oracknows | July 14, 2009Before I close the book on the Science-Based Medicine Conference and TAM7 for 2009, I have a quick request of you, my readers. Specifically, I'd really appreciate it if any of you who were at the SBM Conference and/or TAM7 and took pictures, to send me copies, preferably full resolution. As you might guess, at the SBM Conference I didn't have time to take more than a handful of pictures myself, and obviously I couldn't take pictures of the Anti-Anti-Vax Conference at TAM7 because, well, I was participating in it. The e-mail address is orac@scienceblogs.com.
And thanks to everyone who reads my…
oracknows | July 14, 2009First, Mitchell and Webb took on homeopathy. This week, it's bogus (word choice intentional) "nutritionists":
oracknows | July 14, 2009Rerun time is over.
Very early Monday morning, a plane touched down, a car drove along a dark and deserted freeway, and my wife and I found ourselves finally back at home. True, we did have a late night diversion to Denny's because we were starving, but by 2 AM or so we were back home. Time to go to bed. Time to go back to work. No more Las Vegas. No more The Amaz!ng Meeting.
Now what?
I probably should have written this yesterday, or on the plane. It's really amazing how fast impressions become memory and memory morphs and fades. But I was simply too tired. I used to be able to adjust to a…
oracknows | July 13, 2009Well, I'm back.
After my trip to TAM7, I'm back in the real world, jet-lagged and tired. So it may take me a while--hopefully only a little while--to get back to my usual prolific output, and there will be something later today. In the meantime, just let me say I really, really wish I had had this T shirt to wear at TAM7:
Well, actually I wish I had a G-rated version of the shirt to wear. I don't generally wear T shirts with profanity on them.
If such a shirt existed, then all I would need to complete my wardrobe would be this one:
That would be a problem, wouldn't it?
oracknows | July 13, 2009I just returned from Las Vegas after having attended The Amazing Meeting. Believe it or not, I was even on a panel! However, my flight was scheduled to arrive very late Sunday night, and I'm still recovering. Consequently, for one more day I'll be reposting some Classic Insolence from the month of July in years past. (After all, if you haven't been following this blog at least a year, it'll be new to you. And if you have I hope you enjoy it again.) This particular post first appeared in July 2007.
The other day, Sid Schwab, surgeon blogger extraordinaire, brought up a question that, I'm…
oracknows | July 12, 2009I've just returned from Las Vegas after having attended The Amazing Meeting.. Believe it or not, I was even on a panel! While I'm gone, However, my flight was scheduled to arrive very late Sunday night, and I'm still recovering. Consequently, for one more day I'll be reposting some Classic Insolence from the month of July in years past. (After all, if you haven't been following this blog at least a year, it'll be new to you. And if you have I hope you enjoy it again.) This particular post first appeared in July 2007.
I really shouldn't do it.
I really shouldn't go perusing the blog of the…
oracknows | July 12, 2009I'm currently in Las Vegas at The Amazing Meeting. Believe it or not, I was even on a panel! While I'm gone, I'll probably manage to do a new post or two, but, in the meantime, while I'm away communing with fellow skeptics at TAM7, I'll be reposting some Classic Insolence from the month of July in years past. (After all, if you haven't been following this blog at least a year, it'll be new to you. And if you have I hope you enjoy it again.) This particular post first appeared in July 2007.
Mike Adams is an idiot.
There, I said it.
Adams runs the NewsTarget website, a repository for all…
oracknows | July 11, 2009I'm back from the Penn & Teller Show at the Rio. It was, as usual, highly entertaining. I haven't seen P&T since sometime in the late 1990s in Chicago, but they're just as good as I remember them.
Next issue: Shy and retiring putz that I am, it never occurred to me that any of my readers might want a meetup until one reader asked me about it yesterday. Perhaps my thoughts were colored by the memory of the couple of times before when I tried to do this with embarrassingly minimal to nonexistent responses. Judging from Twitter, though, there are at least a handful of you out there who,…
oracknows | July 11, 2009I'm currently in Las Vegas at The Amazing Meeting. Believe it or not, I was even on a panel! While I'm gone, I'll probably manage to do a new post or two, but, in the meantime, while I'm away communing with fellow skeptics at TAM7, I'll be reposting some Classic Insolence from the month of July in years past. (After all, if you haven't been following this blog at least a year, it'll be new to you. And if you have I hope you enjoy it again.) This particular post first appeared in July 2008.
I suppose I had better get ready for another e-mail with a wounded, puppy-dog, plaintive complaint of "…
oracknows | July 10, 2009While I'm away communing with fellow skeptics at TAM7, I'm reposting some classic insolence from the month of July in years past. For today, there was really no other choice for what bit of Classic Insolence to repost, except that, today, there's no insolence whatsoever. The reason is that today is a very sad day. It is the one year anniversary of the death of our beloved dog Echo. In 2008, about about three weeks before the day for which this is the one year anniversary, we noticed that Echo was favoring her hind leg. When I looked her over, I noticed a lump, which, thanks to the power of…
oracknows | July 10, 2009I'm currently in Las Vegas anxiously waiting for The Amazing Meeting to start. Believe it or not, I'll even be on a panel later today! While I'm gone, I'll probably manage to do a new post or two, but, in the meantime, while I'm away communing with fellow skeptics at TAM7, I'll be reposting some Classic Insolence from the month of July in years past. (After all, if you haven't been following this blog at least a year, it'll be new to you. And if you have I hope you enjoy it again.) This particular post first appeared in July 2006.
