The Quackometer

For a while now, the quackometer has been regularly and automatically scanning various blogs for good writing about quackery. The end result is a twice-daily distillation of what's hot in the blogosphere about quackery -or as the little black duck calls it, the quackoblogosphere.

Now, this digest is available as an RSS feed so that you can see who is writing the best stuff in one easy to find location.

Please let me know if there is a blog out there that is not being scanned. You can see the full list of scanned blogs from the quackoblogosphere's home page.

PS Apologies for using the word 'Holistic' in the title. I felt rather dirty when typing it.

Labels: quackometer, tools

 

Le Canard Noir is pleased to announce the arrival of the Quackometer QuackSafe^TM Search Engine. Do you quickly need to debunk the latest fraudulent claim? Do you need to see if others have insight into a quack? This is the Search Engine for you.

The Search Engine will only return matches from sites and blogs that are known to supply reliable information about quackery, quacks, medical fraud and health realetd pseudoscience. It is based on the newly available Google Coop technology, but unlike Google, will not return sites that swallow fraudulent medical claims whole.

Start QuackSafe^TM searching here.

The Quackometer QuackSafe^TM Google Toolbar Button has been updated to allow one button access to the Search Engine from the Google Search box on the toolbar. If you have already installed the toolbar Button, it will automatically upgrade itself in the background. To access thw Quackometer Search Engine, just enter your query into the the toolbar button and just click the little black duck icon.

To install the Toolbar button, click on this link and follow the instructions.

At present, there are about 50 sites that are included in the search. Selection of these sites is based on them being providers of critical thinking about the claims of quacks or their investigations into health fraud. Sites are not included that just provide general health advice or research. There are better places to find this information and the quackometer is not a health advisory service.

Wikipedia is also not included, as after consideration, its articles on quack related subjects often suffer from the 'BBC fallacy' - that the truth is found in a balance of opinions.

If the quackometer is failing to find articles from sites that you believe will add value, then please drop me a line.

If you wish to collaborate on this site and help improve the search results, then please drop me a line.

Labels: search, tools, update

 

Le Canard Noir is pleased to announce the arrival of the Quackometer QuackSafe^TM Toolbar Button for Internet Explorer that will allow one-click access to the Quackometer and QuackSafe^TM Search Engine. Click the button to find out if your current page is Quackery. Highlight a name in the text and click the button to find out if they might be a quack. Type a query into the Google Toolbar search button and click the Quackometer button for reliable search results.

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UPDATE: The Toolbar button now has access to the QuackSafe^TM Search Engine. Simply enter your query into the Google Toolbar and hit the duck's head.

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As a sophisticated reader of my site, you may feel that you too can spot a quack a mile off. But in these days of devious and deluded quackery, do you feel it is safe for your family, loved ones, elderly relatives and pets to surf the net without adequate protection from quackery? The QuackSafe^TM Toolbar button is for you. Installation is easy and will not compromise your computer or wallet.

Install now before your money gets spent on homeopathy and ear candles.

Features:

There are four ways to use the button: Click, Highlight, Type or Drop-Down. All do different things...

1. Click the toolbar button to send your current page to the quackometer. Instantly see if you are reading horse-shit.
2. Highlight a suspect quack's name in your current page with your mouse and click the toolbar button. The Quackometer will analyse the name to see if they are associated with quackery on the web.





3. Type a search term into the Google Toolbar search box and click the button. The Quackometer will use QuackSafe Searching to find out reliable sources of anti-quackery information.
4. Click the drop-down list to see the latest insane quack stories from the daily newspapers.

To Install...

1. You need to be running the Google Toolbar. You can read about it here. Currently, only Internet Explorer has been tested. Watch out for Firefox!
2. Click on this link to install. Follow the instructions. If the Google toolbar is not installed, you will be prompted to do so now.






3. It is that easy! Be QuackSafe^TM!

Safety, Security and Privacy.

