oracknows | December 29, 2008I've been meaning to write about this topic for quite a while but never really found a reason to. Indeed, this one's been floating around in the back of my mind for a long time. Perhaps one reason is that it's hard for a surgeon to write about this topic without coming off sounding like an old fart, a curmudgeon, unhappy about change and thinking that a system that was good enough for me must sure as hell be good enough for the current generation of residents. In fact, even after seeing an article that normally would have spurred me to write about this topic more than two weeks ago, I stored…
oracknows | December 28, 2008I rarely blog about sports, but I'll make an exception for today, given that football history is likely to be made later this afternoon. I'm not much of a football fan, at least not of professional football. These days, the games take even longer than a baseball game and all too often lack the excitement of even that.
Especially when it's the Detroit Lions playing.
Of course, even though my interest in pro football is relatively weak, I do take in a game from time to time, and I still have a soft spot in my heart for my hometown team, despite their two decades of futility and never having…
oracknows | December 27, 2008An oddly racist commercial, or just bizarre? You be the judge:
Oddly Racist Commercial - watch more funny videos
oracknows | December 26, 2008...more not-so-Respectful Insolence, courtesy not of Orac this time but of other skeptical physician-bloggers!
Enjoy:
Smackdown, please (yes, Egnor, I'm talking to you) (by blog bud PalMD)
Defending science-based medicine (by skeptical neurologist Dr. Steve Novella, who's been known to spar a bit with Dr. Egnor himself over evolution and neuroscience)
Egnorance is Bliss (by Dr. Kimball Atwood IV)
oracknows | December 26, 2008Welcome back. I hope you and yours who celebrate Christmas have had a happy one. Ours was kind of mixed and bittersweet for reasons that I don't particularly feel like going into now, although sooner or later I will probably have to say something about it. In the meantime, as much as I hate to be a downer right after the holidays, when many of my readers have the day off and are looking forward to hanging out with family or friends or maybe attacking the Boxing Day sales in the U.K. or just the sales in the U.S. and elsewhere. However, just before the holidays and shortly before I gave a…
oracknows | December 25, 2008To wish you happy holidays, here's a perfect carol to sum up the pile of crap that was the latter half of 2008:
I had never heard of the Loomis Agency before, but it must not be doing too bad if it has the excess money to produce this. Either that, or its workers don't have anything better to do in the downturn. Still, it's pretty cool.
In a more traditional vein:
I know, I know, I posted it last year. But I don't care. I love that video. David Bowie and Bing Crosby sound so good together.
oracknows | December 25, 2008Continued from Christmas last year...
Well, if I were Santa, I'd be scared too if this guy sat on my lap:
You didn't think Christmas could pass without our old friend making an appearance, did you? Yes, our blog mascot can be a bit scary at times to those who have not met him before, but as you can see he's really into the Christmas spirit:
Here's hoping you and yours have a Merry Christmas. From EneMan.
Just be glad our other blog mascot hasn't been particularly active in 2008.
oracknows | December 24, 2008It's Christmas Eve.
I know, I know, it's all supposed to be Peace On Earth, Good Will Towards Men (and Women), and all that jazz. Really, that's exactly what I had intended for today and tomorrow. Indeed, my plan was to do nothing more than a quickie post today and a maybe a couple of brief (and hopefully amusing) Christmas-related posts this afternoon and tomorrow. Really, I had.
Then it came, and it came from a direction that I least expected. Yes, yet another "old friend" of the blog had to go and and not just ask but beg for a heapin' helpin' of not-so-Respectful Insolence. My readers…
oracknows | December 23, 2008Of all the forms of quackery out there, the "energy healing" methods and "faith healing" methods have to be the most ridiculous. After all, the claims of "healers" using such modalities, when boiled down to their very essence, are nothing less (and nothing more) than claiming the ability to do magic. Indeed, "energy healing" involves the claim of being able to manipulate "life energies" undetectable by science for therapeutic intent using either ritualistic hand motions or the inscribing of symbols in the air (reiki), concentration and the laying on of hands (therapeutic touch, reiki, and…
oracknows | December 23, 2008I'm happy to say, I've never watched an episode of The Doctors, at least if the episode segment I've just been sent is any indication of the quality of the science and medicine discussed on the TV show. The episode, which aired on December 11, featured a segment on autism featuring an old "friend" of the blog. The fact that he was featured on a television show ostensibly designed to discuss medicine and make it accessible to a general audience tells me that not only the producers but the physicians who do the show are utterly without a clue. No, it wasn't J.B. Handley or Jenny McCarthy, but…
oracknows | December 22, 2008The zombie has arisen once again to eat the brains of the Air Force.
