Category Archives: General

I’ve often complained about the role of the media in perpetuating misunderstandings about the nature of science and promoting pseudoscience. Journalists rarely have training in science, and those who do have the training and expertise to cover science stories accurately … Continue reading →

In early 2010, I wrote a post listing warning signs of quack therapies, and in this post I made brief reference to Dr. Andrew Jones, who has created a successful business marketing books, DVDs, newsletters and other sources of “secret” … Continue reading →

Advertising is a form of communication intended to influence the behavior of potential consumers with regard to specific products or services. As such, it is inherently competitive to some degree, attempting to encourage consumers to choose the advertiser’s product over … Continue reading →

One of my favorite podcasts is Occam’s Razor, the science podcast of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) Radio National. In a recent episode, A Scientific View of Non-Scientific Beliefs, Dr. Craig Cormick of Canberra does an excellent job of laying … Continue reading →

A new survey adds evidence to a contention I’ve made before, that the growth in the popularity of alternative therapies has little to do with a growth in the evidence that they are safe and effective. Demand is driven by … Continue reading →

I frequently find that advocates of alternative medicine present themselves as converted skeptics. Of course, many came to veterinary medicine with a preconception that alternative methods were beneficial. But quite a few veterinarians or MDs who promote alternative methods tell … Continue reading →

Oops, looks like I just missed the party! Apparently, yesterday was National Holistic Pets Day. This holiday was created by Colleen Paige… I was going to give a brief description of who exactly Ms. Paige is, but I don’t think … Continue reading →

  The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.

Web of Trust (WOT) is a crowdsourced ratings system that rates the safety and reliability of web sites. These ratings are generated by users who visit the sites. They can be based on security concerns, but they are mostly based on … Continue reading →