Don't forget, once again the time is fast approaching. Soon yet another installment of the Skeptics' Circle will be upon us. In fact, it's less than a week away and due to land at the Med Journal Watch. Note that, because of the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S., this time around the Circle will be appearing a day early, on Wednesday, November 21. Skeptical bloggers, there isn't much time left for you to get your entries done and submitted. So head over to Med Journal Watch for instructions on how to submit your skeptical blogging, and get your entries to Christian by Tuesday. Finally, if you'…

It may take a long time, but sometimes justice does eventually move to act against a wrong: A Butler County doctor will stand trial on charges he caused the death of a 5-year-old autistic boy by negligently ordering a controversial treatment, a district judge ordered Thursday. Dr. Roy Kerry of Portersville ordered chelation therapy - which the federal Food and Drug Administration approves for treating acute heavy-metal poisoning, but not for autism - on Abubakar Tariq Nadama in 2005. During a third treatment, on Aug. 23, the boy went into cardiac arrest and died. Kerry, 69, is charged with…

Pity poor Nikola Tesla. Again. It looks as though the woomeisters have found a way to abuse him yet again. I don't know what it is about Tesla, but he seems to be a magnet for such woo. Well, actually, I sort of do. Tesla was definitely a character and was known for a variety of strange beliefs during his lifetime. I'm pretty sure, though, that he never came up with anything like the Tesla Purple Energy Shield, which was lovingly described in this very forum about seven months ago. I'm also pretty sure that he never came up with anything like the Body Regenerator Tesla Coil, which starts out…

Earlier this week, I did a couple of posts about applying evolutionary principles to the meme of complementary and alternative medicine. In one of them, I mentioned how CAM therapies never seem to "go extinct." They may wax and wane in popularity and "evolve" into other therapies, but they never go extinct. PalMD of Whitecoat Underground has noticed the same thing and has posed a question and a challenge: So today I issue a challenge to both of my readers. Find me examples of "alternative" medicine that have been abandoned because evidence showed them to be failures. Post away, but please…

Yesterday's mega-post left me a bit drained; consequently I've throttled my ambitions back a notch today in order to leave some energy to put together the weekly installation of Your Friday Dose of Woo tomorrow. Fortunately, just the topic presented itself: A story that's interesting and instructive (hopefully) but that won't take as much of my time to deal with. But first, a brief recap. A couple of months ago, I discussed a highly dubious fundraising e-mail that was going around, apparently pushed by an organization known as Natural Solutions Foundation, about what seemed on first blush to…

...or so sayeth Reason.TV, where a credulous blogger didn't like what Orac laid down and found him oh-so-humorless. Orac, Killer of Buzz. You know, I sort of like the sound of that. I like the sound and humor of this, too. Of course, some buzzes deserve to be terminated with extreme prejudice; so just for laughs I'll throw out a few fun links that fellow ScienceBlogger Tim Lambert turned me on to (or led me to through other links) over the last couple of days: Climate scepticism: The top 10 Skeptic Arguments Convenient Untruths Climate science: Sceptical about bias (which fellow…

...Then go and visit Aggravated DocSurg, who's hosting the latest edition of SurgXperiences, the only blog carnival for surgery blogging, although his title makes me wonder a bit.

Over the last couple of days, I've discussed "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) in terms of a meme upon which evolutionary forces are acting to select certain forms of woo over others in academia. Although, in my usual inimitable fashion, I probably carried the concept one step too far, in the end I concluded that the relationship between CAM and academic medical centers is probably best characterized as parasitic rather than symbiotic. After I finished that post, I started thinking (always a dangerous thing). Regular readers know that I've sometimes raised a bit of a ruckus by…

I was always wondering when he'd finally weigh in on alternative medicine, and now Sid has. It's a slapdown worthy of Orac, Dr. R.W., or Panda Bear MD. Go forth and read it. Not quite as snarky as Orac (but, then, Sid's a classy guy), but every bit as outraged.

Today's the day, everyone. I haven't mentioned this before, but the documentary on the trial over the teaching of "intelligent design" creationism in the classroom in Dover, Pennsylvania two years ago is set to premiere on your local PBS station tonight at 8 PM. The Nova documentary, Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial, already has the Discovery Institute up in arms because from all reports thus far (and indeed from the content of the documentary website, which presents fossil evidence and a detailed discussion of evolution) it is uncompromising in its viewpoint that ID is not science…

Yesterday, inspired by a post by fellow ScienceBlogger Martin, I had a little fun discussing the evolution of "alternative" medicine (a.k.a. "complementary and alternative medicine" or CAM), specifically speculating about the possible selective pressures, positive and negative, that have influenced the course that its evolution took. Essentially, the discussion centered around whether, by its very nature CAM undergoes negative selective pressure for having as little effect as possible, positive or negative, a point I found somewhat, but not entirely, convincing. Although the post inspired a…

