oracknows | May 23, 2006Grant crunch time again yesterday. That means it's the perfect time once again to dig up something from the archives of old blog and repost it here. This particular piece originally appeared on January 12, 2005, just shy of one month after I started blogging. I'm guessing once again that, because not many people were reading back then, most of you probably haven't seen this before, and that those of you who have probably don't remember it. Once again, I'd be interested in feedback from those who haven't seen this before now that my readership around 10-20 times what it was back then. The only…
oracknows | May 22, 2006Yikes.
Grant crunch time or no grant crunch time, I couldn't let this pass.
This week's host of the Skeptics' Circle, Skeptico, has been one of my favorite skeptical bloggers for a long time now. As a measure of how good he is, he now has a doppleganger blog.
Damn, I'm a bit envious. No one's seen fit to try that with me, other than J. B. Handley's rather pitiful attempt at cybersquatting the domain oracknows.com.
On the other hand, it's a creationist using Skeptico's name. Besides, spouting bogus "critiques" of Darwin (just how tiresome, bogus, and unoriginal, Bronze Dog shows here) this…
oracknows | May 22, 2006Geez, who could have seen this one coming?
Straight from the Discovery Institute's blog regarding atheist and Holocaust denier Larry Darby in reference to his activities against ID in Alabama, Casey Luskin bloviates:
An outspoken opponent of the bill has been activist Larry Darby. Mr. Darby's vehement opposition to the Alabama Academic Freedom Bill was on full display at a House Education hearing back on April 29, 2004. According to reports I have received, committee chair, Rep. Yvonne Kennedy (D), did not allow citizens to testify for the bill. But for some reason she let Mr. Darby alone…
oracknows | May 21, 2006First bad science fiction leads to a cult (Scientology), and now bad epic fantasy follows suit.
Back when I was high school and college, like many that age, I was very fond of epic fantasy. But even I didn't like the Gor novels. How anyone could emulate them so seriously is beyond me.
oracknows | May 21, 2006It's Sunday. Time for silly Internet tests:
Your Blogging Type is Confident and Insightful
You've got a ton of brain power, and you leverage it into brilliant blog.
Both creative and logical, you come up with amazing ideas and insights.
A total perfectionist, you find yourself revising and rewriting posts a lot of the time.
You blog for yourself - and you don't care how popular (or unpopular) your blog is!
What's Your Blogging Personality?
Obviously this test doesn't take Orac's fixation with EneMan and the Hitler Zombie into account!
Whatever my true style is, having done mostly pieces…
oracknows | May 20, 2006The 35th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle is fast approaching. It will be published this Thursday, and the deadline is Wednesday evening.
The host this time is skeptical blogging stalwart Skeptico, and his instructions regarding the deadline and how to submit can be found here. Overall guidelines and the schedule of past and future Skeptics' Circles can be found here.
So hurry up and get your best skeptical blogging to Richard by Wednesday evening and then join him on Thursday for the best examples of skepticism and critical thinking that the blogosphere has to offer.
oracknows | May 19, 2006I've written a lot before about the current President of Iran and his anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial, as well as the religious fanaticism of the regime he leads. Here's more evidence of where theocracy can lead:
While the Iranian economy appears to be heading for recession, one sector may have some reason for optimism. That sector is the garment industry and the reason for hopefulness is a law passed by the Islamic Majlis (parliament) on Monday.
The law mandates the government to make sure that all Iranians wear "standard Islamic garments" designed to remove ethnic and class distinctions…
oracknows | May 19, 2006Damn if PZ didn't beat me to this one:
A federal panel concluded yesterday that there is not enough evidence to recommend for or against use of multivitamins and minerals -- the popular dietary supplements taken by more than half of American adults in the hope of preventing heart disease, cancer and other chronic illnesses.
Americans spend an estimated $23 billion annually on various multivitamins and multi-mineral supplements, the 13-member panel found. One of the latest federally funded national surveys showed that 52 percent of adults reported taking multivitamins. Slightly more than a…
oracknows | May 19, 2006Uh-oh.
Periodically, via Sitemeter, I like to check out what sorts of searches are leading people to my humble blog.
Recently I noticed one coming here from Italy via a Google search for "giant enema." Number two on the search list was this post.
I'm guessing my Seed overlords are probably relieved that the post to which that search led was on my old blog, not the current incarnation of Respectful Insolence. (Or maybe not. After all, traffic is traffic.) Me, I'm curious why someone in Italy is searching the web for giant enemas. Maybe EneMan would like a trip to Europe.
oracknows | May 19, 2006It looks like Orac has acquired a new fan.
You see, yesterday I wrote a rather long fisking of Vox Day. (Don't worry, I'm not going to continue it yet again; this dead horse has clearly been beaten enough). In it, I happened to make a brief mention of and link to an apparent admirer of Vox's who goes by the 'nym of MikeT, who defended Vox's idiotic Holocaust analogy while calling him a "devilishly clever bastard." I found his comments while doing a Technorati search to see what others were saying about Vox's article, and my mention of MikeT was very brief.
