"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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March 31, 2007
Category: Entertainment/culture • Movies • Politics • Religion • Television
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:...
Posted by Orac at 2:01 PM • 21 Comments
Category: Science fiction/fantasy • Television
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...
Posted by Orac at 9:32 AM • 24 Comments
Category: Humor • News 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...
Posted by Orac at 12:10 AM • 8 Comments
March 30, 2007
Category: Evolution • Humor • Intelligent design/creationism • Skepticism/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,...
Posted by Orac at 2:01 PM • 13 Comments
Category: Alternative medicine • Cancer • Evolution • Friday Woo • Intelligent design/creationism • Medicine • Pseudoscience • Quackery • Skepticism/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...
Posted by Orac at 9:01 AM • 27 Comments
March 29, 2007
Category: Announcements • Blog carnivals • Skepticism/critical thinking • Skeptics' 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...
Posted by Orac at 5:01 PM •
Category: Blogging • Evolution • Intelligent design/creationism • Skepticism/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....
Posted by Orac at 12:01 PM • 13 Comments
Category: Evolution • History • Intelligent design/creationism • Medicine • Science • Skepticism/critical thinking • Surgery
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.
Posted by Orac at 8:56 AM • 15 Comments
March 28, 2007
Category: Bioethics • Cancer • Clinical trials • Medicine • Quackery
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...
Posted by Orac at 2:37 PM • 11 Comments
Category: Cancer • Medicine • Politics • Surgery
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...
Posted by Orac at 8:01 AM • 14 Comments
Category: Announcements • Blog carnivals • Grand Rounds
The latest Grand Rounds has been posted at Medviews. Enjoy!...
Posted by Orac at 12:01 AM •
March 27, 2007
Category: Alternative medicine • Medicine • Quackery • Skepticism/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...
Posted by Orac at 3:03 PM • 19 Comments
Category: Evolution • Humor • Intelligent design/creationism • Religion • Science • Skepticism/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...
Posted by Orac at 10:01 AM • 24 Comments
Category: Cancer • Medicine • Surgery
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...
Posted by Orac at 9:01 AM • 18 Comments
Category: Announcements • Blog carnivals • Grand 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...
Posted by Orac at 12:22 AM • 1 Comments
March 26, 2007
Category: Anti-Semitism • History • Holocaust • Holocaust denial • World 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...
Posted by Orac at 2:03 PM • 14 Comments
