Science-Based Medicine

I was interviewed for Birmingham Skeptics and you can hear the result at

http://brumskeptics.blogspot.com/2011/01/podcast-posting-interview-with-mark.html.

It is bad enough listening to myself as I correct my podcasts, so I have no idea how good the interview is; it was fun at the time.   And the picture makes me look fatter than I am. Oh well.

I gave a lecture last fall on The Vaccine Pseudocontrovery for Oregonians for Science and Reason.  There are evidently Oregonians against Science and Reason, hence the title.  My Dad went and said it was a good talk. You going to argue with Dad? I think not.

Someone with a handheld camera recorded it, edited it, and put it up on the YouTubes in four parts.  The first part is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAMZF7iaTcQ&feature=related

It was also Quackcast #45 as well, so you may have heard it all before.

If you can’t be self-aggrandizing, what’s the point of having a blog?

Here’s an interview I recorded a while back that’s shown up on the Michigan Skeptics website. Check out Adam’s Song: Episode 5 of the Drunken Skeptics Podcast. It was a fun and interesting discussion…

I have the pleasure of announcing that this is the 1000th post of Science-Based Medicine. The first post introducing the blog was on January 1st 2008 – almost three years ago. We have published steadily since then, and this post marks number 1000.

I would like to take this time to thank the many regular contributors and editors who have added to the success of SBM, as well as the regular readers and commenters. I would especially like to thank David Gorski, the managing editor, who has done much of the day-to-day management of SBM and is largely responsible for its growth.

We have plans to continue to build SBM into a better and better resource for science in medicine. We are just getting started, so stay tuned.

I have been very, very remiss about this, but I totally forgot to pimp my appearance a week and a half ago on Skeptically Speaking. Part of the reason was that I tend to be rather shy about interviews, and part of the reason was that I just plain forgot. Given our having dedicated this week to the discussion of vaccines on Science-Based Medicine, I thought it would be the perfect time to point out to Skeptically Speaking #82 Vaccines.

Tonight (Friday Night) we will be moving SBM to a new faster host. This will improve the performance of SBM, which has been sluggish recently, and give us the ability to increase our resources as needed as SBM continues to grow.

Comments posted between Friday night and approximately Sunday morning may be lost in the gap as the location of the new servers propagates through the internet. The site will be up throghout this process, but comments may be lost during this period. We are making the move over the weekend because that is when traffic is lowest. SBM should be fully functional by Monday morning, and in any case I will update this post when it appears that the move is complete.

Thanks for your patience.

Addendum:

The SBM move is now complete. If you are seeing this addendum then you are pointing to the new host. Performance seems much better already, but we will be closely monitoring it to keep performance optimal.

I really have to give those guys at McGill University’s Office for Science and Society credit. They’re fast. Remember how I pointed out that I’ve been away at the Lorne Trottier Public Science Symposium? This year, the theme was Confronting Pseudoscience: A Call to Action, and I got to share the stage with Michael Shermer, Ben Goldacre, and, of course, our host, “Dr. Joe” Schwarcz. Sadly, I couldn’t stay to see The Amazing Randi do his thing yesterday evening, but at least I did get to have breakfast with him before I left.

In any case, the reason I have to hand it to Dr. Joe and his team at McGill is because they’ve already uploaded all the videos for symposium events. Here’s the main page with the videos (the 2010 Trottier Symposium occurred on October 17, 18, and 19), and here are the individual links:

• 2010 Lorne Trottier Roundtable (moderated by Dr. Joe Schwarcz)
• 2010 Lorne Trottier Public Syposium (Drs. Ben Goldacre, Michael Shermer, and David Gorski; note that my talk is the second talk)
• Investigating Pseudoscientific & Paranormal Claims with James Randi

And, because I can’t resist, here are some photos taken with various people’s cell phone cameras. First, we have a lovely poster of woo that I saw at the restaurant where we had lunch on Sunday and just had to snap a quick picture of:
Continue Reading »

I have to apologize. There won’t be one of my usual epic posts this week. Fear not, however. I did get another SBM blogger to pinch hit for me in a post that will appear later today. I also had time to write a quick post announcing an initiative we here at SBM are planning for early November.

