oracknows

Profile picture for user oracknows
David Gorski

Orac is the nom de blog of a humble surgeon/scientist who has an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his copious verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few probably will. That surgeon is otherwise known as David Gorski. That Orac has chosen his nom de blog based on a rather cranky and arrogant computer shaped like a clear box of blinking lights that he originally encountered when he became a fan of a 30 year old British SF television show whose special effects were renowned for their BBC/Doctor Who-style low budget look, but whose stories nonetheless resulted in some of the best, most innovative science fiction ever televised, should tell you nearly all that you need to know about Orac. (That, and the length of the preceding sentence.)

DISCLAIMER: The various written meanderings here are the opinions of Orac and Orac alone, written on his own time. They should never be construed as representing the opinions of any other person or entity, especially Orac's cancer center, department of surgery, medical school, or university. Also note that Orac is nonpartisan; he is more than willing to criticize the statements of anyone, regardless of of political leanings, if that anyone advocates pseudoscience or quackery. Finally, medical commentary is not to be construed in any way as medical advice.

To contact Orac: oracknows@gmail.com

Posts by this author

August 4, 2008
Remember how I mentioned last Friday that the ScienceBlogs Reader Meetup is scheduled for 2 to 4 PM on Saturday, August 9 at the Arthur Ross Terrace at the American Museum of Natural History? There's apparently been a change in plans. Don't worry; it's not canceled, but apparently the venue is…
August 4, 2008
It's happened again, only this time it's escalated. Sadly, this escalation was predictable. Remember back in February, when I discussed how animal rights terrorists had been harassing a researcher at the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC)? At the time, protesters attempted a home invasion…
August 4, 2008
I've lamented time and time again how much woo has managed to infiltrate academic medicine, even to the point where prestigious medical schools such as Harvard and Yale have fallen under its sway. I've even gone so far as to lament that resistance is futile when it comes to the rising tide of woo…
August 3, 2008
I realize half the world has probably seen this, given that it's been making the rounds on the Internet last week, but it amused me to no end: http://view.break.com/293055 - Watch more free videos Don't mess with Leonardo. Or is it Leonardo? Or Raphael? Or Donatello? No doubt this little guy is…
August 2, 2008
It's Saturday, and what better way to spend it than in front of the computer? Who cares if it's sunny and in the low 80s, temperature-wise? Why would you care about that when there's so much great blogging about science, specifically cancer research, at the latest installment of the 12th Edition of…
August 1, 2008
I mentioned last week that I was going to be in New York the weekend of August 9, the better to commune with my fellow Borg at the Cube (no, not that cube, although I may have to make a stop there too) in Manhattan known as Seed Media Group. As part of the festivities, our benevolent overlords at…
August 1, 2008
For those out there who think it was "beneath" me to have responded to PhysioProf's rants about doctors and medical students last week, I present to you Steve Novella's take on the matter. Leave it to Steve to generalize the issue beyond my relatively narrow take on the matter. I also point out…
August 1, 2008
Remember how on Monday I posted a dissection of some truly execrable reporting on vaccines and potential conflicts of interest (COIs) by Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News that aired one week ago today? As you may recall, my main point was that Attkisson's reporting was lazy, describing nothing that…
July 31, 2008
It's that time again, the time that comes around once a fortnight for skeptical bloggers and blog readers to gather together to celebrate that best that skeptics have had to offer since the last time they gathered. It's time for the 92nd Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle. This time, it's hosted by…
July 31, 2008
Has it really been a whole year? The longer I blog, the faster time seems to fly. Or maybe it's just because I'm getting older. Whatever the case, you may (or may not) recall that about a year ago I got into a little tussle with a certain Libertarian comic and some smoking cranks over the issue of…
July 30, 2008
Sadly, I haven't seen any good pareidolia stories lately, you know, stories in which someone, usually Jesus, Mary, or the Pope (or sometimes Elvis, who, let's face it, is basically the same thing as Jesus, Mary, or the Pope), shows up as a seeming image on some sort of object or other. It can be…
July 30, 2008
I've been a bit remiss in my duty toward a fellow ScienceBlogger. No doubt a few were wondering (or maybe not), why I, as the resident breast cancer expert here, didn't point out that my fellow ScienceBlogger Janet live-blogged her very first screening mammogram last week. Truth be told, I had…
July 30, 2008
With all the negativity around this blog lately, thanks to the continued moronic antics of the anti-vaccine contingent, which have irritated me more than they do usually, so much so that I can't recall a time since Jenny McCarthy's "Green Our Vaccine" anti-vaccination-fest nearly two months ago…
