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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

December 5, 2006
Apparently my handy-dandy Only Response You'll Ever Need To Choprawoo, written in response to the last volley of Choprawoo to hit the blogosphere, hit a nerve. Chopra sycophant and blog comment spammer extraordinaire "ChopraFan" was none too pleased with it. Good. I have to wonder if "ChopraFan" is…
December 5, 2006
As much as I hate to admit it, I'm not perfect. I know, I know, given the (usually) tasty (usually) Respectful Insolence⢠dished out nearly every day here, that's a hard thing to believe, but it's true. In fact, occasionally I even do something that is so unbelievably, incredibly, outrageously…
December 4, 2006
Everyone seems to be taking this quiz, so I thought, what the heck: Your 'Do You Want the Terrorists to Win' Score: 81% You are a terrorist-loving scoundrel who hates our dear leader and the values he defends. There are few redeeming qualities about you. You most likely celebrated when the…
December 4, 2006
Note: If you're not familiar with the Hitler Zombie, here are two posts to introduce you to the creature, with the most recent installment of his terror here, in which Orac narrowly escaped the creature. And, now, the adventures (if you can call them that) continue.... PRELUDE: SEVERAL MONTHS AGO…
December 3, 2006
There's no justice in the world, as the blog Hot Chicks with Douchebags shows. I know, Kevin Beck mentioned this blog a while back, but I came across it again and it made me laugh yet again. I just couldn't help but link to it.
December 3, 2006
I'm getting really tired of "ChopraFan" spamming the comments of unrelated posts with his serious kissing of Chopra's posterior over Chopra's risibly idiotic multipart response to Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion. In fact, given the number of times that I've fisked Chopra's profound ignorance of…
December 2, 2006
I think I may have found the guy to help me take care of something I've been meaning to do for a long time, produce a dedicated picture of a certain recurring character. Do you think this guy could help me out? Would it be worth $80? Should I e-mail the guy? I like the old Photoshopped logo that…
December 2, 2006
Courtesy of Maxim, here's a list of The Worst Band Names Ever. (Found via Stereogum.) I'll certainly go along with them in naming Limp Bizkit and Toad the Wet Sprocket as truly horrible band names. But, hey, what's wrong with Men Without Hats (besides the music)? A few suggestions I'd add to the…
December 1, 2006
The next Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle is fast approaching, and, if you haven't already done so, if you're a blogger you should be thinking about which one of your pièce de résistances of skepticism you want to submit. Guidelines are here. Next week's host, Dad of Cameron at Autism Street has…
December 1, 2006
Yesterday, I explained why a study that purports to show that psychotic patients tended to vote for President Bush in the 2004 election and is presently making the rounds to snarky gloating through the left-wing blogosphere is so utterly flawed that almost certainly does not mean what the author…
December 1, 2006
It's been five months since I first started Your Friday Dose of Woo. I started it on a whim, after wondering if I should have a Friday feature, as so many other ScienceBloggers do (Friday Cephalopod, Friday Sprog Blogging, The Friday Fermentable, among others). In those five months, this thing has…
November 30, 2006
More carnival-ly goodness! The History Carnival XLIV has been posted over at Barista. Enjoy!
November 30, 2006
Change of Shift, the blog carnival for nursing, has been post at Fat Doctor.
