Betting on Quackery

10th March, 2008 8

On the eve of the Cheltenham Festival, the race organisers are battling to repair the storm damage after ferocious winds have been bashing the West of England. Cheltenham is one of the biggest events in the racing calendar and for one of the most famous jockeys, Tony McCoy, a little storm damage has been the least of his problems. McCoy fractured two vertebrae in a fall two months ago and [read more…]

Las Mariposas Clinic: Costa Del Quackery

8th March, 2008 86

Watching the antics of quacks is funny and I hope some of that humour comes across on this blog. Sometimes, however, humour just appears to be so misplaced. Las Mariposas Clinic, in Torremolinos, Malaga, Spain, is a clinic that offers homeopathic and nutritional cures for cancer. They promise, “Unique methods that induce the natural remission of cancer and other illnesses” Nothing about this is likely to be funny. The clinic [read more…]

Life’s 4 Living: Audiokinetron and Lumatron Nonsense

4th March, 2008 9

A bit of a ding dong has started up over at HolfordWatch after they questioned some of the activities of a charity called Life’s 4 Living. There is now a huge red banner on their homepage that proclaims the following: There has recently been a vicious, sustained and unprovoked attack on this charity.Over the next few days life’s 4 living will refute each and every allegation in this spurious attack. [read more…]

Hawley Harvey Crippen and Homeopathy

3rd March, 2008 15

Hawley Harvey Crippen (1863-1910) was an American homeopath who was born to Andresee Skinner and Myron Augustus Crippen. He trained as a homeopath and joined a homeopathic pharmaceutical company. In 1910, he emigrated with his second wife, Cora Turner , to England where he was unable to practice as a Doctor as the authorities would not recognise his credentials. Turner was a music hall singer who openly had affairs. The [read more…]

The Empire of Homeopaths Strike Back

25th February, 2008 10

We know it is going to be a fun year for watching Homeopaths. The fight is well and truly on for who gets to pretend to regulate the profession. The beleaguered Society of Homeopaths have today gone on the offensive for total and unyielding control. The year started off with Prince Charles and the Foundation for Integrated Health announcing the arrival on the scene of the government backed Complementary and [read more…]

Netcetera are Recreant Milquetoasts and Poltroons. Positive Internet Stand Tall.

23rd February, 2008 19

So, the Quackometer has been up and running for 24 hours now and most systems have been restored. A bit more to go though. For the technically inclined, this has involved a move from cuddly cotton wool children’s Microsoft servers to grown up, open source, Apache/Unix servers where a missed semi-colon can kill faster than a homeopath dishing out malaria pills. It’s been a bit of a bother, but I [read more…]

The Black Duck and its Phoenix like Powers

21st February, 2008 16

Please bear with me as the new quackometer goes through its re-birthing pangs. Transfering to a new, better, more helpful and cuddlier hosting provider is taking time. The Quackometer Engine and other facilities may well be out of action for a short while. Features will come on line over the next few days. Expect bugs and wierd behaviour. Repsek goes out to the Positive Internet crew who have been amazingly [read more…]

You are Taking Part in a Randomised Controlled Trial Right Now

2nd February, 2008 30

Double Blind Randomised Controlled Trials (DBRCTs) are not the preserve of medical science. Increasingly, corporations are using them to enter into a new world of Evidence Based Marketing where massive, continuous and automated trials are being run on us in order find out how to sell more stuff and become more profitable. What does this mean for medicine and our lives? Our beliefs are our internal models of the outside [read more…]

Joseph and Andrew Obi: International Men of Mystery

24th January, 2008 35

So, another vague and preposterous legal threat and my web hosts have caved like bullied ginger children. Pages have been taken down and then immediately duplicated to over 30 (at last count) web sites all over the world. The web tends to react like that. This situation will not last. The Society of Homeopaths did not get away with it and nor will more minor bullies. To be told to [read more…]

More Threats to the Quackometer

22nd January, 2008 24

Another page or two goes missing. You can read more about this here: I’m not sure that’s ethical and here:Legal threats and extortion to suppress the truth Orac is on the case. Bless him. The BadScience Forum has more details and discussion as does the Randi Forum A few more people looking at the issues raised by this: Science and ProgressRich Speaks…No Nonsense!Ambri–guousThinking is DangerousRich ScopieBrain DuckSoberishSkepticoA day at the [read more…]

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