"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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April 30, 2007
Category: Alternative medicine • Autism • Medicine • Quackery
Now here's something you don't see every day. Nature Neuroscience has weighed in about the pseudoscience that claims that mercury causes autism. Based on British experience with animal rights activists, it points out a parallel that I hadn't considered before:...
Posted by Orac at 9:55 AM • 107 Comments
Category: Anti-Semitism • History • Holocaust • World War II
Andrew reminds me that today is a very special day. Yes, indeed, it's the day that everyone who detests fascism should celebrate: Fuehrerstodestag! (Otherwise known as "Dead Hitler Day.") Yes, 62 years ago this hour, Adolf Hitler, Fuhrer of the...
Posted by Orac at 9:30 AM • 19 Comments
Category: Evolution • Intelligent design/creationism • Pseudoscience • Science • Skepticism/critical thinking
Thanks to a reader commenting in yesterday's post, I've been made aware of a truly brilliant summation of creationism of both the young earth and intelligent design variety: Exactly....
Posted by Orac at 3:01 AM • 4 Comments
April 29, 2007
Category: Personal
I don't often do this, but every so often I come across a question that I need help deciding. What's the use of having a moderately popular blog (alas, not "immensely popular"--yet, I hope) if I can't sometimes use it for my own nefarious purposes, right? The question is simple, and, I expect, one that many of my readers have experience with.
Posted by Orac at 1:16 PM • 54 Comments
Category: Evolution • Intelligent design/creationism • Medicine • Pseudoscience • Skepticism/critical thinking
I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Certainly it's a bad thing that another physician is diving head-first into the pseudoscience that is "intelligent design" creationism and making a of himself in the process....
Posted by Orac at 11:06 AM • 17 Comments
April 28, 2007
Category: Anti-Semitism • History • Holocaust • Holocaust denial • Politics
After the Virginia Tech shootings, as you may recall, a lot of people started using the shootings as a convenient excuse to start pontificating about their favorite cause or to attack their most hated enemy, be it secularism or even...
Posted by Orac at 1:16 PM • 21 Comments
Category: Entertainment/culture • Music • News of the Weird
Students cheat on exams. There's just no getting around it. No matter how secure teachers think they've made their examination processes, there will always be a subset of students who try to find a way around any security procedures and...
Posted by Orac at 10:47 AM • 34 Comments
April 27, 2007
Category: Medicine • Politics • Science
This is a bit science policy wonky, but here's some interesting news from Medical Writing, Editing & Grantsmanship: My *favorite* new factoid from the NIH ... the oldest "new investigator" to date received his first R01 last year at age...
Posted by Orac at 1:31 PM • 14 Comments
Category: Alternative medicine • Friday Woo • Medicine • Pseudoscience • Quackery • Skepticism/critical thinking
I've said it once before, but this week's woo compels me to say it again: I happen to love gadgets. I've been a bit of a technogeek since very early on in my life, with a lot of the things...
Posted by Orac at 9:40 AM • 20 Comments
Category: Evolution • Intelligent design/creationism • Religion • Science • Skepticism/critical thinking
On May 5 New York City will witness what will perhaps be the most unintentionally hilarious spectacle of two fundamentalists making utter fools of themselves: MEDIA ADVISORY, April 26 /Christian Newswire/ -- After ABC ran a story in January about...
Posted by Orac at 12:01 AM • 35 Comments
April 26, 2007
When I saw this, I thought it had to be a joke. But it's not: Doctors in New York have removed a woman's gallbladder with instruments passed through her vagina, a technique they hope will cause less pain and scarring...
Posted by Orac at 3:01 PM • 15 Comments
Category: Alternative medicine • Medicine • Quackery
Just when I start to think that maybe, just maybe, I could stop worrying and learn to love the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM, with apologies to Stanley Kubrick and Peter Sellers), damn if it doesn't go...
Posted by Orac at 10:01 AM • 4 Comments
Category: Announcements • Blog carnivals • Skeptics' Circle
Well, it's that time again, time for another foray into battle against the rampant credulity that permeates the blogosphere. This time, your host is a veteran who has hosted two previous Meetings of the Skeptics' Circle and produced some of...
Posted by Orac at 7:46 AM •
Category: Cancer • Entertainment/culture • Medicine • Movies
Ever wonder what happened to Roger Ebert, who has been absent from the balcony in his Ebert & Roeper Show for quite some time battling cancer? So did I. I always liked his style and mostly agreed with his movie...
Posted by Orac at 12:01 AM • 2 Comments
April 25, 2007
Category: Medicine • Politics • Science
This is the sort of thing that really irritates me. Shelley, over at Retrospectacle posted a rather nice analysis of a paper that appeared in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture entitled Natural volatile treatments increase free-radical...
Posted by Orac at 2:31 PM • 16 Comments
Category: Cancer • Medicine • Science • Skepticism/critical thinking
The first thing that struck me about the Scientific American article is that it looked very much like a popular version of two very similar recent review/opinion articles that Duesberg published in 2005 and 2006. I'm mainly going to discuss the Scientific American article because it's basically the same message in a form more palatable to the educated lay reader. But, before I begin, I'd like to point out a couple of things. First, the concept that chromosomal abnormalities cause cancer dates back at least to 1914, when the German zoologist Theodor Boveri based on studies of sea urchin development.
Posted by Orac at 9:01 AM • 36 Comments
