Skepticon

Anti-Vaccine Charity, No More

Darcy Cowan • Nov 07, 2012

• IAS complaint,
• Medicine,
• Sciblogs,
• Skepticism,
• vaccination,
• Vaccine

Last year I wrote a series of posts[1] around the Charitable organisation Immunisation Awareness Society and a complaint I had made to the Charities Commission. The Thrust of these posts and the complaint was that the Society does not fulfill the requirements of a charity and should be removed from the register. The effect of [&hellip … Read More

Battle for the iPhone Might Make You Like it More

Darcy Cowan • Oct 01, 2012

• Cognitive dissonance,
• IPhone,
• Psychological,
• Sciblogs

I happened to be browsing and saw a review of the newly released iPhone 5. On a whim I figured I’d have a look, turned out the most interesting part of the review for me was the misunderstanding of psychology in the opening paragraphs. In setting up how “everyman” their acquisition of the new phone [&hellip … Read More

Energy Mirages and the False Hope of “Water Powered Cars”

Darcy Cowan • Aug 06, 2012

• electric car,
• Hoaxes,
• Pakistan,
• Sciblogs,
• second law of thermodynamics,
• Skepticism

This morning while perusing my news feeds I saw this article lamenting the state of scientific ignorance and bald political grandstanding in Pakistan. The specific item that prompted this lambasting of an entire country is the claim by one individual to be able the fuel cars using water – and the near unanimous support of [&hellip … Read More

Guess what Percentage of the World Thinks it Will End In Their lifetime?

Darcy Cowan • May 07, 2012

• end of the world,
• Hoaxes,
• Psychological,
• Sciblogs,
• Skepticism

The optimist in me (no sniggers please it’s not polite) would liked to have thought that this percentage is quite low. You know, in the barely worth mentioning category. Alas, according to a poll conducted by Ipsos the world average is about 14%. One in seven. Think about that for a second. One seventh of [&hellip … Read More

TCM and You: Cupping

Darcy Cowan • Apr 04, 2012

• Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine,
• alt med,
• Alternative,
• Alternative medicine,
• altmed,
• CAM,
• cupping,
• Fire cupping,
• Health,
• medicine,
• Questionable Techniques,
• Sciblogs,
• Skepticism,
• w4,
• wwww

I have noticed that Chinese massage seems to be becoming popular, and seemingly with it Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM1). At least browsing through two of the larger shopping centres in Hamilton (bring on the hick jokes) I saw massage centres offering these services. In particular cupping was advertised. But what exactly is cupping2? As with [&hellip … Read More

Monday Afternoon Movies: From Daleks to Vectron

Darcy Cowan • Apr 02, 2012

• Daleks,
• Mitchell and Webb,
• Neil deGrasse Tyson,
• richard wiseman,
• Scepticism,
• Science and Society,
• videos

I was collecting up videos to drip feed when I got around to it, but figured I may as well post them all at once to liven up a Monday afternoon. Enjoy. The Great and Powerful Tyson… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfAzaDyae-k Dan Dennett on “Deepities”… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg-4fmbpZ-M Levitation, I have to admit while watching this I was grinning like and idiot..it’s awesome…. Read More

Amber Teething Beads: A Follow-Up

Darcy Cowan • Apr 02, 2012

• Alternative medicine,
• Amber,
• medicine,
• Placebo,
• placebo effect,
• Questionable Techniques,
• Sciblogs,
• Skepticism,
• Teething,
• Therapeutic Goods Administration

Over the week or so I expect the page views for my amber teething necklace post to top 20,000 over the two blogs. Interest in the article has just kept increasing over the last year or so of it being up, as opposed to the majority of my posts which slip into internet obscurity within [&hellip … Read More

Future History: Apocalypse Then

Darcy Cowan • Mar 29, 2012

• apocalypse,
• end of the world,
• Eschatology,
• Harold Camping,
• prediction,
• Psychological,
• religion,
• Sciblogs,
• Skepticism

End of the world predictions and scenarios abound, we have always been fascinated with our own demise it seems. Last year I covered the predictions of Harold Camping and the relatively small following he had in his advertising the apocalypse campaign. This year we have the Mayans to blame and it’s rather more wide spread [&hellip … Read More

Why Do People Use Alternative Medicine?

Darcy Cowan • Mar 26, 2012

• Alternative medicine,
• Health Care,
• medicine,
• Psychological,
• Sciblogs

I often read that the reason people are turning to complementary/alternative/integrative(take your pick) medicine is because they are dissatisfied with the care received from mainstream/conventional/”western”* medicine. This may be true for a small segment of the population, those with a chronic illness or with terminal cancer spring to mind. But is this generally true of [&hellip … Read More

First, Do No Harm

Darcy Cowan • Mar 21, 2012

• Alternative medicine,
• David Gorski,
• harm,
• medicine,
• Primum non nocere,
• Psychological,
• Risk,
• Sciblogs,
• Skepticism

Primum non nocere A while ago I was accused of advocating that doctors should break the Hippocratic oath. That the cardinal rule of “First, do no harm” should be ignored. Setting aside that this phrase does not appear in the Hippocratic oath, what do we mean by harm in the context of medicine? I was [&hellip … Read More