oracknows

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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

November 5, 2009
riley'smom is very unhappy with Amy Wallace: I wrote Ms. Wallace a private email. I intentionally wrote it directly to her private email and DID NOT post it in the comments section of Wired Mag. I asked her about her one sided-biased interview with Mr Offit and asked if she planned to NOW do a fair…
November 5, 2009
The 123 Congregation of the Skeptics' Circle will now come together over at Blue Genes, in which Simplicio is schooled in skepticism. Sort of. Go. Read. Don't be like Simplicio. Next up to host the Skeptics' Circle will be Beyond the Short Coat. Start getting your skeptical blogging skills wound up…
November 5, 2009
Over the last week or so, I've been confronted full bore with cranks, staring down the barrel, if you will, of a crank shotgun, one barrel being the anti-vaccine movement in general (with J.B. Handley and his misogyny being the buckshot, so to speak) and the other being Suzanne Somers and her…
November 4, 2009
The other day, I wrote about an unfortunate young woman named Desiree Jennings, who claimed to have had a rare neurological disorder known as dystonia as a complication of being vaccinated for seasonal flu, when it appears that her condition is likely to have at least a strong psychogenic component…
November 4, 2009
As regular readers know, one of my interests outside of medicine is the phenomenon of Holocaust denial. Granted, I haven't written as much about it lately as I used to, but that doesn't mean I've lost interest. Actually, I think it may be because I seem to be encountering fewer and fewer major…
November 4, 2009
Oh, hell. I actually used to like Smashing Pumpkins back in the 1990s. Unfortunately, its leader, Billy Corgan, has just revealed himself to be as medically ignorant as Jenny McCarthy in a recent blog post: If you follow some of the links I have been supplying as of late, you'll notice many are…
November 3, 2009
Be afraid. Be very, very afraid. After a prolonged wait, it's finally here: Yes, my promotional copy of Suzanne Somers new book Knockout: Interviews with Doctors Who Are Curing Cancer--And How to Prevent Getting It in the First Place. (The Dalek was included because, well, I was just feeling…
November 2, 2009
...Isis shows us why by calling out the anti-vaccine movement in general and J.B. Handley in particular, for sexist attacks on Amy Wallace, who wrote the excellent article for WIRED about how the anti-vaccine movement endangers public health. True, I did e-mail her for advice in letting feminist…
November 2, 2009
Several of my readers have been writing in with links and stories about the case of Desiree Jennings, a 28-year-old cheerleader who was apparently healthy until sometime in August, when she received the seasonal flu vaccine. A typical news story on Jennings can be seen here: I'm not a neurologist…
November 1, 2009
I just looked over my statistics for the month of October 2009, and I was shocked. Pleasantly shocked, but shocked nonetheless. Why do I say that? I say that because traffic from October 2009 is more than twice the traffic from October 2008. Moreover, it's not an anomaly. Although there have been…
October 31, 2009
It's almost here, and it's almost time! The 123rd Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle is fast approaching. This time around it will be here on Thursday, November 5. That means skeptical bloggers out there don't have much time to get their best recent work to Colin at Blue Genes for inclusion.…
October 30, 2009
I'd say this is definitely a contender: ADDENDUM: Sorry, I just assumed everyone knew what these guys are. If you don't, here are a couple of classic Sesame Street videos to demonstrate the Yip Yip Aliens in action:
October 30, 2009
The little matter of finding out that the actor who played Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation appears to have anti-vaccine proclivities sidetracked me from something that I had actually wanted to blog about yesterday. Specifically, it's something that my blog bud Abel Pharmboy has been hitting…
October 28, 2009
Unfortunately, Brent Spiner is not living up to Commander Data's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. Say it ain't so, Data! Say it ain't so!Last night, I decided for the heck of it to check my Twitter account, something I only tend to do sporadically, although I do keep a constant stream of links to…
October 28, 2009
Not long ago, I wrote a post warning about how funding for non-science-based modalities and, indeed, modalities that are purely religion-based, have found their way into various versions of health care reform bills that are currently wending their way through both houses of Congress. In other words…
