Charles Merriam

Comment Threads

• billstewart commented on Bounty offered to anyone who can prove homeopathy outperforms placebos
  Homeopathy is a quack theory supported by 200 years of trial and error, and even without formal scientific methods, it has learned a bit over that time, even if they explanations they give for its effectiveness are incorrect. Some parts of it are obviously bogus - the "really strong" preparations that are too dilute to contain any orginal material. And it's missing a few details like the germ theory of disease that mean it's not safe for treating real diseases. But that doesn't mean that there aren't homeopathic remedies that are useful for treating symptoms, when all you want is...
• WA commented on Bounty offered to anyone who can prove homeopathy outperforms placebos
  Charlie@2: The definition of 'measurement' in physics is very different from the general public's perception of the word. From the physics point of view, it is essentially impossible to do anything without measuring and thus changing things - your eyes, for example, constantly take measurements, but your hands also take measurements simply by moving. 22,23,24: I do believe that evidence of the placebo effect in animals other than humans has been found. Unfortunately, due to less regulation in the field, it is far easier for homeopathic veterinarians to eschew proper medical techniques entirely; if practitioners of homeopathy for humans were...
• Kazul9 commented on Bounty offered to anyone who can prove homeopathy outperforms placebos
  Thanks for the information on this "bounty hunt". Maybe I should join in! We recently wrote an article on placebos at Brain Blogger. A recent survey of more than 200 doctors that practice in academic medical centers, showed that 45% of them had given placebos to patients while providing clinical care. Is this right though? Is giving a pateint a placebo a form of betrayal? We would like to read your comments on our article. Thank you. Sincerely, Kelly...
• Antinous / Moderator commented on Bounty offered to anyone who can prove homeopathy outperforms placebos
  Kelly, Sorry, but we don't allow links that exist just to drive traffic to other blogs. You can use Suggest A Link at the top of the page....
• knodi commented on Bounty offered to anyone who can prove homeopathy outperforms placebos
  Damn boingboing won't let me log in! page doesn't exist or something. Anyway, I was going to warn- Beware bashing all homeopathic remedies as "absolute 100% hogwash". Almost by nature, homeopathic customers don't carefully read labels, and there are a LOT of "homeopathic" remedies out there that contain actual ingredients. Like "homeopathic" headache pills which have, like, snake juice diluted 1 billion:1 with acetaminophen. Homeopathic is more than just 19th century shamanism- it's also a "brand" which may not be what you assume. -Knodi...