November 30, 2006
I have to take this opportunity to express a bit of disappointment in one of my fellow SB'ers. When I encounter a study that seems to confirm my biases, as a skeptic, I try very hard to be even more skeptical than usual, because I would hate to be caught trumpeting a weak or bogus study as evidence…
November 30, 2006
When I wrote a post about how Richard Dawkins was being unjustly smeared as supporting Hitler-style eugenics by the religious blogosphere, I figured I might provoke some criticism, particularly since I didn't just stop there. No, in a bit of what some may consider blogging hubris, I couldn't resist…
November 29, 2006
Andrew Mathis over at Flavor Country does it well. Indeed, his demolition of Holocaust deniers on Usenet on the newsgroup alt,revisionism undoubtedly had an influence on what later became my special brand of Respectful Insolenceâ¢. So, sit back and enjoy as he thoroughly fisks an article by Mark…
November 29, 2006
I don't know about you, but I'm starting to get a bit bored with Deepak Chopra. He's like the Energizer Bunny of woo; he just keeps going and going and going and going. Unfortunately, one of his sycophants going under the 'nym "ChopraFan" appears to have infested my blog, posting plugs for Chopra's…
November 28, 2006
I know I'm a bit late in on this one, and almost everyone's already commented on it. Obviously Richards' gratuitous use of the N-word was about as funny as a crutch, but Trey Ellis tells us why as he addresses Richards: If you had just said the n word you might have one day been forgiven but you…
November 28, 2006
Grand Rounds, vol. 3, no. 10 has been posted at the blog of fellow skeptic Dr. R.W. Enjoy!
November 28, 2006
Remind me to mark April 10 down on my calendar. I never realized it was such an important day, and, in any case, I wouldn't want to miss it. Nor should the rest of the skeptical blogosphere. Why? It's World Homeopathy Day, "celebrated" (or, if you're a fan of evidence-based medicine, as I am,…
November 27, 2006
I've mentioned one particularly odious (well, more odious) subset of Holocaust deniers, a type that I call the "Holocaust never happened but the Jews deserve it" type of Holocaust denier. These Holocaust deniers claim that either the Holocaust never happened or that it was greatly exaggerated,…
November 27, 2006
With the internecine sniping that's been going on lately throughout ScienceBlogs ove Larry Moran's intemperate "flunk the IDiots" and "Neville Chamberlain school of evolutionists" remarks, or, more specifically, whether opposing ID requires that one oppose religion in general as well, I hesitate to…
November 26, 2006
I can't believe I forgot to post this on Thanksgiving Day itself, but I'll make up for it now. What better way to finish off the Thanksgiving Day weekend than with one of the funniest Thanksgiving Day promotions of all time, courtesy of one of what TV Guide has ranked as one of the greatest…
November 26, 2006
On this, the last day of the long holiday weekend that I've spent mostly holed up in my home office studying for my surgery boards recertification examination, I feel a bit too burned out to post anything much serious today, unless I happen to become aware of something that's just too good not to…
November 26, 2006
If I taught a class in these days of professor evaluations depending so much on student evaluations, I'm not sure I'd have the guts to respond to a student's request to be excused so that he can go to a bowl game the way the Angry Professor responds. Of course, if the school were the University of…
November 25, 2006
The PathGuy makes the case, with a large number of case studies of rock and pop stars who died at young ages. Unfortunately, there's no systematic epidemiological study that I'm aware of about whether rock 'n' roll stars have a shorter life expectancy or higher rate of traumatic death or death due…
November 25, 2006
Here's something I've been meaning to post for a while that somehow got buried in my list of cool, weird, or interesting links. One of the things they teach surgeons and emergency medicine doctors about is how to use common materials at hand to do, MacGyver-like, a cricothyroidotomy to save the…
November 24, 2006
One year ago today, I discovered a rather amusing bit of chicanery on the part of an old "friend," namely J. B. Handley, the proprietor of and driving force behind Generation Rescue, the group that claims that all autism (not just some, not just some, but all) is a "misdiagnosis" for mercury…
November 24, 2006
I haven't done this in a while, but it's a long holiday weekend during which time I'm ensconced within my Sanctum Sanctorum studying for my once a decade recertification examination in Surgery. I need tunes! So iTunes, lay them on me: The Yardbirds, Happenings Ten Years Ago (from the album…
November 24, 2006
For the holidays, I thought I'd include a brief little bit of woo that seems not quite extensive enough for a full treatment in Your Friday Dose of Woo but is nonetheless a tasty woo morsel for your edification that fits in with the usual Thanksgiving theme of overindulgence in various foods and…