But What Are They Thinking About?

Emily from A Life Less Ordinary?, one of my favorite blogs, recently had an email conversation with Kelly Barnhill of Thoughtful House then she blogged about it. Here's the money quote:

I'm deeply skeptical of using approaches to address disorders of an undefined etiology that result in promotion of a cottage industry of opportunists who take advantage of desperate parents willing to try anything--and spend almost anything--to see some change in their children.

Hell, yes.

Serious new acupuncture infection risks described

From the always awesome Consumer Health Digest

Microbiologists at the University of Hong Kong are concerned that the threat of infections associated with acupuncture may be much greater than previously thought. In a British Medical Journal editorial, the researchers warned that bacterial infections, hepatitis B and C viruses, and possibly even HIV may be transmitted through the use of contaminated equipment and lack of adequate skin disinfection. They expressed particular concern about mycobacteria that can grow rapidly where needles are inserted and lead to large pustules, abscesses, and ulcers after several weeks to months. Two outbreaks involving more than 70 patients were reported in 2006, and a case of methicillin resistant Staph aureus (MRSA)was reported last year. [Acupuncture transmitted infections. British Medical Journal 340:c1268, 2010]

Sometimes The Good Guys Win

From The Rogues Gallery: Psychic Charged With Fraud


__-

Why you should be reading Dubito Ergo Sum

Because he takes apart Mike Adams uninformed screed against skeptics piece by piece in This is the worst Ranger since Turbo.

____-

Stephen Baldwin is a Wackjob

This link gets its own post because Stephen Baldwin is just that much of a wackjob.

Behold: Let's play the unlikely martyrdom scenario game!

From The Onion AV Club

Soul Pictures are the new Laser Backgrounds

Ever wonder what your soul looks like? Me, neither.

Ever want to laugh at a bunch of people who do? Check out Pardon Me, but Your Soul is Showing from Action Skeptics.

You'll be glad you did.

Orac on the Biomed Movement

The autism “biomed” movement: Uncontrolled and unethical experimentation on autistic children.


__--

Pseudoscience! Boo!

Emily from A Life Less Ordinary? does it again. This time with an excellent treatise on pseudoscience.

I really enjoy using the word 'treatise', by the way.

-_

Bad Science

If you're not reading Ben Goldacre's Bad Science, by all means check it out.

Here's an excellent place to start.




-- ----

Take THAT, Mayans!

National Geographic Online debunks a bunch of lame-ass 2012 myths. Though, I have to admit that the picture to the left is totally badass.

DIY Skepticism - Dragon*Con Style

I'm still processing how awesome Dragon*Con 2009 was. I was in the audience for a panel called "How To Combat Woo" which featured Jeff Wagg, D. J. Grothe, Phil Plait, Maria Walters, and Naomi Baker. It was awesome. Check out this writeup by Laurie T. of Rational Moms.


__--__

The Secret

From Cracked.com's If Sarasm Ruled the World feature.

Homologous Links

Here's why Overcompensating is one of my favorite webcomics and why Timecube isn't.

Hey, doctoral candidates! PhD Comics is here to help you write that abstract.

Do you know why science is awesome? I'll tell you why! Because it brings us amazing satellite images like these from boston.com's The Big Picture.

. .

Take the UFO Challenge

I just discovered the existence of the Paranormal Examiner which is really just a woo-filled overlay on a link farm. The first article I read from this publication is a doozy.

Melissa Alvarez reports that there is a $10,000 prize for anyone who can debunk a set of UFO photos.

The article is filled with the usual sparse details, logical fallacies, and other things we've come to expect from woomeisters. It's worth a look, especially the pictures. However, this bit where they "explain" the revolutionary photographic technique used to capture the images contains one of the best typos I've ever read (emphasis mine):

During the penetrating photographic process special equipment uses x-ray, thermo and inferred imaging.

Wow! They accidentally said something true.


EDIT: Darn! They've fixed it. Unless the word 'infrared' is the typo now.

Keep watching the skies!