Public opinion is finally beginning to recognise that homoepathy is no more a branch of medicine than, say, jam-making. But osteopathy has a far more respectable image. Whether it deserves it is another matter. Quackometer reports the case of “Dr” Robert Delgado, of Optimal Health, …
Here is my review of a “history” book that appeared, in modified form, in the Sunday Telegraph magazine yesterday. Here is the unexpurgated version. The Secret History of the World by Jonathan Black, Quercus £25 by Damian Thompson The Secret History of the World is, …
Congratulations to Ben Goldacre for a terrific onslaught on homeopathy in the Guardian. There must be tens of thousands of Guardian readers who dabble in this 200-year-old witchcraft; perhaps Ben will finally succeed in penetrating what the Catholic Church (itself no stranger to counterknowledge) used …
As if Dan Brown’s senseless imaginings weren’t enough, a crackpot Italian musician has recently announced his discovery of ‘musical notes encoded in Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper‘. “It sounds like a requiem,” says 45-year-old Giovanni Maria Pala. “It’s like a soundtrack that emphasizes the passion …
The BBC recently ran an item about a treatment for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) called Lightwave Stimulation (LWS). Show a SAD sufferer the right colours, and hormones are triggered that promote happiness. Does that sound like bollocks to you? The author of a sceptical blog called …
Four hundred and two years after His Majesty’s goverment foiled the biggest ever terrorist attack on British soil, why does no one believe the authorities when they make repeated warnings about terrorist threats? Most people I meet do not believe any of the official versions …
Here’s a gem of a quote from a master of medical counterknowledge. “I’m not sure how much credibility these pointy-heads have,” says Dr Michael Dixon, trustee of The Prince of Wales’s Foundation for Integrated Medicine, quoted in today’s Daily Telegraph guide to “top health gurus”. …
I just got my hands on a Clarus Transphase Scientific Q-Link. Our favourite “doctor”, Patrick Holford, used to sell these things for seventy quid. Ben Goldacre has summarised the product superbly before, but here are a few choice quotes from the enclosed leaflet you might …
An Oxford graduate once told me, in a conversation about the historical hostility between Afrikaaners and the English, that the biggest cause was Britain’s use of concentration camps in the Boer War “which killed six million people”. Fact, as David Brent might say. Quack history …
The New York-based Oxonian Society – founded by Oxford graduates to foster lively debate – is helping to promote Deepak Chopra MD, the New Age guru whose pseudoscience is utterly incompatible with the intellectual traditions of Oxford University. The society has just offered me a …