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David Gorski

Orac is the nom de blog of a humble surgeon/scientist who has an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his copious verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few probably will. That surgeon is otherwise known as David Gorski. That Orac has chosen his nom de blog based on a rather cranky and arrogant computer shaped like a clear box of blinking lights that he originally encountered when he became a fan of a 30 year old British SF television show whose special effects were renowned for their BBC/Doctor Who-style low budget look, but whose stories nonetheless resulted in some of the best, most innovative science fiction ever televised, should tell you nearly all that you need to know about Orac. (That, and the length of the preceding sentence.)

DISCLAIMER: The various written meanderings here are the opinions of Orac and Orac alone, written on his own time. They should never be construed as representing the opinions of any other person or entity, especially Orac's cancer center, department of surgery, medical school, or university. Also note that Orac is nonpartisan; he is more than willing to criticize the statements of anyone, regardless of of political leanings, if that anyone advocates pseudoscience or quackery. Finally, medical commentary is not to be construed in any way as medical advice.

To contact Orac: oracknows@gmail.com

Posts by this author

May 8, 2006
One of the annoyances of becoming an attending is the need to sign up for managed care and insurance plans. The forms are all similar, but they are sufficiently different that you can't just fill one out and be done with it. Every couple of years, a flood of paperwork comes through, asking for…
May 7, 2006
You may not know this, but today has been designated Ten Commandments Day. It sounds pretty innocuous, right? After all, why would anyone object to a celebration of the Ten Commandments? And, of course, it's every American's right under the First Amendment to celebrate the precepts of his or her…
May 7, 2006
Today is my sister's birthday, and what good is a blog if I can't shamelessly hijack it when I wish to wish family members a happy birthday? So, happy birthday, sister! Have a great day! And our mascot does, too! EneMan says: "Happy Birthday!"
May 6, 2006
I can't believe I almost forgot this, but in the U.S. May 6 is Nurses' Day. Doctors, show the nurses you work with how much you appreciate their care and help. I know my clinical workload would be far less manageable without my nurse; I might not even be able to handle it and my laboratory research…
May 6, 2006
Continuing to some extent a theme from the other day, I wish my textbooks had read like this one. I have to say, this is the first time I've ever seen the term ménage à trois in a science textbook. It's also used as a surprisingly good analogy, although I wonder how the author would know about…
May 5, 2006
Lately, I've been frequently lamenting how easily physicians can be seduced by the pseudoscience known as "intelligent design" (ID) creationism (or even old-fashioned young earth creationism). Yesterday, I even hung my head in shame after learning of a particularly clueless creationist surgeon, to…
May 5, 2006
Continuing on a theme, physicians can be really clueless sometimes; case in point, what happened at my medical school a couple of days ago. The university that I work at is pretty large. It has three campuses several hundred, if not over a thousand, faculty members spread out between the campuses.…
May 5, 2006
I had planned on posting about this last night, but a late night in the O.R. kept me from it. Consequently, Chad beat me to it, but better late than never, I say. I join Chad in apologizing to my readers for the tornado ad that started running on ScienceBlogs earlier this week and includes a Flash…
May 4, 2006
He's actually finally going to release the original, unaltered, un-"improved" trilogy on DVD: Fans can look forward to a September filled with classic Star Wars nostalgia, led by the premiere of LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy video game and the long-awaited DVD release of the original…
May 4, 2006
Damn you, PZ! I know I spent three whole posts discussing the problem of credulity towards creationism among physicians. I spent a lot of time in those posts explaining potential reasons why physicians might be susceptible to the blandishments of creationists and even used the example of a medical…
May 3, 2006
Kevin, MD, one of the big names in the medical blogosphere, is two years old today. His style is a lot less wordy than mine, as he is more given to "Instapundit"-style "link and comment" posts, but he sure does find a lot of interesting material. I don't know where or how he comes up with it all.…
May 3, 2006
Last week, I wrote a rather lengthy (or, as my detractors would probably call it, "long-winded") post about the concept of a medical wikipedia. As you may recall, I expressed considerable skepticism about whether the wikipedia concept could work as well as its boosters claim it could. Even though…
May 2, 2006
