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

July 20, 2007
After over a year of delving into the world of woo, I had been starting to think that my ability to be surprised had disappeared. I mean, just think about it. After dealing with things like DNA activation, quantum homeopathy, the Healing Broom, Healing Sounds, and, of course, colon cleansing and…
July 19, 2007
The 65th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle has been posted by Steve Novella over at his Neurologica Blog: The room was filled with that odd combination of excitement, interest and restlessness that accompanies children forced to walk through a museum. "Quiet down," said Ms. Trueblood for the…
July 19, 2007
Little did I know when I posted my first article on the evidence supporting health hazards due to secondhand smoke that it would end up dominating the comments of this blog for three full days and lead me to a site that's so full of pseudoscience, logical fallacies, and just plain B.S. that it is…
July 18, 2007
In a story that needs no embellishment, the Iranian state news agency, IRNA, is reporting that fourteen "spy squirrels" were captured infiltrating Iran. According to IRNA: "In recent weeks, intelligence operatives have arrested 14 squirrels within Iran's borders. The squirrels were carrying spy…
July 18, 2007
The other day, in the course of posting about some deceptive quote-mining by someone who doesn't accept the science indicating that secondhand smoke is a health danger, I referenced the uber-crank of crank websites, Forces.org, a website so cranky that it denies not just health dangers from…
July 18, 2007
I really shouldn't do it. I really shouldn't go perusing the blog of the house organ of the Discovery Institute's propaganda arm, Evolution News & Views, as I did yesterday. I'm not as young as I used to be, have a family history of cardiovascular disease, and am not in the greatest of shape.…
July 17, 2007
Here's a video in which Andrew Wakefield, who, now that he's facing charges for research improprieties and failure to disclose conflicts of interest, now claims that he's fighting "for the children," shows his concern for the children whose blood he drew: Yes, while recounting how at a party he…
July 17, 2007
After Mark and I took apart Mike Adams' misinformation- and logical fallacy-filled rant of idiocy against conventional medicine, it appeared that there was still some left to take on. Fortunately, Dr. RW took up the slack. Because when the woo-meister is as idiotic as Mike Adams, too much debunking…
July 17, 2007
This time, it's from Colorado, and it's the King: Rock collector LaDell Alexander, 60, has found a stone she swears has the face of the rock king Elvis Presley on it and has taken it home and plans to sell it on eBay in August, near the 30th anniversary of his death. Alexander said "people are…
July 17, 2007
Not surprisingly, in response to my article on the health risks of secondhand smoke yesterday, the "skeptics' came out in force, although I must admit that even I hadn't expected quite as large an influx as what appeared. Perhaps I'll prepare a general response in the near future (and, no, I didn'…
July 16, 2007
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I just don't understand it. I just don't understand how anyone can take the charlatan Andrew Wakefield seriously anymore. If anyone had any doubt that there is a cult of personality around this discredited vaccine fear-monger, whose shoddy science and…
July 16, 2007
"What do you think about second hand smoke?" he asked me. I sensed ulterior motives behind the question, but I wasn't sure. I suspected that he was just looking for an argument. "It's bad," I joked. "Some have told me that the studies don't show any health problems from second hand smoke," he…
July 15, 2007
I'm disappointed to find out that Chewbacca is a bad, bad Wookiee: (CBS) HOLLYWOOD, Calif. A Chewbacca impersonator is accused of sexually assaulting a Marilyn Monroe impersonator in front of the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood in June. The wookie then reportedly evaded arrest, police said. According to…
July 15, 2007
As a result of my e-mailing the link to a mailing list I belong to asking members whether they thought it was outside the pale, Dr. Offit became aware of Mark's blog post about denialism in the Wall Street Journal editorial page that I castigated for its casually lumping Paul Offit's editorial on…
July 15, 2007
I'm afraid I must reluctantly take fellow SB'er Mark Hoofnagle to task here, because he appears to have allowed himself to get a bit carried away when it comes to throwing around the label of "denialist." In an otherwise excellent takedown of some really bad propaganda in the Wall Street Journal…
July 14, 2007
While perusing my comments yesterday, I became aware of what looks like a promising new blog, Occam's Trowel by Scott Prinster. Check out his self-description: Scott Prinster is continuing his graduate studies in the History of Science department at the University of Wisconsin. His current interest…
July 14, 2007
The last couple of days have been a bit surreal, haven't they? After all, how often does this box of blinking lights get into a blog altercation with a Libertarian comic over global warming? Actually, it was a commentary on bad reasoning, but global warming happened to be the topic. In the…
July 13, 2007
After all this hot air contributing to global warming over, well, global warming, I can't forget that the blog carnival bequeathed to me, The Skeptics' Circle, is fast approaching. This week, the host will be none other than neurologist and skeptic Dr. Steve Novella, who also happens to be the host…
July 13, 2007
Case in point: Soon to be Dr. Brian May of Queen. After 33 years, he's now going be an astrophysicist. Rock on, Brian!
July 13, 2007
Cool cool water. Yes, that's what I really needed earlier this week, as the temperature almost hit 100° F in my neck of the woods. There's nothing like it after walking through the sauna-like conditions and losing my precious bodily fluids in the form of sweat. After all, I wouldn't want to get…
July 12, 2007
Here's the reason why: Actor and voice artiste Peter Tuddenham has died at the age of 88 after a short illness. His vocal talents were used in Doctor Who for The Ark in Space, The Masque of Mandragora and Time and the Rani, but he will also be well-known to cult TV fans for providing the voices of…
July 12, 2007
Mike Adams is an idiot. There, I said it. Adams runs the NewsTarget website, a repository for all things "alternative" medicine. In it, he rails against "conventional" medicine as utterly useless and touts all manner of woo as the "cure" for a variety of diseases. I generally ignore his website…
July 12, 2007
Apparently comic Tim Slagle thinks that my discussion of his comedy routine was horribly, horribly humorless and unfair to him and that I "set him up." I just happen to be at work right now (it's lunchtime, and I have a brief break between cases) and consequently don't have time to address it until…
July 12, 2007
It looks as though I've been tagged by Drug Monkey, who apparently thinks that I might have something worth saying about the state of the NIH and its peer review system, about which the NIH is presently soliciting comments, as pointed out to me by Medical Writing, Editing, & Grantsmanship. Why…
July 11, 2007
About a month and a half ago, I posted an update to the story of the plight of a group of medical professionals who have come to be known as the "Tripoli 6" or the "Benghazi 6." These are six foreign medical workers who were falsely accused by Libyan authorities intentionally infecting over 400…
July 11, 2007
I thought I'd take a bit of a break for a change of pace. At the risk of falling flat on my face, I'm going to wander far afield from the usual medical and biological topics of this blog into an area that I rarely say much about. The reason is an incident that happened nearly two weeks ago when I…
July 10, 2007
...Tara over at Aetiology is hosting Grand Rounds. What are you waiting for?
July 10, 2007
I'm devastated. Truly and totally devastated emotionally and intellectually. Indeed, I don't know how I'll ever be able to recover, how I'll ever be able to live down the shame and go on with my career. What could bring me to this point, you ask? I'll tell you. Everybody's favorite creationist…
July 10, 2007
Actions have consequences, as do beliefs. For example, the widespread erroneous belief among many parents of autistic children that the mercury in the thimerosal preservative that was used in most childhood vaccines until 2002 somehow caused autism in their children have led some pseudoscientists…
July 9, 2007
Last week, I wrote about the latest attempt to defy the laws of thermodynamics and make a free energy machine and how it went down in flames. Specifically, I wrote about Steorn, the Irish tech company that announced last August that it had developed technology to produce a free energy machine and…