Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World

by Carl T. Bergstrom

McCool’s paper, “Uromycitisis Poisoning Results in Lower Urinary Tract Infection and Acute Renal Failure: Case Report,” lays out a complete summary of the episode’s plot in the guise of a case report. It begins: “A 37-year-old white male was in a large suburban mall parking garage and was unable to locate his car. After more than an hour of walking up and down flights of stairs and through row after row of cars, searching fruitlessly for his own car, he felt a powerful urge to urinate. With no restroom available in the garage, and knowing that he suffers from uromycitisis, he feared that if he did not urinate immediately he would develop uromycitisis poisoning.” The peer reviewers, if such existed at all, must not be Seinfeld fans (or critical thinkers). The ridiculous case report was accepted for publication in a matter of days, in hope that McCool would pay the $799 author fee. He never did.