I love a good fisking, and James over at Autism Street has administered a real blog slapdown to a really idiotic article defending "natural medicine." He rightly points out the jaw-droppingly obvious straw men and appeals to other ways of knowing that Mike Adams uses in the article. But don't take…
May 2, 2006
According to CNN, Revenge of the Nerds is being remade. I have only one question: Why? It's not like the first movie was a great masterwork or anything. Even so, it was fairly amusing (and now hopelessly dated) as an example of fantasy fulfillment for geeks everywhere, but that's about it. It's…
May 2, 2006
In the comments of my post regarding Andrea Clarke, the woman whom a Texas hospital is trying to pull the plug on because its bioethics committee has declared her care "futile" despite the fact that she is not comatose and is able to communicate her wishes comes an update posted yesterday to the…
May 2, 2006
Three blog carnivals to hawk today: 1. The History Carnival 2. RINO Sightings (May Day Show Trial Edition) 3. Grand Rounds has been delayed. It was supposed to show up at Polite Dissent, but when I checked out his site to look for it this morning, his blog was gone and a site advertising cheap…
May 2, 2006
Yesterday was May Day, and Catallarchy has posted its annual Day of Remembrance for for the victims of Communism. Of particular interest to readers of this blog is a rather extensive article about just what can happen when political ideology is allowed to warp science, specifically what happened to…
May 1, 2006
As you may know, I'm totally hooked on 24, and with only four episodes to go I'm getting antsy to see how it all ends. In the meantime, however, it's hard not to be amused by Tom Tomorrow's appropriation of one of my favorite shows: I wonder if they're referring to this blog?
May 1, 2006
A little more than a year ago, the entire nation was captivated by the case of Terri Schiavo. As you may remember, Ms. Schiavo was an unfortunate woman who lapsed into a persistent vegetative state after suffering anoxic brain damage after a cardiac arrest. Her husband insisted that she had stated…
April 30, 2006
Today is Führerstodestag or "Death of the Führer Day," I join my friend Andrew in wishing Holocaust deniers out there a very happy Führerstodestag! If there is indeed a hell, Adolf Hitler must surely be rotting in it. In commemoration of Führerstodestag, I'm resurrecting a blast from the past,…
April 29, 2006
Having lived in Cleveland for 8 years, I appreciate a Cleveland guy Derf's take on things. Even as a conserative-leaning sort, I have come to the conclusion that I'm with Barney as far as our President goes: Click for the full size version.
April 29, 2006
When the test fits my interests, I cannot resist a fellow ScienceBlogger (although I did manage to resist this particular meme that's been spreading through our little community). Like a lemming, compelled by Grrlscientist, I answer: Your Theme Song is Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd "There is no…
April 28, 2006
Here's something I haven't done in quite a while: The Friday Random Top Ten. So, let's fire up iTunes, set it to "shuffle play" and see what comes up, shall we? Here we go: The Kinks, Going Solo (from: Word of Mouth). David Bowie, White Light/White Heat (from: Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from…
April 28, 2006
I tell ya, life just ain't fair. I work and slave for many years to master medicine, surgery, and molecular biology because I want to be part of developing new therapies for cancer. My reward? Instead of being in the lab directly participating in experiments, I spend more of my time begging for…
April 28, 2006
Here's an interesting tidbit that I came across: A new study, to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Political Economy, calculates the prospective gains that could be obtained from further progress against major diseases. Kevin M. Murphy and Robert H. Topel, two University of…
April 27, 2006
I just have time for a short take today. (If you need more, fortunately, Bora has posted the 33rd Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle for your edification. Yes, my preamble was just an excuse to plug the Skeptics' Circle one more time.) In the comments of yesterday's post about a medical student who is…
April 27, 2006
The 33rd Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle has been posted at Science and Politics. Bora has kindly provided an abstract: Complaints like "hurts my brain" and "blows my mind" as a result of exposure to incredible stories have recently been definitively tied to the neuronal cell death (apoptosis).…
April 26, 2006
The latest Tangled Bank is up at The Inoculated Mind, this time with a nifty Star Wars theme! Orac "Skywalker," Jedi Knight? I like it. I like the reference to "Darth Voxer" (a reference to Vox Day and his antivaccination idiocy) even more...
April 26, 2006
Oh, boy. Last week, as part of my series Medicine and Evolution, I mentioned the blog of a homeschooled medical student who also happens to be a young earth creationist and used her as an example of why I feared that credulity towards a a pseudoscience that is so obviously wrong based on the…