[lbo-talk] putting quackery to the test

Dennis Redmond dredmond at efn.org
Tue Aug 8 09:16:15 PDT 2006


Ravi wrote:


> BTW, aren't cancer rates up too?

Actually, it's just that lifespans are up, and cancers take a long time to develop. That, plus smoking.


> And what is rigorous testing? Double-blind tests, it
> seems to me, are meaningless when one can never really attain ceteris
> paribus meaningful enough to generalize?

Double-blind experiments are an important tool, but they're not the only means of scientific proof. There's still clinical observation, epidemological correlation, and my personal favorite, mad-scientist-throwing-electrical-switches-while-cackling.

-- DRR



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