oracknows | September 11, 2007Jake over at Pure Pedantry pointed the way to an article in Science that I hadn't seen yet because of my absence. Just like yesterday's topic, this one too is right up my alley. Specifically, it's about something near and dear to my heart, namely the trials and tribulations of being a physician-scientist. The article paints a rather grim picture, with the observation that, although most MD/PhD's would like to remain researchers, many are dropping out in order to become straight clinicians, clinical instructors at medical schools, or industry researchers. Jake's commentary is certainly worth…
oracknows | September 10, 2007
Today is the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. A couple of years ago, I wrote an extended take on the attacks and what I thought about them. I encourage you to read it, either for the first time or again. Two years later, I don't have much to add other than to note that I've seen several stories in the press expressing concern that Americans are forgetting the the attacks or not paying sufficient reverence to the fallen anymore.
This story, for example, appeared in a New Jersey newspaper over the weekend:
In Westfield, weeds have taken over the brick walkways around the 9/11 memorial…
oracknows | September 10, 2007Way back when I first started my blog, one of my favorite blogs was A Photon in the Darkness, in which Prometheus regularly demolished quackery, particularly autism-related quackery. Sadly, Prometheus' blogging has become more and more sporadic over the last year or so, with gaps sometimes longer than a month between posts. I was worried that he might be retiring permanently from the blogosphere. That would be a great loss.
Recently, however, Prometheus has been a bit more active. In fact, he's even moved his blog to a new location: http://www.photoninthedarkness.com. Moreover, he's recently…
oracknows | September 10, 2007Sadly (with regards to vacation) and not-so-sadly (with regards to the events of last week), it's time to dive headlong back into the "real world" at work, starting with clinic today. It also means it's time to get back to my favorite hobby (blogging) in a much more regular way, although I will say that a relatively prolonged break from the blog was good, and my traffic only suffered mildly for it. I may have to do it more often, if only to keep things fresher.
One of the tasks that confronted me this weekend as I got ready to face a full week back at work was to try to catch up on all the…
oracknows | September 9, 2007The Secular Outpost informs me of the existence of a brand new Jack Chick tract. I don't know if it truly is new or not, but it does have its copyright listed as 2007. This time around, Jack is explaining why the dinosaurs really died out. (Hint: It wasn't some big nasty meteor millions of years ago.) It starts out with humans hunting a dinosaur and degenerates from there.
(Click on the picture for the full tract.)
This was so silly that at first I thought it must be a parody. But then I remembered: This is Jack Chick we're talking about here. I will say one thing, though. The picture of…
oracknows | September 9, 2007I don't know why, but I found this endlessly fascinating. Just click on one, and watch what happens. Do it again, and it gets even more complicated.
Well, it's good for a few minutes' diversion, anyway.
oracknows | September 9, 2007Kevin Leitch informs me that DAN/ARI are asking people to leave a message for Andrew Wakefield.
Yes, that Andrew Wakefield, the man who almost single-handedly started a scare over the MMR vaccine, the man who was paid by lawyers and was either so clueless, careless, and/or dishonest (take your pick) that the lab where he did his research where he "found" measles RNA sequences in the guts of autistic children didn't do even the most basic controls to eliminate false positives.
Not surprisingly, essentially all the messages are nauseatingly supportive and full of praise. Here's a sample:
Thank…
oracknows | September 8, 2007More random weekend chatter...
If a big time Doctor Who fan visits London, what is it that he brings back as souvenirs? Well, I had wanted to bring back a large radio-controlled Dalek to harass my wife with, but I just couldn't figure out how we would get it back on the plane, and I didn't want to spend big bucks to ship it home across the Atlantic Ocean. So, I had to be more modest.
For example, there's this to start out with:
Naturally, when you use it to open a bottle, it cries out "EXTERMINATE!" (That'll discourage you from opening that extra bottle of beer, won't it?)
Then, what die-…
oracknows | September 8, 2007Friday afternoon, 2 PM.
In my current frame of mind, some things strike me as perhaps more bizarre than they would have normally. This is one such incident.
After vacation, arriving back from vacation only to turn around to have to head to Ohio for a funeral, and having to be in the operating room on Thursday, Friday was the first day since mid-August when I had very little scheduled. Consequently, it allowed me the first opportunity to sit down and figure out exactly what the heck I needed to do to get back to work and to get my research rolling. I met with my postdoc and had him show me all…
oracknows | September 7, 2007Hot on the heels of the first Orac-free Skeptics' Circle in two years, amazingly, another Skeptics' Circle is coming around the pike far faster than I would have expected. This time around, it will be hosted by a most able blogger, Brent Rasmussen over at the very prominent skeptical blog, Unscrewing the Unscrutable. Brent's hosted once before, but that was over two years ago. I'm glad to have him back hosting and hope that he doesn't take such a long time before hosting yet again. In any case, Brent's posted instructions for submitting your best skeptical blogging to his edition of the…
oracknows | September 7, 2007
I debated about whether to do Your Friday Dose of Woo this week.