The reason for the rare occasion of my missing a week, of course, is that I’m participating in the 2010 Lorne Trottier Public Science Symposium in Montreal. Between all the travel, a two hour roundtable discussion featuring Michael Shermer, Ben Goldacre, and yours truly, among others, all organized by the McGill University’s Office for Science and Society. The event was videotaped, and a webcast of the event will be available, as will a webcast of our talks tomorrow. You can trust that I will certainly post links to them after they have been posted on the McGill website, in particular the symposium itself, so you can for yourselves see how much better speakers Michael Shermer and Ben Goldacre are when compared to me.

I’ll also be on the radio on CJAD AM 800 at 10 AM Monday morning with Michael Shermer and “Dr. Joe” Schwarcz to talk about pseudoscience in medicine and other areas.

Yes, I’m having a blast here, having had the opportunity at a leisurely dinner to discuss differences between the quackery situation in England compared to the U.S. and to meet Lorne Trottier. Now I have to fine tune my talk for tomorrow, and it’s late. Oh, well…

Are you frustrated by the prevalence of pseudoscience in medicine? Are you interested in critical thinking and science? Is SBM your rational refuge?  Want to meet like-minded science advocates? On October 23, 2010 four Skepticamps will take place across Canada. If you enjoy reading this blog, you’ll probably enjoy Skepticamp.

Happily, Skepticamp involves no actual camping. It’s a flexibly organized, collaborative conference on science and critical thinking. Skepticamp is not your typical medical conference with high fees, bad PowerPoint, long talks and little interaction with speakers. Skepticamps are open, collaborative, interactive, and FREE.

Here are the four events, and a few of the SBM-related highlights.

• Vancouver: ear candling; dopamine as an explanatory model for superstition; and SBM copy editor Paul Ingraham speaking about his first year as an alternative medicine apostate.
• Winnipeg: fad diets and detoxes; homeopathy; and the continued relevance of vaccinations
• Ottawa: self-help cults; genes and inherited diseases; science denial; and forensic science
• Toronto: I’ll be speaking about natural health product regulation. Other talks include a guide to the medical literature; the cognitive underpinnings of sympathetic magic; and naturopathy.

If there’s one near you, consider attending Skepticamp on October 23. Given it’s free, Skepticamp offers tremendous value-for-money. We invite our American colleagues to grab their passports, make a break for the border, and keep driving until there are Tim Hortons everywhere. And if you’re attending the Toronto Skepticamp, be sure to  say hello.

In two weeks, yours truly will be participating in the 2010 Lorne Trottier Public Science Symposium at McGill University in Montreal. This year, the theme is Confronting Pseudoscience: A Call to Action. I’ll be speaking with Ben Goldacre and Michael Shermer on Monday, October 18 from 5 to 7 PM on the Threat of Pseudoscience. On Tuesday, October 19, the ever-amazing Randi will speak on investigating paranormal claims. Unfortunately, the organizers couldn’t get Randi on the same stage with us because he couldn’t make it to Montreal from TAM London in time for Monday night; so this is the next best thing. Randi deserves the stage to himself anyway.

Obviously, I can’t wait, although I must admit that I’m rather nervous. To share the stage with Michael Shermer and Ben Goldacre and to get to hang out with them plus Randi, well, that’s more than I could have hoped for or imagined. It leaves me feeling like Wayne in this clip, with Shermer, Goldacre, and Randi as Alice Cooper (very appropriate, given Randi’s history of having done the effects for Alice Cooper’s stage show back in the 1970s):

So, if you happen to be in the Montreal area or can get there on October 18 and/or 19, come on over to McGill. It’ll be a rousing good skeptical time. I don’t yet know what Ben Goldacre and Michael Shermer will be discussing, but I’ll be speaking about cancer quackery (although I probably won’t be able to resist a brief commentary on quackademic medicine). I’ll also be on Dr. Joe’s radio show on CJAD 1010.