27 January 2012 by Richelle McCullough
While doing some digging into the quackery of a local acupuncturist, I came across a sentiment that I found more than usually appalling. In her story of why she became an acupuncturist, she tells a melodramatic tale about a positive Pap smear test result that changed her life*. There’s all the usual makings of an [...]
Posted in Alberta, Alternative Medicine, Featured, Health, Medicine, Skepticism, Vaccines1 Comment
16 January 2012 by Kim Hebert
Last January, Marketplace took on homeopathy, a frequent topic among skeptical circles — for good reason. This past Friday they looked into Cold-Fx with somewhat more mixed results. On the positive side, they correctly point out a relatively major concern with natural health products (other than the glaring lack of evidence for efficacy) — poor [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Canada, Health, Media, Reviews0 Comments
15 January 2012 by Melany Hamill
Hey there skeptifans. Vancouver finally got some snow. And not just the light dusting that disappears an hour later, but the kind you can roll up into a snowman. This of course means that we are all trapped inside our houses because we don’t know how to operate in these wild conditions. Luckily the power [...]
Posted in Skeptical Fails and Wins0 Comments
10 January 2012 by Ethan Clow
A few weeks ago I talked about a strange hockey-skepticism convergence on Radio Freethinker. That convergence of course is about the goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens in particular. Carry Price, the BC born goalie who currently plays for the Montreal Canadiens is a spokesperson for the homeopathic product Oscillococcinum produced by the Boiron company in [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Featured, Health, Media, Medicinal Advertising, Quebec, Skepticism6 Comments
08 January 2012 by Melany Hamill
Hey there skeptifans. I hope you are surviving the winter. The new year is rung in with lots of new woo. Cleanse-crazy We all overeat during the holidays which prompts a lot of articles on losing holiday pounds, and where there is weight loss, there is woo. A slough of holiday detox articles came out [...]
Posted in Skeptical Fails and Wins0 Comments
06 January 2012 by Scott Gavura
Generic drugs are popular in Canada, with over $22 billion in sales and 57% of prescriptions by volume. And more generics are on the way. Lipitor, one of the most popular Canadian prescription drugs, recently lost patent protection. And more blockbusters will lose their patent protection over the next few years. It’s been called a [...]
Posted in Health, Health Policy, Medicine, Science0 Comments
05 January 2012 by John Underhay
The Mayans have been in the news a lot over the past couple of years, particularly due to their (supposed) prediction that the world will end in December of this year. This has been so thoroughly debunked that I hardly need mention it here. Reminiscent of the response to Harold Camping, there are those who [...]
Posted in Featured, History, Social Sciences5 Comments
03 January 2012 by Marion Kilgour
I think that because water is so ubiquitous, and, let’s face it, pretty awesome all by itself (it expands as it freezes!) people like to use it as the basis for their made up chemistry. An ad for a co-worker selling his unused ScaleHammer recently appeared on the company classifieds. So, I looked up the [...]
Posted in Canada, Pseudoscience, Skepticism8 Comments
01 January 2012 by Melany Hamill
Hey there skeptifans. I hope you are having a great holiday season. The Turin Shroud could not have been faked, say scientists Lorne sent in this immense Fail. Don’t you love when headlines like this refer to “scientists” like every scientist the world is on board? Some quacks say the shroud of Turin couldn’t have [...]
Posted in Skeptical Fails and Wins1 Comment
18 December 2011 by Melany Hamill
Hey there skeptifans. Here are the media Fails and Wins you sent me last week. ‘Proof’ that homeopathy doesn’t work Blogger Darwin Harmless sent in this link. It’s a win for reporting that an experiment showed homeopathy did nothing. It’s a fail for putting proof in ironic quotes, and citing a lot of useless anecdotal [...]
Posted in Skeptical Fails and Wins3 Comments
Acupuncturist claims cervical cancer is for prostitutes
Marketplace Takes on Cold-Fx: A review
Skeptical Fails and Wins This Week
Habs and Homeopathy
Skeptical Fails and Win This Week
Generic drugs: Should we be skeptical?
The Mayans Went Down to Georgia
ScaleHammer – More Water Pseudoscience
Skeptical Fails and Wins This Week
Skeptical Fails and Wins This Week
Marion: Good post, Richelle. I have a family history of ce...
Composer99: Mark K:
It is simply the case that the majority...
kat murphy: Hello
I stumbled into this because I was also r...
Erik Davis: Mark, as I've said to others here, it's not my pla...
Mark K.: Erik,
You show just how ignorant you are when y...
