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.
Respectful Insolence
"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)
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.
Subscribe via Email
Stay abreast of your favorite bloggers' latest and greatest via e-mail, via a daily digest.
Search this blog
Recent Posts
- Mandatory reading to rebut the antivaccine "too many too soon" propaganda
- Your Friday Dose of Woo: Soundscapes on the brain
- The 100th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle: The trouble with Orac
- How I'm like Barack Obama
- Et tu, Anthony Edwards and Dustin Hoffman?
- When homeopaths kill by neglect
- There's no such thing as viruses?
- Welcome to the Age of Ignorance
- That'll teach 'em for using an actual valid placebo control
- 100 is on the way
Recent Comments
- What... on Welcome to the Age of Ignorance
- cooler on Welcome to the Age of Ignorance
- RJ on Welcome to the Age of Ignorance
- HCN on Welcome to the Age of Ignorance
- What a Shame.... on Welcome to the Age of Ignorance
- Patrick on Your Friday Dose of Woo: Soundscapes on the brain
- cooler on Welcome to the Age of Ignorance
- RJ on Welcome to the Age of Ignorance
- HCN on There's no such thing as viruses?
- cooler on Welcome to the Age of Ignorance
Archives
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
Non-Orac Insolence
-
Medicine
- AIDSTruth.org
- Aggravated DocSurg
- Alternative Medicine and Cancer
- The Antidote
- Australian Council Against Health Fraud
- Autism News Beat
- Bioethics Discussion Blog
- Bioethics Web Log
- Black Triangle
- Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine
- Confessions of a Quackbuster
- Correcting the AIDS Lies
- Dr. Len's Cancer Blog
- Ethics of Vaccines
- Evidence-based Medicine First
- Focus on the AIDS/HIV connection
- Getting Better With Dr. Val
- GruntDoc
- Health Care Renewal
- HealthLawProf blog
- Healthwatch (U.K.)
- Healthwatcher.net
- Inside Surgery
- Kevin, M.D.
- Medgadget.com
- Neurodiversity Weblog
- Notes from Dr. R.W.
- pathtalk.org
- Pharmagossip
- Polite Dissent
- The Quack-O-Meter
- QuackWatch
- RangelMD.com
- Stop Jenny McCarthy
- Science-based Medicine
- Surgeonsblog
- Terra Sigillata
- Aetiology
- Bad Astronomy Blog
- Deltoid
- ERV
- Good Math, Bad Math
- Improbable Research
- The Intersection
- In the Pipeline
- Living the Scientific Life
- The Loom
- MacResearch
- Medical Writing, Editing & Grantsmanship
- The Panda's Thumb
- Pharyngula
- Pro-Science
- Real Climate
- The Red Notebook
- Sandwalk
- SciAm Observations
- Science After Sunclipse
- Science Creative Quarterly
- Talk Origins Archive
- Action Skeptics
- Bad Science
- The Bronze Blog
- Butterflies and Wheels
- California Skeptics
- Center for Inquiry
- Church of Critical Thinking
- Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
- Conspiracy Factory
- The Crackpot Page
- Crank dot Net
- Critical Thinking Community
- Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science
- denialism blog
- Fallacies, Errors, and Tricks
- The Fallacy Files
- Handbook of Fallacies
- Holy Smoke
- Indiana Skeptics
- Infophilia
- The Inoculated Mind
- Logical Fallacies (Adam Smith Institute)
- The Mad Revisionist
- Memoirs of a Skepchick
- The Millennium Project
- Mondo Skepto
- Museum of Hoaxes
- The New England Skeptical Society
- NeuroLogica Blog
- North Texas Skeptics
- Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking
- A Photon in the Darkness
- Point of Inquiry
- Pooflingers Anonymous
- Practical Skepticism
- Podblack Blog
- James Randi Educational Foundation
- Rationally Speaking
- The Rogues Gallery
- Skepticblog
- Sinbad's Bullshit Detector
- Skeptic Friends Network
- Skeptic Magazine (UK)
- The Skeptical Alchemist
- Skeptical Information Links
- Skeptico
- SkepticReport.com
- The Skeptic's Dictionary
- The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe
- The Skeptics Society
- Snopes.com: Urban Legends
- Stop Sylvia Browne
- The Straight Dope
- Stupid Evil Bastard
- Two Percent Company
- The Uncredible Hallq
- Unscrewing the Inscrutable
- What's the Harm?
- ZeroIntelligence.net
- Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum
- Cybrary of the Holocaust
- Dachau Concentration Camp
- DeathCamps.org
- Documentary resources on the Nazi genocide
- En Dansk Holocaust-ressource
- The Forgotten Camps
- History on Trial
- The Holocaust Controversies
- The Holocaust Chronicle
- Holocaust Denial On Trial
- Holocaust Forgotten
- The Holocaust History Project
- Holocaust and Humanity
- Holocaust/Shoah
- Holocaust/Shoah page
- David Irving debunked
- The Mazal Library
- Nizkor
- Simon Wiesenthal Center
- U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
- WillisCarto.com
- American Aces of WWII
- Art Kramer's WWII Pictures
- Axis History Factbook
- Early Modern Notes
- Freedom, Democide, War
- German Propaganda Archive
- The History News Network
- History of the Second World War: 1939-1945 (French site)
- The New York Public Library Digital Gallery
- Resource listing for WWII
- Third Reich in Ruins
- Wartime Images
- World War II, analyzed!
- World War II in Color
- World War II Plus 55
- Advice Goddess
- Ahistoricality
- Andrew Sullivan
- Balloon Juice
- Hit and Run
- Jesus' General
- Kung Fu Monkey
- Majikthise
- Normblog
- Orcinus
- Sadly, No!
- Some Ramblings from Mr. Gueguen
- Grand Rounds (Medicine)
- The History Carnival
- The Skeptics' Circle
- Tangled Bank (Science)
- American Association for the Advancement of Science
- American Association for Cancer Research
- American College of Surgeons
- American Society of Breast Surgeons
- American Society of Clinical Oncology
- Association for Academic Surgery
- The Society of Surgical Oncology
- Society of University Surgeons
Science
Skepticism and critical thinking
Combatting Holocaust denial
History
Politics & current events
Blog carnivals
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





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