I have to apologize for last week's Dose of Woo. No, I'm not…
oracknows | July 9, 2009I'm currently in Las Vegas anxiously waiting for The Amazing Meeting to start. Believe it or not, I'll even be on a panel later today! While I'm gone, I'll probably manage to do a new post or two (or three), but, in the meantime, while I'm away communing with fellow skeptics at TAM7, I'll be reposting some Classic Insolence from the month of July in years past. (After all, if you haven't been following this blog at least a year, it'll be new to you. And if you have I hope you enjoy it again.) This particular post first appeared in July 2006.
Alright, I admit it.
I went a little overboard…
oracknows | July 9, 2009I'm currently in Las Vegas anxiously waiting for The Amazing Meeting to start. Believe it or not, I'll even be on a panel! While I'm gone, I'll probably manage to do a new post or two, but, in the meantime, while I'm away communing with fellow skeptics at TAM7, I'll be reposting some Classic Insolence from the month of July in years past. (After all, if you haven't been following this blog at least a year, it'll be new to you. And if you have I hope you enjoy it again.) This particular post first appeared in July 2007.
"What do you think about second hand smoke?" he asked me. I sensed…
oracknows | July 9, 2009TAM or no TAM, Vegas or no Vegas, I can't help but mention that one of my favorite bloggers from years past, who shuttered up his blog back in 2007 back when he was with us here at ScienceBlogs, has reopened his Examining Room. Please take a moment to welcome him back to the blogosphere.
Now...back to TAM.
oracknows | July 8, 2009I'm currently in Las Vegas anxiously waiting for The Amazing Meeting to start. Believe it or not, I'll even be on a panel! While I'm gone, I'll probably manage to do a new post or two, but, in the meantime, while I'm away communing with fellow skeptics at TAM7, I'll be reposting some Classic Insolence from the month of July in years past. (After all, if you haven't been following this blog at least a year, it'll be new to you. And if you have I hope you enjoy it again.) This particular post first appeared in July 2008.
Last week, The New York Times started a rather unusual series in its…
oracknows | July 8, 2009Today, I'm leaving for The Amazing Meeting in Las Vegas. I can't wait to get there. Believe it or not, I'll even be on a panel! While I'm there I'll probably manage to do a new post or two, but, in the meantime, while I'm away communing with fellow skeptics at TAM7, I'll be reposting some Classic Insolence from the month of July in years past. (After all, if you haven't been following this blog at least a year, it'll be new to you. And if you have I hope you enjoy it again.) This particular post first appeared in July 2007.
This sort of thing makes one wonder if the personification of…
oracknows | July 7, 2009Almost exactly a year ago, I noted the very sad case of Jeremy LaBrie, an 8 year old autistic child with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma whose mother Kristen withheld his medications and failed to take him to appointments with his oncologist. As a result of his failing to undergo his complete course of chemotherapy, his cancer returned with a vengeance. As of one year ago, his odds of survival were estimated to be no more than 10-20%, after having had a good prognosis when initially diagnosed. At the time, I thought it was entirely appropriate for the state to prosecute Kristen LaBrie for medical…
oracknows | July 6, 2009Blogging is usually such an instant gratification sort of thing. I see a story or hear about something. I write about it. I almost have to. Most stories in the blogosphere have a really short half-life anyway. Wait more than a day or two, and no one cares anymore. Hell, wait more than a few hours in the case of hyperkinetic bloggers like P.Z. will be all over it. However, sometimes it's a good idea to restrain myself, not to leap on something right away even when I can.
This is one of those times.
Last week, I was tipped off by the merry band of anti-vaccine loons over at Age of Autism to a…
oracknows | July 6, 2009It gives me no pleasure to do this, but sometimes even friends let loose with such jaw-droppingly bad arguments that it is impossible for me not to redirect a bit of the old Respectful Insolence in their direction. So it was earlier, when I saw an unreasonable article by an otherwise reasonable guy sneak into my newsfeed. If you want to see an example of a bad analogy, watch Dr. Kevin Pho have at it in a post entitled We've Tried Single Payer Health Care, and It Has Failed.
Quoth Kevin:
Based on an agreement in 1787, the government is responsible to provide free health care to Native Indians…
oracknows | July 6, 2009Two of the major themes on this blog since the very beginning has been the application of science- and evidence-based medicine to the care of patients and why so much of so-called "complementary and alternative" medicine, as well as fringe movements like the anti-vaccine movement, have little or--more commonly--virtually no science to support their claims and recommendations. One major shortcoming of the more commonly used evidence-based medicine paradigm (EBM) that has been in ascendance as the preferred method of evaluating clinical evidence. Specifically, as Dr. Kimball Atwood IV (1, 2, 3…