oracknows | March 14, 2007I need some β-blockers STAT.
I say that not because I'm hypertensive or because I'm having heart palpitations--at least not at the moment. I'm saying it because, after reading the latest brave foray into antievolutionary ignorance by--as much as I hate to admit it--a fellow surgeon named Dr. Michael Egnor, I need to do something for prophylaxis against such problems. Yes, Dr. Egnor is back again, hot on the heels of taking massive and much-deserved abuse from the science blogosphere (including a heapin' helpin' of Respectful Insolence⢠from me) over his spreading of misinformation and…
oracknows | March 13, 2007For the last 50 years, zoo animals around the world have been tricked into painting. In many cases, the "art" has fetched big bucks: up to $25,000 for Chimp and Orangutan work. It's time for a comprehensive art show to compare styles:
Maggie, Sea Lion, Pittsburgh Zoo
Congo, Chimpanzee, London (1950's)
"Make Me Fly" by Seng Wong, Indian Elephant, Bali, Indonesia
Nonja, Orangutan, Schoenbrunn Zoo, Vienna, Austria
Lomako, Bonobo, Milwaukee County Zoo, Milwaukee WI, USA
Anonymous Great Ape, Mefou Forest Reserve, Camaroon
oracknows | March 13, 2007Apparently, our President brings "bad energy" wherever he goes, requiring some strong woo to cleanse the area after he leaves:
Maya leaders are to perform a special cleaning ceremony at ancient ruins to clear bad energy after a visit by President Bush.
Mr Bush is due at the Mayan ruins of Iximche in Guatemala as part of his tour of the Latin American region, reports the BBC.
But after he leaves, Maya protesters said they would hold a ceremony to restore peace and harmony to the area.
Morales Toj said: "We will burn incense, place flowers and water in the area where Mr Bush has walked to clean…
oracknows | March 13, 2007I'm on the record multiple times as saying that I reject the entire concept and nomenclature of "alternative medicine" as being distinct from "conventional" medicine as a false dichotomy, when in reality there should be just "medicine." Moreover, this "medicine" remaining should, whenever possible, be based on sound scientific and clinical trial evidence. In essence, I advocate treating "alternative" medicine the same as "conventional" medicine subjecting it to the same scientific process to determine whether it has efficacy or not, after which medicine that is effective is retained and used…
oracknows | March 12, 2007
With nearly 20 months to go before the election itself and 10 months before even the first primaries, I'm already bored with the Presidential election of 2008. None of the current candidates does anything for me. One's a total lightweight who's in no way ready to be President, and I utterly loathe two others. My reaction to the rest ranges from mild dismay to downright ennui.
Now it's gotten interesting (or at least entertaining, with the potential for many jokes). Remember Jonathon Sharkey, a.k.a. "The Impaler," the friendly Satanist who ran for Governor of Minnesota on a platform of…
oracknows | March 12, 2007One of my favorite calendars it The 365 Stupidest Things Ever Said. Each day, this gem of a calendar provides me with examples of idiotic statements that are truly jaw-dropping. Every so often, when I'm in the mood, I think I'll quote from past editions for your amusement. Today's stupid quote originally appeared on the calendar back to April 1999 (I've been buying this calendar a long time). It was so monumentally stupid that I actually saved the sheet from the date. The quote comes from an advertisement in the Pittsburgh Press, c. 1954:
The [hydrogen] bomb's brilliant gleam reminds me of…
oracknows | March 12, 2007It figures.
After my having written repeated debunkings of various physicians who are creationists (mostly of the "intelligent design" variety), in retrospect I should have seen this one coming. I should have seen that the Discovery Institute, eager to use anyone they can find whom they can represent to the public as having scientific credentials (never mind whether those credentials have anything to do with evolutionary biology) and thus dupe the public into seeing them as having authority when they start laying down ignorant brain farts about how they "doubt Darwinism," would settle on…
oracknows | March 11, 2007This driver should win some sort of award for bad driving:
A Bergen County woman was charged with driving under the influence after police said she mistook the landmark Boardwalk in Atlantic City for a road. Capt. Bill McKnight said he was on patrol when the vehicle sped by him Wednesday night.
McKnight had given chase with lights and siren when the vehicle made a U-turn and nearly hit his patrol car, he said. McKnight broke off the chase when speeds reached 40 m.p.h. because he feared for the safety of the few pedestrians who were on the wood structure. Two motorcycle officers cut off the…
oracknows | March 11, 2007This one's right up my alley, and PZ, John, Joseph, and Bora have already weighed in. I've been a big SF fan since my very earliest days. (Indeed, one of my earliest memories of SF is reading A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle back in maybe third grade or so. So, when I learned of a list of the Most Significant SF & Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years, I just had to do like my fellow SB'ers and look at which ones I've actually read. For some of them, I'll also add a brief comment (for example, at least a couple of these books I consider to be highly overrated).
