"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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May 31, 2007
Category: History • Hitler Zombie • Holocaust
Via Ed Brayton, I've learned of an interesting commentary by Sasha Abramsky on a topic that's near and dear to my heart. Well, its' more like a major pet peeve, one that irritates me so much that two years ago...
Posted by Orac at 1:31 PM • 16 Comments
Category: Alternative medicine • Antivaccination lunacy • Autism • Medicine • Quackery
I've been a bit remiss when it comes to writing about the lunacy in which it is claimed that vaccines cause autism, allegedly due to the mercury in the thimerosal preservative that was in most childhood vaccines until the end...
Posted by Orac at 8:01 AM • 16 Comments
May 30, 2007
Here it is, straight from the 365 Stupidest Things Ever Said calendar, culled from a church bulletin listing: Our youth basketball team is back in action Wednesday at 8 PM in the recreation hall. Come out and watch us kill...
Posted by Orac at 4:16 PM • 16 Comments
Category: Alternative medicine • Bioethics • Cancer • Clinical trials • Medicine • Quackery
I love it. You see I noticed an old "friend," the Herbinator, making this comment about me regarding dichloroacetate: I was listening to CBC Radio - the Current, as is my want, and there was a show on about DCA,...
Posted by Orac at 10:01 AM • 12 Comments
Category: Alternative medicine • Medicine • Politics • Quackery • Religion • Skepticism/critical thinking
Last fall, I and quite a few other bloggers wrote about the Tripoli Six. These are six foreign medical workers arrested for allegedly intentionally infecting over 400 children with HIV in a Libyan hospital and, thanks to the ignorant hysteria...
Posted by Orac at 12:03 AM • 3 Comments
May 29, 2007
Category:
"Some people call me Maurice." Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae A study from two Australian researchers from the University of Sydney shows that male humpbacks who sing while migrating have better luck with the ladies than those who don't.Michael Noad and...
Posted by Orac at 4:39 PM • 0 Comments
Category: History • News of the Weird • Politics
This is not free speech; it's vandalism: ORCAS ISLAND, Wash. -- Vandals burned dozens of small American flags that decorated veterans' graves for Memorial Day and replaced many of them with hand-drawn swastikas, authorities said Monday. Forty-six flag standards were...
Posted by Orac at 4:05 PM • 17 Comments
Category: Religion • Skepticism/critical thinking
A new Gallup poll shows just how bad things are for science and reason: PRINCETON, NJ -- About one-third of the American adult population believes the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally word...
Posted by Orac at 1:31 PM • 39 Comments
Category: Bioethics • Cancer • Clinical trials • Medicine
It never seems to end, does it? I'm talking about the hype and questionable practices revolving around dichloroacetate (DCA), the small molecule chemotherapeutic agent that targets the Warburg effect, in essence normalizing the metabolism of tumor cells and thereby inhibiting...
Posted by Orac at 9:23 AM • 11 Comments
May 28, 2007
Category: History • World War II
I didn't see this one in time to include it on my list of Memorial Day links. In it, Brett confesses: Here's a confession: I don't really get Guernica -- the painting, that is, not the event. Read the whole...
Posted by Orac at 4:01 PM • 10 Comments
Category: Evolution • Intelligent design/creationism • Religion • Skepticism/critical thinking
i think I've made it exquisitely clear how much I detest and despise the term "Nevile Chamberlain School of Evolutionists." Indeed, my disgust at the term led me to sic the Hitler Zombie on (of all people) Richard Dawkins, the...
Posted by Orac at 12:01 PM • 82 Comments
Here in the U.S, it's Memorial Day, the day that we set aside to pay tribute to our men and women in uniform who have put their lives on the line to defend our nation in its wars. On this...
Posted by Orac at 9:01 AM • 18 Comments
May 27, 2007
Category: Announcements • Blog carnivals • Blogging • Evolution • History • History Carnival • Intelligent design/creationism • Pseudoscience • Science • Skepticism/critical thinking • Tangled Bank
I've been a bit remiss in my blog carnival plugging; so here's my chance to make up for it. Here are some carnivals worth checking out: Carnival of Bad History #14: The Backlog Edition (The name speaks for itself.) Carnivalesque...
Posted by Orac at 5:01 PM •
Category: Medicine • Pseudoscience • Quackery • Skepticism/critical thinking
Recently, I discussed a story by the BBC news show Panorama about the Church of Scientology and its ridiculous anti-psychiatry museum. Unfortunately, the show doesn't always do things right. Over at Bad Science, I find how badly Panorama messed up...
Posted by Orac at 2:15 PM • 13 Comments
Category: Cancer • Clinical trials • Medicine
Over the last couple of months, I've written periodically about cancer research and the complaints that the present system of funding grants and of peer review stifles innovation, as well as whether ideas for which there is some evidence but...
Posted by Orac at 11:04 AM • 12 Comments
May 26, 2007
Category: Entertainment/culture • Humor • Science fiction/fantasy • Television
I think I've finally found the religion for me... (Click the picture to read about the religion! Hat tip to Robster, FCD.) Moreover, in a direct comparison between Christianity and this new religion, Christianity doesn't come off so good. (The...
Posted by Orac at 2:23 PM • 20 Comments
