Antivaxers on Twitter: Fake news and Twitter bots – Respectful Insolence

... It turns out that bots are everywhere. It turns out that there is evidence that Twitter is using them too. I shouldn’t be surprised, and I wasn’t really that surprised, but I was disturbed. Earlier this week I came across an article, SocialBots are Pouring the Pseudo into Science. #Vaccines. It was the product of Mentionmapp Analytics, a company that runs a website called Mentionmapp, which is a tool that looks at connections between accounts and advertises itself as making “finding Twitter’s great stuff easier.” It begins... Antivaxers on Twitter: Fake news and Twitter bots – Respectful Insolence

Yikes! Going to the dogs.

So, the one who tweets under the handle, @HomeoReikiDogs; who variously ‘practices’/promotes/advocates/endorses (e.g.) Reiki, chakras, auras, prana, homeopathy, MMS, ‘energy methods’, ‘Moon healing’, Venkatesh, etc.; the one who claims to treat dogs and other animals with such guff. In fact, it seems any wackiness is welcome on asteroid ‘Yoda’...
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TWITTER = a promotional tool for chiros | Edzard Ernst

Chiropractors may not be good at treating diseases or symptoms, but they are certainly good at promoting their trade. As this trade hardly does more good than harm, one could argue that chiropractors are promoting bogus and potentially harmful treatments to fill their own pockets.

Does that sound too harsh? If you think so, please read what Canadian researchers have just published[…]

Read on: TWITTER = a promotional tool for chiros

@ShaulaEvans on the Faustian bargain of Twitter's blue 'Verified' checkmark

Sepsis & Shamelessness with Sandra Hermann-Courtney

The post Sepsis & Shamelessness with Sandra Hermann-Courtney by Anarchic Teapot first appeared on Plague of Mice.

This is  not a “ho-ho-ho, let’s have a good laugh at the expense of some starry-eyed idiots” post. It’s a “these bastards make me really fucking angry” post.

Sepsis is a nasty thing to get, and can very easily become a nasty way to die. A large number of sepsis deaths can be prevented if people know the signs to watch for. If you’ve been following the trends on social media recently, you may have spotted a huge flurry of activity, especially around the #sepsis hashtag on Twitter. Unfortunately, so did the resident homeopathy trolls, notably Sandra Hermann-Courtney. We’ve already encountered the despicable SHC in such gems as:

• The homeopath who cried “Block and report” 
• Fighting for Fuckwittery: Enemies of Homeopathy 
• WTF Special: How to choose a homeopath 
• Hermann-Courtney: Help! Help! We’re being oppressed by people asking for evidence! 

… to list but a few. Up to now, she had … Continue reading →

The Podcast is Here!

After weeks of delays and problems, I would like to introduce the first ever TakeThatPodcast!

Click here for the video and subscribe for more podcasts.

The "Take This" blog is written by a collective of skeptics hunting down misleading, uninformed and sometimes outright insane claims on social media.

Read the rest at: The Podcast is Here!}

Oscillococcinum

This is quite good. #homeopathy pic.twitter.com/S55ghJIbba

— MedTek (@medtek) March 5, 2015

Anti-Vaxxers Are Using Twitter to Manipulate a Vaccine Bill | WIRED

n recent years, the United States has been confronting a resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases—most notably, a measles outbreak that began in California’s Disneyland in December, spurred on by the state’s low vaccination rates. Fed up with the altogether avoidable outbreaks, several states have introduced legislation to eliminate the philosophical opt-out, a way for parents to get around public schools’ vaccine requirements for their kids. As early as Tuesday, the California State Assembly will vote on SB-277, a law that would ban the so-called personal belief exemption. School boards, medical associations, and community leaders support the law...

Read the full analysis here: Anti-Vaxxers Are Using Twitter to Manipulate a Vaccine Bill | WIRED

On the Origin of Take Thats: An Interview with Take That Darwin

by @TakeThatGMOs and @TakeThatDarwin

What inspired you to start, what gave you the idea of making a Twitter account and RTing creationists?

I’d been posting on creation/evolution discussion boards like CARM and Christian Forums since I was twelve years old, but, when I first discovered Twitter, I had no intention of creating an account that revolved around that […]

Read the rest at: On the Origin of Take Thats: An Interview with Take That Darwin}

The "Take This" blog is written by a collective of skeptics hunting down misleading, uninformed and sometimes outright insane claims on social media.

A(nother) Twitter on homeopathy: shameless propaganda and ‘trolling’

Though I might have previously been aware of her activity here and there without taking much notice, I think I first ‘directly’ encountered arch homeopathy propagandist Sandra (Hermann-)Courtney when she once turned up at my blog here, and posted a compendium of family/friend/pet anecdotes. After I replied with my objection to her homeopathy-promoting opportunism, she returned in a bit of a seemingly hissy fit. I was being nasty, apparently....

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A Twitter on homeopathy

Batty enough as homeopathy is, one might, if feeling in particularly fair mood, grant that some are on the more ‘sensible’ end of the battiness spectrum, restraining their discussion of what they claim homeopathy can effectively treat, and (occasionally) condemning those who claim it’s efficacious application to serious, life-threatening disease. That’s not to give any credence to any claims made by the homeopath who quacks less noisily – this may merely be part of a ruse aimed at acquiring some kind of regulatory ‘respectability.’...


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Alt med evidence and caring for people

We’ve already touched on the so-called “alt med” community’s attitude to evidence, viz.: “We don’t need it and anyway: quantum. Or nano. Therefore homeopathy.” Now admire this little gem of caring and selfless dedication just Twatted by our old fiend, Sandra Hermann-Courtney, whose handle should really be BrownBagPantsonfire...

Read on: Alt med evidence and caring for people