oracknows | March 22, 2007[Note: The following is based on an aggregation of multiple patients. It does not represent any single patient's case.]
It was a little case.
I know, I know, I've said in the past that there's no such thing as a little operation, at least not when it's happening to you, and that's true. Nonetheless this case was as close to "minor surgery" as you could get while still actually having to wield a scalpel to cut through skin. As I spoke to her before the operation to get informed consent, the patient ran her fingers across her short hair, only now starting to grow back after her having completed…
oracknows | March 21, 2007...like this (explanation here):
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oracknows | March 21, 2007Late yesterday afternoon, I was lazily checking my referral logs to see who might be linking to Respectful Insolenceâ¢, as most bloggers like to do from time to time (and any blogger who claims otherwise is probably feeding you a line), when I noticed a fairly large number of visits coming from one location, namely here. I was wondering when this would happen, but it looks as though the regulars at The DCA Site have finally noticed some of my writing. Surprisingly, what they say about me is not that bad, although that's probably because they seem to have found the least--shall we say?--…
oracknows | March 21, 2007Back in October, I wrote about an appalling case in Germany, in which a German anti-Nazi activist named Juergen Kamm was fined â¬3,600 for selling left-wing garb adorned with modified Swastikas designed to mock neo-Nazis because he ran afoul of a law in Germany that forbids the use of Nazi symbols, regardless of context. It turns out that the appeal recently went to trial, and the ruling demonstrated a degree of common sense that we seldom see coming from the European Union lately, as reported in the Telegraph:
Anti-nazi groups in Germany yesterday won the right to display the swastika after…
oracknows | March 20, 2007Day four and still no answer to the challenge.
I think I agree with some of my readers who've complained about this; I'll cut back on the frequency of reminders to something less than every day...
oracknows | March 20, 2007Although I've been blogging alot about dichloroacetate, the small molecule chemotherapeutic agent that has shown promise against a variety of cancers in preclinical animal tumor models, but I'm not the only one. Fellow ScienceBlogger Abel Pharmboy, whose knowledge of pharmacology surpasses my own, has also been on the case and has produced some articles worth checking out:
The dichloroacetate (DCA) cancer kerfuffleWhere to buy dichloroacetate...Local look at dichloroacetate (DCA) hysteriaEdmonton pharmacist asked to stop selling dichloroacetate (DCA)Four days, four dichloroacetate (DCA)…
oracknows | March 20, 2007The longer I maintain this blog, the more I find unexpected (to me, at least) intersections and relationships between various topics that I write about. Of course, a lot of it simply has to do with the fact that one of the overarching themes of this blog is skepticism and critical thinking, which leads one to seek patterns in various pseudoscience, but sometimes it's a little more interesting than that. For example, a couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about the "individualization" of treatments in "alternative" medicine and how it's largely a sham that alt-med practitioners claim that their…
oracknows | March 19, 2007Two days ago, I posted a challenge to Dr. Egnor and clarified that challenge yesterday.
Thus far, there has been no answer.
I'm still waiting.
oracknows | March 19, 2007I had been planning on blogging about a couple of recent studies identifiying multiple genes that appear to be associated with autism and autism spectrum disorders, thus adding to the body of evidence showing that autism and ASDs have a significant genetic basis as part of their etiology. It turns out, however, that Steve Novella, who also happens to be a neurologist, the Director of the New England Skeptics' Society, and the host of my favorite skeptical podcast, The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, has already beaten me to it, leaving me with little to say.
No big deal. There was so much to…
oracknows | March 19, 2007It figures.
Whenever I go away for a conference, things of interest to me that I'd like to blog about start happening fast and furious. Indeed, I could only deal with one of them, and I chose to post my challenge to the Paleyist "intelligent design" creationist surgeon, Dr. William Egnor. Now that I'm back, I'll deal with the other major issue that's been a frequent topic of blogging over the last couple of months and bubbled up again into the blogosphere over the weekend.
Remember all the posts that I did on dichloroacetate (DCA), the small molecule chemotherapeutic agent that targets the…
oracknows | March 18, 2007I'll be on the road as this posts. However, for your edification, enjoy a tag-team smackdown of some truly ignorant "mercury causes autism" evidence-free handwaving, courtesy of Dad of Cameron and Not Mercury. In keeping with the theme of twos, it's done in two parts, separated by two weeks:
Part 1: A Hot Cup of Jack SquatPart 2: Wagnitz Pours a Second Cup
oracknows | March 18, 2007Yesterday, at the end of a post about the fallacious statements about evolution that Dr. Mike Egnor, a Professor of Neurosurgery, has been routinely serving up at the Discovery Institute, I made a challenge. I think I'll repeat it daily for a while until we see if he's up to answering it. It should be a very easy challenge for him to meet, given the number of times that he has made the two assertions that I plan to challenge him about.
