Monthly Archives: April 2002

Recycling Is a Waste in New York City

Newly-elected New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to shore up his city’s bottom line by temporarily halting recycling in the city. Of course environmentalists are outraged, but the problem is with recycling, not Bloomberg. Environmentalists sold curb-side recycling as … Continue reading

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The DOE’s Dowsing

Between January 2000 and July 2000, the Department of Energy spent more than $400,000 to investigate a procedure called Passive Magnetic Resonance Anomaly Mapping (PMRAM). Stripped of the jargon, PMRAM is nothing more than dowsing. The DOE paid that moeny … Continue reading

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Autism and Thimerosal

One of the claims made by anti-vaccination advocates is that thimerosal in vaccines contributes to autism. But as Quackwatch.Com recently noted in a summary of the claims over thimerosal, there is no evidence to back up that claim. Thimerosal is … Continue reading

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FBI Bullet Matching Claims Called Into Question

New Scientist reported this month on an investigation into a common technique used to match bullets found at crime scenes with bullets owned by suspects. Testimony using this technique has been used at hundreds of trials in the United States … Continue reading

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Suicide Pilot’s Mother Sues Accutane Maker — But What About Her Own Past?

On January 5, 2002, 15-year old Charles Bishop flew a Cessna into a 42-story office building in Tampa, Florida. The boy left behind a suicide note expressing support for Osama bin Laden and the Sept. 11 attacks on the World … Continue reading

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Should More Clinical Drug Trials Be Double Blinded Studies?

A study recently published in the Anals of Oncology evaluated 29 clinical trials conducted to test a drug to treat breast cancer and concluded that a failure to conduct double-blind studies biased the trials by making the drug appear more … Continue reading

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Do Medical Errors Kill More People Than Automobile Accidents, Breast Cancer or AIDS?

In a book review of Atul Gawande’s Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science, Ivan Oransky notes that medical errors are a serious problem. Unfortunately Oransky repeats claims that vastly overestimate the extent of the problem. Oransky writes, Three … Continue reading

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British Poll on What Constitutes a Disease Draws Controversy

The British Medical Journal recently conducted a survey of British doctors about which conditions shoudl be considered diseases and which shoudl be classified as non-diseases. The results did not please some patient advocates. The BMJ compiled a list of 174 … Continue reading

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Steve Milloy on the Latest College Drinking Study

Steve Milloy has some harsh words for a study on drinking among college students published in the March 2002 issue of Journal of Studies on Alcohol which grabbed headlines with its claim that alcohol consumption plays a role in the … Continue reading

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Hiding Behind Copyrights

Glenn Reynolds worte an article back in March about the odd case of Scientific American‘s attack on Bjorn Lomborg, author of The Skeptical Environmentalist. Scientific American seemed obsessed with Lomborg, what with seeking out multiple people to attack his book … Continue reading

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