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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

February 19, 2008
In response to my post yesterday castigating J. B. Handley of Generation Rescue for hypocritically accusing the American Academy of Pediatrics of "manipulating the media" when manipulating the media is Generation Rescue's raison d'être, Mike the Mad Biologist turned me on to a rather fascinating…
February 18, 2008
David Colquhoun, eminent scientist and maintainer of the excellent blog DC's Improbable Science, has recently returned home to the U.K. after a trip across the pond to the U.S. and Canada, where, among other things, he gave a lecture at the University of Toronto, as well as the Riker Memorial…
February 18, 2008
Three weeks ago, I wrote about some truly irresponsible antivaccination propaganda masquerading as entertainment that aired in the form of a television show called Eli Stone. This show, which portrayed its hero taking on the case of an autistic boy whose mother blamed his autism on thimerosal (…
February 17, 2008
Due to the unfortunate intrusion of real life into blogging resulting in the inability of this week's previously scheduled host to be able to fulfill his hosting duties for the February 28 edition of the Skeptics' Circle, there has been a last minute change of hosts for the next Circle. The 81st…
February 17, 2008
Dave Munger has done the science blogosphere a service by spearheading the effort to highlight and aggregate serious posts about peer-reviewed research through his Research Blogging aggregator website and his Bloggers for Peer-Reviewed Research Reporting blog. It's a great idea and a great source…
February 16, 2008
Must. See. This. Movie. It doesn't matter that Harrison Ford is 65 and getting a bit long in the tooth for the whole action thing. I need my fix.
February 16, 2008
When you don't have the facts on your side, can't get published in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, and have consistently failed to make a case for your hypothesis, what do you do? Well, if you're a real scientist, you might just finally pack it in, admit that you were probably wrong, and…
February 16, 2008
I don't know about you, but I find Mr. Deity to be hilarious. This time around, with the most recent episode, he takes on fundamentalism of all stripes and whether there should be an afterlife or not. (For a commercial-free direct link to the iTunes version, go here.) And, of course, who doesn't…
February 15, 2008
I've become known as an advocate for evidence-based medicine (EBM) in the three years since I started this little bit of ego gratification known as Respectful Insolenceâ¢. One thing this exercise has taught me that I might never have learned before (and that I've only reluctantly begun to accept as…
February 15, 2008
Balance. It's what the woo-meisters who believe in "Feng Shui" tell us that it will bring to those who use its principles to arrange the objects in their life, be they furniture, homes, the design of buildings, or even the layouts of whole cities. Indeed, Feng Shui tells us that the way we arrange…
February 14, 2008
Of course Valentine's Day is the right time for skepticism! What better time? If you don't believe me, visit Bug Girl's Blog for the 80th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle: Valentine Edition! She'll show you why there's no time like today for a healthy dose of critical thinking. Next up is (I think)…
February 14, 2008
It figures again. I go a few days without Internet access again, and not only does Generation Rescue take out a full page antivaccination ad full of stupidity in USA Today, which I couldn't resist opening both barrels on earlier, but a study's lead senior author is someone I know (albeit not well)…
February 14, 2008
It figures. I'm deprived of full Internet access for a few days, and--wouldn't you know it?--the merry band of antivaccinationists over at Generation Rescue have to go and provide yet more evidence to back up what I've been saying all along about the mercury militia, namely that, once again, J. B.…
February 13, 2008
I'm baaack. Well, thanks to free WiFi at Panera's, I was never really truly away. Thanks to Comcast, I was away longer than usual. In any case, although between waiting for Internet access, running errands, and doing some snowblowing last night, I didn't have time to do the usual epic…
February 12, 2008
Oops, they did it again. You think the media would learn after the last time, but no.... There it was on Friday greeting me on the ABC News website: "Study: Acupuncture May Boost Pregnancy" in bold blue letters, with the title of the webpage being "Needles Help You Become Pregnant." Wow, what a…
