# alternative medicine (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 3 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover alternative medicine. Page: Feed: --- ## [The Case of the Invading Cell and 500,000 Garbage Articles](https://judgestarling.tumblr.com/post/822672140433227776) _2026-07-20 · Judge Starling_ This essay was prompted by a belated obituary in The New York Times from July 4, 2026, titled: “ Stanley M. Gartler , Pioneer in Cancer Research, Dies at 102.” Gartler actually died earlier, on May 25, 2026, at his home in Seattle, but his death “was not widely reported at the time.” Stanley M. Gartler in a photograph taken around 1960 Introduction This essay deals mainly with a subject that has… ## [Anti-vaccers are fundamentally wrong about placebo-controlled trials](https://thelogicofscience.com/2026/07/06/anti-vaccers-are-fundamentally-wrong-about-placebo-controlled-trials/) _2026-07-06 · Fallacy Man · The Logic of Science_ Anti-vaxxers love to demand placebo-controlled trials and insist that nothing else will suffice for demonstrating vaccine safety. This approach to medical research is flawed for a number of reasons. First, as I’ve explained previously, new vaccines are, in fact, tested … Continue reading → ## [Understanding analogies in logical arguments](https://thelogicofscience.com/2026/06/25/understanding-analogies-in-logical-arguments/) _2026-06-25 · Fallacy Man · The Logic of Science_ Yesterday, on this blog’s Facebook page, I posted the stick figure comic on the right, lightly making fun of anti-vaccers and using analogies to demonstrate why they are wrong that 100% effectiveness is needed for vaccines to be useful. I … Continue reading → ## [The Real Might of a Tiny Fish and the Fake Might of AI](https://judgestarling.tumblr.com/post/817968069326635008) _2026-05-29 · Judge Starling_ In a paper published in Scientific Reports , I came across a description of a small fish (mean length = 42 mm or about 2 inches) capable of climbing a a vertical waterfall that 15 meters or ~(~50 ft) in height. In the popular pres s, this feat was compared to free climber Alex Honnold scaling the Taipei 101 Tower (508 m or ~1,667ft) in Taiwan on January 25, 2026. The comparison led to the… ## [Concerning the Jews by Mark Twain (1899)](https://judgestarling.tumblr.com/post/817070507714297856) _2026-05-19 · Judge Starling_ Published in Harper’s Magazine , September Mark Twain wrote this note after visiting Austria in 1896, where he witnessed antisemitism firsthand. Unbeknownst to him, an Austrian called Adolf Hitler was growing up in the small Austrian town of Lambach . “If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star dust lost in the blaze… ## [Stop blaming China and India for climate change](https://thelogicofscience.com/2026/05/13/stop-blaming-china-and-india-for-climate-change/) _2026-05-13 · Fallacy Man · The Logic of Science_ Over and over again when discussing climate change, I encounter Americans who insist that there is no point in doing anything because China and India are the real problem. This claim takes various forms but generally includes claiming that America’s … Continue reading → ## [Big pharma is not buying favorable peer-reviews](https://thelogicofscience.com/2026/04/20/big-pharma-is-not-buying-favorable-peer-reviews/) _2026-04-20 · Fallacy Man · The Logic of Science_ Science-deniers have a long history of blindly assuming that any research they don’t like must have been corrupted by “big whatever,” and I constantly see people assume a study had conflicts of interest rather than actually checking for conflicts. Lately, … Continue reading → ## [Is the “backfire effect” real?](https://thelogicofscience.com/2026/02/17/is-the-backfire-effect-real/) _2026-02-17 · Fallacy Man · The Logic of Science_ The “backfire effect” is a psychological phenomenon in which correcting misinformation actually reinforces the false view rather than causing someone to reject it (Nyhan and Reifler 2010). This topic comes a lot in the comments on this and other pro-science … Continue reading → ## [Another Bad Critique of AI, in the New York Times](https://recursed.blogspot.com/2026/01/another-bad-critique-of-ai-in-new-york.html) _2026-01-26 · Unknown · Recursivity_ Want to get your uninformed opinion about AI published in the most prestigious newspaper in the United States? Then follow my advice. First, it helps if you have little or no perceptible training that would give you the necessary background to critique AI. For example, perhaps you majored in history, instead of relevant fields like computer science, or philosophy, or neuroscience. Or maybe you… ## [Science never showed that smoking was