So, here we go. Bold…
oracknows | March 10, 2007I didn't realize it, but today's the first anniversary of my first (and, as far as I know) only admitted blogchild, Good Math, Bad Math. Head on over and wish Mark a happy anniversary. He's filled a vitally needed role in the skeptical blogosphere, taking down questionable claims that rely on bad math for their rationale. (One of these days, I have to get him to host The Skeptics' Circle; maybe he can put a mathematical spin on it.)
It turns out that Mark may well someday surpass me (these days, some weeks his traffic passes mine, something that seems to happen with more and more frequency).…
oracknows | March 10, 2007Well, not exactly "no comment." You know that Orac, being the annoyingly obnoxious skeptic that he is, has to put at least two cents in.
This one's just plain odd. I knew Rosie O'Donnell's not exactly the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, and she also borders on being a creduloid, at least with respect to almost buying the myth that mercury in vaccines causes autism (although she does get props for slapping down David Kirby) and waxing antivax about Gardasil, the new vaccine against human papilloma virus. But last week, she revealed that she has been using "inversion therapy" for years to…
oracknows | March 9, 2007Yikes! It's almost upon us again. (Time seems to be going really fast these days.) Yes, next Thursday, March 15, the Skeptics' Circle will be arriving yet again to do battle with the credulity that pervades the blogosphere. So, if you are a skeptical blogger and like to apply your scientific and rational skepticism to various claims, head on over to the next host blog, Science Natura, and get your submissions in by Wednesday. The guidelines for submissions are here.
And, as always, if you think you have what it takes to host a Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle on your own blog, have a look at…
oracknows | March 9, 2007I'm told that today is P. Z. Myer's 50th birthday and that apparently he's requested poetry, now that he's hanging out with bigshots like Richard Dawkins, who actually did write him a poem. Cranky and contrary box of blinking lights that Orac is, you probably already know that Orac won't go along with the crowd on this one. Oh, he'll wish P.Z. a happy birthday, but poetry isn't his thing. (Remember, this is the same computer that spend endless amounts of time analyzing jokes and limericks because he couldn't understand why humans liked them. Do you really want to see him attempt actual poetry…
oracknows | March 9, 2007It's Friday, which means that it's time once again to delve deeply into the world of woo, all for your edification and (I hope) education. Even though I started out with less motivation than usual for tending to the blog, it actually turned out to be yet another rather eventful and surprisingly productive week on the old blog, with topics ranging from plumbing the depths of antivaccination lunacy, to doing some nice straight science blogging about the anticancer drug dichloroacetate (which actually gave me some ideas for my research), to discussing the "individualization" of treatments in…
oracknows | March 8, 2007The latest Change of Shift, the blog carnival for nursing, has been posted at Emergiblog. Enjoy!
oracknows | March 8, 2007As longtimers around here know, I have a great interest in all things World War II, including the Holocaust. I've written numerous times, either in the context of discussing the Holocaust or while discussing bioethics and the evolution of about the horrific medical experiments carried out by the Nazis. Much less frequently mentioned are the equally horrific excuses for "medical experiments" carried out by the Japanese on various prisoners that fell into their hands. Although not as systematic or widespread an atrocity as the Nazi medical experiments, they should not be forgotten, and,…
oracknows | March 8, 2007...That all around evolution-ignorant but nonetheless eager lapdog of the Discovery Institute, SUNY Stonybrook Professor of Neurosurgery Dr. Michael Egnor, is back.
Rats. I thought that the utter drubbing he took at the hands of myself and my fellow ScienceBloggers (in particular PZ Myers) might have given him the message that he needs to lay low for a while. Apparently not. I guess he must have the monumental ego that more than a few neurosurgeons are famous for. (After all, it takes supreme confidence in one's own abilities to be able to cut into the human brain and believe that the patient…
oracknows | March 7, 2007
Believe it or not, the FCC is receiving a fair number of complaints over the Superbowl halftime show featuring His Purpleness, particularly the part where he did a bit of a phallic thing with his guitar (as if generations of rockers haven't done the whole guitar as wank-off thing since at least the 1960's--heck David Bowie used to simulate oral sex on Mick Ronson's guitar back in his Ziggy Stardust days, although I will concede that he never played the Superbowl). I mean, get a load of this complaint:
During Prince's rendition of Purple Rain, which I think is a really great song, there…
oracknows | March 7, 2007...even ten years after his death.
I kind of like the reaction in this photo. It cracks me up. Maybe I should find a permanent home for it somewhere on the blog.
(Don't ask me how I became aware of this one.)
oracknows | March 7, 2007Flea has a rather amusing response to a letter about GI symptoms in autistic children that left him scratching his head...
Don't feel insulted, Flea; occasionally, we get mass mailings from cancer advocacy groups or--much more annoying to me and unfortunately much more frequent--pharmaceutical companies that sound as though they're telling us how to treat various cancers.