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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)

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Who (or what) is Orac?

orac.jpg 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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March 31, 2007

People unclear on the concept

Category: Entertainment/cultureMoviesPoliticsReligionTelevision

Why is it that the concepts of freedom of religion and freedom of speech seem so hard for some people to understand? Witness a truly idiotic attempt to prevent someone from appearing on TV simply because he is a Scientologist:...

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Doctor Who returns!

Category: Science fiction/fantasyTelevision

I have to wonder what we Anglophiles did before the invention of BitTorrent. I guess we probably waited months or years for the best British TV to make its way across the pond, usually to be shown on PBS, if...

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A boon to nudist smokers!

Category: HumorNews of the Weird

And I bet you wonder what nudist smokers did with their smokes before this. Who knew this would be an issue in 1938? I guess even nudists need to keep their smokes with them. I wonder where they kept their...

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March 30, 2007

Best or worst birthday card ever?

Category: EvolutionHumorIntelligent design/creationismSkepticism/critical thinking

While looking for a birthday card for a relative a while back, I found this card and was intrigued enough to buy it, even though it wasn't appropriate for the person for whom I was seeking a card: So far,...

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Your Friday Dose of Woo: Feedback loops, reproductive cells, cancer, and design

Category: Alternative medicineCancerEvolutionFriday WooIntelligent design/creationismMedicinePseudoscienceQuackerySkepticism/critical thinking

It is with some trepidation that I approach the latest target of Your Friday Dose of Woo. No, it's not because the woo is so potent that it has actually struck the fear of You-Know-Who in me (I leave it...

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March 29, 2007

The 57th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle: The Zebra Spilled its Plastinia on Bemis

Category: AnnouncementsBlog carnivalsSkepticism/critical thinkingSkeptics' Circle

Although I'm rather puzzled by the reference to zebras spilling their plastinia, I can't argue that, once again, Martin has come through with another great collection of skeptical blogging as he hosts the 57th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle. Your...

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Uncommon Descent, meet the Galileo Gambit. Galileo Gambit, meet Uncommon Descent

Category: BloggingEvolutionIntelligent design/creationismSkepticism/critical thinking

Apparently the guys over at Denialism.com have irritated Bill Dembski and his band of merry sycophants over at Uncommon Descent. All I can say is: Uncommon Descent, meet the Galileo Gambit. Oh, you've already met the Galileo Gambit, I see....

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In blog posts and podcasts, Dr. Michael Egnor swings and misses

Category: EvolutionHistoryIntelligent design/creationismMedicineScienceSkepticism/critical thinkingSurgery

When last I mentioned the Discovery Institute's latest acquisition in its Division of Physicians Pontificating Ignorantly About Evolution (PPIAE), Dr. Michael Egnor, Professor of Neurosurgery at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, I really did intend to leave it alone for a while. After all, he's the Energizer Bunny of Anti-Evolution, and I didn't want to let him dictate the agenda of my blog, no matter how much his misstatements and willful ignorance about evolution might annoy the heck out of me and embarrass me as a fellow surgeon.

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March 28, 2007

Checking in with The DCA Site

Category: BioethicsCancerClinical trialsMedicineQuackery

It's been a week since I last wrote about dichloroacetate (DCA), the chemotherapeutic agent that targets tumor cells by an interesting new mechanism based on the Warburg effect, as I've described in the past. After a very interesting article in...

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White House Press Secretary Tony Snow and liver metastases from colon cancer

Category: CancerMedicinePoliticsSurgery

It's been a bad few days. A mere four days after Elizabeth Edwards announced that her breast cancer had recurred in her rib, with an update the other day saying that the apparently was also another lesion in in her...

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Grand Rounds

Category: AnnouncementsBlog carnivalsGrand Rounds

The latest Grand Rounds has been posted at Medviews. Enjoy!...

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March 27, 2007

Woo infiltrates the U.K. undergraduate curriculum...

Category: Alternative medicineMedicineQuackerySkepticism/critical thinking

I've lamented time and time again how woo has been infiltrating American medical schools, even going so far as to find its way into being totally integrated into mandatory curriculum from the very first term of the first year of...

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Peanut butter disproves evolution!

Category: EvolutionHumorIntelligent design/creationismReligionScienceSkepticism/critical thinking

Really, this guy is making that very argument with a straight face! My brain hurts after seeing such unbelievable stupidity presented as a viable argument by Chuck Missler, the minister who founded the Koinonia House. This makes Dr. Egnor's blather...

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Immediate reconstruction after breast cancer: A most disturbing study

Category: CancerMedicineSurgery

I realize that being in academic medicine at a tertiary care center often produces the "ivory tower" syndrome, but occasionally it is brought home to me that the way we practice surgery here often differs considerably from how surgery is...

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Pediatric Grand Rounds

Category: AnnouncementsBlog carnivalsGrand Rounds

The latest Pediatric Grand Rounds has been posted at Musings of a Distractible Mind, delivered in Tom and Jerry style. Gee, obviously, Dr. Rob isn't aware that Tom and Jerry are a nefarious Jewish plot to corrupt Muslim youth. After...

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March 26, 2007

Well, that certainly didn't take long

Category: Anti-SemitismHistoryHolocaustHolocaust denialWorld War II

Ever since arch Holocaust denier David Irving was released from prison in Austria after being convicted of denying the Holocaust, I've been wondering how long it would take for him to reveal his true stripes and be up to his...

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