I’m a big fan of Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science column in The Guardian. I’ve also started reading Spiked, the magazine formerly known as Living Marxism but still not known for good writing.
Today, I had a sense of déjà vu come over me. An article debunking a recent study into homeopathy just appeared on Spiked. Yet, looky here. What’s this over in Bad Science? It’s an article debunking homeopathy that appeared a few weeks ago, that used more or less exactly the same arguments and ammunition.
They’re not exactly identical so it’s quite possible that two people independently came to the same conclusion. Yet Bad Science has become almost compulsory reading for science journalists and science readers, so it seems odd to me that Spiked’s author wouldn’t have read the piece.
Just as an aside, is Timandra really a name? Either poshest parents ever or pseudonym of the year…
UPDATE: Judging by her web site, I’m going for poshest parents ever.
i thought it was rather good myself. but how do you know i’m not timandra?
(er, i’m not by the way…)
No, it wasn’t awful writing, I grant you, just overly long, studded with footnotes and very little to break up the monotony.
The rest of the magazine is far worse.