Now on ScienceBlogs: Charles Darwin February 12, 1809 - April 19, 1882
"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 (not so) 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.
Category: Medicine
A couple of weeks ago, I made the observation that there seems to have been a--shall we say?--realignment in one of the central arguments that proponents of "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) and "integrative medicine" (IM) make. Back in the...
Posted by Orac at 9:00 AM • 90 Comments •
Category: Skepticism/critical thinking
It's rare that I have much in the way of reluctance to leap into writing about a topic. Any regular reader of this blog should know this to be true, given the topics I regularly take on and how often...
Posted by Orac at 3:00 AM • 47 Comments •
Category: Medicine
It's been nearly a year since I last discussed a most unusual malady. Part of the reason is that the opportunity to discuss it hasn't occurred recently; usually I need some spark or incident to "inspire" me to write about...
Posted by Orac at 3:00 AM • 261 Comments •
Category: Medicine
Ha! I must admit, I've said probably about 50% of these things at one time or another, maybe more: Hmmmm. Maybe I need to come up with new "shit." Oh, and, by the way, I've been mentioned on PZ's blog...
Posted by Orac at 9:00 AM • 23 Comments •
Category: Medicine
I've spent a lot of time over the years looking at cranks, examining crank science (i.e., pseudoscience), and trying to figure out how to inoculate people against crankery. Because I'm a physician, I tend to do it mostly in the...
Posted by Orac at 3:00 AM • 74 Comments •
Category: Medicine
It's no secret that I've been highly critical of The Huffington Post, at least of its approach to science and medicine. In fact, it was a mere three weeks after Arianna Huffington launched her blog back in 2005 that I...
Posted by Orac at 9:25 AM • 87 Comments •
Category: Medicine
I've made no secret of my opinion of the animal rights movement, in particular Jerry Vlasak, a trauma surgeon who has openly advocated the murder of researchers who use animals while--wink, wink, nudge, nudge--denying that he's advocating anything. Another animal...
Posted by Orac at 12:00 PM • 60 Comments •
Category: Medicine
Over the last couple of weeks, I've been spending a lot of time (and, characteristically, verbiage) analyzing the phenomenon known as Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski, his "cancer cure" known as antineoplastons, and his incompetent version of "personalized gene-targeted cancer therapy." In...
Posted by Orac at 3:00 AM • 119 Comments •
Category: Medicine
When it rains it pours, as they say. Yes, sometimes there's so much going on that I can't possibly blog about it all, particularly now that I've cut back a bit. This week seems to be turning into one of...
Posted by Orac at 11:00 AM • 82 Comments •
Category: Medicine
As a skeptic and a blogger, my main interest has evolved to be the discussion of science-based medicine and how one can identify what in medicine is and is not based in science. Part of the reason for this is...
Posted by Orac at 3:00 AM • 98 Comments •
ERV 11.26.2011
PZ Myers 02.12.2012
Jason Rosenhouse 02.12.2012
Tim Lambert 02.01.2012
Orac 02.09.2012
