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quackometer.bsky.social
@quackometer.bsky.social
My blog post on the PATHWAYS puberty blocker trial:

"Ten million pounds and two hundred childhoods, spent not to discover whether puberty blockers “work”, but to postpone the moment when the NHS finally has to admit they never did and never could."

www.quackometer.net/blog/2025/11...
November 26, 2025 at 1:31 PM
My thoughts on the PATHWAYS puberty blocker trial.

www.quackometer.net/blog/2025/11...
PATHWAYS: A Trial Built on Missing Data, Pseudoscience, and Quiet Cruelty – The Quackometer Blog
www.quackometer.net
November 25, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Oh god. The BBC's Civilisations is written for imbiciles, isn't it?

Or maybe Americans.
November 24, 2025 at 9:36 PM
At the gig. I’ve just worked out Radiohead’s Creep is closer to The Beatles Love Me Do than it is to now. I have crumbled to dust.
November 22, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Reposted
1. Don't ever let a chiropractor near your neck.
2. I'd also recommend not letting them anywhere near the entirety of your body.
3. Or your wallet.
So many well-educated people I know are unaware of this about chiropractors and I’m always too embarrassed / polite / English to mention it. Like when I bite my tongue when people talk about “alternative” medicine for serious, terminal illness
AARRGH. CHIROPRACTIC IS NOT MEDICINE, IT’S DANGEROUS BULLSHIT CREATED BY A FUCKING GROCER WHO THOUGHT HE COULD HEAL WITH MAGNETS. WHAT THE FUCK, AMERICA
November 21, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Reposted
So many well-educated people I know are unaware of this about chiropractors and I’m always too embarrassed / polite / English to mention it. Like when I bite my tongue when people talk about “alternative” medicine for serious, terminal illness
AARRGH. CHIROPRACTIC IS NOT MEDICINE, IT’S DANGEROUS BULLSHIT CREATED BY A FUCKING GROCER WHO THOUGHT HE COULD HEAL WITH MAGNETS. WHAT THE FUCK, AMERICA
Oh good, they left Chiropractors as professionals but not Nurses, NPs, PA’s or physical therapists

That’s infuriating
November 21, 2025 at 7:39 AM
Reposted
@ldfreedman.bsky.social demolishes the rumors of a peace plan.

This makes more sense than anything else I've seen on the plan.

Nonetheless, Witkoff's ignorance shines through. He probably got rolled again. 1/
Yet another peace plan?
What's going on with leaked proposals for a new US/Russia deal
open.substack.com
November 20, 2025 at 8:49 PM
The BBC write as if assessing if someone is male or female "by appearance" is a bad thing. But that is how we do tell if someone is male or female every day. Humans are very good at it. It does not depend on clothes and social stereotypes - but body/face shape/size...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Trans people could be barred from services based on appearance
The new code of practice on access to single-sex services cannot gain legal force until it gets sign-off from ministers.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 20, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Reposted
THREAD.
I love old Habitat catalogues & managed to get hold of all the 70s ones before they got v pricey & collectable. Flicking through them, I wondered: "What are the true stories of the lives of the people in these photos?"

So I decided to write those stories.

You'll find them in the alt text.
November 17, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Occult school closes for good. Bristol Steiner School, like all Waldorf schools, is a threat to the physical, mental and educational needs of children and it is a good thing it has now folded.

www.bristol247.com/news-and-fea...
School to permanently close after 50 years
The news follows several tumultuous years of efforts by parents and alumni to keep it open
www.bristol247.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Was there no relative who could have taken power of attorney?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
'I heat my Essex home with a data centre in the shed'
www.bbc.co.uk
November 16, 2025 at 6:54 AM
Show us the last four albums you listened to
October 5, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Reposted
This woman is so absolutely terrible. Blaming the medical staff for her daughter's completely unnecessary death when it's totally on her. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
UK woman who refused cancer drugs was influenced by mother, inquest finds
Paloma Shemirani, 23, died after refusing chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin lymphoma despite doctors’ concerns
www.theguardian.com
October 2, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Reposted
I am so dismayed a the statement today from the President of the @royalsociety.org that I want to publish here the letter I wrote to him yesterday urging him to address the clear concerns of the UK scientific community.
October 1, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Reposted
You can be an explicitly racist, far right agitator and that's acceptable for the Royal Society. Wonder how many Fellows are happy in such company. Most I would imagine. Another western institution full of weak, cowardly people.
The Royal Society has met to discuss Elon Musk – and they’re NOT removing his fellowship. They are criticising him publicly, but stopping short of actual removal.

This feels like the kind of compromise that will please *absolutely nobody*.
October 1, 2025 at 4:56 PM
From the archives:

www.quackometer.net/blog/2009/03...

Top Ten Tips For Creating Your Own New Alternative Medicine
Top Ten Tips For Creating Your Own New Alternative Medicine – The Quackometer Blog
www.quackometer.net
September 28, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Thanks to the BBC today for telling us that Cillian Murphy is not a psychopathic gangster but is in fact just an actor.
September 20, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Reposted
How has a brand new party set up by Corbyn and Sultana managed to sorry I've answered my own question there
September 18, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Word

"Words are not violence. When you pretend that views that oppose your own are violence, you are justifying the use of actual violence towards the speaker."
September 17, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Reposted
Aren't village message boards brilliant? the-villager.ghost.io/the-village-...
September 15, 2025 at 5:05 PM
I'm guessing AirPods 3 are slightly better than sticking a live fish in your ear canal.
September 9, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Reposted
Farage said today he would said women refugees back to the Taliban.
What a grotesque loss of touch with the whole idea of ‘right’.

The Taliban’s strict command about ‘no skin contact between women and unrelated men’ means rescuers leave injured but surviving women under earthquake rubble, even as they retrieve the dead first.

www.indiatoday.in/world/story/...
Taliban's 'no skin contact with males' rule leaves Afghan women under quake rubble
Many women remain trapped and overlooked after the deadly earthquake in Afghanistan, as male rescuers prioritise efforts on men and children due to Taliban's strict “no skin-contact” rule.
www.indiatoday.in
September 6, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Reposted
Yes, yes, yes. This is coming. It caught voters in the US by surprise. The same will happen in the UK. Once we dismantle institutions base decisions on evidence and reason, we lock in a culture of authority, ideology and oppression. History shows this lasts generations, or until society collapses.
UK academics, be aware that what's happening to universities in the US is coming to us in a few years, in the (unfortunately quite likely) event that Reform wins.

Labour needs to get it's act together and give people a reason to vote for them.
Having lied to congress earlier in the week, Farage flew back to the U.K. to lie to his party conference. Populists don’t like having to deal with reality and truth. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/univers...
September 6, 2025 at 9:12 AM