December 24, 2006
This one's too good for me to ignore even on vacation. It's the perfect gift for the skeptical.
Remember the Friday Dose of Woo in which I had a little fun with the whole concept of trepanning (drilling a hole in your head to "improve blood flow")? Well guess what?
The trepanation guy (Randall W.…
December 24, 2006
Via the Internets...
Christmas Carols for the DSM-IV
Schizophrenia --- Do You Hear What I Hear?
Multiple Personality Disorder --- We Three Kings Disoriented Are
Dementia --- I Think I'll be Home for Christmas
Narcissistic --- Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me
Manic --- Deck the Halls and Walls…
December 23, 2006
David Pogue makes the case that Microsoft didn't rip off Apple.
Nice.
December 23, 2006
Take a look at this image:
At first glance, it looks as though it's supporting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, doesn't it? But it's not. Not really. If you haven't figured out why yet, you'll see below the fold:
From MSNBC:
COPENHAGEN - A Danish art group that pokes fun at world leaders…
December 22, 2006
Like many, I'm heading out of state today to visit family and friends and celebrate the season. Just like the last time I took a vacation, because my Internet access will be sporadic, I've scheduled some new material to appear over the next couple of days, but for the most part while I'm gone I've…
December 22, 2006
Heh (I can't resist one last tweek):
Poor old David Irving, he must be kicking himself after being released early by the Austrian authorities.
Had the discredited Holocaust denier been set free just a few days earlier, he would have been able to shoot off for a few days to sunny Iran, in the…
December 22, 2006
Another week in the can.
It's been an eventful one, with prizes won, memories revived, and a couple of pesky Holocaust deniers descending to spew their bile. Hard as it is to believe, the year's almost over and the holidays are upon us. You're probably like me, tired of the Christmas carols,…
December 21, 2006
With the impending release of David Irving, my mind turned to wondering about what he'll do when he gets out. His finances are a ruin. He's ticked off his fellow Holocaust deniers by saying that there were indeed homicidal gas chambers at Auschwitz. This discussion led to a question, which led to…
December 21, 2006
Sure, I know The Jesus Lizard is a band, but scientists have now found a lizard worthy of the name.
Well, not exactly. Perhaps this particular lizard would be better considered the Mary Lizard.
December 21, 2006
Yes, it's that time again, time for another Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle.
Given that yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the death of Carl Sagan at the too-young age of 62, this edition of the Circle, posted at Humbug! Online, is a tribute to the man and his dedication to science and…
December 21, 2006
I'm about a week late on this one.
In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if some of my readers were wondering why I hadn't weighed in on this story when it broke late last week. (Either that, or no one was wondering, and I'm just displaying some of my surgeon's ego for all to see.) Part of the reason…
December 20, 2006
It's about time:
An Austrian appeals court has ruled that UK historian David Irving - jailed for denying the Holocaust - should be released on probation.
Irving is now being held in police detention and will be deported to the UK on Thursday, officials said.
Irving was convicted in February in a…
December 20, 2006
Tangled Bank #69 has been posted at Salto Sobrius. Martin is labeling it the War on Christmas Edition. He's joking. At least, I think he's joking...
December 20, 2006
Today is the tenth anniversary of Carl Sagan's death from myelodysplasia at the too-young age of 62. On this day, as part of the Carl Sagan Memorial Blogathon (more here), I'd like to explore three observations about Sagan.
First and foremost, Carl Sagan was brilliant at expressing the sense of…
December 20, 2006
Pediatric Grand Rounds, vol. 1, no. 18 has been posted at Breath Spa for Kids:
No cuddly Santa for us, My Hearties. This is a swashbuckling, buccaneering sort of Paediatric Grand Rounds, I have looted and pillaged various blogs and seized control of the Good Ship PGR.
For those so inclined, there's…
December 20, 2006
Just in case anyone was wondering, the Seed techie was doing some work on the servers last night, and something went awry. The result was the inability to comment on many blogs and the inability of bloggers to post (or even see any of their posts in the editing panel).
Things are fixed now, I can…
December 20, 2006
Dr. Flea's a guy after my own heart. He's been blogging about vaccines, and now he's getting into specific diseases. He's posted an installment about the vaccine against Haemophilus influenza type B:
The first American children to receive the Hib vaccine are turning 20 years old this year.
Flea…
December 19, 2006
As hard as it is to believe, it's official. It appears that Respectful Insolence won the 2006 Weblog Awards as Best Medical/Health Issues blog. I had waited to announce this until it was official, plus a little time because I still couldn't believe it. It would also appear that one other…
December 19, 2006
The latest Grand Rounds has been posted at Nurse Ratched's Place. This time around it's, appropriately enough, a Charlie Brown Christmas theme.
December 19, 2006
Well this looks interesting, a new blog by the author of Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver, Arthur Allen.
Looks like something I may have to check out. Allen captures why various conditions like autism are so readily attributed by parents to vaccines:
The history of…
December 19, 2006
Here's a great idea:
I was staying in a hotel in New York earlier this year, and I noticed that as well as the usual Gideon's bible, there was also a copy of the Quran. So that got me thinking - why limit the principle to religious books, why not get some science in there too?
So, I've decided…
December 19, 2006
I wish I could say that this was unexpected, but, given the politics and backwardness of Libya, it wasn't. The Tripoli Six (a. k. a. the Benghazi Six) have been found guilty by a kangaroo court in Libya:
A Libyan court has sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death for…
December 18, 2006
I don't think I could have done it much better, if at all.
Dr. R.W. presents, in FAQ-form, a primer on the difference between woo and conventional medicine, even conventional modalities that are weakly grounded in evidence.
A couple of examples:
Many of mainstream medicine's conventional treatments…
December 18, 2006
The latest Seed Magazine extravaganza happens to include a "class photo" of all of us ScienceBloggers. Orac should be easy to spot. Maybe I should have gone with the cliche of a masked surgeon, but I've got to be true to my alter ego. (No, not that alter ego.)
I guess that's just the lot of a…
December 18, 2006
You may recall how I've criticized the infiltration of woo into medical school and medical education in general. Such an infiltration threatens the scientific basis behind the hard-won success of so much of modern medicine over the last century. Unfortunately, woo isn't the only threat to…
December 17, 2006
Nothing like a lot of Queen-esque bombast coupled with lots of flames, courtesy of My Chemical Romance on a Sunday afternoon:
Apparently the drummer actually burned his leg during the shoot. Now that's dedication. I have to admit, though, I think I still like the first video from this album a bit…
December 17, 2006
First, check out The Daily Show's take on the Holocaust denial conference, with goodies like Revision Quest and Just Say No. It's the show that characterizes the "question" being discussed at the conference as: Was the entire Holocaust an elaborate episode of Punk'd? Best line: David Duke, he's…
December 16, 2006
We often hear atheists like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and P. Z. Myers castigating the excesses and irrationality of religion. (Heck, I'm often game for joining in when it comes to fundamentalist religion.) While discussing the recent Holocaust denial conference in Iran, Massimo Pigliucci makes a…
December 16, 2006
I must have fallen behind in my blog reading, which led me not to notice that Abel Pharmboy over at Terra Sigillata just celebrated his first blogiversary on Friday. Here's to another successful year of science blogging!
If you want to get a taste of what Abel's about, he just posted two good…
December 16, 2006
Here's an interesting little tidbit of a study:
Newswise -- Lead chelation therapy -- a chemical treatment to remove lead from the body -- can significantly reduce learning and behavioral problems that result from lead exposure, a Cornell study of young rats finds.
However, in a further finding…