October 28, 2009
Damn you, PZ! Not only are you muscling into my territory (what, aren't creationism and atheism enough?), but you had to subject me to the most mind-numbing example of why homeopaths are the most clueless purveyors of pseudoscience there are! Behold, Dr. Charlene Werner, an optometrist (apparently…
October 27, 2009
About a month and half ago, we learned that über-quack Hulda Clark, the woman who said that she had the Cure for All Cancers, had died on September 3, 2009. I was criticized for entitling my post Requiem for a Quack, but, given how Clark's quackery had contributed to the suffering and deaths of…
October 26, 2009
I was going to join PZ Myers, ERV, and Pamela Ronald in helping out an old blogging friend and former host of the Skeptics' Circle, Karl Mogel of The Inoculated Mind by pimping his other science-based blog Biofortified, which seeks to provide a science- and evidence-based discussion of plant…
October 26, 2009
I really have to apologize to the Young Australian Skeptics. I screwed up. I didn't do my duty as organizer of The Skeptics' Circle. The Aussies provided a bang-up edition of the 122nd Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle, and I didn't even promote it. So I'm promoting it now. Go. Read. Enjoy. Then join…
October 26, 2009
I had meant to address this topic last week, but the whole Suzanne Somers thing bubbled up and overwhelmed my blogging attention. Regular readers of this blog probably realize that I tend to live and die as a blogger by the maxim that if some is good more must be better. So I clobbered the topic…
October 24, 2009
I'd like to thank revere right now publicly. He's taught me a new word: Methodolatry: The profane worship of the randomized clinical trial as the only valid method of investigation. Many of my readers have e-mailed me about a recent article in The Atlantic by Shannon Brownlee and Jeanne Lenzer,…
October 23, 2009
Thank you, Mike Adams. You've saved my blogging posterior yet again. What do I mean? Well, I had originally intended to do a lucid, insightful, penetrating analysis of a scientific study today. However, when I got home last night after a hard day in clinic I was just too tired. So, faced with that…
October 22, 2009
Before I move on for a while from the topic of that faded 1970s comic actress, Suzanne Somers, whose latest book is a paean to cancer quackery and who has been carpetbombing the airwaves with burning napalm stupid, I think one revelation is worth a brief mention. Specifically, after my post about…
October 22, 2009
I hadn't planned on writing about Suzanne Somers again so soon. After all, I haven't yet received the promotional copy of her book (Knockout: Interviews with Doctors Who Are Curing Cancer--And How to Prevent Getting It in the First Place) that a most generous reader has sent to me, and I didn't…
October 22, 2009
Apparently, some of my readers in Canada are getting this when they look at any of my Suzanne Somers posts: No other country seems to be affected; at least, no readers from other countries have reported the problem to me. This will not do. The Overlords have been informed. In the meantime, if…
October 21, 2009
There are two times a year that seem to be a time to beware of a serious assault of pseudoscience and quackery. The first time of year is in April, which is Autism Awareness Month. Over the last few years I can be just as sure as night following day, only to be followed by day again, that the anti-…
October 20, 2009
Somehow I missed this when it first aired last week, but...take that, Bill Maher: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c Doubt Break '09 www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview
October 20, 2009
...be sure to check out Dr. John Snyder's article on vaccines on the official blog of the NYC Skeptics. As a pediatrician practicing in areas with high levels of resistance to vaccines, he's on the front lines.
October 19, 2009
Many have been the times over the last five years that I've called out bad journalism about medicine in general and vaccines in particular, especially the coverage of the discredited notion that vaccines or mercury in vaccines somehow was responsible for the "autism epidemic." That's why I feel a…
October 19, 2009
I don't know how many of you have ever been to an Ikea, one the Swedish furniture stores that have sprouted across the U.S. over the last couple of decades, bringing Swedish design sensibility and off sized sheets to the the masses at affordable prices; that is, if you can stand the crowds.…