Woo Fighters

A Woo Fighter Swan Song

Barbara Drescher — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 06:46:28 +0000

First, the swan song: three undergraduate students are on their way to The Amaz!ng Meeting 9 this year, but they need your help. They have raised about half of the amount they need to cover registration and travel expenses, but they still have nearly $1,000 to raise. Please consider purchasing a WooDoo Doll – a fun outlet for your frustrations, loosely based on the voodoo doll – or making a direct donation. Every little bit helps.

To skip the news, scroll down for more information about these… read more of this...

WooDoo Dolls are Here!

Barbara Drescher — Tue, 31 May 2011 06:07:00 +0000

Professional Standards Among Psychics

Alex Swan — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 04:19:05 +0000

Last night, as I was falling asleep, I heard on the radio an ad I had never heard before: Click here for a link to the ad audio

It was for California Psychics, apparently a huge organization that has its hands in everything ‘psychic’. I did a little Google search and found that they’ve been around for a while, and they’ve been discussed recently, such as on the JREF forums.

The part that I find extremely fascinating from the radio spot is this line: “At California… read more of this...

New 13th Sign of the Zodiac!

Alex Swan — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 22:27:47 +0000

Apparently there’s a new zodiac sign. They added “Ophiuchus” in last month of the year. So if you loved your old one, you might not have it anymore. Personally, I was right on the cusp of Taurus and Gemini. Some horror-scopes had me as setting Taurus and others had me as a rising Gemini. Well, all that doesn’t matter now, because I’m firmly a Taurus now, according to the new breakdown.

The real tragedy? I can’t act all Gemini-y anymore. I’m gonna have to change my entire behavior because of… read more of this...

Vaccines and Autism: Faked

Alex Swan — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 03:06:05 +0000

Sorry about the breaks between postings here on Woo Fighters. I will try to increase my postings as I come across interesting things on the internet.

This story came out a few days ago: Medical journal: Study linking autism, vaccines is ‘elaborate fraud’

This the type of thing we here at Woo Fighters love to see. It is truly important scientific findings are accurate and real. Fraudulent data only hurts the scientific community, and as a scientist, I hate to see that this doctor meant to use his… read more of this...

Silly News Magazines: Confusing Correlation with Causation

Alex Swan — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 16:52:24 +0000

I was perusing a website today and I stumbled across a headline that bothered me:

Does Being Left-Handed Make You Angry?

In this Time Magazine blog on health-related news, the author discusses findings from a correlational study of tympanic membrane temperature and dominant handedness.

Without going into the integrity of study, my main beef is the way the title is presented by Time and the aggregating website. It implies a general causation between being left-handed and more prone to anger. The word “make” is the hook. I strongly doubt the… read more of this...

TAM 8 Summary – Sunday (Part 1)

Dylan Keenberg — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 22:21:44 +0000

Paper presentations make up the majority of Sunday, with a handful of workshops taking place in the afternoon. Checking out of the hotel and preparing for the trip home required us to miss a few talks, but those that I did see were very interesting.

Brian Hart started off, discussing actions taken by the Independent Investigations Group to combat licensure of alternative medicine-related continuing education units (CEUs) for registered nurses by the California Board of Registered Nurses (CBRN). Stemming from CBRN’s licensing of CEU provider Clearsight – which… read more of this...

TAM 8 Summary – Saturday (Part 2)

Dylan Keenberg — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:56:44 +0000

Bringing the first batch of Saturday’s humor (besides MC Hal Bidlack of course!), David Javerbaum held a Q&A session about being executive producer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. In response to accusations that The Daily Show is sexist, Javerbaum replied that the letter was the kind of reporting that the show debunked hundreds of times when it was used in Iraq War journalism and that “the thesis was there before the claim”. He stated that The Daily Show doesn’t feel they have… read more of this...