oracknows | March 4, 2009As this posts I should be on an airplane winging its way to much warmer climes than where I reside in order to attend the Society of Surgical Oncology 62nd Annual Cancer Symposium. There, in Phoenix, I will eagerly absorb all the latest and greatest knowledge in the realm of cancer surgery, commune with friends whom I often don't see more than once every year or two at this meeting, and, hopefully, drink much good beer.
I'll likely still be blogging, but if I'm learning too much or having too much fun, you may see a couple of reruns again. As for any sort of meetups, I don't know if I'll have…
oracknows | March 4, 2009If there's' one theme, one cause, that this blog has emphasized throughout the four years of its existence and the three years of its having resided on ScienceBlogs, it's been to champion science- and evidence-based medicine over pseudoscience and quackery. Whether it's refuting the lies of antivaccine zealots, having a little fun with some of the more outrageously bizarre forms of pseudoscience, railing against cancer quackery, lamenting how easily pseudoscientific quackery has infiltrated medical academia, complaining about drug companies rigging clinical studies, or trying to educate my…
oracknows | March 3, 2009Yesterday, I wrote about Senator Tom Harkin's (D-IA) little woo-fest in the Senate's Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, which he called Integrative Care: A Pathway to a Healthier Nation. I and a lot of the rest of the medical blogosphere (such as PalMD, Val Jones, and Tufted Titmouse) shook our heads in disbelief and disgust at Harkin's statement (video here) about the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM):
One of the purposes of this center was to investigate and validate alternative approaches. Quite frankly, I must say publicly that it has…
oracknows | March 2, 2009The Tufted Titmouse explains in a spot-on parody of Senator Harkin's statement to his Senate panel.
I'm tellin' ya, "integrative" reporting is the wave of the future, just like "integrative" medicine.
oracknows | March 2, 2009Over the weekend, some readers sent me a link to a story that, presumably, they thought would be of interest to me, given that I graduated from the University Michigan Medical School back in the late 1980s. Specifically, it's a report that U. of M. has halted the use of dogs in its surgical training:
Surgeons training at the University of Michigan Health System will no longer use live, healthy dogs to learn drastic surgical procedures that can save people's lives, the university announced Thursday.
The anesthetized animals -- obtained from shelters -- were used to teach tracheotomies, how to…
oracknows | March 1, 2009Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) owes me a new irony meter.
I'll explain in a minute, but first you have to know why I even give a rodent's posterior about Harkin. As you may recall, no single legislator in the U.S. has done more to damage the cause of science- and evidence-based medicine than Tom Harkin. It was through his efforts that the National Institutes of Health, despite the fact that its scientists were not agitating for it, had the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) rammed down its throat, first as the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM) and then, when…
oracknows | March 1, 2009I can't argue with that:
I'd mention that the same thing applies to nerd boys. I know, given that I used to be one and now, thirty years on, remain arguably a nerd man.
(Via Stupid Evil Bastard)
(Yeah, I know I basically took the weekend off, posting only a couple of videos. Don't worry, the usual insolence will return tomorrow. I was just a bit tired after all the brouhaha we had here last week with certain antivaccinationists.)
oracknows | February 28, 2009Why? Because I feel like it. For example, there are times I've felt like this:
Except that maybe I should sing a version called "I'm Afraid of Antivaccinationists." Nahhh. Instead let's go back. Way back:
oracknows | February 27, 2009It's a little late, but better late than never! Skeptics Circle #106 finally landed last night over at Disillusioned Words. Jeff Stingerstein lays it all out in a "just the facts, m'am" manner that demonstrates that, for all the fantastically creative and wild formats that prior hosts have used to present the last fortnight's skepticism, sometimes the straightforward is just as satisfying--especially given the quality of this edition's entries.
Next up in two weeks will be Skeptics' Field Guide. Start revving up your skeptical keyboards and supply Jeff and Theo with the material they need to…
oracknows | February 27, 2009Let's try this again.
Two days ago, I tried to get away from blogging about antivaccinationists. I even succeeded for one day. Unfortunately, that was all, because J.B. Handley and his crew of antivaccine loons cooked up a really big, really deceptive, and really desperate gambit that just couldn't go unremarked upon. Thus was I sucked back in again. Even worse, this all came hot on the heels of a very sad time in the lives of my wife and myself. I needed something to lift my spirits.
And nothing lifts one's spirits quite like fine, grade-A woo.
Or perhaps I need my bio-photons analyzed with…
oracknows | February 26, 2009Busted!
