…actually, I do get it; I was just being facetious. To explain: I obviously follow the research evidence and how that informs clinical practice and clinical decision making very carefully. If that research stacks up to scrutiny, then it has to inform clinical practice and be factored into the models that underpin clinical practice. What […]
Archive | Fallacies
Anecdotes are not evidence
Like anyone else who writes about medical or health topics when reporting and commenting on science, I always get responses with anecdotes about what was written with it either does or does not apply to them. Anecdotes and testimonials always turn up in the comments sections. While they may be important to the individual, anecdotes […]
Why do so many just make stuff up for?
Short rant today. In the genre that I follow and write about often, one does get increasingly frustrated by misinformation, misquoting, misusing, misunderstanding and outright lies about research. I have commented so many times about people just making stuff up and wishing it was true (the wishful thinking fallacy). Not a day goes by in […]
“All anti-barefoot running research is paid for by the running shoe companies”
Time to call out another loon…and I not in the mood for some serious science. I belong to a number of skeptic groups involved in fighting anti-science and pseudoscience in many topic areas. In those groups I am always impressed about how often they take screenshots of debates and comments. I now know why they […]
Riddle me this ….
We evolved: barefoot got plenty of exercise chasing animals to survive the air was fresh ate well (paleo) and had a life expectancy of 35 years Now we: wear shoes get less or no exercise the air is polluted eat junk food yet we somehow manage to live to 85 years What am I missing? […]
Why do people make this stuff up for?
Time to call out another loon. This time its an article in the Inquisitr, How David Accidentally Slayed Goliath: Vibram FiveFingers And Why Barefoot Is Best. I will ignore that it failed totally to show that barefoot is better and even worse, totally ignored all 10 of the systematic reviews of the science that its not. […]
Heel striking in a cushioned shoe with a 10mm drop and he still managed to break the world marathon record!
If you have been following all the propaganda and rhetoric of recent years, then Dennis Kimetto should not have been able to run 2:02.57 to knock 26 seconds off the world marathon record a few days ago in Berlin … go figure! I have held off for a few days from commenting here (been busy commenting […]
Wearing shoes impairs intellectual development
Its Sunday, I not feeling too well and am not up to writing something serious. I needed another loon to ridicule. I was wondering what to write about, then I remembered this from many years ago that gave us a good laugh at the time: Among the untold problems that wearing shoes can impose in […]
See what you want to believe in
There is quite a body of work in the psychology literature on optical and perceptual illusions and how they are influenced by seeing what you want to see. I certainly know very little about the psychology and science of this (though I have fun looking at some). I do know enough to know there is […]
The Truth about …..
How often have you seen posts in running forums or in the running crankosphere blogosphere, that are headlined with something like “The Truth about….. “. Every time time I read one of those, more often than not it easily debunked pseudoscientific nonsense that people are actually gullible enough to believe. I only raise this as in […]
Science vs Pseudoscience
There is probably not a lot I can say about this; the image speaks for itself. It was put together by the Skeptics Guide to the Universe (I listen to their podcasts on my longer runs). I also used this image below in a previous post and its worth repeating as it still resonates with […]
I did a Chi Running course!
POSTSCRIPT: This is a bit embarrassing. It turns out the “coach” that run the course I did was NOT a credentialed Chi running coach and was operating outside the framework or umbrella of the Chi running organisation. Please interpret the comments I make below in that context. _____________________________________________________________ I will start by saying that I […]
Grounding: Going barefoot to prevent cardiovascular disease!
This is another one of calling out the loons post! Grounding or earthing has all the hallmarks and characteristics associated with it being snake oil and pseudoscientific woo. The gullible are falling for the dubious marketing of those with a product to sell. The claims made by those who promote it are a great source […]
The ‘appeal to antiquity’ fallacy
I have already written on a number of other fallacies that often get used. The ‘appeal to antiquity‘ is another commonly used logical fallacy that is often used when the assumption is that something is better because it is older, is traditional, or has “always has been done.” An often cited example is: “Homeopathy has […]
‘Thou shalt not commit logical fallacies’
Anyone with an interest in science is probably familiar with the logical fallacies so widely used by the touters of quackery, pseudoscience and woo. I have written about a number of them in the context of ‘running’ and there are a lot more to come. I recently came across this poster that summarizes the key […]