Snake Oil Science

Author : R. Barker Bausell PhD
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780199758593
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.9X/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Snake Oil Science written by R. Barker Bausell PhD and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-31 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Millions of people worldwide swear by such therapies as acupuncture, herbal cures, and homeopathic remedies. Indeed, complementary and alternative medicine is embraced by a broad spectrum of society, from ordinary people, to scientists and physicians, to celebrities such as Prince Charles and Oprah Winfrey. In the tradition of Michael Shermers Why People Believe Weird Things and Robert Parks's Voodoo Science, Barker Bausell provides an engaging look at the scientific evidence for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and at the logical, psychological, and physiological pitfalls that lead otherwise intelligent people--including researchers, physicians, and therapists--to endorse these cures. The books ultimate goal is to reveal not whether these therapies work--as Bausell explains, most do work, although weakly and temporarily--but whether they work for the reasons their proponents believe. Indeed, as Bausell reveals, it is the placebo effect that accounts for most of the positive results. He explores this remarkable phenomenon--the biological and chemical evidence for the placebo effect, how it works in the body, and why research on any therapy that does not factor in the placebo effect will inevitably produce false results. By contrast, as Bausell shows in an impressive survey of research from high-quality scientific journals and systematic reviews, studies employing credible placebo controls do not indicate positive effects for CAM therapies over and above those attributable to random chance. Here is not only an entertaining critique of the strangely zealous world of CAM belief and practice, but it also a first-rate introduction to how to correctly interpret scientific research of any sort. Readers will come away with a solid understanding of good vs. bad research practice and a healthy skepticism of claims about the latest miracle cure, be it St. John's Wort for depression or acupuncture for chronic pain.

Author : Susan K. Sarnoff
Publisher : Praeger
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.95/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Sanctified Snake Oil written by Susan K. Sarnoff and published by Praeger. This book was released on 2001-03-30 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Government supported junk social science-or sanctified snake oil as Sarnoff terms it-exists in all policy arenas along the entire political spectrum, as policy advocates seek to justify the continuation of ineffective programs and to block alternative solutions. This form of junk science is particularly dangerous and wasteful in terms of tax dollars because professional confirmation, media investigation and government support lend it an unwarranted imprimatur of validity. Sarnoff argues that it confuses the public and convinces them to support programs as ends in themselves, rather than determining whether or not such efforts actually achieve purported goals. Ineffectiveness, incompetence, lack of technology, ideology masquerading as policy, and even outright fraud serve to perpetuate the general confusion. This situation is exacerbated by the proliferation of media attention, much of it unmonitored for accuracy or bias. Sanctified snake oil, Sarnoff contends, spawns industries that drain public resources and attention from real, serious cases and distort public perceptions of the magnitude of the issues involved. This study sheds new light on this muddle and offers recommendations which will make it more difficult for junk science to represent itself as legitimate social policy.

Author : Ann Anderson
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 1476601127
Total Pages : 200 pages
Book Rating : 4.20/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Snake Oil, Hustlers and Hambones written by Ann Anderson and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Long before television and radio commercials beckoned to potential buyers, the medicine show provided free entertainment and promised cures for everything from corns to cancer. Combining elements of the circus, theater, vaudeville, and good old-fashioned entrepreneurship, the showmen of the American medicine show sold tonics, ointments, pills, extracts and a host of other "wonder-cures," guaranteed to "cure what ails you." While the cures were seldom miraculous, the medicine show was an important part of American culture and of performance history. Harry Houdini, Buster Keaton, and P.T. Barnum all took a turn upon the medicine show stage. This study of the medicine show phenomenon surveys nineteenth century popular entertainment and provides insight into the ways in which show business, advertising, and medicine manufacture developed in concert. The colorful world of the medicine show, with its Wild West shows, pie-eating contests, clowns, and menageries, is fully explored. Photographs of performers and of the fascinating handbills and posters used to promote the medicine show are included.

Author : Clifford Stoll
Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 0385419945
Total Pages : 254 pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Silicon Snake Oil written by Clifford Stoll and published by Anchor. This book was released on 1996-03-01 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Silicon Snake Oil, Clifford Stoll, the best-selling author of The Cuckoo's Egg and one of the pioneers of the Internet, turns his attention to the much-heralded information highway, revealing that it is not all it's cracked up to be. Yes, the Internet provides access to plenty of services, but useful information is virtually impossible to find and difficult to access. Is being on-line truly useful? "Few aspects of daily life require computers...They're irrelevant to cooking, driving, visiting, negotiating, eating, hiking, dancing, speaking, and gossiping. You don't need a computer to...recite a poem or say a prayer." Computers can't, Stoll claims, provide a richer or better life. A cautionary tale about today's media darling, Silicon Snake Oil has sparked intense debate across the country about the merits--and foibles--of what's been touted as the entranceway to our future.

