oracknows

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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 2, 2007
Note: We're back in the U.S. However, it is a long holiday weekend here in the States, much like last weekend's Bank Holiday weekend in England. Consequently, blogging will be mellow until Tuesday. Don't worry, things will return to normal soon enough, but since traffic's down due to over a week of…
September 1, 2007
Vacation time! While Orac is off in London recharging his circuits and contemplating the linguistic tricks of limericks and jokes or the glory of black holes, he's rerunning some old stuff from his original Blogspot blog. This particular post first appeared on June 3, 2005. Enjoy! Grrr. I was…
September 1, 2007
I hadn't been planning on doing any serious pieces to intersperse within the reruns of old posts while on vacation. Despite the impression some have gotten from my Random Observations posts about London and Britain, we've had an absolutely wonderful time the last week and are sorry to see it end…
August 31, 2007
Sadly, I won't be in London for 10 more days. Consequently, I'll be missing something really cool that'll be happening a mere couple of blocks down the street where I'm staying now: I did, however, purchase a nice cast metal replica of the TARDIS at this shop, the Stamp Centre, which seems to…
August 31, 2007
...is still on vacation in London. It will return next week. I will mention, however, that I managed to find time to take a stroll by the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital the other day. No, the fabric of space-time was not torn, but, sadly, I didn't work up the gumption to enter the building…
August 31, 2007
Vacation time! While Orac is off in London recharging his circuits and contemplating the linguistic tricks of limericks and jokes or the glory of black holes, he's rerunning some old stuff from his original Blogspot blog. This particular post first appeared on October 19, 2005. Enjoy! Somehow I…
August 30, 2007
Vacation time! While Orac is off in London recharging his circuits and contemplating the linguistic tricks of limericks and jokes or the glory of black holes, he's rerunning some old stuff from his original Blogspot blog. This particular post first appeared on July 20, 2005. This one seems…
August 30, 2007
From deep in the heart of London, even here on vacation, I couldn't forget to mention that the 68th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle has been posted by Martin over at Aardvarchaeology. This carnival is remarkable for two things: First for Martin's no nonsense style of presentation; and second,…
August 30, 2007
Vacation time! While Orac is off in London recharging his circuits and contemplating the linguistic tricks of limericks and jokes or the glory of black holes, he's rerunning some old stuff from his original Blogspot blog. This particular post first appeared on February 2, 2006. Enjoy! It had to…
August 30, 2007
Alright, after being castigated for being a stereotypical American tourist complaining about the service in restaurants in London, here's an off-the-wall observation that my wife and I have made: Why is it that there seem to be no squirrels in London? We've been all over the city now in the last…
August 29, 2007
Vacation time! While Orac is off in London recharging his circuits and contemplating the linguistic tricks of limericks and jokes or the glory of black holes, he's rerunning some old stuff from his original Blogspot blog. This particular post first appeared on December 27, 2005. Enjoy! Since the…
August 29, 2007
Vacation time! While Orac is off in London recharging his circuits and contemplating the linguistic tricks of limericks and jokes or the glory of black holes, he's rerunning some old stuff from his original Blogspot blog. This particular post first appeared on June 15, 2005. Enjoy! One of the…
August 29, 2007
Here's another random observation that hit us quite rapidly upon our arrival in London and is reinforced almost every time we decide to dine out: Why is restaurant service here so crappy? We've been to several restaurants now, and only one of them (ThaiSquare near Trafalgar Square) had reasonably…
August 28, 2007
Vacation time! While Orac is off in London recharging his circuits and contemplating the linguistic tricks of limericks and jokes or the glory of black holes, he's rerunning some old stuff from his original Blogspot blog. This particular post first appeared on February 10, 2005. Enjoy! A few days…
August 28, 2007
Now that I've been in London for three full days, I've noticed a few more things. Here's one. Although my experience is anecdotal over the course of a weekend, I've still been wondering: Why are the British so darned polite and friendly? Is it the long Bank Holiday weekend? (And why do they call…
