I was introduced to — and became an instant fan of — the work of Tim Minchin three years ago when I saw an animated version of “Storm,” his brilliant song (he described it as a jazz-backed beat poem) about an encounter with a woman who believes all sorts of nonsense and his efforts to […]
Major kudos to John Oliver for this piece on his HBO “Last Week Tonight” show about Dr. Oz, the weight-loss scams he promotes, and the government’s lack of interest in regulating the dangerous dietary supplement industry (despite a lack of evidence that most of these products work). Although I have pounded on Dr. Oz on […]
After Dr. Oz’s thrashing by Sen. Claire McCaskill on Capitol Hill last week, I asked Julia Belluz and Steven Hoffman — who wrote an investigative piece for Slate last year exposing the bogus diet scams Oz promotes on his TV show — for their reaction to the Senate hearing and to explain why Oz’s promotion […]
On Sunday, I wrote, “Shame on Sen. Claire McCaskill for asking Dr. Oz to testify about health scams. He promotes them regularly!” I also linked to a piece by science blogger Orac who offered some background on Oz’s claims. But I’m happy to report that when Oz appeared before McCaskill’s Senate hearing yesterday, she and […]
Shame on Sen. Claire McCaskill for asking Dr. Oz to testify about health scams. He promotes them regularly, as Orac notes on his science blog: With all due respect, Sen. McCaskill owes me a new irony meter. She fried that sucker flat, leaving nothing but a sputtering, sizzling, bubbling blob of qoo with a few […]
The teenager who was accused of peeing in a drinking water reservoir in Portland did an interview yesterday with a local TV reporter. I can’t embed it, but it’s worth watching here. Two things that amused me about this: the kid’s attitude and his claim that he never peed in the water, despite the dare […]