Author : S.C. Hitchcock
Publisher : See Sharp Press
ISBN 13 : 1937276147
Total Pages : 146 pages
Book Rating : 4.40/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Spiritual Snake Oil written by S.C. Hitchcock and published by See Sharp Press. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Spiritual Snake Oil" shows that the same fallacies that plague religious apologetics also infect virtually all "new age" and "spiritual" writing. Author Chris Edwards does this by dissecting the arguments and assertions of the most prominent "new age" icons and "spiritual" writers. They include Robert Pirsig ("Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"), James Redfield ("The Celestine Prophecy"), Deepak Chopra ("Life After Death"), Dinesh D'Souza ("Life After Death"), Francis Collins's ("The Language of God"), Rhonda Byrne ("The Secret"), and even Michael Crichton (a surprising defender of New Age thinking). As Edwards shows, the same fallacies, the same errors in argument, show up time after time in the writings of these--and virtually all other--"new age" and "spiritual" writers. In addition to explaining these fallacies in the chapters devoted to the individual authors, Edwards devotes a final chapter, "A Compendium of Fallacies," to outlining the tricks and deceptive practices common to illogical arguments.

Author : Michael P. Senger
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781957083773
Total Pages : 222 pages
Book Rating : 4.78/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Snake Oil written by Michael P. Senger and published by . This book was released on 2021-10-30 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through propaganda, corruption, and fraud, the Chinese Communist Party under Xi Jinping transformed the snake oil of COVID-19 lockdowns into "science." This is how he did it, and why.

Author : Stephen J Kraus
Publisher : Next Level Sciences, Inc.
ISBN 13 : 0972554017
Total Pages : 198 pages
Book Rating : 4.15/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Psychological Foundations of Success written by Stephen J Kraus and published by Next Level Sciences, Inc.. This book was released on 2002 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Psychological Foundation of Success, Stephen Kraus synthesizes decades of research on success and well-being, creating one of the most sophisticated and entertaining self-improvement books ever written. The result is a scientifically-valid five-step system for personal achievement that anyone can use.

Author : David McCandless
Publisher : HarperCollins UK
ISBN 13 : 0007294662
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.64/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Information is Beautiful written by David McCandless and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2009 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Miscellaneous facts and ideas are interconnected and represented in a visual format, a "visual miscellaneum," which represents "a series of experiments in making information approachable and beautiful" -- from p.007

Author : Joanne Larson
Publisher : New Literacies and Digital Epistemologies
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 220 pages
Book Rating : 4.63/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Literacy as Snake Oil written by Joanne Larson and published by New Literacies and Digital Epistemologies. This book was released on 2007 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This revised edition of Literacy as Snake Oil further investigates and critiques the commodification of literacy and education. Since the publication of the first edition, schools in the U.S. have been targeted even more as a market for private companies seeking to profit from the surveillance of NCLB (No Child Left Behind). Three chapters have been added: one that deals with the reproduction of racialized spaces during a textbook adoption, an analysis of America's Choice by a classroom teacher, and an analysis of the U.K.'s literacy strategy. This book will inspire teachers to remember their political commitments to resist oppression and unethical practice and find ways to subvert teacher- (and student-) proof packages.

Author : Reverend Becca Stevens
Publisher : Hachette UK
ISBN 13 : 1455519073
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.71/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Snake Oil written by Reverend Becca Stevens and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2013-03-12 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In the world of snake oils, you have to see the world a little differently. Where others see poverty, you see riches; where others see weeds, you see flowers; where others see sickness, you see openness." Becca Stevens calls herself a "snake oil seller": She takes natural oils, mixes them with a good story, sells them in an open market and believes they help to heal the world. Becca is the founder of Thistle Farms, one of the most successful examples in the US of a social enterprise whose mission is the work force. She is also the founder of its residential program, Magdalene. The women of Magdalene/Thistle Farms have survived prostitution, trafficking and addiction, and the natural body care products they manufacture-balms, soaps, and lotions-aid in their own healing as well as that of the people who buy them. The book weaves together the beginnings of the enterprise with individual stories from Becca's own journey as well as 20 women in the community. In Snake Oil, Becca tells how the women she began helping fifteen years ago have been the biggest source of her own healing from sexual abuse and her father's death as a child. Wise and reflective, Snake Oil offers an empowering narrative as well as a selection of recipes for healing remedies that readers can make themselves.