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

September 8, 2006
This is just hilarious. I particularly like the part about "hooligans," "Godless Sodomites," and "fag-enabling fools." And don't forget: "the Satanic spirit of mockery." (I wonder if Respectful Insolence⢠would qualify.) Funny, but Phelps looks and sounds much as I pictured him. Actually, I…
September 8, 2006
As regular readers may have noticed, I was on vacation the last two Fridays in a row. To keep Your Friday Dose of Woo (YFDoW) going, I decided to resurrect a couple of posts from the old blog that would have made good installments of YFDoW installments, had YFDoW existed at the time when they were…
September 7, 2006
With all the nerdy preening and bragging going on due to Janet's nerd-off, I couldn't resist adding my contribution to the festivities. However, a question has nagged at me since I posted about this early this morning. On January 10, 2005, my score on the Nerd Quiz was 92, making me a Supreme Nerd…
September 7, 2006
I just got a review copy of the new and updated paperback edition of fellow ScienceBlogger Chris Mooney's book The Republican War on Science (website). I didn't get around to reading it last time, but I've already started the first chapter, even though I only received the book the other day. Thus,…
September 7, 2006
The blog carnival of nursing, Change of Shift (vol. 1, no. 6), has been posted at Emergiblog. Enjoy!
September 7, 2006
Janet, Janet, Janet. What have you wrought? I know you're hosting the Skeptics' Circle next week, which gives you much cred in my book, but why this now? Annoyed at being shut out of the hottest scienceblogger list, you decreed a nerd-off, and then everybody had to get into the act, including Nick…
September 6, 2006
Amazing. Maybe there is hope for the music world after all: NEW YORK Sep 6, 2006 (AP)-- Bob Dylan is back at the top of the charts for the first time in 30 years. His new album, "Modern Times," reached No. 1 on the album sales chart, selling 192,000 units in its first week of release, according to…
September 6, 2006
While I'm back on the subject of autism, I thought I'd post this video that Kevin Leitch created while I was on vacation and posted to YouTube. Let's just say that it takes a rather dim view of autism "advocates," particularly the autism=mercury poisoning crowd. I particularly love the picture of…
September 6, 2006
It's been a while since I wrote about autism. Part of the reason is that I've been on vacation. Another part of the reason is that not much has been happening lately on the mercury/autism front. I like to think it's because the evidence has been accumulating so rapidly that neither the MMR vaccine…
September 5, 2006
Sigh. You know, the President of Iran, Ahmoud Ahmadinejad, is, sadly, not unlike the Energizer Bunny. He keeps going and going and going and going. This time around, he just can't resist putting his foot in it again. Hot on the heels of hosting a Holocaust Cartoon Exhibit as his response to the…
September 5, 2006
Grand Rounds vol. 2, no. 50 has been posted at Clinical Cases and Images. Enjoy!
September 5, 2006
I was perusing some articles that had accumulated while I was away, looking for ones that I wouldn't want to have missed and also looking for blog fodder (sometimes my day job and my blogging job actually mesh quite well, at least when it comes to discussing biomedical studies), and then I found an…
September 4, 2006
Dr. Chris Rangel has posted a good discussion of trauma due to stingray barbs, stingray venom, and Steve Irwin's tragic death yesterday. It's well worth a read.
September 4, 2006
Mark over at Good Math, Bad Math just posted a lovely fisking of a claim by Peter Duesberg that "all positive teenagers would have had to achieve an absurd 1000 contacts with a positive partner, or an even more absurd 250,000 sexual contacts with random Americans to acquire HIV by sexual…
September 4, 2006
The latest RINO Sightings have been posted at Right Thoughts for your reading edification.