safe](https://thelogicofscience.com/2026/01/08/science-never-showed-that-smoking-was-safe/) _2026-01-08 · Fallacy Man · The Logic of Science_ “Science used to say that smoking was safe, so why should we ‘trust the science’ when it says that vaccines are safe and effective, climate change is real, or GMOs are safe?” This is one of the most common excuses … Continue reading → ## [Unlimited Mobile Internet, One V-SIM (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/Ot4eyTmHkUlP) _2026-01-08 · **Sponsored**_ Automatically switches across T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon; no throttling, no contract. ## [Climate change is undeniable: Evidence from satellites](https://thelogicofscience.com/2025/12/30/climate-change-is-undeniable-evidence-from-satellites/) _2025-12-30 · Fallacy Man · The Logic of Science_ The evidence for anthropogenic climate change is overwhelming, but the inherent complexity of the climate can make it difficult to communicate the science to the public. The basic concept is simple enough (CO2 traps heat, we have increased the CO2 … Continue reading → ## [How does evolution explain complex mimicry?](https://thelogicofscience.com/2025/12/20/how-does-evolution-explain-complex-mimicry/) _2025-12-20 · Fallacy Man · The Logic of Science_ Evolution is, in my opinion, the most fascinating topic in all of science. It provides elegant, compelling, and enthralling answers for everything we observe in biology. It really is true that nothing in biology makes sense without evolution. Unfortunately, not … Continue reading → ## [Vaccines are tested against placebos](https://thelogicofscience.com/2025/12/02/vaccines-are-tested-against-placebos/) _2025-12-02 · Fallacy Man · The Logic of Science_ Lately, my Facebook page has been flooded with people insisting that “no vaccine is tested against a placebo” (sometimes stated with additional qualifiers like “double-blind” or “saline placebo”). This claim, like so many anti-vaccer claims, is blatantly false. Nevertheless, I … Continue reading → ## [Yet Another Bad Analysis of AI](https://recursed.blogspot.com/2025/07/yet-another-bad-analysis-of-ai.html) _2025-07-13 · Unknown · Recursivity_ In the past I've commented on bad discussions of thinking, intelligence, brains, and computers, such as those by Gary N. Smith , Doug Hofstadter , Arthur Gardner , and Robert Epstein . With the rise of LLM's like ChatGPT, the commentary has only gotten worse. We see the same kinds of mistakes and bad argumentation tactics that have been used for decades. Here are some of them. Commenters will… ## [An Autopsy of Antisemitism, Ignorance, and Spineless Self-Loathing: The Case of @ChaseWNelson](https://judgestarling.tumblr.com/post/782737589361934336) _2025-05-05 · Judge Starling_ Let’s begin with a bit of context — not that Chase W. Nelson cares for it. Hamas has ruled Gaza with an iron fist since its 2006 “democratic” election victory. In 2007, it ousted Fatah in a violent coup and has clung to absolute power ever since — no elections, no dissent, just brute rule. On October 7, 2023, the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust unfolded. Gaza’s rulers — and Gaza’s… ## [Why Can the Japanese Digest Nori while North Americans Can’t? Horizontal Gene Transfer and Pasteurization](https://judgestarling.tumblr.com/post/780359378440175616) _2025-04-09 · Judge Starling_ Porphyran is a complex sulfated carbohdrate found in abundance in seaweed species, such as those belonging to the genus Porphyra from which the sushi ingredient nori is made. The backbone of the molecule porphyran can be hydrolyzed by a group of enzymes called porphyranases . In nature, porphyranase-coding genes are found in the genomes of a group of Gram-negative anaerobic bacteria called… ## [Don’t be intellectually lazy](https://thelogicofscience.com/2025/03/25/dont-be-intellectually-lazy/) _2025-03-25 · Fallacy Man · The Logic of Science_ In recent conversations on this page, I have been struck by just how intellectually lazy science-deniers usually are. This is hardly a novel observation, but I think it bears discussion. I also want to note that this sort of lazy … Continue reading → ## [Garbage-In-Garbage-Out with AI](https://judgestarling.tumblr.com/post/778911731650117632) _2025-03-24 · Judge Starling_ The Economist has an article on the changing fashions of baby names by analyzing the first names of 400 million people born in USA and the UK in the last 143 years. There are two novel elements in this analysis. The first is that the names are not analyzed simply by frequencies, but are first assigned to eight main categories: strength , intelligence , benevolence/love , beauty , religion , joy ,…