August 28, 2007
Vacation time! While Orac is gone recharging his circuits and contemplating the linguistic tricks of limericks and jokes or the glory of black holes, he's rerunning some old stuff from his original Blogspot blog. This particular post first appeared on January 16, 2006. Enjoy! During my usual weekly…
August 27, 2007
Vacation time! While Orac is gone recharging his circuits and contemplating the linguistic tricks of limericks and jokes or the glory of black holes, he's rerunning some old stuff from his original Blogspot blog. This particular post first appeared on October 14, 2005. Enjoy! Very early on in this…
August 27, 2007
Vacation time! While Orac is gone recharging his circuits and contemplating the linguistic tricks of limericks and jokes or the glory of black holes, he's rerunning some old stuff from his original Blogspot blog. This particular post first appeared on December 21, 2005 Enjoy! When you blog about a…
August 27, 2007
Even when I'm on vacation, lots of other great bloggers aren't. The lack of writing on my part makes it even easier for me to point you in the direction of posts likely to be of interest to my readers. Fortunately Prometheus has started posting again after one of his all-too-frequent hiatuses, and…
August 27, 2007
Vacation time! While Orac is off to London recharging his circuits and contemplating the linguistic tricks of limericks and jokes or the glory of black holes, he's rerunning some old stuff from his original Blogspot blog. This particular post first appeared on December 19, 2005. I don't know if…
August 26, 2007
Vacation time! While Orac is gone recharging his circuits and contemplating the linguistic tricks of limericks and jokes or the glory of black holes, he's rerunning some old stuff from his original Blogspot blog. This particular post first appeared on July 25, 2005 . Although the Undead Führer…
August 26, 2007
Vacation time! While Orac is gone recharging his circuits and contemplating the linguistic tricks of limericks and jokes or the glory of black holes, he's rerunning some old stuff from his original Blogspot blog. This particular post first appeared on July 6, 2005 and is the very first time ever…
August 26, 2007
Now that I've been in London for a couple of days and have started to acclimate to my surroundings, I've started to notice some things. As I said in my vacation announcement, I don't plan on doing a lot of blogging, but a short take here and there to break up the reruns definitely seems advisable…
August 26, 2007
Vacation time! While Orac is gone recharging his circuits and contemplating the linguistic tricks of limericks and jokes or the glory of black holes, he's rerunning some old stuff from his original Blogspot blog. This particular post first appeared on June 26, 2005 and is the fifth ever Hitler…
August 25, 2007
Vacation time! While Orac is gone recharging his circuits and contemplating the linguistic tricks of limericks and jokes or the glory of black holes, he's rerunning some old stuff from his original Blogspot blog. This particular post first appeared on June 23, 2005 and is the fourth ever Hitler…
August 25, 2007
Vacation time! While Orac off in London recharging his circuits and contemplating the linguistic tricks of limericks and jokes or the glory of black holes, he's rerunning some old stuff from his original Blogspot blog. This particular post first appeared on June 22, 2005 and is the third ever…
August 25, 2007
Vacation time! While Orac is off in London recharging his circuits and contemplating the linguistic tricks of limericks and jokes or the glory of black holes, he's rerunning some old stuff from his original Blogspot blog. This particular post first appeared on June 10, 2005 and is the second ever…
August 24, 2007
Don't forget, everybody, that the 68th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle is due to land at Aardvarchaeology on Thursday, August 30 (sadly, my last full day in London). Martin will host again. He did a fine (albeit slightly confusing) job last time, and I expect even better this time around. If you…
August 24, 2007
Around the time you read this, barring any flight delay agonies, I will have touched down at Heathrow Airport to spend a week in London. It's the first real vacation that my wife and I have taken, possibly since our honeymoon. Certainly it's been the first time I've been out of the country since…
August 23, 2007
The latest edition of Change of Shift, the blog carnival for nursing, has been posted over at Nurse Ratched's Place. Enjoy!