Respectful Insolence
Archives for February, 2006
What would happen if Microsoft redesigned the iPod box?
Posted by Orac on February 28, 2006 Although the images used are a bit out of date (for one thing, that looks like a first generation iPod on the box), this video is spot on hilarious. Pray this never happens…
Grand Rounds, Vol. 2, No. 23
Posted by Orac on February 28, 2006 Grand Rounds, Vol. 2, No. 23 has been posted at the blog of a fellow surgeon, the pseudonymous Dr. Bard-Parker (the significance of which you would know if you were a surgeon or worked in an O.R.) at A Chance to Cut is a Chance to Cure. My favorite piece? This one by UroStream about…
Senator Frank Lautenberg: Xenophobe or pandering to xenophobes?
Posted by Orac on February 28, 2006 While driving into work this morning, I was a bit disturbed to hear a news report about a speech New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg gave yesterday to a group of dockworkers in Newark who were protesting the proposed takeover of several U.S. ports by a company owned by the United Arab Emirates. Quoth the Senator…
The more things change, the more they stay the same: David Irving reverts to form.
Posted by Orac on February 28, 2006 Well, that didn’t take long. Only a few days after his conviction for Holocaust denial, David Irving has reverted to form: Far-right author David Irving’s repudiation of his views on the Holocaust and Hitler’s role in it has not lasted very long. In a prison interview just days after he told an Austrian court he…
Here’s a blog carnival I can get behind
Posted by Orac on February 27, 2006 After the last blog carnival I mentioned, here’s one I can really get behind. Regulars around here know that I’m a 24 junkie. I have to get my fix of Jack Bauer’s adventures (including his uncanny ability to get to almost anywhere in southern California within 20 minutes, regardless of traffic conditions) every Monday night,…
The “Darwin Is Dead” carnival
Posted by Orac on February 27, 2006 I love blog carnivals. In fact, I love ‘em so much that I hosted four of them took one over when its creator decided to retire from blogging. But here’s one that PZ, RPM, Afarensis, and all of the other ScienceBloggers inclined to defend evolution will want to wander over to see just how inane…
The glamor of surgery (Part 1 of an occasional series)
Posted by Orac on February 27, 2006 Nonmedical people always seem to have a conception of surgery as being a particularly glamorous profession. So did I to some extent before I entered medical school, although my surgical rotations quickly disabused me of that impression. Somehow, working from 5 AM to 11 PM every day and several hours each day on the weekends,…
A little pareidolia, anyone?
Posted by Orac on February 27, 2006 Ya gotta love it. Whether it be the Virgin Mary under a freeway overpass on W. Fullerton Avenue in Chicago or on a window in Perth Amboy, NJ, or the face of Jesus on a shell, on the wall of a shower, on a sand dune, a potato chip, or (my personal favorite) a pierogi,…
Somebody please tell me this is a joke
Posted by Orac on February 26, 2006 Sent via e-mail: Paris Hilton prepares for Mother Theresa role. I almost choked on my ice tea when I read that. Please tell me this is a sick joke. It sure sounds like one, and certainly the source doesn’t look particularly reliable. Even so… (OK, OK, I know. Enough with the fluff. I’ll start posting…
Let’s make this Skeptics’ Circle…huge!
Posted by Orac on February 26, 2006 Time really flies, doesn’t it? In fact, the next meeting of the Skeptics’ Circle will soon be upon us this Thursday. I’m anticipating that it will be…huge, as it’s being hosted by none other than The Huge Entity. The Huge One has placed his contact information and submission guidelines here. More general submission guidelines, plus…
How long before they make an inspirational movie out of this story?
Posted by Orac on February 26, 2006 An autistic teen named Jason McElwain made the most of his chance to shine. How long before this is a movie of the week or even a feature film?
