This one is doing the rounds, so apologies to those who’ve seen it already:
skepticism
– the rigorous methodology summed up by Carl Sagan as a Baloney Detection Kit
A quick question
There’s a lot of finger-pointing in the anti-vaccine movement about how any doctors or scientists who accept the scientific consensus that vaccines are the single most effective life-prolonging medical innovation in human history are just greedy, greedy Big Pharma shills… Read More ›
Thought for the day from Feynman
I was just reminded of this and am about to add it to the HAT quote file: “I can live with doubts and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it’s more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers… Read More ›
Sometimes one WTF? is not nearly enough
This is a very depressing example of a journalist being entirely taken in by an anti-vaccination crank, Dr. Mayer Eisenstein, spruiking his snake-oil at the U.S. Autism & Asperger Association’s regional conference on Saturday in Cherry Hill, Jersey.
Skeptic quickhit: homeopathy
Reworked (with the artist’s permission) from a poster featured on Orac’s blog.
Pareidolia
No leaf tea today, but anyone want to read my coffee cup? Or buy it on ebay?
What the media isn’t asking about that private hospital birth study (or, Bayes’ Theorem for Dummies)
Have peer review committees just given up on actually including a statistician these days? or do the statisticians need to do more sociology classes?
“Go and get yourself fixed up, Sheila.” Flibanserin and Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder
Colbert’s “Cheating Death” segment usually contains some quality snark. This particular piece opens with a satire on hormones being pushed to women throughout the lifecycle.
Then, starting at 2:10:
Stephen Colbert: “Next up: Heart Health. Folks: Drugs called “statins” are effective in lowering cholesterol. That’s why I crush statins on my bacon chilli corndogs. But a study unveiled Sunday shows that when taken preventively, the statin drug Crestor dramatically reduces the risk of heart attack, even in people with normal cholesterol. This is a great breakthrough in the battle to find things to prescribe to people who don’t need them.
But, of course, some Hippocratic oafs don’t wanna prescribe it.
Skeptical Sunday: Stop Sylvia Browne
Exactly what it says, really. Sylvia Browne. It’s a name which causes strong reactions in a lot of people. To her fans, who believe that she is a “true psychic medium,” she is a down-to-earth, spiritually deep woman who, with… Read More ›
Hoyden About Town 