The unsinkable rubber duck : Respectful Insolence

The Week In ScienceBlogs: Sign up for our newsletter.

Who (or what) is Orac?

Orac is the nom de blog of a (not so) 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.

Search

Non-Orac Insolence

Medicine

Science

Skepticism and critical thinking

Combatting Holocaust denial

History

Politics & current events

Blog carnivals

Tangled Bank (Science)

Science and Surgery

« Change of Shift | Main | Your Friday Dose of Woo: If our intestines were lungs we could drink our oxygen! »

The unsinkable rubber duck

Category: Paranormal • Pseudoscience • Skepticism/critical thinking
Posted on: September 21, 2006 12:11 PM, by Orac

Skeptico explains why confirmation bias and the Forer effect make astrology seem like it might work when it's really a load of crap. As usual, he makes it plain why astrology is bunk, reiterating his Astrology Challenge.

Comments

Not to hijack the thread, but knowing how you like to debunk Holocaust deniers, I thought your readers might be interested in the postings at http://puppy.mortalblog.com I think puppy is trying to be funny, but I don't really care for his humor. You can end his "humor" by visiting his site and clicking the Vote Down button - all it takes is about 60 more down votes and his blog will be deleted.

Posted by: Toni Riga | September 21, 2006 3:43 PM

Yesterday in a Blog-Survivor type competition called MortalBlog every blogger was *supposed* to go all conspiracy-theory and try to get his readers to believe they believed.

If you visited my site, and believed I was a holocaust denier, I was successful.

Tony Riga is ToadOnALeash in the competition and admitted he made this comment post yesterday. I feel it was a fun-thing for him to do in a competition that is meant to be fun, but you can make your own decision. And it certainly was within the rules.

I do hope if you went to my blog yesterday and voted down, you will consider going there today and voting up. I am not a holocaust denier, far from it. I have relatives who were part of the six million.

Posted by: Puppy | September 22, 2006 9:36 AM

Okay, now we have hijacked the thread -

To Puppy -

Being an insider I knew the posts were a farse, but I was still uncomfortable with them - it seemed too over the top, a little too easy. now I see why (and I was secretly hoping that was the case). so forgive me, (or not), for attempting to assassinate you. Oops, my bad.

Posted by: Toni Riga | September 22, 2006 10:31 AM