Denialism

Author: MarkH

  • Gardasil idiocy

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    MarkH
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    Orac had a nice takedown of an idiotic piece on Medscape about the Gardasil vaccine. As he reported, the link to the bad article is now dead, perhaps as a result of blograge. Now, on the front page of Medscape is a poll—a poll regarding physician prescribing habits given the “news” about Gardasil: Serious neurologic,…

  • Tangled Bank #111

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    MarkH
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    Welcome to Tangled Bank #111! Today’s entries are presented without comment, but with poetry, a truly remarkable natural, albeit human, phenomenon, or to quote Love and Rockets: You can’t go against natureBecause when you doGo against natureIt’s part of nature too. In the umbra, the tunnel, when the mind went wombtomb, then it was real…

  • Conscientious objector or deserter?

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    MarkH
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    The discussion we’ve had since Friday regarding the Bush administration’s latest foray into theocracy brought up some interesting points. We discussed implications of the draft regulations including likely limitations on access to safe and effective birth control. But there is another issue here that disturbs me greatly. Last week we talked a little bit about…

  • Tangled Bank is on the way…

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    MarkH
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    The Tangled Bank, the carnival for folks who love their science blogging, is coming here to denialism blog August 6th. We are the emergency fill-in hosts but promise to do a bang-up job. Send in those entries (to PZ, click the badge above).

  • Theocracy in action—HHS proposes to limit birth control

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    MarkH
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    I’m so angry I can barely type coherently. I have very strong feelings about abortion, but I believe it is possible to respectfully disagree about the ethical issues involved. I have an obstetrics colleague who does not perform abortions, but refers patients needing this service to others. That’s the ethical way for a doctor to…

  • New OTA site

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    MarkH
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    The archived reports of the OTA are on a new site hosted by the Federation of American Scientists. You may remember that we’re big fans of the OTA as we feel that scientific assessment of government policy and guidance of legislation is key to having an efficacious, informed congress. In our initial post on the…

  • More on the effects of tobacco poisoning

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    My recent post on tobacco poisoning focused on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the cause of about one-third of smoking related deaths. Let’s move on to cardiovascular disease (CVD), which accounts for another third. When we talk about CVD, what are we taking about? The pathophysiology is very interesting…go and read. Heart disease, which includes heart…

  • Another reader question, and open thread

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    MarkH
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    This is one of those topics I’ve always sort of avoided, and I’m still avoiding it for now. But that doesn’t mean you have to remain silent. Here’s the reader comment/question: This is off-topic, but I wanted some doctorly input to a discussion that I am having over at another blog. This lady is hyperventillating…

  • Link love—Sceptics’ Circle #92 at The Lay Scientist

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    MarkH
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    It’s up over at Martin’s place. His blog came out of nowhere (don’t they all) a few months back, and he’s hit the ground running. Just, please, when you get to my section, try not to use your imagination too well. Trust me.

  • How real science works

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    MarkH
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    Every once in a while I like to do a piece on how real science works. The New England Journal of Medicine was kind enough to serve up a nice example for us this week. Real science is hard. It’s time-consuming, expensive, and leads down many blind alleys. That’s one of the reasons pseudoscience is…