This morning, out of curiosity, I…
oracknows | May 19, 2006They may have finished in fourth place with a record of 71-91 last year, but as of this writing, my hometown team the Detroit Tigers have the best record in baseball (27-13) after a seven game winning streak, and we're into the second half of May.
I realize that 6/6/06 is coming up, but this is ridiculous!
I don't know about the rest of you Tigers fans out there, but damn if I'm not starting to believe that these guys just might be for real this year. True, they could be setting me up for a June swoon and a big disappointment, as the Cubs are wont to do to their fans, but for now I might as…
oracknows | May 18, 2006I'm a couple of days late with this, but yesterday I finally got around to checking some of my usual medblogs when I came across some bad news. Medblogging stalward Dr. Sydney Smith (the nom de blog of Medpundit) is hanging up her blogging keyboard for good. She's been at it since 2002 and in that time had become as close to a fixture in the medical blogosphere as anyone can be. By comparison, I started blogging nearly three years after Dr. Smith, in December 2004, and, although I'm not yet considered an old-timer blogger yet (either that, or I'm deluding myself), I'm rapidly approaching that…
oracknows | May 18, 2006Enough, already!
Over the last couple of days, we've had Signs You Might Be an Intelligent Design Critic.
Next, we had You May Be an Intelligent Design Supporter If...
Just remember who got the ball rolling with these silly Jeff Foxworthy-inspired lists way back in January 2005 and updated it shortly after landing here at ScienceBlogs.
Alright, I'm a little envious. I wish I had thought of this list. I guess, though, I'll console myself with the fact that I do have one "You might be an X if..." sort of list to my credit.
And, I have to confess, I found a couple of these amusing, such as, "…
oracknows | May 18, 2006I'm sorry to do this to you again, kind readers, to subject you to Vox Day a second time in the same week. However, I just couldn't let this pass. Hopefully my traffic won't fall precipitously as people turn away in disgust at being subjected to too much Vox, but I have to take that chance. Besides, it is about bad historical analogies regarding the Holocaust and Nazi Germany, which I have a hard time resisting replying to when they're bad enough. In retrospect, I almost wish I had sicced the Hitler Zombie on Vox a couple of days ago, because Vox is showing more and more signs of having had…
oracknows | May 17, 2006This has to be one of the most idiotic laws I've ever heard of. It's so mind-bogglingly unjust that no further comment is really necessary other than that it would have been a minor matter indeed to fix the law so it could achieve its intended purpose (to prevent overcrowding) while not tearing families apart. The City Council had a chance to do just that that and explicitly voted not to.
Afarensis has more.
I tell ya, I have to stop with the political blogging and get back to something medicine-, science-, or skepticism-related. First the atheist Holocaust denier and white supremacist, Fred…
oracknows | May 17, 2006Because I'm lame, I'm posting plugs for these carnivals one to two days late:
1. Grand Rounds, vol. 2, no. 34
2. History Carnival #31
3. RINO Sightings: The 39th Birthday Blues Edition
oracknows | May 17, 2006Dang it all. I'm not a political blogger by nature, but this week I just can't seem to help myself, and getting this e-mailed to me didn't help. I suppose that I can console myself by reminding myself that this is about academic misconduct. I may not be in the social sciences, but certain practices just aren't right regardless of academic specialty.
It turns out that University of Colorado's investigation of allegations of academic misconduct by Ward Churchill (famous for his referring to those in the World Trade Center as "little Eichmanns") has been published, and it's way more scathing…
oracknows | May 16, 2006Once again, our overlords at Seed demand that we answer a question.
No, not "What is your favorite color?" or "What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow"? (To which, of course, everyone knows the answer is "African or European?")
This question:
"Will the "human" race be around in 100 years?"
My answer:
Yes, but sadly I won't.
Next question, please. (Grant writing forces me to be more succinct than usual.)
oracknows | May 16, 2006While I'm being more political than usual, how about one more...
I normally detest Sean Hannity. Basically, he's Rush Limbaugh without the flashes of cleverness or humor. However, this time, he's got it right on. I may be around three or four weeks behind the curve on this, but it's worth looking at the video below of Hannity & Colmes interviewing Shirley Phelps Roper, of the Westboro Baptist Church, a group of religious loonies of God Hates Fags infamy. This is the first time I encountered this video, and, given that none of my fellow SB'ers seems to have mentioned it, I don't feel so…
oracknows | May 16, 2006NOTE (7/27/2016): People have been telling me, based on this post written over ten years ago, how Donald Trump sounds just like Vox Day. It's true. He does. It's also true that the thought of exporting 11-12 million people in 4-8 years is just as ridiculous now as it was ten years ago. I weep that so many in the Republican Party not only take this nonsense seriously but voted for Donald Trump based on a promise very much like what Vox Day described, so many that Donald Trump is now the Republican Party nominee for President. So I added this note. I also note that some of the links are dead…