Anti-ScienceMeta Stuff

Reminder: things aren't so great in the UK, either…

Jack over at Two Nil Blank Blank gave me a heads up as to some goings on in England right now. He has a nice rant about worthless homeopathic crap being sold in all the major pharmacies. He also mentions the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, which is now about to begin allowing such charlatans to make unsupported claims about what their sugar pills/water can do. I know I usually just talk about crap going on the US, so it’s important to remember that unsubstantiated bunkum is an international problem.

***

This news comes at just the right time, since today I am very, very happy to be living in America, where we have long weekends for reasons we’ve all but forgotten. After a month of working 11-hour days while hoping against hope that my brain doesn’t explode, I think I actually get to finish work early today and then take Monday off. For those of you just joining us, it’s true: I do not devote my life to Skepchick-al activities, and am sadly forced to spend the bulk of my time chained to a desk.

I guess what I’m trying to say is thank you all for bearing with me over the past few months, when I swoop in with late blog entries and magazine issues, get short-tempered on the podcast, fail to respond to e-mails, and generally act like I don’t get paid to do this. Which I don’t, but it doesn’t mean I don’t love it and try my best to serve your skeptical needs on a daily basis. I appreciate all the support I’ve received thus far, and with that and a little luck, we’ll be pushing on to bigger and better things as Skepchick continues to grow.

Rebecca Watson

Rebecca is a writer, speaker, YouTube personality, and unrepentant science nerd. In addition to founding and continuing to run Skepchick, she hosts Quiz-o-Tron, a monthly science-themed quiz show and podcast that pits comedians against nerds. There is an asteroid named in her honor. Twitter @rebeccawatson Mastodon mstdn.social/@rebeccawatson Instagram @actuallyrebeccawatson TikTok @actuallyrebeccawatson YouTube @rebeccawatson BlueSky @rebeccawatson.bsky.social

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8 Comments

  1. I've often thought about starting a blog to air out all the ideas running around in my head, but then I realized I would spend most of my posts blogging about how I don't have enough time to post. So I just keep it all bottled up inside. I mean really, what's the worst that could happen.

  2. You could explode.

    Whatever happened to spontaneous human combustion, anyway? Sure, it was a load of crap just like all the other woo out there, but at least it was a fun load of crap. Way more than Homeopathy, anyway. Homeopathy doesn't involve fire.

  3. Homeopathic fire…..hmmm…… find some fire, dilute it in water (as many times as you wish) and the water molecules will retain the memory of the fire…. Joshua, you may have inspired the end of the need for oil and natural gas! Thank you!

    See you in hell, suckaz! I'm 'bouts to make me a milleeeooonaire!

  4. Sheesh, Becca, let up on yourself a little. I think most visitors here understand stress and long days quite well.

    Diluted fire… Why didn't I think of that??

  5. Rebecca,
    Thanks for all the time/effort/work/etc. you've put into this blog and the e-zine. Hope you have a good, long weekend. Take care,
    Mike

  6. Real life should always come first, so don't worry about it. We're all simply grateful for what you do get out.

    On another subject, I have actually heard reports of people's heads exploding. A quick visit to Snopes, however, reveals that these are just urban legends, so don't worry.

    Exploding whales, on the other hand…

  7. Rebecca we love you – like everyone seems to be saying don't be too hard on yourself and we appreciate all the efforts you make.

    Plus here is another perspective – a lot of your readers and fans are busy people too. If you updated a lot more often I would not be able to keep up and I would fall behind and then I would begin to resent the effort involved in the whole thing and feel guilty for letting my scepticism down … Well you can see it is a sad downwards spiral.

    The way things are whenever I have time to look in on the blog there are a couple of things to read and I go back to work a moment later refreshed by a little dose of skepchickism and humour!

  8. Just as a heads up about England…

    There seems to be a bit of a tit for tat going on between the Royal Society (top scientists) and the Lancet (top medical journal).

    It appears that the Lancet called the Royal Society a “shrill and superficial cheerleader for British science.” (Perhaps a theme for the 2008 Skepchick Calendar – Shrill Science Cheerleaders from around the globe?)

    Anyway, this didn't sit well with some members of the RS, who responded in a letter. The Lancet refused to publish the response from 30 fellows accused the Lancet of “desperate headline-seeking.”

    Read the rest… um.. from the horses mouth – 'Scaremongering' Lancet accused of causing harm to health and wasting millions

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