oracknows

Profile picture for user oracknows
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

December 15, 2006
Yes, I know that skepticism and Christmas don't exactly mix. After all, most people, even highly skeptical and unreligious ones, tend to enjoy at least a few, if not many, of the myths that accompany the season, myths such as Santa Claus. But we won't let that stop us from having a bit of skeptical…
December 15, 2006
This rather puts one's life and place in the universe in perspective, doesn't it?
December 15, 2006
This week sucked. OK, it was the last two or three days that sucked, but they were bad enough to ruin the whole week. The only reason my blogging didn't reflect this is because most of the posts over the last couple of days were actually written earlier this week, and the true magnitude of this…
December 14, 2006
Too bad I can't make it back to Detroit this weekend. In fact, it's worse than that; I'm on call. Why? Because Saturday is Santarchy night. Basically a bunch of people dress up like Santa and go barhopping. Much drinking and debauchery ensue. If you happen to live in the Detroit area, here's a…
December 14, 2006
Given the interest in questions of religion, faith, and atheism among so many of my fellow ScienceBloggers, I'm a bit surprised that none of them picked up on this interesting tidbit of a story: Pythons were probably the first idols to be worshipped by man, archaeologists said after unearthing…
December 14, 2006
It appears that I'm even further behind in my reading than Abel Pharmboy, because he pointed me to a couple of articles in an issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology that I haven't even cracked open yet. It's probably still sitting in the pile of journals on my desk that haven't been touched yet…
December 13, 2006
Everyone else is jumping off the bridge; so I thought I would too. Take that, PZ, Joshua, and Afarensis! I'm a monarch, albeit a mad one: Which Historical Lunatic Are You?From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey. You are Charles VI of France, also known as Charles the Mad or Charles the Well-…
December 13, 2006
I've become a big fan of podcasting and now like to listen to podcasts when I happen to be in my office while I'm working and in my car while driving to and from work. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of good skeptical podcasts, at least in comparison with the number of credulous ones. I thought I'…
December 13, 2006
Believe it or not, I missed my own blogiversary. It's true. It was two days ago. For some reason, as the date approached I got the idea that it was the 13th, when in fact this blog was born on December 11, 2004 on a dreary Saturday afternoon when, after reading the TIME Magazine story about how…
December 12, 2006
Fellow finalist for a 2006 Weblog Award for Best Medical/Health Issues Blog Flea sure stepped into it the other day. A reader e-mailed him a discussion found on the dreaded Mothering.com discussion boards, you know, the same boards that horrified me with the sheer level of antivaccination…
December 12, 2006
Regular readers of this blog know that I couldn't leave this one alone. Yesterday, the Holocaust-denying President of Iran Mahmoud realized his promised dream of holding an "academic" conference to "debate" the Holocaust. Not surprisingly, it's a lovefest for Holocaust deniers. Indeed, many of…
December 11, 2006
It's that time of year again. Nominations are open for the best medical blogging: Welcome to the third annual Medical Weblog Awards! These awards are designed to honor the very best in the medical blogosphere, and to highlight the diverse world of medical blogs. The categories for this year's…
December 11, 2006
Via The Millenium Project, I've learned that some of the "Dummy" books may be living up to their names a bit too literally: I almost didn't believe it when I was told that Understanding Autism for Dummies contains advice about how chelation might be a useful treatment for autism, so I used Amazon's…
December 11, 2006
Over a week ago, fellow ScienceBlogger revere fired a bit of a pot shot across my bow regarding my bow regarding a study regarding, of all things, chicken soup. Initially, it was at a bad time, when I had other things to do, having just labored mightily to produce the latest Hitler Zombie…
December 10, 2006
I know, I know. When I first found out that I had been nominated for a 2006 Weblog Award for Best Medical/Health Issues Blog a few days ago, I initially said that I didn't think I would win and didn't really care if I would win. And it was true. Then. Then, much to my surprise, I found myself…
