Europe Travelblog  -

+ 21 - 26 | § ¶My Sister's House is Famous

I just found out that this classic 1975 Pepsi commercial was filmed at my sister's house!  They've done a huge remodel, so the porch isn't there anymore, but it's the same house.

+ 25 - 16 | § ¶Disappointed in NPR

I very rarely find myself yelling at the radio when I'm listening to NPR, but this story about acupuncture this morning did the trick.

I'm very disappointed by this report.  The study discussed did not show that acupuncture works.  What it showed is that acupuncture is no better than a fake version of acupuncture that the recipient thinks is real. This means that acupuncture itself provides no benefit other than the recipient thinking that there is a benefit.

That is called the placebo affect. Acupuncture has never been shown to be anything more than a placebo.

Yonkers (a patient interviewed in the story) is seeing some benefit from her monthly treatment, but there are two strong possibilities that are much more likely than acupuncture efficacy:

1. The placebo effect
2. Spending an hour a month in a soothing environment, a spa where "I know it's just going to be time to relax and be by myself," gives her what she needs. Have her go to a spa without the needles, and she'll probably see a benefit. Have her be stuck with needles while children are banging pots around her, and there's probably no benefit.

This story should have been about how the ritual and the relaxation create a placebo effect.  Instead, it just promoted woo and fake medicine.

Steven Novella of the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe has a lot more information about this inaccurate spin of acupuncture's failure.

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