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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

August 26, 2009
I realize that I'm possibly stepping into proverbial lion's den with this one, but a man's got to do what a man's got to do. As you may recall, former ScienceBlogs bloggers Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum (and current Discover Magazine bloggers) recently released a book called Unscientific…
August 25, 2009
...go read! It's good to see Dr. Charles back in the blogosphere.
August 25, 2009
Geez, I wonder if Larry Moran knows about this. If he doesn't, I'm going to make sure that he does. I'm also guessing that he won't be pleased. He doesn't like pseudoscience at all. He detests "intelligent design" creationists. Based on that, I'm guessing that he won't like it at all to learn that…
August 24, 2009
The anti-vaccine movement is nothing if not plastic. It "evolves" very rapidly in response to selective pressures applied to it in the form of science refuting its key beliefs. For instance, when multiple studies looking at the MMR vaccine and autism failed to confirm the myth that the MMR causes…
August 23, 2009
I must admit that I've never heard of Margerite Kelly. Apparently she's some sort of advice columnist for the Washington Post. Apparently she's also fairly clueless, if her column from last Friday is any indication. At least, she's clueless about autism. In her column Diagnosing Autism Is Never an…
August 23, 2009
Although I was born in Detroit itself, like so many Detroiters in the 1970s my family moved to a suburb of Detroit called Livonia when I was 10. I haven't lived in Livonia in nearly 25 years, but my parents still live there in the same house where I spent my teen years. So the politics of the town…
August 22, 2009
I know this one's been floating around the blogosphere for a while, but it finally made its way to me at a time when I needed something lighthearted and amusing: Best quotes: "Well, science doesn't know everything." Well, science knows it doesn't know anything, otherwise it would stop ... But…
August 21, 2009
I realize that this is a little late, but for those of you in southeast Michigan who might be able to make it, there's going to be an attempt at an inaugural Skeptics in the Pub. Thanks to fellow ScienceBlogger and skeptical rogue PalMD and even more so thanks a couple of his similarly skeptical (…
August 21, 2009
If there's one form of pseudoscientific health care (if you can call it that) that rests on the most risibly implausible tenets, I'd have to say that it's homeopathy. Either that, or homeopathy and various "energy medicine" modalities would have to fight it out in a no woo barred cage match to the…
August 21, 2009
Sorry, but I guess I was incorrect when I pointed to Barney Frank's blistering putdown of a woman with a picture of President Obama decorated with a Hitler mustache who likened health care reform to Nazi policies as being the "only? correct response to such vile and obvious guilt by association…
August 20, 2009
This time, the evidence comes from New Zealand: Notified measles cases so far this year are already seven times higher than the total number of measles cases last year. The reason? The third-lowest immunisation rate in the OECD, despite the fact immunisation is free and widely and readily available…
August 20, 2009
I don't normally like Barney Frank. At times, I've thought him to be a blithering idiot. However, this time around, he gets it exactly right in dealing with a woman who was carrying around a picture of President Obama with a Hitler mustache and comparing his health care reform initiative to Nazi…
August 20, 2009
One of the advantages of hanging out around home on the proverbial staycation is that, instead of actually paying more attention to the news, I've paid less attention to the news. That's why I didn't notice some stories from earlier this week about what the new director of the NIH, Francis Collins…
August 19, 2009
Time and time again, I've had requests from readers for good resources for countering the nonsense emanating from the anti-vaccine movement. Time and time again, I've pointed out sites like Every Child By Two and The Vaccine Education Center. Now, thanks to the efforts of some friends of mine,…
August 19, 2009
As a "prominent" (as hard as I find it that anyone would apply the word to me) blogger about the anti-vaccine movement, somehow I ended up on the Every Child By Two mailing list. ECBT, as you may recall, is the organization founded by former First Lady Rosalyn Carter and former First Lady of…
August 18, 2009
Vacation or no vacation, something's bubbled up in the comments that I consider worth commenting about. If you remember (or even if you don't), about a week and a half ago I wrote about how Dr. Bob Sears, author of The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Choice for Your Child, has let the mask drop. I…
August 18, 2009
Now here's some perfect reading for a lazy stay-at-home vacation day. It's even pretty science-y. Well, math-y, at least. It may even be the best scientific paper ever. The title says it all: When Zombies Attack: Mathematical Modeling of an Outbreak of Zombie Infection The long version is at the…
August 17, 2009
Believe it or not, I happen to be on vacation this week. Fear not, it's a stay-at-home vacation (sometimes the best kind) and therefore my vacation doesn't mean I'll stop blogging. In fact, I consider blogging to be part of my recreation. What my vacation does mean is that I will probably slow down…
August 15, 2009
It's amazing where anti-vaccine nuttery will metastasize to when you're not looking. This time around, Tom Chick (who, I'm told but don't know for sure, is actually Jack Chick's son) warns us about a new Wii game by Ubisoft called Your Shape. It sounds as though it's nothing more than another of "…
August 15, 2009
Yikes! How did I forget to plug the Skeptics' Circle? This time around, it's the Skeptics Circle #117: The Chiropractic Edition and it's here to readjust your subluxated skepticism. Or something. Either way, it's a hoot. I do fear one thing though. Mike Meadon referred to the Skeptics' Circle as "…
August 14, 2009
No comment other than I'm not surprised at the hypocrisy: Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy No comment here either. As they say in law, res ipsa loquitur. I've been intentionally vague regarding my position on the Obama health care reform initiative because…
August 14, 2009
Effect Measure is a site I highly recommend with experienced epidemiologists in charge. In other words, it's run by adults. But scientists often disagree about things. This is apparently a secret to non-scientists and many reporters who assume that when two scientists disagree, one is lying or…
August 13, 2009
I've been ragging a lot on some of the right wing critics of President Obama's health care reform initiative. Without a doubt, with their talk of "death panels" and their likening the health care reform bill to the beginning of another Nazi-like euthanasia program, they deserve it. But I just saw…
August 13, 2009
Let's face it, I've been at this "anti-antii-vax" thing for quite a while now. This December, this blog will have been in existence for five years. Even before that cold, gray Saturday afternoon nearly five years ago when, on a whim, I started up a blog on Blogspot that became the first incarnation…
August 12, 2009
I hadn't planned on writing about this topic again. Really, I hadn't. The reason is mainly that politics is usually not my bag. I've said it time and time again: political bloggers are a dime a dozen, and I have no reason to suspect that my pontifications and bloviations on politics would be any…
August 11, 2009
...leave it to the Investor's Business Daily to kick it up a notch to thermonuclear as an anonymous editorialist tries to criticize President Obama's health plan by invoking the dreaded British NHS: People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National…
August 11, 2009
While I've let myself get sucked into commenting on health care politics (well, not exactly "sucked in"; I was pissed off enough at the "Obama = Hitler" analogies that I enjoyed skewering some of the idiots making them), there's another issue that's popped up that I can't resist commenting on in my…
August 10, 2009
Remember the Hitler Zombie? He doesn't show up all that much anymore. The reason is not because a lot of brain dead Nazi analogies aren't being used to demonize political opponents. In fact, If I had a mind to, I could probably populate this blog with nothing other than people whose brains have…
August 10, 2009
If there's one theme that's run through this blog since the very beginning, it's that the best medical care should be based on the best science. In other words, I like to think of myself as being far more for science- and evidence-based medicine, than I am against against so-called "complementary…
August 9, 2009
Too bad it's missing one big one. There's nothing about the birther movement there: See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor. I think that about sums it all up: moon hoax, 9/11, the Illuminati, the Masons. What more could there be?