Guess I’m not the new kid on the block anymore…
Posted by Orac on February 26, 2006 Well, that didn’t last long, did it? I’ve only been on ScienceBlogs for less that two weeks, and already I’m no longer the new kid on the block. Nope, that honor now goes to William Connolley. Welcome Stoat to the Borg–I mean ScienceBlogs–collective. It looks as though he isn’t integrated into the main ScienceBlogs page…
I’ve always wondered about Spongebob Squarepants
Posted by Orac on February 26, 2006 I’ve always kind of liked Spongebob Squarepants, although I had always wondered about his relationship with Patrick Star. Here’s evidence that my suspicions may have been correct.
David Irving in denial?
Posted by Orac on February 25, 2006 Today, while I’m making fun of anti-Semitic idiocy coming out of Iran, perhaps I should stop being so upset over the free speech infringement that I’ve railed about regarding David Irving’s three year sentence for Holocaust denial in Austria. It turns out that he isn’t really in prison, and his name isn’t even David Irving.…
Tom and Jerry: A nefarious Jewish plot
Posted by Orac on February 25, 2006 You can’t make stuff like this up. You really can’t. Did you know that Tom and Jerry are in reality a clever secret nefarious plot by the Jews? That’s what Professor Hassan Bolkhari, who teaches philosophy of art at Tabatabaei and Al-Zahra Universities in Iran and is a member of the Film Council of the…
Anger management
Posted by Orac on February 25, 2006 Here’s a guy who really could use some anger management training, clearly the roomate from hell.
On a lighter note…
Posted by Orac on February 24, 2006 Those who’ve been regulars here for a while know that on Fridays and the weekends, I often (although not always) like to take a lighter approach with my posts and links. In that vein, I bring you a vision of what’s become of Michael Jackson…
Impressive science failing to impress patients
Posted by Orac on February 24, 2006 One of the greatest challenges in medicine can sometimes be to convince a patient that the results of scientific and medical research apply to them, or, at the very least, to explain how such results apply. A couple of days ago, in an article the New York Times, Dr. Abigail Zuker, proposed one reason why…
Orac gets fan mail
Posted by Orac on February 24, 2006 Here’s a comment that popped up in my moderation queue for an article I wrote on the old blog several months ago: The Holocaust is a huge money maker for Jews; one they do not wish to lose. Irving’s and Zundel’s struggle in our time is analogous to Galileo’s struggle with discovery that threatened the…
Opinions without expertise
Posted by Orac on February 23, 2006 While I’m busy plugging blogs I like, I thought I’d mention that A Photon in the Darkness is another one of my favorite skeptical blogs. Lately, in all the turmoil over my move to ScienceBlogs, I failed to mention two good pieces that Prometheus has posted in the last few days: Why anecdotes aren’t data…
Let the poo fly again!
Posted by Orac on February 23, 2006 Good news! One of my favorite skeptical bloggers, Matt at Pooflingers Anonymous, has ended his blogging hiatus. I was sad to see him announce in early January that he was leaving the blogosphere , and I’m happy to see that he’s back in business. It turns out that the constant intense exposure to the rampant…
Why not just castrate them?
Posted by Orac on February 23, 2006 Treating autism with chemical castration I thought I’d seen it all. Ever since I found myself
Bird flu weirdness
Posted by Orac on February 22, 2006 What is it about the Avian flu that seems to inspire all sorts of wild craziness? Yes, the avian flu has the potential to be a big problem in humans (but is not one yet–so far its main lethal affect has been in birds). Yes, if it ever acquired the ability to be transmitted from…
Stomping free speech flat in Austria
Posted by Orac on February 22, 2006 Austrian prosecutors think Irving’s jail term is too short: Austrian prosecutors have filed an appeal against the three-year prison sentence handed to the British historian David Irving, arguing that he escaped too lightly for the crime of Holocaust denial. Irving was left stunned and open-mouthed when the sentence was handed down after a one-day trial…
Grand Rounds, vol. 2, no. 22
Posted by Orac on February 22, 2006 Now that my technical problems have resolved, it’s time to do what I do every week and plug the latest edition of Grand Rounds. It’s a blog carnival that’s like Grand Rounds for medical blogging (hence the name), and it collects the best of the medical blogosphere from the last week. I’m a regular contributor…