In This Issue:

- A Magician Speaks Out About Fooling People

- Science Is the Tortoise...

- ...Alternative Medicine Is the Hare

- Resources for Sorting Fact from Fiction

- Recent Health Care News You Should Know About

- Check Out Our Previous Tips

- Excerpt from Introduction:

Last month we turned a skeptic's eye on the appeal of non-traditional medical therapies, also known as "Complementary and Alternative Medicine" (CAM). This month, we explain why science isn't exactly a close, personal friend of many CAM claims, and the difference between what's plausible, and what's proven.

First, a prelude from the not-so-distant past.

A Prescient Warning about the Shortage of Critical Thinking -

In 1999, members of Congress heard about science and critical thinking from someone you might think of as the opposite of a scientist: a magician. James Randi spoke about fooling people in the spirit of "it takes one to know one:"

"On the Internet, in television commercials, in fact via all the media, the American people are being offered merchandise, medical systems, financial services and investment plans. That pursuit of opportunity on the part of the entrepreneur is what we call 'The American Way,' and we must applaud originality and an applied work ethic, of course...