Abel Pharmboy at Terra Sigillata has the full story. In brief, Medicare has slashed reimbursement for two radioimmunotherapy drugs Bexxar (131I-tositumomab) and Zevalin (90Y-ibritumomab) to below acquisition cost. This is not some experimental therapy that's being denied, but rather a therapy with a established clinical efficacy. Naturally, this is likely to lead to most centers abandoning these drugs. Even worse, because private insurers base their reimbursement on the Medicare reimbursement rates, usually paying some percentage above them, this decision will almost certainly lead insurance…

I wish I had thought of this one, but I didn't. However, I never let a little thing like not having thought of an idea first to stop me from discussing it, and this particular idea is definitely worth expanding upon because (1) it's interesting and (2) it combines two of my interests, alternative medicine and evolution. I agree with parts of the idea, but it's not without its shortcomings. Indeed, I'd very much welcome any of the evolutionary biologists who read this blog to chime in with their own ideas. Fellow ScienceBlogger Martin Rundkvist over at Aardvarchaeology has proposed a rather…

Friday morning while doing some work in my office, I was treated to a discussion by the two hosts of a morning radio talk show. The talk was apparently prompted by a rather odd website, ihateyoungpeople.com, which asks: We want you to create a video of yourself explaining what you hate the most about young people. It's your chance to rant and rave and vent about the younger generation. The most passionate and creative entries will be a part of a national cable television pilot... and all "appropriate" submissions will be posted on the I Hate Young People video sharing site So fire up your…

Hilarious. Even though I risk bringing back some of the anthropogenic global warming "skeptics" (in reality pseudoskeptics) here, this is too rich not to mention, because it reminds me of how advocates of all stripes of pseudoscience react, particularly advocates of alternative medicine, most of whom wouldn't recognize a well-designed study if it bit them on the behind. Apparently, Rush Limbaugh and the usual suspects fell for a rather obvious hoax in the form of an online journal article: Daniel A Klein*, Mandeep J Gupta*, Philip Cooper**, Arne FR Jansson**. Carbon dioxide production by…

Given the general level of intelligence and erudition of commenters here, rare would be the need for a product such as this: (Fortune Magazine) -- Internet veterans have long complained about the steady erosion of civility -- and worse, intelligence -- in online discourse. Initially the phenomenon seemed to be a seasonal disorder. It occurred every September when freshmen showed up for college and went online. Tasting for the first time the freedom and power of the Internet, the newbies would behave like a bunch of drunken fraternity pledges, filling electronic bulletin boards with puerile…

Orac gets e-mail from time to time. This time around, a person working at The Ohio State University writes about a disturbing incident there demonstrating yet more evidence that academic medical centers are having increasing difficulty distinguishing between evidence-based medicine (which they should champion) and non-evidence-based medicine, which they should not. This e-mail comes from someone who wishes to remain anonymous: Time after time I've read Orac's accounts of woo infiltrating the medical community. Last month I witnessed its encroachment into the Ohio State University. Each year…

Now this is unexpected. Normally, I find my victims/targets/subjects for my usual end-of-the-workweek bit of fun and skepticism from one of two sources. Either a reader sends a link to some woo or other that desperately deserves a little bit of Orac's loving attention, or in my wanderings across blogosphere I find some little (or huge) bit of woo that catches my attention and holds it long enough to make the case for a spot on my weekly feature. This time around it was different. While applying a sorely needed bit of skepticism to a story that's been going around the more credulous parts of…

It's Thursday, and I can hardly believe that it's time for the Skeptics' Circle again. Time flies between these every other week exercises in critical thinking. This time around, it's Holford Watch that's hosting the 73rd Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle. However, before you can enjoy skeptical bloggy goodness submitted to the carnival, you're asked to answer a little questionnaire to verify that you're of the proper mind (or maybe the improper mind) for all the posts contained therein. (Particularly amusing is this homeopathic investigation.) Don't forget that it won't be long before the next…

I hadn't intended to write about this again, at least not for a while, but curiosity got the better of me. About a month and a half ago, I discussed a highly dubious story that was going around by e-mail about a 17-year-old boy with melanoma whose mother supposedly "cured" him with "natural" treatments. As you might imagine, the story was riddled with incorrect-sounding medical information and inconsistencies. Earlier this week, through a highly credulous blogger going by the 'nym the Angry Scientist, I became aware of an update to the story, in which the names of the mother and child (Laurie…