Welcome to the Quackometer
WHAT IS THE QUACKOMETER ALL ABOUT?
The quackometer is a project based around the automation of debunking quack medicine on the web. The web is full of pages supporting dubious medical claims and inflated capabilities for cures. The freedom that the web gives us to express our views, entertain and do business also gives quacks a way to make a living by promoting nonsense treatments to unsuspecting people.
Spotting these web sites appears to be easy when you know what to look out for. If it is that easy, can the process be automated? The quackometer project intends to find out.
RECENT QUACKOMETER BLOG ENTRIES...
How Safe are Home Births?
Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:45:33 +0000
And so, maybe this week, I will become a parent. Today is our due date and everything (I think) is ready. We are feeling that huge sense of – well – impending change. Our NCT antenatal classes are something of a distant memory. Bags are packed. Car seats fitted. The dog has been told. [...]
Related posts:
- Boots Maternity TENS Machines. Do they work? So, in a few weeks, Quackometer Manor will have a new arrival, and like all good middle class parents-to-be, we are currently attending compulsory NCT classes, to learn all the...
- Home Pregnancy Gender Testing – Pink or Blue or Con? One of my repeated gripes is that the Daily Mail Health editorial policy is little more than to be a shill for quacks. Like most of the paper, you have...
- Tiny Magnets, Tiny Minds Just when I thought the Daily Mail was reducing the number of stupid health stories that it was publishing, it comes up with a classic. Once again, the Daily Mail...
Are There Any Homeopathic Hospitals in the UK?
Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:10:35 +0000
The publication of the report of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee Evidence Check into Homeopathy has resulted in a lot of misinformation about how much public money is spent on homeopathy. The report states that there are four homeopathic hospitals in the UK, based in London, Bristol, Liverpool and Glasgow.
How much do [...]
Related posts:
- Liverpool NHS PCT Offering Quack Mysticism as Cancer Cure Liverpool NHS Primary Care Trust funds a Department of Homeopathy, one the last four remaining publicly funded homeopathic hospitals in the UK. It publicises that the clinic in the...
- What would $34 billion of Quack money buy you? Today the US National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine has issued a report that shows that Americans spend $33.9 billion out-of-pocket on complementary and alternative medicine per year....
- That’s It for Tunbridge Wells Homeopathic Hospital Reported today in Pulse, Campaigners look to have lost their fight to save a leading homeopathic hospital, in a landmark case that accelerates the treatment’s deepening crisis over NHS funding.West...
MP David Tredinnick is Wrong about the Homeopathy Report
Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:39:35 +0000
David ‘cash for questions’ Tredinnick is the MP who liked to buy astrology software and training on expenses. He is a keen supporter of pseudoscience and appears to be heading the charge for homeopaths to discredit the recent House of Commons Evidence Check into homeopathy.
The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee Evidence Check report [...]
Related posts:
- MP David Tredinnick calls for more Government Funding of Medical Astrology and Remote Energetic Healing Yesterday, the House of Commons saw a debate on the funding of medical astrology. Yes. Medical Astrology. The Hansard Report of the debate has a seventeenth century feel to...
- The Bleakest Day for Homeopathy The much anticipated House of Commons report into the Evidence Check on Homeopathy has now been published and it may well be the report that changes the face of...
- Homeopaths Changing Stories This, morning David Colquhoun was on the Radio 4 Today programme (listen again, 20 minutes in) making the charge that today’s Society of Homeopaths Symposium on AIDS was deeply irresponsible....
George Vithoulkas Makes a Fool of Himself
Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:09:53 +0000
This is a minor one but it is worth a brief post:
George Vithoulkas is considered to be one of the top intellectuals in the homeopathic world. Revered for his teachings and fundamentalist approach to the teachings of Hahnemann, he is probably one of the best known homeopaths alive today. His writings underpin much of [...]
Related posts:
- Extending the ‘Simple Challenge’ Homeopaths claim that their pills can induce predictable and distinct sets of symptoms in healthy people. That is how they prove their powerful medicine. This is basic stuff for homeopaths...
- A Simple Challenge to Homeopaths Homeopaths are feeling under threat at the moment and are scrambling around wondering what to do about it. I think there are a number of things they could do:...
- The $100 Homeopathy Challenge: Update Well, I have had two conversations with homeopaths now about taking the challenge. Recap: its a simple challenge to see if a homeopath can determine which remedy is which out...
The Bleakest Day for Homeopathy
Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:00:22 +0000
The much anticipated House of Commons report into the Evidence Check on Homeopathy has now been published and it may well be the report that changes the face of homeopathy in the UK. But more than that, its implications will also be felt around the world.
In a thorough appraisal of the issues and evidence [...]
Related posts:
- The MHRA and the Labeling of Homeopathic Products Further documents have been published after the House of Commons held its enquiry into the evidence base for government policy on homeopathy. There are some real treats in there,...
- MP David Tredinnick is Wrong about the Homeopathy Report David ‘cash for questions’ Tredinnick is the MP who liked to buy astrology software and training on expenses. He is a keen supporter of pseudoscience and appears to be...
- That’s It for Tunbridge Wells Homeopathic Hospital Reported today in Pulse, Campaigners look to have lost their fight to save a leading homeopathic hospital, in a landmark case that accelerates the treatment’s deepening crisis over NHS funding.West...
Omniscan and GE Healthcare’s Sinister Libel Suit
Boots Maternity TENS Machines. Do they work?
Liverpool NHS PCT Offering Quack Mysticism as Cancer Cure
Dispensing with Homeopathy: A Proposal
