oracknows | September 14, 2009
I just learned that earlier today Patrick Swayze finally died of his pancreatic cancer after having survived far longer (20 months) than the average patient diagnosed with stage IV disease (less than 6 months). All I can say is: Rest in peace, Patrick. Not only did Swayze deal with his terminal illness with courage, humor, and panache, but he was awesome when he slapped down the quacks offering bogus cancer cures:
If anybody had that cure out there, like so many people swear they do, you'd be two things. You'd be very rich, and you'd be very famous. Otherwise, shut up.
The recent…
oracknows | September 14, 2009The silence is deafening.
Yes, I know it's a cliche, but it's really true this time. Last month, a major study whose results had been anticipated by the alt-med community, as well as those of us who consider it to be highly unethical pseudoscience, were reported. However, they were reported without fanfare, without press releases, without any sort of publicity whatsoever. Only a handful of bloggers who have paid attention to the issue (myself included) even noticed, and even I wouldn't have noticed if someone hadn't forwarded the journal article to me and asked me what I thought of it. So…
oracknows | September 13, 2009We all know that Mike Adams, a.k.a. the "Health Ranger," is anti-vaccine to the core. He's known for NaturalNews.com, a repository of quackery, anti-vaccine craziness, and conspiracy theories that rivals Whale.to but in a much slicker fashion. Now, unfortunately, I learn that he's going multimedia. Worse, Mike Rangers, who is about as white bread and un-hip-hop a guy as I can imagine, thinks he can rap:
The song is called "Don't Inject Me (The Swine Flu Vaccine Song)."
The common lies about the swine flu are all there: The claim that flu vaccines don't work; the paranoid delusion that the "…
oracknows | September 12, 2009Three weeks ago or so, I expressed dismay at what I perceived as an autism quackfest being held at the University of Toronto. Worse, that quackfest had been partially funded by a grant from a very prestigious children's charity, The SickKids Foundation, which in response to complaints about its sponsoring the autism quackfest known as AutismOne/Autism Canada 2009 Conference, wrote a limp and pusillanimous form e-mail that it sent to everyone who complained. It was truly disappointing to see that an organization that should be supporting science-based research into the treatment of children's…
oracknows | September 11, 2009Once again we come to another September 11. It's hard to believe that it's been eight years since that horrible day. On this day, traditionally, I do two things. First, I post the following video.
This video was shot by Bob and Bri, who in 2001 lived in a high rise a mere 500 yards from the North Tower. On this eighth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, I think it's important to post this again. It is the most prolonged and continuous video of the attack that I have seen, and, as such, It is difficult to watch.
That's why it's so important to watch.
Second, I either repost or post a…
oracknows | September 10, 2009It's that time again, time for another meeting of that--choke!--"venerable" blog carnival known as the Skeptic's Circle.
Sorry, it just bugs me that the Circle I took over four years ago is now counted as "venerable." Oh, well.
In any case, this time around, it's at Cubik's Rube (great name for a blog, BTW), and it's a rip-roaring tale in which our host conjures a god. I kid you not. He really does. But he ends up...well, you'll just have to check out the 119th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle to find out what happens. I will say no more.
Also, don't forget that a mere two weeks hence, on…
oracknows | September 10, 2009...Hitler is most displeased with President Obama and what he did earlier this week:
oracknows | September 10, 2009Dr. Robert Sears (a.k.a. "Dr. Bob), author of The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child, is definitely antivaccine. His mouth may say, "No, I'm not antivaccine," but his actions say, "Yes, yes, yes!"
There, I finally said it. I've been flirting with saying it that bluntly for some time now, but have been tending to avoid it. I really didn't want to conclude this about "Dr. Bob," but, sadly, he's left me no choice. What else can I conclude from his actions over the last three months, when he's clearly solidly allied himself with the worst elements of the anti-vaccine movement…
oracknows | September 9, 2009I can't help but have noticed that one of our own, GrrlScientist, is in the running to be selected as the blogger to go on a trip to Antarctica and blog from there with the Quark Expedition in February. As of my checking, Grrl is in third place.
I have no doubt that She'd do a hell of a job, given her writing talent, and who can resist a chance to send a fellow ScienceBlogger to some frigid, desolate plain at the bottom of the world? There's not much time left, only until September 30.
So vote, already!
oracknows | September 9, 2009What can one say about a woman who wrote books with titles such as The Cure For All Cancers, The Cure For All Advanced Cancers, The Cure for HIV and AIDS, The Cure For All Diseases, and, most recently, The Cure and Prevention of All Cancers (with bonus DVD)? A woman who stated that a liver fluke is the cause of all cancer and that she could cure all cancer by zapping the liver fluke with a device that looks as though it's constructed from spare parts purchased at Radio Shack? What can one say about a woman who can make a video like the one below?
