May 26th, 2011 by Elaine Schattner, M.D. in Health Tips, News, Opinion
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Last week Aaron Sorkin wrote for The Atlantic a piece in which he details his daily news feed, in What I Read. He’s not into blogs:
When I read the Times or The Wall Street Journal, I know those reporters had to have cleared a very high bar to get the jobs they have. When I read a blog piece from “BobsThoughts.com,” Bob could be the most qualified guy in the world but I have no way of knowing that because all he had to do to get his job was set up a website–something my 10-year-old daughter has been doing for 3 years. When The Times or The Journal get it wrong they have a lot of people to answer to. When Bob gets it wrong there are no immediate consequences for Bob except his wrong information is in the water supply now so there are consequences for us.
PZ Meyers, whose tagline for Pharyngula at ScienceBlogs is a bit crass for my taste, but with whom I often agree, writes On What’s Wrong With the Media:
This is the problem, that people blithely assume that because it is in the NY Times or the WSJ that it must be right — I’d rather read BobsThoughts.com because there, at least, poor lonely Bob must rely on the quality of his arguments rather than the prestige of his name and affiliation to persuade. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medical Lessons*
February 25th, 2010 by Nancy Brown, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, News, Research
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In fact, according to the results of an online survey about sex, relationships, and sexual respect, 60 percent of young men and teen boys lie about sex. In November, 1,200 males ages 15-22 took the survey conducted by TRU, Seventeen magazine and the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.
Some of the findings include:
- 45 percent reported they were virgins;
- 60 percent admitted to lying about something related to sex: 30 percent lied about how far they have gone, 24 percent about their number of sexual partners, and 23 percent about their virginity status;
- 78 percent agreed there was “way too much pressure” from society to have sex;
- 57 percent of sexually active respondents reported having had unprotected sex; Read more »
This post, News Flash: Young Men Lie About Sex, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Nancy Brown, Ph.D..
November 1st, 2008 by Dr. Val Jones in Announcements, Medblogger Shout Outs
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Regular readers of my blog will know that health fraud, misleading product and treatment claims, and deception of vulnerable populations (snake oil for cancer patients, for example) really get under my skin. For this reason, I’ve teamed up with a group of scientists and physicians to create a blog devoted to medical accuracy, transparency, and integrity in health reporting. It’s called Science Based Medicine, and we offer daily exposés of misleading health claims and practices. It’s a great way to learn about how to think critically – and to apply a scientific approach (rather than subjective and anecdotal) to discerning truth from error.
My contribution to the blogging team is to highlight online health fraud, scams, deception and misguided attempts to help consumers “live healthier lives.” I post once a week, every Thursday morning. Please head on over and check it out. It’s a great team of bloggers – and they’re looking out for you!
Here is a list of my recent posts:
A Shruggie Awakening: One Physician’s Journey Toward Scientific Enlightenment
Disintegrating Integrative Medicine: Lessons From Baking
When Further Research Is Not Warranted: The Wisdom of Crowds Fallacy
Knowledge Vs. Expertise: The View From Consumer Land