Here are the two assertions that Dr. Egnor has made on more than one occasion, but most recently on Friday, and I'll quote him directly:
In fact, most research…
oracknows | March 17, 2007Reflexology, as you may know, is the pseudoscientific "alternative medicine" modality whose central dogma is that each body part or organ maps to a certain place on the feet or hands and that by pressing on those locations on the feet (for example), the reflexologist can have a therapeutic effect. The question, however, is: Why the feet? I mean, why not other parts of the body? For example, there's a part of the body that's larger than the feet, and mapping different parts of the body to it makes just as much sense as mapping them to the feet. I'm referring to butt reflexology (warning:…
oracknows | March 17, 2007Agh!
I say: Agh! Again.
Remember how it was just a mere three days ago that I administered some Respectful Insolence⢠to Dr. Michael Egnor, the Energizer Bunny of jaw-droppingly, appallingly ignorant anti-evolution posturing based on his apparently nonexistent understanding of what the theory of evolution actually says? Remember how I said how much I sincerely hoped that I could ignore him for a while? I really did mean it at the time.
Really, I did.
And then Afarensis and Mike Dunford had to and let me know that Dr. Egnor's at it yet again.
Dr. Egnor just won't stop, and as a fellow surgeon…
oracknows | March 16, 2007Continuing Orac's quest for truly stupid quotes from The 365 Stupidest Things Ever Said calendar, this time a couple of tasty stupid morsels about free speech:
Here's entry number 1, from the February 17, 2007 entry in the calendar:
"We forbid any course that says we restrict free speech!"--Dr. Kathleen Dixon, Director of Women's Studies at Bowling Green State University, Ohio, commenting on the resignation of Dr. Richard Zeller, who wanted to teach a course in how liberalism has led to political correctness.
Here's entry number 2, from the July 4, 2001 entry:
"What we have is two important…
oracknows | March 16, 2007Ah, yes, Washington, DC.
That's where I am right now, deep in the belly of the government beast, attending the meeting of The Society of Surgical Oncology. It's usually a great meeting, except for the distressing tendency of surgeons here to act, well, too much like surgeons. For example, consider when the very first session today, which happened to be about my area of interest breast cancer, started. Was it 8 AM? No. 7 AM? No.
It was 6 AM.
I kid you not. 6 AM in the freakin' morning! The week after the switchover to Daylight Savings Time, yet! There was a time when I used to actually get up…
oracknows | March 15, 2007If not, then American Medical Student Association's got it for you, all in a nice, compact 15 page pocket manual. True, there's some standard advice about diet and some useful information about herbal remedies, but there's the now usual (from AMSA, anyway) credulous treatment of all sorts of woo, including homeopathy, Reiki, fasting, vitamin supplements, reflexology, and naturopathy. All the woo you need to know, all in a little manual you can stuff in the pocket of your labcoat.
(Hat tip, as is usual for AMSA-related woo, to Dr. R.W.)
oracknows | March 15, 2007You may recall Dr. Lorraine Day, the former Chief of Orthopedic Surgery at San Francisco General Hospital in the 1980's who, after developing breast cancer, became a consummate altie, selling various dubious "natural, alternative therapies for all diseases, including cancer and AIDS." Somewhere along the line, sadly, she also became a rabid anti-Semite and Holocaust denier. I've had an interest in her conspiracy-mongering for a while now, because she's the perfect storm of two of my biggest interests: "alternative medicine" and Holocaust denial. I used to refer to her as purveying both…
oracknows | March 14, 2007it's that time again! The 56th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle has been posted over at Science Natura. Join Shalini as she tries to avoid the credulity of the masses, with varying degrees of success.
Next up is fellow ScienceBlogger Martin at Aardvarchaeology for the next time around on March 29. Start getting your skeptical articles ready and join us there in a fortnight.
Finally, if you're interested in hosting sometime, check out the schedule and guidelines and what is involved in hosting, and then drop me a line at oracknows@gmail.com.
oracknows | March 14, 2007...over at the latest Tangled Bank, hosted over at Living the Scientific Life.
Enjoy!