MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'fallacy'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:45:28 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5174600&cid=t_252667_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FxGPFr-wh3gM%2F By David BoazOh, dear. Oh, dear. No matter how many times economists debunk the broken window fallacy, not a natural disaster goes by that journalists don’t try to cheer us up by saying “at least it will stimulate economic growth.” This time it’s Josh Boak (no relation!), the economics reporter (!) at Politico, who was “educated at Princeton and Columbia.” And Sunday afternoon he posted this story: Irene: An economic blow or boost? The power outages and shuttered airports may stop the engines of commerce for several days, but Hurricane Irene might have provided some short-term economic stimulus as billions of dollars will likely be spent to repair the damage to the East Coast over the weekend. Cumberland Advisors Chairman David Kotok saw the storm as li... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5174600 Mon, 29 Aug 2011 01:44:33 +0100 5174600 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5118650&cid=t_252667_87_f&fid=39251&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rethinkingpatientsafety.com%2Fmy-blog%2F2011%2F08%2Fwhat-is-a-person-did-romney-take-any-metaphysics-in-college-.html Mitt Romney argues that “Corporations are people, my friend,” because “Everything corporations earn ultimately goes to people.” If an entity can be said to be a person just because what it earns goes to a person, then the following are also persons: pay toilets, soda machines, state lotteries, and poker tables. An interesting metaphysics to be sure. (Source: Rethinking Patient Safety) Rethinking Patient Safety blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5118650 Thu, 11 Aug 2011 23:10:59 +0100 5118650 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4975842&cid=t_252667_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FhZMAKvVn9vA%2F By David BoazAt the Britannica Blog today I note President Obama’s concern over ATMs, Hillary Clinton’s support for the candlemakers’ petition, John Maynard Keynes’s simple solution to the problem of unemployment—and how Bastiat refuted all their arguments more than 150 years ago: And there’s your question for President Obama: Do you really think the United States would be better off if we didn’t have ATMs and check-in kiosks? . . .  And do you think we’d be better off if we mandated that all these “shovel-ready projects” be performed with spoons? In his 1988 book The American Job Machine, the economist Richard B. McKenzie pointed out an easy way to create 60 million jobs: “Outlaw farm machinery.” The goal of economic policy should not be job cre... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4975842 Mon, 27 Jun 2011 13:56:48 +0100 4975842 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4622290&cid=t_252667_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F03%2F21%2Fpsychologists-still-seek-prescription-privileges-no-new-news%2F This story caught my eye only because of its headline, Psychologists seek authority to prescribe psychotropic medications. Really? I thought… I never heard that before. Oh, wait a minute, I have. Because the last time I checked, psychologists have been seeking prescription privileges for something like 16 or 17 years, maybe longer. In all of that time, they’ve only gained them in two states. Was another state joining New Mexico and Louisiana? Was there a renewed push for this service because of a sudden demand for prescriptions from those who have a mental illness? In other words, for this new article that appeared in the Washington Post (but was actually written by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a healthcare policy organization) — what’s newsworthy about this story?... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4622290 Mon, 21 Mar 2011 21:39:31 +0100 4622290 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4600521&cid=t_252667_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FU6hEO9njiVA%2F By Tom G. PalmerNathan Gardels at the Huffington Post writes (emphasis added): No one -- least of all someone like myself who has experienced the existential terror of California's regular tremors and knows the big one is coming here next -- would minimize the grief, suffering and disruption caused by Japan's massive earthquake and tsunami. But if one can look past the devastation, there is a silver lining. The need to rebuild a large swath of Japan will create huge opportunities for domestic economic growth, particularly in energy-efficient technologies, while also stimulating global demand and hastening the integration of East Asia. But as French political economist Frédéric Bastiat noted, destruction isn't stimulative because it cannot create wealth: Bastiat on the Japane... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4600521 Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:09:04 +0100 4600521 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4470451&cid=t_252667_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F02%2F12%2Fare-we-rational-animals-part-2%2F This is the second in a two-part discussion about human rationality. Click to read Part 1, Are We Rational Animals?. Intelligence as a predictor of rationality Some may be surprised to learn that high levels of intelligence do not necessarily indicate high levels of rationality.  In fact, some people may rank high in intelligence while low in rationality.  There is more to sound thinking than intelligence. Below is a list of rational thinking tasks and their association with cognitive ability/intelligence from Stanovich (2010, p.221). Tasks that fail to show associations with cognitive ability Noncausal base-rate usage (Stanovich & West, 1998c, 1999, 2008) Conjunction fallacy between subjects (Stanovich & West, 2008) Framing between subjects (Stanovich & West, 2008) Anchori... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4470451 Sat, 12 Feb 2011 16:44:23 +0100 4470451 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4355773&cid=t_252667_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F01%2F16%2Fcommon-sense-psychology%2F Psychology is just common sense. Or, at least some prominent figures think so.  Popular radio talk show host Dennis Prager says, “Use your common sense.  Whenever you hear the words ‘studies show’ — outside of the natural sciences — and you find that these studies show the opposite of what common sense suggests, be very skeptical.  I do not recall ever coming across a valid study that contravened common sense” (Lilienfeld et al., 2010, p.5). It appears that Prager has not read many scientific studies. For centuries scientists, science writers and philosophers have encouraged us to trust our common sense (Lilienfeld et al., 2010; Furnham, 1996).  Common sense is a phrase that generally implies something everyone knows. One of the definitions of common sense given by ... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4355773 Sun, 16 Jan 2011 13:30:54 +0100 4355773 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3390745&cid=t_252667_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FDgcgK4p8Ccs%2F By David BoazIn Sunday’s “Pearls Before Swine” comic strip, the nefarious Rat is now a PR flak. And when his client accidentally blows up downtown, he comes up with a solid economic defense: Go here for Frederic Bastiat’s original explication of the “broken window fallacy,” and for way too much detail, go to Wikipedia. John Stossel breaks some windows here and talks to Walter Williams about the implications. (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3390745 Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:41:39 +0100 3390745 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3136593&cid=t_252667_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2010%2F01%2F02%2Flife-is-unfair-now-what%2F I probably don’t go a week without hearing some form of this complaint — life is unfair. It’s usually in the form of: “I can’t believe this happened to me! Why do bad things always seem to happen to me!?” “I’m a special person, why shouldn’t I be treated like someone special?” “Why does everyone else seem to succeed where all I can do is fail?” “I didn’t make the team/get the job/get asked out on a second date/get any of the attention my other siblings got.” You see how it goes. On and on, we don’t run out of examples of where we believe we’ve been untreated unfairly in life. Here’s how I try and look at it though — life is a never-ending game of learning. When something bad... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3136593 Sat, 02 Jan 2010 11:32:22 +0100 3136593 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2621853&cid=t_252667_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2009%2F07%2F20%2F10-tips-for-getting-it-done-today%2F Procrastination is something most people have had to deal with at some point in their lives. We put things off, especially things that are boring, lengthy, drudgery, or might challenge us in some unexpected or unforseen way. It’s not that we don’t think we can do it (although for some people, that’s indeed a thought that enters their mind); it’s more often the case that we know we can do it, we just don’t want to. Procrastination can be beaten through some simple tips — by becoming more aware of the self-defeating thoughts you’re telling yourself about doing the task, and by becoming better organized. Although the tips are easy, putting them into use takes practice and repetition. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t succeed at first; ju... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2621853 Mon, 20 Jul 2009 12:38:07 +0100 2621853 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2510429&cid=t_252667_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F06%2Fmark-leavitt-head-of-cchit-behind-times.html Signs that a leader who alleges himself or herself to be objective and a scientist is, in fact, neither objective nor scientific include:Resorting to ad hominem attacks when questioned or criticized.Unfamiliarity with the current literature.Years-behind view of the situation on the ground.The head of CCHIT, Mark Leavitt, has penned the following at iHealthBeat (emphases and comments in red italic mine): June 19, 2009 - PerspectivesHealth IT Under ARRA: It's Not the Money, It's the Message by Mark Leavitt... Estimates by the Congressional Budget Office suggest the total incentive payout could reach $34 billion, although with expected savings the net cost is half that. Add to that another $2 billion that the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT can use on various initiatives in s... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2510429 Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:51:00 +0100 2510429 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2367429&cid=t_252667_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F04%2Fbusiness-week-on-health-it-dubious.html While I would have used the title "The Dubious Promise of Digital Medicine When Led By Amateurs in the Health IT Industry", the following Business Week article is one of the better and more realistic appraisals of the current state of Health IT.Business Week, April 23, 2009The Dubious Promise of Digital MedicineChad Terhune, Keith Epstein and Catherine ArnstRecommended reading for anyone interested in improving healthcare via information technology. (Full disclosure: MedInformaticsMD was a contributor to the article.)I will be commenting in upcoming posts on the article's points and HIT industry's customary, self serving and unscientific counterpoints. The article's thrust is that a HIT remains an experimental technology with a mixed history, which like any societal-level experiment (HIT r... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2367429 Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:12:00 +0100 2367429 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1739038&cid=t_252667_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F08%2Fmerck-scientific-debate-hits-bottom.html I find Merck Scientific Affairs executive Jonathan Edelman's op ed in today's Philadelphia Inquirer on the Vioxx "ADVANTAGE seeding trial" controversy to be mediocre spin control at best, if not deliberately misleading through selective omission of critical facts:Taking ExceptionGreat value in clinical studiesPhiladelphia Inquirer, Sept. 26, 2008Your articles "Merck faces more criticism" (Inquirer, Aug. 19) and "Journal vs. the bad seed" (Aug. 20) drew the wrong conclusion.The Advantage study was published by the Annals of Internal Medicine in 2003 after passing the journal's editorial and peer-review process that determined the study to be important new information for physicians. Dr. Harold Sox recently wrote in Annals that the way to identify a good clinical trial is to look at the impo... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1739038 Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:01:00 +0100 1739038 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1733831&cid=t_252667_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F08%2Fmerck-scientific-debate-hits-bottom.html I find Merck Scientific Affairs executive Jonathan Edelman's op ed in today's Philadelphia Inquirer on the Vioxx "ADVANTAGE seeding trial" controversy to be mediocre spin control at best, if not deliberately misleading through selective omission of critical facts:Taking ExceptionGreat value in clinical studiesPhiladelphia Inquirer, Sept. 26, 2008Your articles "Merck faces more criticism" (Inquirer, Aug. 19) and "Journal vs. the bad seed" (Aug. 20) drew the wrong conclusion.The Advantage study was published by the Annals of Internal Medicine in 2003 after passing the journal's editorial and peer-review process that determined the study to be important new information for physicians. Dr. Harold Sox recently wrote in Annals that the way to identify a good clinical trial is to look at the impo... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1733831 Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:01:00 +0100 1733831 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1269622&cid=t_252667_133_f&fid=35109&url=http%3A%2F%2Fleftbrainrightbrain.co.uk%2F%3Fp%3D735 We describe a female patient in whom developmental regression and autism followed normal development…..Evaluation at 23 months showed …..[t]he Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) score was 33 (mild autism range), and she also met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders-IV criteria for autism and yet this autism was so mild that at that exact same period (23 months): the patient began speaking again at 23 months old which means that expressive language was lost for a sum total of one month (it is reported being lost at 22 months). It should also be noted that CARS is not designed for diagnosis but is an indicator only. Overall, we get a picture of a child who had an underlying mitochondrial dysfunction exposed by the illnesses following her vaccinations whi... Left Brain/Right Brain blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1269622 Sat, 01 Mar 2008 08:57:19 +0100 1269622 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1252656&cid=t_252667_133_f&fid=35109&url=http%3A%2F%2Fleftbrainrightbrain.co.uk%2F%3Fp%3D729 So – the ‘Hidden Horde’ – the term that anti-vaccinationists like to smirk about as evidence of an autism epidemic. The logic goes like this: if there’s no autism epidemic then where are all the [insert age here] year old autistic adults? I’ve heard people asking for evidence of 75 year old autistics (conveniently forgetting that the average mortality age in the US and UK is around 70), 50 year olds – even 30 year olds. Never mind that there’s been plenty of evidence for adult autistics. Thats not convenient for the anti-vaccinationist agenda so it gets ignored. Anyway, todays Sunday Herald carries another story about adult autistics in Scotland called ‘Revealed: ‘invisible’ adults living with autism’. According ... Left Brain/Right Brain blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1252656 Sun, 24 Feb 2008 08:49:32 +0100 1252656 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1236241&cid=t_252667_133_f&fid=35109&url=http%3A%2F%2Fleftbrainrightbrain.co.uk%2F%3Fp%3D717 This blog post will be edited further. The information implicating JB Handley and Gilchrist & Soames in Aug 2007 was innacurrate and has therefore been removed. Further information on JB’s business practices (entirely unrelated to Gilchrist and Soames) will be posted shortly. (Source: Left Brain/Right Brain) Left Brain/Right Brain blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1236241 Sat, 16 Feb 2008 07:47:04 +0100 1236241 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=889633&cid=t_252667_133_f&fid=35109&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kevinleitch.co.uk%2Fwp%2F%3Fp%3D639 Hey, it’s Thursday evening. Why don’t we stop by and see what the cat dragged in over at Rescue Host. Holy Vaccinations Batman! It’s more autism epidemic gibberish! The current installment comes to us from Kelli Ann Davis, who writes: I knew the day was coming. With numbers like 1 in 150 children and 1 in 94 boys, “it” was bound to happen. Her “it” apparently refers to the recent appearances of some fellow believers on