July 29, 2008
I just can't escape them. Even when I want to, even when I'd like to take a break, they're there. The anti-vaccine nutcases. This time around, they showed up at, of all places, Netroots Nation, where the deceptively named National Vaccine Information Center, an explicitly antivaccination group that…
July 29, 2008
Somehow, someway, a bit of slime oozed its way into a Manhattan church to insinuate itself into that fair city and thereby contaminate it. Somehow, I managed to miss it. Sadly, the world's most famous Holocaust denier, David Irving, is touring the U.S. to give aid and comfort to anti-Semites,…
July 29, 2008
The stupid continues to metastasize. I wrote yesterday about a truly bad and irresponsible hit piece on Paul Offit and the American Academy of Pediatrics written by the anti-vaccinationist sympathizer Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News. Since I've already rehashed what was so bad about it, I won't go on…
July 28, 2008
I demand the sum of.....three MILLION visits! Muhahahahahaha! Yes, I know I did that bit before--twice, even!---but I liked it so much that I wanted to do it again, at least until my readers run screaming away, annoyed that Orac, of all people, would recycle the same old joke over and over. The…
July 28, 2008
You know, I think I've found a bride for Steve Wilson. You remember Steve Wilson, don't you? He's the local "investigative reporter" in my hometown who recently did a truly awful "report" (it actually makes me cringe to call it a "report," but I couldn't think of anything else to call it) a couple…
July 26, 2008
I'm a bit late with this plug, but hopefully our host this week won't be too mad at me. It's that time again, time for those interested in the application of critical thinking to dubious claims to gather, as we do every two weeks, to celebrate the best the skeptical blogosphere has to offer (and "…
July 26, 2008
Late Thursday night, I posted a full-out rant about what I considered to be an incredibly unfair and stupid generalization of the bad behavior of a single surgeon to an overblown and hysterical indictment of medical students, doctors, and surgeons by a fellow ScienceBlogger, posted on his own blog…
July 25, 2008
I'm very puzzled. Now, I know that my being puzzled isn't particularly unusual. I'm frequently puzzled. I can't figure out how, for example, anyone with the slightest bit of reasoning ability can do anything other than laugh when informed what homeopathy is and how it supposedly "works." I can't…
July 24, 2008
You know, it really annoys me when I see idiocy as idiotic as the idiocy of this surgeon in New Jersey: In a lawsuit filed yesterday, a Camden County woman accused her orthopedic surgeon of "rubbing a temporary tattoo of a red rose" on her belly while she was under anesthesia. The patient…
July 24, 2008
Regular readers of this blog know that I'm an Apple geek. The Macintosh is my preferred axe and has been, with few interruptions, since the late 1980s. Indeed, the only time I've used anything other than a Mac is when I've had no choice. The first time I saw one was in 1984, not long after the…
July 23, 2008
Enough with Radovan Karadzic, already! I know schadenfreude can be a fun thing. I've even indulged in it myself from time to time. I also know that Radovan Karadzic was a very, very bad man who engaged in ethnic cleansing and genocide in the Balkans wars of the early and mid-1990s. My interest in…
July 23, 2008
I'm envious of Steve Novella. Well, just a little, anyway. The reason is that he's somehow managed to annoy David Kirby and the anti-vaccine contingent enough to provoke what appears to be a coordinated response to his debunking of anti-vaccine propaganda. For that alone he deserves some serious…
July 22, 2008
It's summertime, and the living is easy...well, not quite. It's been a hectic and depressing summer so far. However, I am going to be able to allow myself one weekend away from the drudgery of grant writing. You see, our Seed overlords are repeating the infamous blogger meetup that happened last…
July 22, 2008
I've gone on record as saying more times than I care to remember that there is no such thing as "alternative" medicine. There is only medicine. Indeed, the only reason any medicine is considered "alternative" is (1) it is on a scientific basis incredibly improbable and/or it comes from a pre-…
July 21, 2008
...professional wrestling! You know, it seems eerily appropriate. Generation Rescue always struck me as being akin to pro wrestling anyway, especially its founder J. B. Handley. His antics in the service of the scientifically discredited notion that mercury in vaccines cause autism (or, these days…
July 21, 2008
In the celebrity vaccine wars, as we all know, Jenny McCarthy has become the de facto leader of the "vaccines-cause-autism" lunatic fringe. However, apparently she has managed to recruit another celebrity to help her out. Her choice is amazingly appropriate: Britney Spears, who was seen at a…
July 21, 2008
Well, I won't back down No, I won't back down You can stand me up at the gates of hell But I won't back down Gonna stand my ground Won't be turned around And I'll keep this world from draggin' me down Gonna stand my ground And I won't back down From I Won't Back Down by Tom Petty, 1989 On Friday, I…