"A statement of fact cannot be insolent." The miscellaneous ramblings of a surgeon/scientist on medicine,
quackery, science, pseudoscience, history, and pseudohistory (and anything else that interests him)
Orac is the nom de blog of a humble pseudonymous surgeon/scientist with an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his miscellaneous verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few will. (Continued here, along with a DISCLAIMER that you should read before reading any medical discussions here.)
Orac's old Blog is archived at Archived Insolence.
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September 30, 2006
Category: Miscellaneous • Music • Personal
Today is just the kind of day when these lyrics speak to me: And you run, you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking Racing around to come up behind you again The sun is the same...
Posted by Orac at 10:16 AM • 5 Comments
September 29, 2006
Category: Entertainment/culture • Humor • Music • Television
Here he is on Extras, providing a little impromptu song: What an honor, to be dissed by Bowie in song, and a song that rather sounds like some of his really old stuff. You know, it'd be really cool if...
Posted by Orac at 1:16 PM • 7 Comments
Category: Alternative medicine • Friday Woo • Medicine • Quackery
Earlier this week, I thought that I had identified this week's woo target. I told myself that this was it, that this was the one for this week. I even started writing it the other day, because, as much as...
Posted by Orac at 8:36 AM • 23 Comments
September 28, 2006
Category: Alternative medicine • Entertainment/culture • Medicine • Quackery • Television
If you think I'm hardcore when it comes to my disgust at antivaccination advocates like Dawn Winkler, you should check out House, M.D.: [House walks away. Cut to the clinic and House is in an exam room with a young...
Posted by Orac at 1:01 PM • 32 Comments
Category: Alternative medicine • Medicine • Quackery • Skepticism/critical thinking
I've mentioned before that I cut my skeptical teeth, so to speak, on Usenet, that vast untamed and largely unmoderated territory full of tens of thousands of discussion newsgroups which used to be a lot more active before the rise of the World Wide Web and then later blogs. It started out with combatting Holocaust denial and then branched out into more general skepticism, particularly about the claims of creationists and alties (please read my disclaimer about "alties in the link).
Posted by Orac at 8:46 AM • 12 Comments
Category: Blog carnivals • Skepticism/critical thinking • Skeptics' Circle
Yes, it's that time again! This time, the Skeptics' Circle comes to us by way of Sweden. In fact, it comes to us by way of a Swedish archeologist named Martin Rundkvist, and he's rounded up a fine collection of...
Posted by Orac at 12:01 AM • 1 Comments
September 27, 2006
Category: Surgery
"It's just minor surgery." How many times have surgeons said that to patients? How many times have you, as a patient heard that? How many times have I said that to patients? It's supposed to be reassuring, and most of...
Posted by Orac at 8:46 AM • 7 Comments
Category: Alternative medicine • Humor • Medicine
First, it was HIV/AIDS "skeptic" Celia Farber referring to me as "low rent riff-raff." I was so honored by that particular accolade that I had a smile on my face the rest of the day after I discovered it. Fortunately...
Posted by Orac at 12:01 AM • 12 Comments
September 26, 2006
As a long time Led Zeppelin fan, I'm not sure whether I'm amused or appalled by this. Yes, it's 101 cover versions of Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven, including a reggae version by Dread Zeppelin. (Actually, I kind of...
Posted by Orac at 1:01 PM • 13 Comments
Category: History • Holocaust • World War II
Via History News Network: (Translation below the fold.) Apparently, the above cartoon, Der Bonker, in which a disconsolate (and rappin'!) Hitler is portrayed sitting on the toilet complaining about Churchill, is causing an uproar in Germany:...
Posted by Orac at 8:31 AM • 14 Comments
I wrote last week about the Tripoli Six, six health care workers who were jailed by Libya on trumped up charges of infecting patients at a hospital they worked at with HIV. Since then, many other have chimed in, and...
Posted by Orac at 3:01 AM • 0 Comments
September 25, 2006
Category: Skepticism/critical thinking • Skeptics' Circle
It's coming fast. In fact, it's almost here. Yes, the Skeptics' Circle, the blog carnival for afficianados of skepticism, science, and critical thinking, is due to appear at Salto Sobrius on Thursday, September 28. That means you only have two...
Posted by Orac at 3:26 PM • 0 Comments
Category: Alternative medicine • Cancer • Medicine
After the three posts that I recently did about vaccination have garnered well over 250 comments between the three of them (and still counting), I thought it might be time to switch topics. As important as they are, I don't...
Posted by Orac at 8:46 AM • 27 Comments
Category: Science • Skepticism/critical thinking
Thanks to Norm, I recently found out that Richard Dawkins now has a web page (the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science). Certainly, any self-respecting skeptic would have to add that one to his sidebar, which I've now done....
Posted by Orac at 12:01 AM • 8 Comments
September 24, 2006
Category: Blog carnivals • History
Here's a belated notice that the Carnival of Bad History #9 has been posted at World History Blog. Enjoy!...
Posted by Orac at 3:32 PM • 0 Comments
Category: Humor • News of the Weird
One of the things that I remember most about my A.P. English course in high school is the time that we all read Aristophane's Lysistrata. This play, as you may or may not remember, is a comedy taking place during...
Posted by Orac at 1:46 PM • 7 Comments
