The quackometer is a project based around the automation of debunking quack medicine on the web. The web is full of pages supporting dubious medical claims and inflated capabilities for cures. The freedom that the web gives us to express our views, entertain and do business also gives quacks a way to make a living by promoting nonsense treatments to unsuspecting people.
Spotting these web sites appears to be easy when you know what to look out for. If it is that easy, can the process be automated? The quackometer project intends to find out.
RECENT QUACKOMETER BLOG ENTRIES...
BBC Devon Promotes Dangerously Deluded HIV Homeopaths in Africa
Tue, 21 May 2013 17:09:41 +0000
Last week, BBC London broadcast a dreadful programme promoting an animal chiropractor despite the fact that there is no good evidence chiropractic is of any use on animals and that chiropractors can only work with animals under very tightly defined…
BBC London 94.9 Barking Hour Lives Up to its Name
Fri, 17 May 2013 14:10:31 +0000
Yesterday, on BBC London radio, Joanne Good and Anna Webb used their Barking Hour show to mislead listeners about how chiropractic, homeopathy and kiniesiology can help pets with serious illnesses. Her guest on the show was a McTimoney chiropractor by the…
Society of Homeopaths Seeks Accreditation from the Professional Standards Authority
Wed, 08 May 2013 22:37:34 +0000
Health regulators do an important thing: protect the public from the potential risks that health care providers and their practices pose to their clients. Risks cannot be avoided in health care. For any treatment that will have effects, there is…
Steiner Schools, Vaccination and Measles Outbreaks
Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:09:48 +0000
The UK is currently experiencing outbreaks of measles. Many children have been hospitalised and there has been one suspected death. This is an entirely preventable situation and would not be happening if there was sufficient levels of MMR uptake. However,…
Homeopaths Embrace Vaccination Against Measles – Or Do They?
Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:41:28 +0000
There is no general reason why a child in the UK should suffer measles. We have excellent and safe medical technology to ensure communities can be free from this nasty disease. And yet, we are seeing hundreds of children…
Crick’s Nobel Medal Ends Up In Questionable Hands
Steiner Academy Exeter: Misleading Choices
Bill Roache, Karma, Reincarnation and Steiner Schools.
The BBC Will Make You Sick