Internet fad whose time has come and probably already gone), how on earth did I miss this?
PodBlack Cat shows me that, believe it or not, Hitler was a chiropractor. He's been asked to talk about the use of chiropractic for infant colic (you know, the same thing that Simon Singh got in trouble in the U.K. for criticizing), but there is a most unfortunate (and hilarious) complication:
Best line: "Christ, there is more evidence that Elvis is still alive!" Well, maybe not. There are lots of good lines, and I had a hard…
oracknows | January 1, 2010Well, it's finally happened. 2009 is now in the dustbin of history. It was a thoroughly awful year, which is why hope springs eternal that 2010 will be better. Given that it would be difficult for 2010 to be worse than 2009, it's a pretty sure bet that it probably will be better, but I never underestimate the power of the universe to mess things up worse than they already are messed up. In other words, whenever I start thinking that things can't get any worse, I remind myself that they most definitely can. On the other hand, as far as the ol' blog goes, 2009 was a fantastic year. After around…
oracknows | January 1, 20102009 may be over, but there is still one remnant of it that you should immediately check out now, if you haven't already: The 127th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle at Life, The Universe, and One Brow! While Orac is taking it easy today, you can catch up on some of the best end-of-the-year skeptical blogging while contemplating what sort of unreason will assail us in 2010!
Next up on January 14 will be Ionian Enchantment. Bloggers, start sharpening your skeptical pencils (metaphorically speaking, of course) and checking out the guidelines for what the Circle is looking for. Let's start the new…
oracknows | December 31, 2009NOTE: Orac is on semi-vacation this week, trying very hard to recharge his Tarial cells. Actually, although he is at home, he is spending much of his time in his Sanctum Sanctorum (i.e., his home office) working on an R01 for the February submission cycle. Given that the week between Christmas and New Years Day tends to be pretty boring, both from a blogging and blog traffic standpoint, he's scaling back the new, original stuff and mixing in some "best of" reruns, as well as some more recent stuff that appeared in a different form elsewhere, modified a bit to be more appropriate to this blog…
oracknows | December 30, 2009You know, when Age of Autism starts announcing its yearly "people of the year" awards, there's always a lot of blog fodder there to be had. Given that this is the time of year when I ramp the blog down a bit and, trying to relax a little, don't spend as much time doing detailed deconstructions or analyzing peer-reviewed papers, it's perfect for some quick observations about the anti-vaccine movement, of which Generation Rescue promotes through its propaganda blog, Age of Autism. This time around, I'm noting how these year end awards reinforce the point that "autism advocacy" of the type that…
oracknows | December 29, 2009Vaccines save lives. In fact, they arguably save more lives than any other medical intervention devised by human beings. Unfortunately, the converse is also true. Anti-vaccine beliefs and the vaccine refusal that results from them kill. They leave children vulnerable to preventable diseases, and, sadly, here's yet more evidence that this is true:
At least 30 children have died in eastern At least 30 children have died in eastern Zimbabwe where members of the Johanne Marange Apostolic Faith church have refused to allow their children to be vaccinated against the deadly communicable disease.…
oracknows | December 29, 2009Remember how I said that I was trying to take it easy this week? I still am, but there's something bugging me enough to draw me out of my grant-induced cocoon for a little while in order to pontificate on it in the not-so-Respectfully Insolent way that I am so often wont to do. True, it's something that's been annoying me for a time now, but it's becoming acute as the end of the year approaches. The reason is simple. The anti-vaccine crank blog Age of Autism is starting to announce its 2009 awards. Regular readers may remember when AoA announced its 2008 awards. Truly, that was a hoot,…
oracknows | December 28, 2009...is fast approaching, this time to be hosted at Life, The Universe, and One Brow. Let's make 2009 go out in style, skepticism-wise, by submitting the best skeptical blogging to the Circle for one New Year's Eve blowout! Blog-specific instructions can be found here, and general guidelines are here.
oracknows | December 28, 2009NOTE: Orac is on semi-vacation this week, trying very hard to recharge his Tarial cells. Actually, although he is at home, he is spending much of his time in his Sanctum Sanctorum (i.e., his home office) working on an R01 for the February submission cycle. Given that the week between Christmas and New Years Day tends to be pretty boring, both from a blogging and blog traffic standpoint, he's scaling back the new, original stuff and mixing in some "best of" reruns, as well as some more recent stuff that appeared in a different form elsewhere, modified a bit to be more appropriate to this blog…
oracknows | December 27, 2009Seen in a parking lot while shopping about three weeks ago:
I sense a disconnect between the two messages contained on the back of a very large SUV...