Skepticism

Brain Training – Lumosity guilty of bogus claims

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Lumosity, a San Francisco based company, has been promoting “Brain Training” that basically consists of games that are supposed to improve your memory, attention, flexibility, speed of processing, and problem solving abilities.  It might indeed be popular and also quite profitable, but the ever so slight flaw is that they have been claiming stuff that is at best … Read more

Is the Prosperity gospel fraud?

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In the age of google those that promote weird or bizarre claims are being challenged as never before because we no longer have to simply accept their word, we can look it up, and this is especially true of the Prosperity gospel. Justifying the Prosperity gospel As I’m sure you are aware, at least I hope … Read more

This week’s Insanity: Invitation to a Chickenpox party

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One manifestation of the rising tide of the non-scientific anti-vaccine movement has been the arrival of the pox party. The idea is that when somebody has a kid who has chickenpox they hold a party and invite all their friends around so that their kids can catch it and thus get it all over and done with early. … Read more

UK’s NHS to Blacklist homeopathy .. hopefully.

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This has been announced by the Good Thinking Society … Simon Singh and the Good Thinking Society have today welcomed the decision of the Department of Health to consult on adding homeopathic remedies to the NHS ‘Blacklist’.  Following a proposed judicial review by the Good Thinking Society(1), the Department of Health have announced a consultation to … Read more

Tom Hanks slams cancer quacks

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Now here is a nice little snippet, my news filter managed to pluck out a gem from amongst all the usual content-free tinsel and glitter of show-biz gossip within the Yahoo Celebrity category that encapsulates some good critical thinking commentary being deployed by Tom Hanks. First a quick bit of context – Tom Hanks is married to Rita Wilson, … Read more

Calif. residents sue homeopathic manufacturer, claim products do not work as advertised

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Generally, if something is sold and does not do what it is claimed to do, then there will be repercussions, but we still live in an age where there are a few exceptions to that, which itself is indeed rather odd. One such exception that is often granted a free ride has been homeopathy, the … Read more