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The autism “biomed” movement: Uncontrolled and unethical experimentation on autistic children
added on 23 Nov 2009
Ever since I first discovered the anti-vaccine movement, first on Usenet, specifically on a Usenet newsgroup devoted to discussing alternative medicine (misc.health.alternative, or m.h.a. for short) and then later on web and on blogs, there have been two things that have horrified me. First, ther...
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Wechsler’s Index | Cosmic Variance
added on 23 Nov 2009
My last 10 days (posted after a recovery weekend), by the numbers: Shuttle launches witnessed: 1 Shuttle launches since 1981: 129 Shuttle launches remaining: 5 “Shuttle Experience” rides experienced: 1 Cost of Space Shuttle Atlantis [dollars]: 1.7 billion Total cost of the International Space Sta...
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IPMU in Tokyo Needs Support | Cosmic Variance
added on 23 Nov 2009
Japan has had a long and distinguished tradition in modern physics. Just to pick one example, the amazing efforts of Shin’ichirō Tomonaga to understand quantum electrodynamics, anticipating the work of Schwinger and Feynman while remaining essentially isolated from the rest of the world during Wo...
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Sushi DNA Tests Reveal Fraud
added on 23 Nov 2009
A biologist walks into a sushi bar and orders some tuna. What does he get? Escolar, a nasty fish with buttery flesh that can cause bizarre episodes of diarrhea, accompanied by a waxy intestinal discharge. It’s not a joke. It happened five times to the same scientists during a brief research pro...
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Really rethinking breast cancer screening
added on 23 Nov 2009
"Early detection saves lives." Remember how I started a post a year and a half ago saying just this? I did it because that is the default assumption and has been so for quite a while. It's an eminently reasonable-sounding concept that just makes sense. As I pointed out a year and a half ago, tho...
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