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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

September 28, 2007
In looking back at all the various bizarre incarnations of woo that I've covered during the last year or so since I started doing Your Friday Dose of Woo, I was wondering if there was a form of woo that I had not covered yet. Woo seems to come in several forms, such as energy woo, water woo, pH…
September 27, 2007
Damn that Factitian! Now he's gone too far! In hosting the 70th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle, he's revealed some of the deepest darkest secrets of the Skeptical Atheistic Darwinist Scientific Conspiracy to Conquer All (SADSCCA), also known as The Conspiracy Factory in some circles. And you'll…
September 27, 2007
I'm almost beginning to feel sorry for the mercury militia. Think about it. They've been claiming for the past several years that the mercury in the thimerosal used as a preservative in childhood vaccines is a cause of autism. If you believe Generation Rescue, A-CHAMP, SAFEMINDS, and various other…
September 26, 2007
I hadn't thought of this possible consequence of global warming before if homeopathy were actually true, but it's frightening to contemplate. Fortunately, I think that even in this case the level of dilution wouldn't be enough.
September 26, 2007
Never let it be said that Orac doesn't give the people what they want. Well, most of the time, anyway. What I'm referring to is a recent German study about acupuncture for low back pain that's been making its way around the media. I had actually been planning on commenting about it yesterday, but…
September 25, 2007
Before moving on to discussions of alternative medicine (don't worry, there'll be one in the morning), I couldn't resist one last dig regarding Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's claim in his appearance at Columbia University on Monday that there are no gays in Iran... Sorry Mahmoud, but there…
September 25, 2007
While I happen to have found myself back on the subject of the Holocaust and Holocaust denial again today, I thought I'd mention this, something I've been meaning to blog about since I found out about it last week. Beginning this week, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum will start featuring a…
September 25, 2007
Andrew Mathis gives his perspective. And an excellent analysis it is, too. One brief excerpt: ...I have to wonder exactly where a man who runs a police state gets off asking a question like this. The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran does not allow religious freedoms outside those…
September 25, 2007
Iranian President (and Holocaust denier) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad showed up at Columbia University yesterday to give a speech. Given my interest in Holocaust history and Holocaust denial I had debated whether to comment on it before it happened. Given my contempt for him, his anti-Semitism, and his…
September 24, 2007
While wandering through the medical center last week, I came across a rather unusual vending machine, one quite unlike any that I had ever seen before. It definitely hadn't been there the week before, but there it was now, around the corner from the hospital cafeteria: Perfect if you're on call…
September 24, 2007
Pity poor John Ioannidis. The man does provocative work about the reliability of scientific studies as published in the peer-reviewed literature, and his reward for trying to point out shortcomings in how we as scientists and clinical researchers do studies and evaluate evidence is to be turned…
September 23, 2007
ERV explains: Vaccines strengthen superpowers. Take that, Jenny McCarthy!
September 23, 2007
Believe it or not, this post is related, albeit somewhat tangentially, to my area of expertise, breast cancer. It's also related to one of my great loves in life, namely loud, obnoxious rock and roll. Unfortunately, it involves bad art and an album cover so puzzling that, even when considering the…
September 22, 2007
Two words: Necrotizing pancreatitis. There's nothing like repeated trips to the operating room to scoop out bits of dead pancreas, trips sometimes so frequent that we leave the abdomen open to facilitate repeat visits, in patients who are about as sick as any patient you'll ever see. There are…
September 22, 2007
It's Saturday afternoon, so what the heck? Ah, that's better.
September 22, 2007
I have to tip my hat to Kevin Leitch. I really do. He's done something that I couldn't manage to force myself to do, at least not completely. He's subjected himself to the entire episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show in which Jenny McCarthy showed up to plug her new book about her fight to "save" her…
September 21, 2007
Time flies. Amazingly, another Skeptics' Circle is coming around the pike far faster than I would have expected. This time around, it will be hosted by longtime commenter (and now blogger) Factitian over at Conspiracy Factory and will take its place in the skeptical rogues' gallery of past…
September 21, 2007
As I usually do on Thursday nights, I was perusing my legendary Folder of Woo looking for just the thing to be interesting and entertaining to both me as the blogger and you as the reader. As happens occasionally, nothing was really doing it for me. Nothing was getting me fired up to launch…
September 20, 2007
I don't know how I missed this one, but it jut goes to show that antivaccination ignorance with respect to autism is truly a bipartisan affair. You have folks like Representative Dan Burton on the right, and on the left you have this particular Daily Kos diarist, who falls like a ton of bricks for…
September 20, 2007
In today's earlier post, a commenter stated: You sure do like that "long run for a short slide" phrase. I wondered: Is that true? Do I use that phrase too much? So, like any good blogger, I did a search. And what did I find? I found that, in the entire history of this blog since it's been on…
September 20, 2007
Mike the Mad Biologist posts a link to and excerpt from an article that he seems to think will make "M.D.'s heads explode." It didn't. At least, not in the case of this M.D. Basically, it's about physician reimbursement, a topic guaranteed provoke controversy, divided between those who think…
September 19, 2007
Thanks to fellow ScienceBlogger Abel Pharmboy, it would appear that I was mentioned in an article in The Scientist about science blogs in general (not ScienceBlogs in particular). I'm gratified at how many mentions of my humble blog I see in the comments, and far be it from me to toot my own horn…
September 19, 2007
Last week, upon arriving back at my office after a day in clinic, I noticed an odd box sitting in my "in" box. I didn't recall having ordered anything recently, and my first thought was that an order for the laboratory had somehow been delivered to my office instead of my lab by mistake. It's…
September 18, 2007
I'm rather amused. No, I'm very amused. Yesterday, as you may recall, I discussed a seemingly alarming e-mail that's going around about a 17-year-old boy with melanoma whom the State of California had allegedly removed from the custody of his mother because she and he had wanted to use "advanced…
September 18, 2007
As the resident World War II maven on ScienceBlogs, I noted with interested PZ's mention of a story from Germany about a German Cardinal's jaw-droppingly bad choice of words: A German cardinal has triggered a storm of criticism in Germany by describing atheist art as "degenerate" -- a term usually…
September 18, 2007
My recent update of my ongoing discussion of the Abraham Cherrix case reminded me that there's a bit of alarming e-mail being sent out and forwarded far and wide. If you read it, at first glance, you will think it sounds utterly horrifying, the Abraham Cherrix and Katie Wernecke cases all rolled up…
September 17, 2007
While I'm flogging blog carnivals, here's another one that's right up my alley that seemingly came into existence without my having been aware of it: the Cancer Research Blog Carnival. The first edition of the carnival at Bayblab has a lot of good stuff. The next edition will be at nosugrefneb.com…
September 17, 2007
It would appear that there's finally some good news in the strange and sad case of Starchild Abraham Cherrix. The AP reports that he and his doctor are reporting that his lymphoma is in remission again: FLOYD, Va. -- A 17-year-old who won a court battle against state officials who tried to force…
September 16, 2007
I've been very remiss about this, but the e-mail notifying me of it happened to arrive a couple of weeks ago, back when I was out of town because of the recent death in the family. While cleaning out my e-mail boxes, I came across the notice again and decided it was time to rectify my oversight, do…
September 16, 2007
Even though I only rarely blog about politics, I'm with Ed Brayton, P. Z. Myers, and Amygdala on this one. Truly a wonderful thing has happened to the Presidential race. Alan Keyes has entered the race for the 2008 Republican nomination for President. No one can bring the crazy and stupid to a…