All right, I give up. Since I've been sucked into the whole vaccine thing again after only one day away, I might as well highlight this simultaneously amusing and depressing tidbit. Earlier today, I wrote about a coordinated attack by the antivaccine movement on the Autism Omnibus decision two weeks ago. Given that it involved Generation Rescue, Jim Carrey, Jenny McCarthy, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Deirdre Imus and her eirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology, the Huffington Post, Age of Autism, and various other antivaccine activists, I thought it pretty obvious that…
oracknows | February 26, 2009"Just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in."
At least, that's what Michael Corleone said in The Godfather, Part 3, and even though I'm not a mafia don, I can sort of relate to where he's coming from, if you know what I mean. It seems that whenever I try to get away from blogging about the nigh infinite level of stupidity and pseudoscience that emanates from the disease promotion movement (i.e., the antivaccine movement), it seems as though they somehow find a way to pull me back in. Of course, I'd rather like to think of myself as the reluctant gunslinger pulled out of retirement…
oracknows | February 25, 2009Over the last few days, it seems to me, I've been blogging so much about antivaccine lunacy that I was beginning to wonder whether I should rename the blog "Respectfully Insolent Antivaccine Slapdowns." As good as it's been to dwell on seeing the antivaccine movement suffer two major setbacks in 2009 even before we've reached the end of February, it's time to move on for a while; that is, unless the antivaccine movement does or writes something stupid enough to tempt my attention back. In the meantime, as I get back into the swing of blogging again, I haven't yet gone through my pile of…
oracknows | February 24, 2009I realize that PZ seems to have all the fun when it comes to entertaining e-mails from cranks, but that doesn't mean I don't sometimes get my share of such amusement. For example, yesterday, waiting for me in the morning in my e-mail in box was this delightful gem:
From: jockdoubleday@hotmail.com
Subject: the dark force behind the global crisis
Date: February 23, 2009 12:29:07 AM GMT-05:00
To: jockdoubleday@hotmail.com
To friends of life on Earth,
There is a dark force working to undermine all ecosystems on Earth.
This force is a trans-century cult that calls itself the Illuminati -- because…
oracknows | February 24, 2009Alright, I know that, after yesterday's epic post (which was long even by Orac-ian standards), I said that I was going to try to get away from vaccine blogging for a while. I lied. Well, not really. At that time I really did mean it. But then I came across something that I just couldn't leave alone.
Regular readers of this blog know my opinion of Andrew Wakefield, namely that he is a fraud, a quack, a charlatan, and a danger to the health of autistic children and public health in general. There is, as documented in my post and elsewhere, abundant evidence to support my opinion. But apparently…
oracknows | February 23, 2009It's almost here. In fact, it'll be here in a mere three days, and I've been remiss. But it's still not too late to submit your best skeptical work to Jeff, the next host of the Skeptics' Circle, to be held on Thursday at Disillusioned Words. So please, don't let the fact that I was away for a week and that I haven't yet caught up with tasks, both at work and on the blog, that need to be done penalize Jeff.
oracknows | February 23, 2009One thing that's become apparent to me so far in 2009 is that, while 2008 was the year of the antivaccinationist, 2009 is already shaping up to be a very bad year for antivaccinationists. A very bad year indeed, and this is a very, very good thing--if it can be sustained.
But first, let's take a look at last year. In 2008, Jenny McCarthy was the new and fresh celebrity face of the movement that believes that autism and all manner of other neurodevelopmental disorders are caused by vaccines and that the government and big pharma are suppressing The Truth. She had emerged in the fall of 2007…
oracknows | February 22, 2009From Canada, via Phil Plait, because in my current state I need a good laugh right about now. I'm also working on a rather large post for tomorrow about Andrew Wakefield and the Autism Omnibus, after which I hope to move on to other topics for a while. Nothing like getting back into the swing of things!
oracknows | February 21, 2009I don't know what "scuzz-wo" means, but I agree that Andrew Wakefield is one. My only nit to pick is that the puppet flirts a little too close to conflating the thimerosal scare with the MMR scare. There never was any thimerosal in the MMR vaccine. But that's just a nit, and as a blogger it's my job to pick it.
First Stephen Colbert takes on Jenny McCarthy. Now, a puppet eviscerates Andrew Wakefield. He is nothing but a joke now.
You know, though, the puppet Stephen Colbert's description of Jenny McCarthy reminds me of her son's doctor, if you know what I mean:
"Now sure, she's not the kind…