Here is a rundown of the week in winners, losers and stinky fakery from the past week courtesy of Doubtful News.

There were some very oddball stories out this week. Let's take a look.

Here's a "not dead yet" story.   He's a winner!

Brooms are forbidden in airspace above 150 meters.

Here is a recap of the stories that appeared last week at Science-Based Medicine, a multi-author skeptical blog that separates the science from the woo-woo in medicine.

The deceptive rebranding of aspects of science-based medicine as ”alternative” by naturopaths continues apace (David Gorski)  http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/the-deceptive-rebranding-of-aspects-of-science-based-medicine-as-alternative-by-naturopaths-continues-apace/ Naturopaths deceptively redefine parts of conventional medicine as “alternative” and falsely claim them as their special province. A new study claims to show naturopathic care is superior to routine care, but it didn’t really test naturopathy: it only showed the effects of intensive counseling about lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise. Naturopaths are a poor choice to provide such counseling, since their training is steeped in pseudoscience.

Antibiotics for Low Back Pain (Harriet Hall)  http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/antibiotics-for-low-back-pain/ A new study showed that antibiotics improved chronic back pain in a select group of patients who had MRI findings of bone edema adjacent to a herniated disc. It was good science, well designed, with a plausible rationale; but it would be premature to accept it before the study can be replicated and confirmed, and it mustn’t be extrapolated to back pain patients outside the limited subset that was tested.

Why do people believe the things that they do? While only science can generate testable hypotheses, advocates of various paranormal claims tend to rely more on anecdotes, appeals to authority and “intuition” and the general public tends to be ambivalent about the distinction between science and the supernatural. Ongoing controversies over intelligent design in schools, climate change and vaccination have demonstrated that the public perception about science is often shallow due to misunderstandings about how science works.

A recent article published in the Journal of Educational Psychology presents the results of a research study directly comparing the processes that influence how people form opinions on scientific and paranormal concepts. Written by Andrew Shtulman of Occidental College in Los Angeles, the article is part of his research program studying conceptual development relating to science education and how people weigh the actual evidence involved before forming opinions on complex subjects.

Here is a rundown of the whirlwind week in weird, the paranormal and questionable claims from the past week courtesy of Doubtful News.

It was a HUGE week for skepticism. Great press was had all around from the big story of the week: Amanda Berry found and the humiliating epic fail, once again, of Sylvia Browne. Every skeptic and not so skeptic on the planet had something to say about this example of how psychics are unhelpful and downright hurtful.

While we had this bit of good press, there was bad news - the planned departure of Eugenie Scott from the National Center for Science Education. Genie is the thinking parent's angel on earth and we're all so grateful for all she has done.