September 4, 2006
Holy crap. I get up on this holiday morning, and what is the first thing that I see when I check out the ScienceBlogs most recent posts, but a bunch of posts on Pharyngula, Pure Pedantry, Dr. Joan Bushwell's Chimpanzee Refuge, and Evolving Thoughts, The Scientific Indian, and Afarensis? Steve…
September 3, 2006
I don't know why, but yesterday I was thinking about Spinal Tap. It's a hilarious movie that I haven't seen in a while, and I've wanted to own the DVD for a while now. Somehow, this thought reminded me of something. Something about the blog. Something that, in my absence and now my return from…
September 3, 2006
John Wilkins over at Evolving Thoughts has posted an excellent brief summary of the history of the eugenics movement. In the process, he makes a strong argument that it was genetics far more than evolution that influenced eugenecists and that the entire eugenics movement was based on the concept…
September 2, 2006
This time, the Virgin Mary is on a tree: LOCKPORT -- A Harvey Street woman claimed on Wednesday that she heard the voice of the Virgin Mary and has seen visions of the Mother of God in the trimmed branches of a maple tree in front of her house. Antonia "Toni" Filipertis, 84, a devout Catholic,…
September 2, 2006
While I was catching up on some of the stuff that's happened while I was away, I noticed PZ Myer's article about animal rights terrorists who intimidated a neurobiologist at UCLA named Dario Ringach to the point where he decided to stop doing research on primates. Then I saw that Jake and Bora also…
September 1, 2006
The latest edition of the History Carnival has been posted at Frog In A Well. Even though I've been on vacation and blogging (not to mention blog traffic) has been light other than reposts, someone actually submitted something I posted, thus keeping someone linking to me in my absence. I hope the…
September 1, 2006
While I am on vacation, I'm reprinting a number of "Classic Insolence" posts to keep the blog active while I'm gone. (It also has the salutory effect of allowing me to move some of my favorite posts from the old blog over to the new blog, and I'm guessing that quite a few of my readers have…
August 31, 2006
Boy, oh, boy, I had to control myself on this one. Yes, dear reader, while I was away this last week and a half, many were the times that I wanted to let loose about this. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view) lack of Internet access at some times and other vacation…
August 31, 2006
Rapidly dwindling vacation or no vacation, I have to plug the Skeptic's Circle. Some of you may have wondered where the host of this week's Skeptic's Circle has been. After all, a few of you commented that his blog hadn't been updated in three months, even with a notice for the Skeptics' Circle.…
August 31, 2006
While I am on vacation, I'm reprinting a number of "Classic Insolence" posts to keep the blog active while I'm gone. (It also has the salutory effect of allowing me to move some of my favorite posts from the old blog over to the new blog, and I'm guessing that quite a few of my readers have…
August 30, 2006
While I am on vacation, I'm reprinting a number of "Classic Insolence" posts to keep the blog active while I'm gone. (It also has the salutory effect of allowing me to move some of my favorite posts from the old blog over to the new blog, and I'm guessing that quite a few of my readers have…
August 30, 2006
While I am on vacation, I'm reprinting a number of "Classic Insolence" posts to keep the blog active while I'm gone. (It also has the salutory effect of allowing me to move some of my favorite posts from the old blog over to the new blog, and I'm guessing that quite a few of my readers have…
August 29, 2006
While I am on vacation, I'm reprinting a number of "Classic Insolence" posts to keep the blog active while I'm gone. (It also has the salutory effect of allowing me to move some of my favorite posts from the old blog over to the new blog, and I'm guessing that quite a few of my readers have…
August 29, 2006
While I am on vacation, I'm reprinting a number of "Classic Insolence" posts to keep the blog active while I'm gone. (It also has the salutory effect of allowing me to move some of my favorite posts from the old blog over to the new blog, and I'm guessing that quite a few of my readers have…
August 28, 2006
While I am on vacation, I'm reprinting a number of "Classic Insolence" posts to keep the blog active while I'm gone. (It also has the salutory effect of allowing me to move some of my favorite posts from the old blog over to the new blog, and I'm guessing that quite a few of my readers have…