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

November 13, 2006
If you're a physician, there comes a certain point in your career when you start caring a lot more than you did about the next generations of physicians in the training pipeline. While you're in the middle of training, you are the next generation; besides, you're too worried about just getting…
November 12, 2006
Lots of other bloggers seem to be taking this one; so what the heck? It's surprisingly accurate for a silly Internet quiz. And, yes, it is pop, not soda. No matter how long I'm stranded here on the East Coast, it will always be pop! What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North…
November 12, 2006
It's Frank Zappa, of course, with what is arguably the best (or at least one of the best) songs celebrating skepticism ever written (and it has a killer guitar solo in the middle, too!): I used to love that song when I was a teenager. (I still do.) I wonder if it affected me...
November 11, 2006
It sounds like casting genius, even if it's only a small role: LAS VEGAS, Nov. 6, 2006 -- Hide the Bats! Christopher Walken has agreed to play the ultimate bad-boy rocker -- Ozzy Osbourne.. Motley Crue lead singer Vince Neil told ABC News Radio in an exclusive interview that the 63-year-old Oscar-…
November 11, 2006
In the U.S., today is Veterans' Day; elsewhere it's Armistice Day or Remembrance Day, marking 88 years since the truce that ended World War I. Whatever you're doing, please take a moment to reflect on the sacrifices our men and women in arms have made throughout history to protect our nation.…
November 10, 2006
As a native Detroiter, I couldn't help but find this little story amusing (sorry, it's just the adolescent in me): Hooters of America Inc. is moving ahead full throttle with a campaign to pressure the Troy City Council into granting a liquor license transfer for the chain's new Troy location on…
November 10, 2006
I saw the trailer for Spiderman 3 last night. The comic geek in me is starting to get excited, because the movie looks like it's going to be really, really good, perhaps the best Spider-Man movie so far. It looks as though Venom, the Sandman, and Harry Osbourne, Jr. taking up where his dad (the…
November 10, 2006
On November 10, 1975, the most famous maritime disaster in Great Lakes history occurred, when the freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior while trying to make it to Whitefish Bay in a gale, with the loss of 29 lives. Having grown up in the Detroit area, I still remember it almost as…
November 10, 2006
Let's get one thing straight. There's just no way on earth that I can imagine topping last week's Your Friday Dose of Woo. I can only be as good as my source material lets me be (well, maybe a bit better), and Toby Alexander and his "DNA Activation" represented such unbelievably potent, bizarre,…
November 9, 2006
Just what a high school needs to warm up the crowd at a football game, a little speech by Joseph Goebbels: CHARLOTTE, North Carolina: Part of a speech by World War II Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels was played over the public address system before a high school soccer game, prompting an…
November 9, 2006
Here's a real example of religious insanity: LONDON, Kentucky (AP) - A woman died after being bitten by a snake during a serpent-handling service at church, police said. Linda Long, 48, of London, Ky, died Sunday at University of Kentucky Medical Center, said Brad Mitchell, a detective with the…
November 9, 2006
I was sitting in my office around 7:45 AM yesterday morning, going through my messages and mail in preparation for a long day of animal protocol and grant writing interspersed with meetings, the radio playing in the background. It was Curtis and Kuby, the usual talking heads show with a…
November 9, 2006
Holy Reiki, Batman! This month's Skeptics Circle, hosted by Polite Company, has landed, and it's a doozy. In fact, it's a Circle of Heroes: Observe the Skeptic: often battle-hardened by years of living in a world gone mad with magical thinking and spurious logic; frequently alone in the fight…
November 8, 2006
Is there a connection between Scientology and the mercury militia? Kevin Leitch examines the evidence. As he points out, it's not as far-fetched as it might seem at first: Everybody knows that Scientology has an almost rabid outlook on psychiatry and what they deem psychiatric labels. Its so bad…
November 8, 2006
The new Tangled Bank is up at Eastern Blot. Had enough politics? Read some science, instead!
