"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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January 31, 2007
Category: Blog carnivals • Grand Rounds • Skeptics' Circle • Tangled Bank
Three announcements about blog carnivals of interest to my readers: Medical blogging: Grand Rounds, vol. 3, no. 19 has been posted at Envisioning 2.0.Science blogging: Tangled Bank #72 has been posted at Ouroboros.Skeptical blogging: The Skeptics' Circle will be appearing...
Posted by Orac at 2:01 PM • 16 Comments
Category: Evolution • Intelligent design/creationism • Science • Skepticism/critical thinking
I hate to reward the bad behavior of one of Chopra's "admirers" showing up on this blog. I really do. And linking to the latest bit of Choprawoo, which was brought to my attention by the usual suspect who has periodically infested the comments of my blog ever since I first coined the term "Choprawoo" to describe the typical combination of New Age fluff combined logical fallacies that is the phenomenon known as Deepak Chopra and his persistently annoying brand of woo would be doing exactly that, given that the commenter in question clearly wanted a link from me.
Posted by Orac at 9:01 AM • 24 Comments
Category: Cancer • Clinical trials • Medicine • Politics
At the risk of irritating a fellow ScienceBlogger again, I thought I'd point out this little post forwarded to me by Norm Jenson as yet another example of exactly the inflated hype for dichloroacetate as a "cure for cancer" that will "never see the light of day" because it has little profit potential (and, by the way, that pharmaceutical companies will "probably lobby against it with all their might"). I should have taken a β-blocker before clicking on the link.
Posted by Orac at 12:21 AM • 11 Comments
January 30, 2007
Category: Antivaccination lunacy • Medicine • Quackery • Religion
Via Black Triangle, I'm made aware of another example of religious fundamentalism interfering with sound health care: A MUSLIM doctors' leader has provoked an outcry by urging British Muslims not to vaccinate their children against diseases such as measles, mumps...
Posted by Orac at 9:01 AM • 24 Comments
January 29, 2007
Category: Announcements • Blog carnivals • Skepticism/critical thinking • Skeptics' Circle
Here's just another friendly reminder that the latest edition of the Skeptics' Circle, that now-venerable blog carnival dedicated to critical thinking and skepticism, is due to appear this week on Thursday, February 1 at Slicing with Occam's Razor. (Hmmm, that's...
Posted by Orac at 2:31 PM • 2 Comments
Category: Blog carnivals • Medicine
The latest Pediatrics Grand Rounds has been posted over at Unintelligent Design: Grand Rounds, Volume 1 Edition 21: What Dreams May Come....
Posted by Orac at 12:01 PM •
Category: Alternative medicine • Medicine • Skepticism/critical thinking
Critics who don't like my insistence on applying the scientific method to the claims of alternative medicine sometimes accuse me of unrelenting hostility towards alternative medicine, as though no amount of evidence would ever convince me of the efficacy of...
Posted by Orac at 9:46 AM • 19 Comments
Category: Medicine
PZ mentioned it, but, after having seen it, I thought I'd give it a plug too, mainly because my readership skews more towards the medical blogosphere than PZ's does, and a new blog this promising should be publicized to other...
Posted by Orac at 3:01 AM • 0 Comments
January 28, 2007
Category: Entertainment/culture • Evolution • Politics • Science
I haven't seen a Broadway play in quite a while now, but it may be time for that to change. In the New York Times, I came across an ad for a revival of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee´s...
Posted by Orac at 2:08 PM • 7 Comments
Category: Humor • Music • News of the Weird • Religion
Remember Donnie Davies, the "youth pastor" that I wrote about a couple of days ago, who posted a list of gay bands, plus a homophobic video proclaiming that "God hates a fag" that led to a prolonged debate over whether...
Posted by Orac at 12:01 PM • 7 Comments
Category: Alternative medicine • Medicine
Everyone who reads this blog regularly knows my dismay at the infiltration of the curriculum of American medical schools with increasing amounts of non-evidence-based woo. It's even gotten to the point where one medical school (Georgetown University) has is integrating...
Posted by Orac at 9:01 AM • 21 Comments
January 27, 2007
Category: History • Holocaust • Holocaust denial • World War II
I'm reminded by this article that today is the 62nd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops advancing west towards Germany: OSWIECIM, Poland -- As they do on every anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops,...
Posted by Orac at 2:01 PM • 5 Comments
Category: Entertainment/culture • Humor • Music
I don't know if I'll make this a habit or not, but it's a Saturday, and once again I feel like posting a YouTube or two and dedicating it to one of the "targets" of the week. (Besides, after the...
Posted by Orac at 10:10 AM • 2 Comments
January 26, 2007
Category: Alternative medicine • Cancer • Medicine
I hate to end the week on a downer, but I came across this last night and, given my attention to the case of Katie Wernecke (the girl whose parents chose dubious alternative medical therapy over the radiation therapy she...
Posted by Orac at 3:05 PM • 10 Comments
Category: Alternative medicine • Friday Woo • Medicine • Skepticism/critical thinking
After posting about the Donnie Davies, an alleged "youth minister" in Houston who has garnered a lot of attention throughout the blogosphere for his website in which he provides a hilariously off-base list of "gay bands" to avoid and...
Posted by Orac at 9:01 AM • 27 Comments
January 25, 2007
Category: Clinical trials • Medicine • Science
Grant season is upon us. Every day that I'm not in the clinic and the O.R., I find myself holed up in my office pounding my head against my monitor trying to write just that perfect mixture of preliminary data,...
Posted by Orac at 2:01 PM • 13 Comments