daytime television. Davis goes on to share some apparent feelings of vindication: I must of recited “the-numbers-are-getting-larger-and-our-voices-are-getting-louder” mantra at least a bazillion times over the last 5 years, cuz that’s how many meetings it feels like I’ve been in. but it never seemed to r... Left Brain/Right Brain blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=889633 Fri, 21 Sep 2007 05:35:24 +0100 889633 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=816694&cid=t_252667_133_f&fid=35109&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kevinleitch.co.uk%2Fwp%2F%3Fp%3D610 Acceptance. It is a word that some use to describe their relationship with the reality of their children, or their own, autism. We accept the fact our daughter is autistic. For people who claim to ‘fight autism’ this acceptance is a weak passivity. An act of giving in. This, of course, is rubbish. Those who have accepted the reality of their own or their children’s autism know that the work starts right there. We do not attempt to carry on deluding ourselves and using quack treatments such as chelation etc as shields against the reality of who our kids really are. Parents like Brad Handley of Generation Rescue claim at one point in time that: “autism is a misdiagnosis for mercury poisoning…..The whole notion of autism is mythical. It didn’t exist... Left Brain/Right Brain blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=816694 Wed, 22 Aug 2007 18:37:06 +0100 816694 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=720055&cid=t_252667_133_f&fid=35109&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kevinleitch.co.uk%2Fwp%2F%3Fp%3D580 I have a category tag on this blog especially for the loons at the Daily Mail (Melanie Phillips et al) which I usually select whenever I write about Andrew Wakefield or the MMR because its invariably one of them doing the writing. This time I was amazed to see that it was that usual bastion of intelligence and propriety, The Observer, that had decided to play the role of media dumbass. Obviously the mail and Private Eye are having an off day. First up was Andrew Wakefield himself – comparing himself to Vaclav Havel no less he pontificates: Wakefield told The Observer that he has no regrets for saying what he did in 1998 nor for continuing to seek to prove his view of MMR as the likeliest explanation for the rise in cases of autism in Britain. Almost every child health expert, t... Left Brain/Right Brain blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=720055 Sun, 08 Jul 2007 15:32:19 +0100 720055 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=706597&cid=t_252667_133_f&fid=35109&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kevinleitch.co.uk%2Fwp%2F%3Fp%3D573 The first of the nine ‘test’ Autism Omnibus cases has wrapped up. This was also the first of the designated three that will attempt to associate autism with MMR and Thiomersal causation. In todays’ Wall Street Journal, Professor Roy Richard Grinker, author of Unstrange Minds wraps up what we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks: Over the last three weeks, I listened to testimony in the first of nine test cases in the U.S. Vaccine Court (Cedillo v. Health and Human Services) considering the question of whether a mercury-based vaccine preservative called thimerosal (which used to be in many vaccines), or the MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) vaccine, or both together, caused autism in Michelle Cedillo, the plaintiffs’ daughter. I heard some of the world&#821... Left Brain/Right Brain blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=706597 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 08:24:13 +0100 706597 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=549051&cid=t_252667_133_f&fid=35109&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kevinleitch.co.uk%2Fwp%2F%3Fp%3D532 One of the more extreme quackery groups formed post-EoH is CoMed (the ‘y’ is silent) which is run by the Rev Lisa Sykes and Dr Paul King recently emailed a large group of people with a PDF Press Release that tried to make the case that autistic children were proven to be clinically mercury poisoned. How did they reach this earth shattering conclusion? By stating that two papers and one methodology backed them up. Have a read of the document – its a fascinating example of how the militia attempt to ‘spin’ the reality of the situation and try to make things sounds like a given. Note the silent switch about halfway through from talking about ‘mercury’ in general to talking about ‘vaccines’ in particular. Anyway, Sykes and King were goo... Left Brain/Right Brain blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=549051 Tue, 17 Apr 2007 15:21:16 +0100 549051 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=487873&cid=t_252667_133_f&fid=35109&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kevinleitch.co.uk%2Fwp%2F%3Fp%3D511 Harold Doherty last week built himself an army of strawmen in order to demoinse the neurodiversity movement. I and many people left comments that were never published so I wrote the above linked post to demonstrate to Mr Doherty how illogical, ill-thought out and just plain old wrong his points were. He never responded but it seems Mr Doherty is never one to let a little thing like accuracy cloud his opinions. Today I see a post entitled ‘Is The Neurodiversity Movement Ashamed of Lower Functioning Autistic Persons?’ to which the short answer is ‘uhhh, no – whatever gave you that idea?’ Luckily Mr Doherty proceeds to tell us what gave him that idea. Strawmen ++ It seems at times that the Neurodiversity Movement is ashamed of the lower functioning members ... Left Brain/Right Brain blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=487873 Mon, 26 Feb 2007 19:21:09 +0100 487873