All posts by Braden MacBeth

I'm a software engineer in Pennsylvania.

Bad Documentary Review: The Great Culling

The Great Culling is a mess of an anti-fluoridation documentary trying to scare you into...something. I watched it so you don't have to, and you shouldn't.

/ June 19, 2021

The Residency Match is Broken

The National Resident Matching Program (Match), the program to align med school applicants with their preferred residency program, is broken and filled with disincentives. The fix might be easy.

/ April 3, 2021

Ad-Conned: A Critical Look At CASPer

Medical schools are facing a flood of applicants, and have started using for-profit tests alleged to assess people skills as a way to distinguish candidates. The evidence is weak, and lacks transparency.

/ January 29, 2021
5G tower

Quack Book Reviews: EMF*D

Über-quack Dr. Joe Mercola recently published a book claiming that 5G is the cause of all manner of health problems. Unsurprisingly, it's full of bad science, pseudoscience, and unproven claims.

/ June 1, 2020

Tampon: Our Closest Enemy vs. The Vagina Bible

On SBM's first ever Fight Night, we have the good book for all vagina inquiries, The Vagina Bible, facing off against Tampon: Our Closest Enemy, a conspiracy thriller masquerading as a documentary aiming to inform women of the "hidden dangers" of tampons. Who will win? Find out.

/ April 3, 2020

Quackery in Medical School: Chapman Points

If you want to become a physician in the United States, you have two educational routes available to you: osteopathic and vanilla medical schools. Osteopathic medical school graduates earn a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O) degree, and vanilla medical school graduates earn a Doctor of Medicine (M.D) degree. If you’re wondering what the difference is between the two, the answer is basically...

/ February 21, 2020

How to make the opioid epidemic worse in Pennsylvania

Two bills are pending in the Pennsylvania legislature - SB 675 aimed at restricting prescription of buprenorphine, and HB 1005 that imposes reporting requirements in cases of suspected drug overdose. Both are a bad idea, and I hope Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf will continue his past trends of vetoing bad bills that will harm his constituents.

/ December 6, 2019

Shiva Ayyadurai: Antivaxxer for Senate

Did Shiva Ayyadurai invent e-mail? Should he represent the Republican Party? Read below to find out!

/ October 25, 2019

Vaping is Bad: Respiratory Illness, Banning Flavors, and Bad Behavior

Recent reports on the impact of vaping-associated respiratory illnesses are raising concerns about flavored e-cigarettes, and vaping in general. Adding to the problems are some rather draconian measures being implemented by some schools to "protect" students.

/ September 27, 2019
Chris Wark didn't beat cancer

Chris Beat Cancer: A Comprehensive Guide to Making a Killing

Chris Wark has a new book out, with the unsurprising title of Chris Beat Cancer. It purports to be a guide to beating cancer. It's not.

/ September 5, 2019