I really wasn't sure if I was up to it. As regular readers know, I was on vacation in London during the last week in August. Unfortunately, I returned to the news of a death in the family on my wife's side, making the last few days a seriously saddening time. I even tried to keep blogging through it as a release to take my mind off of things, but, as the last two days showed, I reached the point where that didn't work anymore. I guess it's a good thing there's still quite a bit of stuff to be mined from the old blog archives…
oracknows | September 6, 2007Due to a death in the family, I have to go back into the vaults of the old blog for some more reposts. Regular blogging should resume in a day or two. This particular post first appeared on January 13, 2006.
A couple of days ago, I took a bit of issue with Kevin, MD for an off-handed remark he had made welcoming us academic physicians "to the real world" in response to an article about how demoralized and depressed young academicians have become due to the increasing encroachment of financial pressures and demands to generate more clinical income. I gently pointed out to him that we have been…
oracknows | September 6, 2007Due to a death in the family, I have to go back into the vaults of the old blog for some more reposts. Regular blogging should resume in a day or two. This particular post first appeared on February 1, 2006.
Here's something I wish there was more of, the criminal prosecution of quacks when their quackery results in the death of a patient:
A man who called himself a naturopathic doctor is scheduled to stand trial for the death of one of his patients starting Tuesday in Jefferson County District Court in Golden, Colo.
Brian O'Connell, 37, was charged with manslaughter after he unsuccessfully…
oracknows | September 5, 2007Due to a death in the family, I have to go back into the vaults of the old blog for some more reposts. Regular blogging should resume in a day or two. This particular post first appeared on January 11, 2006.
I sort of feel as though I was being picked on over the last couple of days, while I've been a bit preoccupied. No, not me personally, but academic physicians in general. Actually, it's a bit lonely being an academic physician with a laboratory and a practice blogging. I have yet to encounter another one, although there are plenty of doctors who blog, as any brief perusal of my right…
oracknows | September 5, 2007Due to a death in the family, I have to go back into the vaults of the old blog for some more reruns. Regular blogging should resume in a day or two This particular post first appeared on June 16, 2005.
One of the overarching themes of this blog has been skepticism in the claims of alternative medicine. Consequently, a recurring type of post has been the debunking of some claim or other made by the proponents of alternative medicine. Sometimes debunking these claims is like shooting fish in a barrel, allowing for humorous play with the concept, and sometimes the claims are a bit harder to…
oracknows | September 4, 2007While I've been having a little fun with homeopathy today, I thought I'd show you just one other thing about the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital. Directly in front of the hospital, I noticed some words on the street. After taking a closer look, I was shocked and horrified. Take a look for yourself:
If you can't tell what all of the lettering says, it reads:
AMBULANCES ONLY KEEP CLEAR
It's an ambulance spot right in front of the Homeopathic Hospital. I really hope that these are only elective transports. I can't imagine emergency transports to a homeopathic hospital. Well, actually, I can…
oracknows | September 4, 2007A couple of weeks ago, before I went on vacation, the BBC aired a two-part documentary by Richard Dawkins entitled The Enemies of Reason. Part One dealt primarily with the paranormal and various New Age phenomena, while Part Two, which aired mere days before my London trip, dealt squarely with alternative medicine in an uncompromising fashion. One key segment of Part Two discussed the bizarre magical thinking that is known as homeopathy. Although I quibbled a bit about certain aspects of how Dawkins presented homeopathy, overall I thought it was the best deconstruction on video of the…
oracknows | September 3, 2007John is sick and tired of antievolutionists. Who can blame him? As he points out, they are utterly immune to evidence or reason:
I was wrong. Very wrong. Information isn't what makes people change their minds. Experience is, and generally nobody has much experience of the facts of biology that underwrite evolution. The so-called "deficit model" of the public understanding of science, which assumes that all they need is more information, is false.
I could also point out that this is the very reason that alternative medicine to this day so regularly trumps scientific, evidence-based medicine in…
oracknows | September 3, 2007Continuing the wind-down from vacation... (Don't worry; the Orac-ian magnum opus-style posts will return whenever I manage to work my way back up to them again. Besides, it's a holiday; do you really want to read one of my rants today?)
One of the cool things about wandering around London was hearing and seeing the differences in language use between Britain and the U.S., differences which led to the famous saying about America and Britain being two nations divided by a common language, a quote that has been attributed at various times to Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, or even Winston…
oracknows | September 2, 2007An excellent op-ed article by Michael Fitzpatrick characterizes quite well the hysterical fear based on no evidence that Andrew Wakefield and his accomplices started in the U.K. over the MMR vaccine and the unfounded claim that it causes autism and bowel disorders:
The rise of a combination of extreme scepticism towards established sources of authority in science and medicine and anxiety about environmental threats to our wellbeing has led many to put their faith in self-proclaimed mavericks and alternative healers and charlatans. The recent outbreaks of measles, which resulted last year in…