November 8, 2006
I've written before about how frequently alties like to point to testimonials as "evidence" that their treatments work. Indeed, from the very beginning, in one of the earliest posts I ever wrote, I explained just why breast cancer testimonials for alternative medicine should be taken with a huge…
November 7, 2006
I voted a couple hours ago, and polls have just closed in my part of the country. All over the eastern part of the U.S., the counting of the votes is shifting into high gear. This election year saw some truly disgusting negative ads all over the country. Too bad none of them were like this one:
November 7, 2006
Grand Rounds no. 3, vol. 7 has been posted at MSSP Nexus Blog. Time to get your weekly fix of the best of the medical blogosphere.
November 7, 2006
After not having written anything about the case of Abubakar Tariq Nadama, the five year old autistic boy who died as a result of chelation therapy administered to him to "cure" him of his autism, I revisited the case last week in light of the State of Pennsylvania filing charges against Dr. Kerry…
November 7, 2006
The polls are now open where I live. Don't forget to get out there and vote! Too bad we don't have a candidate like the one in the video to vote for. At least he's honest. Heck, if any candidate ran a campaign like the one in the video above, I might even vote for him! As it is now, for Senate I…
November 6, 2006
OK, I wasn't planning on writing on the whole Haggard imbroglio again. (Famous last words, eh?) Then, via Andrew Sullivan, I came across this little post by a blogging evangelical pastor from Seattle named Mark Driscoll: Most pastors I know do not have satisfying, free, sexual conversations and…
November 6, 2006
I wasn't planning on writing about Ted Haggard. I mean, what's another fundamentalist preacher falling from grace and admitting that, yes, he did indeed purchase methamphetamine and in essence admitting that he did have sex with themale prostitute "massage therapist" who had accused him of doing so…
November 6, 2006
While perusing the new Richard Dawkins website a while back, I came across an article that, if you know my interest in World War II, you'd know that I couldn't resist commenting on, and it's been in my "to write about" queue for a few weeks now. In it, Dawkins discusses the aerial bombing campaigns…
November 5, 2006
The title of this one made me laugh out loud: Fossilized Feces of Jesus Wreaks Havoc, and the article itself doesn't disappoint: The recent discovery of a fossilized lump of human feces believed to have once emerged from the body of Jesus Christ, Son of God, has swept a whirlpool of excitement and…
November 5, 2006
Pediatric Grand Rounds, vol. 1, no. 5 has been posted at Tales from the Womb. Some good reading for your Sunday afternoon.
November 5, 2006
October was a very good month for Respectful Insolence, a very good month indeed. In fact, traffic for this blog reached an all-time high, edging out the previous best month (May 2006) by about 1,000 visits on Sitemeter. It just goes to show that, although traffic has more or less leveled off and…
November 5, 2006
I've been talking up My Chemical Romance's Welcome to the Black Parade as an album that takes punk, glam, Goth, and sprinkles in a touch of Queen here and there like seasoning to produce an irresistable, sometimes over-the-top, album full of theatricality, bombast, and anthemic choruses that make…
November 4, 2006
Fellow ScienceBlogger and author of The Republican War on Science Chris Mooney was interviewed for one of my favorite podcasts, Point of Inquiry, the official podcast for The Center for Inquiry, this week. It's well worth checking out. I don't agree with everything in Mooney's book (which I finally…
November 4, 2006
A while back, I commented on the infamous Iranian "Holocaust Cartoon Contest," which Iran sponsored in response to the Danish cartoon imbroglio in which cartoons featuring the Prophet Mohammed triggered violent protests among Muslims last winter. Their stated goal, was to try to draw some sort of…
November 3, 2006
Fellow ScienceBlogger Shelley Batts is a finalist for a student blogging scholarship. Not only is she a fine blogger, but she shares with me a connection with the University of Michigan, where she is now working on her Ph.D. and where I got both my undergraduate and graduate degrees. So, with that…