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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

March 25, 2007
Worst visual pun ever below the fold? You be the judge: I pity the fool who doesn't think that's funny! (Hat tip: The Daily Weird)
March 25, 2007
Having been born in Detroit and raised both in the city and one of its suburbs, news like this distresses me: DETROIT (Reuters) - With bidding stalled on some of the least desirable residences in Detroit's collapsing housing market, even the fast-talking auctioneer was feeling the stress. "Folks,…
March 25, 2007
You be the judge... Personally, I don't know if I could trust anyone that much. (Hat tip: Attuworld.)
March 24, 2007
Time flies, and it flies really fast. Once again, that blog carnival of lucid critical thinking, the Skeptics' Circle, is almost upon us. It's scheduled to appear on Thursday, March 29 at the blog of fellow ScienceBlogger Martin at Aardvarchaelogy. Martin hosted the Circle a while back, before he…
March 24, 2007
Here's wishing a belated blogiversary to Holocaust Controversies! On its first blogiversary, Nick has posted a cautiously optimistic analysis on the reason why Holocaust denial is losing its potency and increasingly being abandoned, even by the far right, as the completely ludicrous lie that it is…
March 24, 2007
Regular readers will know my opinion of Reiki or "energy healing." No need to rehash it here, at least not at the moment. But if you're a believer and looking for a Reiki practitioner, Reiki Blogger has some suggestions for you of things that "are NOT OK" in a first Reiki session: I recently read…
March 23, 2007
It's been another eventful week on the ol' blog, staring out with a post on despereate cancer patients self-experimenting with dichloroacetate, continuing on to do another fisking of the anti-evolution neurosurgeon and discussing real individualization of treatments, provided a little basic cancer…
March 22, 2007
As odd as it seems, my timing in posting about removing chemotherapy ports yesterday was eerily coincidental. I've alluded to this before, but I'm most definitely not a big fan of John Edwards and would never vote for him for President. That being said, I can't help but feel for him and, even more…
March 22, 2007
I've been remiss about this (mainly because I've been aware of it for a few days now), but it turns out that Mark and Chris Hoofnagle have started a rather promising-looking blog, Denialism.com. It's a blog dedicated to discussing six main areas: HIV/AIDS Denialism Global Warming denialism…
March 22, 2007
I just heard on the radio last night while driving home what has to be one of the worst analogy about global warming that I've ever heard, and, at the risk of annoying fellow SB'ers who frequently write about these topics, like Chris Mooney or Tim Lambert, I felt like commenting. Oddly enough, the…
March 22, 2007
[Note: The following is based on an aggregation of multiple patients. It does not represent any single patient's case.] It was a little case. I know, I know, I've said in the past that there's no such thing as a little operation, at least not when it's happening to you, and that's true. Nonetheless…
March 21, 2007
...like this (explanation here): Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael Egnor • Michael …
March 21, 2007
Late yesterday afternoon, I was lazily checking my referral logs to see who might be linking to Respectful Insolenceâ¢, as most bloggers like to do from time to time (and any blogger who claims otherwise is probably feeding you a line), when I noticed a fairly large number of visits coming from one…
March 21, 2007
Back in October, I wrote about an appalling case in Germany, in which a German anti-Nazi activist named Juergen Kamm was fined â¬3,600 for selling left-wing garb adorned with modified Swastikas designed to mock neo-Nazis because he ran afoul of a law in Germany that forbids the use of Nazi symbols…
March 20, 2007
Day four and still no answer to the challenge. I think I agree with some of my readers who've complained about this; I'll cut back on the frequency of reminders to something less than every day...
March 20, 2007
Although I've been blogging alot about dichloroacetate, the small molecule chemotherapeutic agent that has shown promise against a variety of cancers in preclinical animal tumor models, but I'm not the only one. Fellow ScienceBlogger Abel Pharmboy, whose knowledge of pharmacology surpasses my own,…
March 20, 2007
The longer I maintain this blog, the more I find unexpected (to me, at least) intersections and relationships between various topics that I write about. Of course, a lot of it simply has to do with the fact that one of the overarching themes of this blog is skepticism and critical thinking, which…
March 19, 2007
Two days ago, I posted a challenge to Dr. Egnor and clarified that challenge yesterday. Thus far, there has been no answer. I'm still waiting.
March 19, 2007
I had been planning on blogging about a couple of recent studies identifiying multiple genes that appear to be associated with autism and autism spectrum disorders, thus adding to the body of evidence showing that autism and ASDs have a significant genetic basis as part of their etiology. It turns…
March 19, 2007
It figures. Whenever I go away for a conference, things of interest to me that I'd like to blog about start happening fast and furious. Indeed, I could only deal with one of them, and I chose to post my challenge to the Paleyist "intelligent design" creationist surgeon, Dr. William Egnor. Now that…
March 18, 2007
I'll be on the road as this posts. However, for your edification, enjoy a tag-team smackdown of some truly ignorant "mercury causes autism" evidence-free handwaving, courtesy of Dad of Cameron and Not Mercury. In keeping with the theme of twos, it's done in two parts, separated by two weeks: Part 1…
March 18, 2007
Yesterday, at the end of a post about the fallacious statements about evolution that Dr. Mike Egnor, a Professor of Neurosurgery, has been routinely serving up at the Discovery Institute, I made a challenge. I think I'll repeat it daily for a while until we see if he's up to answering it. It should…
March 17, 2007
Reflexology, as you may know, is the pseudoscientific "alternative medicine" modality whose central dogma is that each body part or organ maps to a certain place on the feet or hands and that by pressing on those locations on the feet (for example), the reflexologist can have a therapeutic effect.…
March 17, 2007
Agh! I say: Agh! Again. Remember how it was just a mere three days ago that I administered some Respectful Insolence⢠to Dr. Michael Egnor, the Energizer Bunny of jaw-droppingly, appallingly ignorant anti-evolution posturing based on his apparently nonexistent understanding of what the theory of…
March 16, 2007
Continuing Orac's quest for truly stupid quotes from The 365 Stupidest Things Ever Said calendar, this time a couple of tasty stupid morsels about free speech: Here's entry number 1, from the February 17, 2007 entry in the calendar: "We forbid any course that says we restrict free speech!"--Dr.…
March 16, 2007
Ah, yes, Washington, DC. That's where I am right now, deep in the belly of the government beast, attending the meeting of The Society of Surgical Oncology. It's usually a great meeting, except for the distressing tendency of surgeons here to act, well, too much like surgeons. For example, consider…
March 15, 2007
If not, then American Medical Student Association's got it for you, all in a nice, compact 15 page pocket manual. True, there's some standard advice about diet and some useful information about herbal remedies, but there's the now usual (from AMSA, anyway) credulous treatment of all sorts of woo,…
March 15, 2007
You may recall Dr. Lorraine Day, the former Chief of Orthopedic Surgery at San Francisco General Hospital in the 1980's who, after developing breast cancer, became a consummate altie, selling various dubious "natural, alternative therapies for all diseases, including cancer and AIDS." Somewhere…
March 14, 2007
it's that time again! The 56th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle has been posted over at Science Natura. Join Shalini as she tries to avoid the credulity of the masses, with varying degrees of success. Next up is fellow ScienceBlogger Martin at Aardvarchaeology for the next time around on March 29.…
March 14, 2007
...over at the latest Tangled Bank, hosted over at Living the Scientific Life. Enjoy!