February 11, 2008
I hate you, Comcast. I really do. My hatred of Comcast also explains the paucity of activity on this blog over the last few days. You see, over the weekend, I moved to a larger house, and I've had no Internet access other than Panera's or Starbucks for the last three days. Before that, I had lined…
February 11, 2008
As I mentioned, I was on the road over the weekend. Unfortunately, that means I didn't manage to come up with a new post for this morning. That's OK, though. Off to the archives we go. This post originally appeared on February 7, 2006. Holy crap! That's over two years ago! Enjoy (I hope). Fear not…
February 10, 2008
Nooooo! Why do I do it? Why? It only raises my blood pressure and probably contributes to atherosclerosis, stress, and all sorts of other things likely to shorten my lifespan. But I do it anyway. In my interest in Holocaust denial, I keep an eye on a fair number of Holocaust denial and white…
February 9, 2008
I'm on the road for the weekend, and Internet access will likely be spotty until sometime Monday afternoon. Does that mean Orac has abandoned his readers? O ye of little faith! Of course not! There are scheduled posts in the meantime; that is, assuming that ScienceBlog's post scheduling feature…
February 8, 2008
It's clear from the treacly ads that are clogging the airwaves that Valentine's Day is near. For those of us who tend to find Valentine's Day (and, even worse, that knockoff holiday Sweetest Day) annoying, it's a bad time of the year, particularly since in these parts February is the most…
February 8, 2008
In the year and a half or so that I've been doing Your Friday Dose of Woo, I must admit that I've come across some truly weird stuff. Stuff so weird that, after reading it, you wonder either, "How on earth could someone seriously think something like this is true or would work?" or "How can anyone…
February 7, 2008
Nooooo! I thought I might be safe. It's been a really long time since I've had to hang my head in shame and contemplate covering it with a paper bag because of creationist pontifications of a fellow physician bringing shame upon our shared profession. It had even been longer since I had dealt with…
February 7, 2008
I was perusing my newsfeeds last night looking for topics for Your Friday Dose of Woo this week when I came across what, initially at least, I considered to be primo material for my weekly bit of fun at the expense of the more far out excursions into woo. Then I thought about it some more. Early in…
February 6, 2008
...when it comes to "9/11 Truthers": (Click on the picture for the rest of the cartoon.) You know, the same thing could be said about creationists, HIV/AIDS denialists, and many "CAM" mavens.
February 6, 2008
I sometimes feel a bit guilty beating up on homeopathy. It just seems like beating up on a blind man. The feeling passes quickly, of course, but it's at least somewhat understandable. Homeopathy is so patently ridiculous from a scientific standpoint that watching homeopaths try to justify and…
February 5, 2008
I love it when advocates of "alternative" medicine start combining their therapies. Well, I don't "love" it because they are combining two wildly improbable therapies so much as I love it for the entertainment value. Here's one that didn't quite reach the level of craziness needed for Your Friday…
February 5, 2008
I hadn't planned on blogging about vaccines again for a while. Really, I hadn't. Even I realize the risk of beating the proverbial dead horse just one time too often. Also, It seems that I've been writing about antivaccination loons a lot lately, even more than usual. However, aside from a prime…
February 4, 2008
...posterior: MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russians visiting a health resort received a rude shock when a nurse used hydrogen peroxide instead of water to give them enemas. Itar-Tass news agency reported Thursday that 17 tourists in the Caucasus spa town of Yessentuki had to be treated in hospital after the…
February 4, 2008
I did not watch Eli Stone last Thursday. I didn't really need to, given that prerelease descriptions made it clear that the show's pilot episode was nothing more than a load of antivaccination propaganda. Indeed, it was so bad that the American Academy of Pediatrics actually took the step of…
February 3, 2008
It's Superbowl Sunday. Even someone who's not much of a football fan and who doesn't really care much one way or the other about either team can't help but get caught up in the hype a little bit. In any case, there seems little point to doing any serious blog posts today, given that (1) it's a…