December 10, 2006
After I did an installment of Your Friday Dose of Woo a couple of days ago about some truly strange 9/11 conspiracy theorists, the tinfoil hat brigade has descended en masse into the comments section of that post. Consequently, it is quite serendipitous that I've found, via Secular Blasephemy, a…
December 10, 2006
Strangely enough, even though I lived in Cleveland for eight years and my wife lived there for eleven years before we left in 1996, I don't recall ever hearing about this. I wonder if it's a new thing that somehow the New York Times just happened to notice today: CLEVELAND, Dec. 9 -- They surf in…
December 10, 2006
When I saw this test on ahistoricality, I just had to take it. I was disappointed. It was way too easy for me: Rock Star You scored 100%! You damn rock star. You know all the basics, and if you got any wrong, I bet it was that stupid Traveling Wilburys question.…
December 9, 2006
Mike Dunford, whose wife is currently serving in Iraq, tells of a a worthy effort to provide aid to the families of soldiers who were killed while serving overseas: As I mentioned recently, a number of soldiers in Iraq will be running the Honolulu Marathon this weekend. The course goes around a…
December 9, 2006
Whether they know it or not, Pharyngula and Mixing Memory may have provided our undead Führer with a catchy new theme song. Yes, I know. You might think the Hitler Zombie would be more partial to martial music with a Triumph des Willens sort of feel to it. The problem is, I don't think there is…
December 8, 2006
Via The Second Sight, I find an example of a tool that, I suspect, many alties will find highly useful: The Woo World Self Treater. It'll allow you to diagnose yourself free from the boot of big pharma and the oppressive evidence-based medicine that close-minded "conventional" doctors like me…
December 8, 2006
Ever since I started Your Friday Dose of Woo (YFDoW) back in June, I had always intended that someday I wanted to expand this loving deconstruction of various forms of woo beyond just medical woo and quackery. True, having a little fun with woo that claims to treat disease or restore health is…
December 7, 2006
Matt over at Pooflingers Anonymous informs me that Respectful Insolence⢠been nominated as a finalist in the Best Medical/Health Issues Blog category of the Weblog Awards. I have no idea who nominated me (I certainly didn't and was unaware until the other night that I was even a finalist), but my…
December 7, 2006
As much as I detest Holocaust denial, neo-Nazis, and all they stand for, I can still understand why there is a certain sensitivity to emblems of Nazi-ism in Germany and Austria, although I have pointed out that sometimes Germans and Austrians go a bit too far, all too often stomping on free speech…
December 7, 2006
Those of you who have been kind enough to submit your skeptical blogging to this week's edition of the Skeptics' Circle may have been puzzled by the replies you received. It appears that DoC relied upon a certain medium to transmit the entries telepathically or by distant reading to DoC. Well, now…
December 7, 2006
Sixty-five years ago today, the 1st Air Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a devastating surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Hawaii, plunging the United States into World War II. Four days later, hoping that the Japanese would attack the Soviet Union (a hope that the Japanese did…
December 6, 2006
A few months ago, I wrote about a horrific miscarriage of justice in Libya that could result in the deaths of innocent health care workers whose only crime was to have the wherewithal to want to work in Libya to help the people there, but who have been falsely accused of intentionally infecting…
December 6, 2006
The Cheerful Oncologist posts a nice piece about When Is No Treatment the Right Treatment? It's a difficult question that surgical oncologists have to face as well. His example is a man with lung cancer who has recently rapidly deteriorated with little hope for long-term survival. Should he get…
December 6, 2006
Although I've mentioned before that I am a surgical oncologist, but I recently noticed that, in nearly five months of blogging, I've yet to explain exactly what that is or what it means. I've written about all sorts of things, ranging from alternative medicine, to the evolution-creationism conflict…
December 5, 2006
Grand Rounds vol. 3, no. 11 has been posted at The Antidote. Enjoy!