1. A simple and small XML file is saved on your computer. No executable. No spy-ware. Nothing.
2. When you click on the button, your browser is redirected to the quackometer web site with details of the current page you are surfing or the suspect quack's name you want to analyse. No personal data is sent to the little black duck. I don't want it, even if it did.
3. There is nothing much more to it.
4. To uninstall, go to the Google Toolbar Settings.
5. Any other questions - you know where to find me...
   

Surf Safe. Surf QuackSafe^TM.

Don't delay! The Reiki Masters and Reflexologists are after your hard earned wonga! Its either this or you will be asked to get someone you care about a QLink for Christmas.

Labels: quackometer, tools

 

If you would like to receive emails whenever the quackometer finds a quack newspaper article, then provide your email address here.

Email alerts will only be sent for the most quacky stories and you can choose which region of the world you want to know about.

Your email address will only be used by the quackometer automatic alert engine to warn you about quack stories. The black duck is not a spammer and will strive to ensure you only get interesting alerts.

Canceling News Alerts

If you have already registered and wish to stop receiving alerts, or you have any other problem, then please contact with the email address given below.

Labels: quackometer, tools

 

You can now subscribe to RSS Feeds to get all the Quackiest Stories direct to your browser without scanning the news sites and papers yourself.

The News Alert Engine is still being thoroughly tested and handheld. Expect a few technical glitches and bad matches for a few days yet.

The biggest problems have been keeping down the false positives, that is, stopping stories being flagged as quacky when they are probably quite reasonable. Up to now, the tuning of the engine has really focused on making sure quacky stories were always flagged. With the scanning of huge numbers of newspapers stories, my effort is going into keeping good stories off the quackometer site.

Also, I need more ideas for other news sources to scan - especially outside of the UK. If you know of a (supposedly) reputable paper that publishes medical woo as fact on a regular basis then I will try to include it.

I am struggling with a few sites for technical reasons; the Independent is the most disappointing so far. Because of how the site is constructed, the quackometer finds it hard to do its work.

Noir.

Labels: quackometer, tools

 

The latest quackometer functionality is now being tested on the quackometer web site. Throughout the day, the little black duck will be reading the news for you and creating alerts if quackery is found. Hoards of quackbusters around the world will be alerted to potential quackery in the newsapers before it starts hitting peoples' doormats. Together we can expose the worst offending news sources.

Daily lists of quack stories will be available on this site.

As you are well aware, many so-called serious newspapers regularly publish quack health stories with little or no critical appraisal of their validity. Stories in newspapers are one important area where quacks can seek validation and advertising without too much trouble. The Quackometer intends to expose this laziness as as the ink is drying on the papers.

The beta version will only publish UK and (soon) Ireland news stories (details below). When fully tested and complete, expect to see US and Canada and also Australia and New Zealand versions.

I need your help! If you live somewhere where there is a newspaper that ought to know better and regularly publishes quackery, then let me know and I will try to include it in the daily scans. Some sites are hard - dued to registration and subscription problems - but I will try my best.

Expect to see RSS feeds and email alerts in the near future. Expect also to see league tables and name-and-shame charts too. Science editors beware!

Happy Quackbusting!

Le Canard Noir.

PS Newspapers being scanned so far:

• The Times
• The Daily Mail
• The Telegraph
• The Guardian
• BBC Online

Plus the following, but not yet viewable!

• New York Times
• USA Today
• MSNBC

Labels: quackometer, tools

 

The quackometer is an experiment to see if it is easy to spot quack web sites just from the language they use. The idea for this site came about after various discussions on Guardian writer Ben Goldacre's Bad Science blog.

Several people have noted how quack web-sites use similar language and vocabulary and once you can spot the patterns, spotting quackery is easy. Quack words include "energy", "holistic", "vibrations", "magnetic healing", "quantum" . These words are usually borrowed from physics and used to promote dubious health claims. As such, their use is pseudoscientific and just meant to impress and bamboozle the gullible.

So, is it possible to spot a quack web site just from its use of language? Is is possible to automate the process? The Quackometer intends to find out...

If this works, then all the public need do when faced with suspicious claims, is put the suspect URL into this web site and my little friend, the black duck, will analyse the page and give a verdict.

Labels: quackometer, tools