I'm referring to so-called "battlefield acupuncture," a topic that I wrote about last week for this very blog. I didn't think there'd be a reason to revisit the subject again so soon, but I was wrong for three reasons. First, I remain appalled at how one ideologue, Col. (Dr.) Richard Niemtzow, a radiation oncologist and Air Force physician turned woo-meister-in-chief and number one advocate of acupuncture use in the military, has succeeded in introducing acupuncture into not only formerly hard-nosed and science-based…
oracknows | December 22, 2008Why does anyone listen to actors when they pontificate about health and medical issues?
Think about it. What is it that actors do? They read lines given to them. True, some have a talent that goes beyond that; they can actually write or direct. But few of them have any more abilities when it comes to science than the average populace. Indeed, arguably, they have less knowledge of science than average. Witness, for instance, Jenny McCarthy and her crusade against vaccines. Yes, I realize that she claims not to be "antivaccine," but her actions and words say otherwise. She's also managed to…
oracknows | December 21, 2008As much as I'd love to take credit, the postponement of the appearance of Jenny McCarthy and J.B. Handley on Larry King Live! originally scheduled for last night had nothing to do with me. Really. The cancellation was apparently announced shortly after my post appeared, leaving no time for it to have had an effect. Heck, for all I know the cancellation had occurred before I posted and I just hadn't noticed.
Despite all the insinuations of dire conspiracies in the comments of the Age of Autism post on the cancellation, it's far more likely that Larry King probably just didn't want to work on…
oracknows | December 20, 2008The other day, I had a bit of fun with an "old friend," namely J. B. Handley, founder of the antivaccine organization Generation Rescue and now third banana on the antivaccine front to Jenny McCarthy and her boy-toy Jim Carrey. Displeased at my little jabs, he showed up in the comments spewing his usual antivaccine canards and misinformation about various studies before, like Brave Sir Robin, turning his tale to flee, bragging that he was "off to do another interview."
Now I know what "interview" he's heading off to. Forwarded to me was this e-mail:
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 20th
Join Generation…
oracknows | December 19, 2008I'm a connoisseur of woo.
It's true. Back when I first started blogging, I came across outrageous bits of pseudoscience such as the ones I feature periodically on Your Friday Dose of Woo, and I wasn't sure quite what to do with them. Indeed, I had a hard time deciding if some of them were massive Sokal-type hoaxes or evenif the person writing them really believed in them. Of course, I had a lot of fun taking them on. How could I not? After all, what else can one make of something like, for example, DNA Activation or "healing sounds," or even for that matter that unholy alliance of…
oracknows | December 18, 2008'Tis a bittersweet moment.
On the one hand, I am happy that the 102nd Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle has landed over at Bing McGhandi's place. Not only is it chock full of excellent skeptical blogging, but the story is amusing, as evidenced by this little taste:
BM: Next, Orac from Respectful Insolence has sent you a warning about Dr. Egnor, the intelligent design advocate and friend of the Discovery Institute.
RB: I know all about this Dr. Egnor. I intend to make him Surgeon [bleeping] General when I become President in 2016!
Oh, but who is RB, this evil incarnate who would appoint Dr.…
oracknows | December 18, 2008You may have noticed that I've been laying off the antivaccination movement recently. Indeed, it's been over two weeks since I last mentioned the topic, and then I only did so by briefly citing a post by Steve Novella. For this blog, aside from vacations, that has to be a record.
Truth be told, periodically I get really burned out on the topic, as I've pointed out from time to time. I frequently make jokes about the thermonuclearly burning stupid that regularly emanates from such "luminaries" of the antivaccine movement as Jenny McCarthy, David Kirby, Dan Olmsted, J. B. Handley, and others.…
oracknows | December 17, 2008I had always suspected that this is what was really going on:
Actually, it would have been a lot more fun if this had been what really happened.
oracknows | December 17, 2008Having been sucked into the blogosphere for over four years now and having gotten the majority of my news online or from newsmagazines or the New York Times, I frequently forget that I'm not like the vast majority of people. Neither, I daresay, are my fellow ScienceBloggers or my readers. We don't get our information from the same sources, and we tend towards a lot more scientific sophistication than the average American. This is not to brag or to claim superiority; it is simply an observation that may help explain to some extent why those of us in the science blogosphere have a hard time…
oracknows | December 16, 2008When confronted with skeptics who refuse to stay silent in the face of quackery--I'm sorry, "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM), a large proportion of which is unproven if not outright quackery--shruggies frequently ask, "What's the harm?" I can reply that so many of these modalities are no more than elaborate placebos reinforced with magical thinking. I can explain why science- and evidence-based medicine is superior. I can even point out that the blandishments of quacks all too frequently convince people to forego or delay effective medical therapy, allowing them to become sicker…