In brief, what can one say about "Dr." Hulda…
oracknows | September 8, 2009I don't have much to add to this one, as it's a tragic tale. Shadowfax, a blogging ER doc, relates to us what happens when cancer patients rely on quackery like the Gerson protocol instead of scientific medicine:
This was a young woman, barely out of her teens, who presented with a tumor in her distal femur, by the knee. This was not a new diagnosis -- it had first been noted in January or so, and diagnosed as a Primary B-Cell Lymphoma. By now, the tumor was absolutely huge, and she came to the ER in agonizing pain. Her physical exam was just amazing. The poor thing's knee (or more…
oracknows | September 8, 2009Dr. Mark Hyman is famous as the "founder" of a form of woo known as "functional medicine." This new form of woo is...well, I'm not sure what it is, and neither are Wally Sampson (1, 2, 3, 4). Suffice it to say that it appears to be a serious grab bag of various forms of woo that, according to Dr. Hyman's website itself, involve environmental inputs, inflammation, hormones, gut & digestive health, detoxification, energy/mitochondria/oxidative stress, and, of course, "mind-body," whatever that means. No woo would be complete without mind-body, you know. Actually, no self-respecting woo…
oracknows | September 7, 2009Remember Daniel Hauser?
He's the the 13-year-old boy with Hodgkin's lymphoma who underwent one course of chemotherapy and then decided he wanted to pursue "alternative therapy" based on fear of chemotherapy and because of the influence of the faux Native American religion that his mother had taken up with. Ultimately, after a judge ordered Daniel's parents to make sure that Daniel received the chemotherapy and radiation therapy he needed, Daniel and his mother Colleen went on the lam, but ultimately Daniel's mother decided to turn herself in. As a result, Daniel began live-saving chemotherapy…
oracknows | September 7, 2009If there's been a theme running through this blog, it's been the importance of science and critical thinking. The main focus of this emphasis on skepticism, of course, has been medicine, which makes sense, given that I'm a doctor and a cancer researcher, but I don't limit myself to just medicine. However, as part of my emphasis on science-based medicine (SBM) as being the best methodology to provide the best patient care that we can, besides the random quackery deconstructions,
I've tended to harp on two topics over the years. First, there's the subject of what Dr. R. W. has called "…
oracknows | September 6, 2009Here in the U.S., it's smack dab in the middle of a three day holiday weekend. Given that, I'm chilling for a while. There's some new material tomorrow, but today I have to head out for a celebration of my father-in-law's 70th birthday and, between that , to work on a talk I have to give on Friday. That makes today the perfect time to post a reminder that the 119th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle is fast approaching and will arrive on Thursday, September 10 at Cubik's Rube.
Instructions for submitting your skeptical blog posts are here. General guidelines for submission can be found here.
oracknows | September 5, 2009Praying to the porcelain god was never a more appropriate term:
Cue toilet and bathroom jokes...with Jesus!
oracknows | September 4, 2009Now here's one thing we skeptics could use more of:
Imagine you're moving to a new city, and you want to see what skeptic-themed events or groups are available. Wouldn't it be awesome if there was one central place you could go, plug in the destination, and get a list of skeptical stuff to do?
Or, say you're going to be traveling on business, and you want to find some evening entertainment that's a little more fulfilling than getting drunk at the airport bar watching TV in your hotel room. Wouldn't it be great if you could pull up a website and see what skeptical events were going on in that…
oracknows | September 4, 2009So-called "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) or, as it's now as frequently called, "integrative medicine" (IM) represents a hodge-podge of remedies that are mostly based on prescientific concepts about how the human body works and how disease attacks it. Homeopathy, through its concept of "like cures like" and law of contagion. The former in essence is a manifestation of the magical concept that "like produces like." Similarly, homeopathy's law of infinitesimals, in which serial dilutions to the point that there is unlikely to be a single molecule left of the substance thought to…
oracknows | September 3, 2009As wrong and illegal as "smash and grab" theft is, I have to admit to a grudging respect for the skill and precision with which these thieves managed to despoil a sanctum sanctorum of computing, an Apple Store in New Jersey:
Yikes. All in all, they took they took 23 Macbook Pros, 14 iPhones and nine iPod Touches, all in 31 seconds flat.
If only these thieves hadn't put their ambition and skills to such an illegal and immoral use...
oracknows | September 3, 2009As I mentioned the other day, September 1 marked the 70th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Poland and the "official" start of World War II. I say "official' because the invasion of Poland marked the beginning of a true shooting war in Europe after a long period of escalating tensions and increasingly brazen provocations by the Nazi regime, culminating in March 1939 with its invasion of what parts of Czechoslovakia Britain and France hadn't already given it in the Munich Agreement from the prior year. Because of mutual defense pacts signed earlier, which declared that an attack on any of…