Fake Autism Cures on Amazon

autism

If you go to Amazon and enter “Autism Cure” you will be offered a long selection of complete and utter bullshit. Given the recent news, this is to some degree a bit surprising, and yet given their desire to publish anything just to make a buck or two, perhaps not. A few days ago the … Read more

The Promotion of BS by UK Charities

charities

The basic concept of a charitable organisation is of course well understood. On a legal level, an officially established body is focused on an activity that is designed to promote social well-being and hence does not exist to make a profit. Their finances are open and public, and often they also have income that comes … Read more

What is the Dietary Supplements fuss all about?

supplements

While attending the QEDcon conference in Manchester last weekend, I was approached by one chap who handed me his mobile saying “Oh my God have you see this?“. It was this story from CNN … Nearly 800 dietary supplements sold over the counter from 2007 through 2016 contained unapproved drug ingredients, a new analysis of … Read more

Is cancer fundraising fuelling quackery?

fake cancer cure

There is a new article that has been published within the BMJ using the above question. Spoiler alert, the answer is “yes”. The article is not really asking the question, but instead is laying out the empirical evidence that confirms that this is exactly what is going on. The pattern is perhaps familiar. Somebody, perhaps … Read more

Using Technology to detect Fake News

fake news

Below are two variations of a story, one is fake news and the other is real. Read both and see if you can work it out. It comes from about January in 2017. Example 1 Nintendo Switch game console to launch in March for $299 – The Nintendo Switch video game console will sell for … Read more