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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

March 15, 2006
After yesterday's all-out frontal assault on a dubious scientific journal (which, by the way, you should still read if you haven't already), how about some lighter fare for today? A couple of months ago, when the fury of fundamentalist Muslims was directed at Denmark for the publication by one of…
March 14, 2006
I'm feeling a bit envious right now. Kevin Leitch has something I haven't. He's acquired his very own blog sockpuppet: Someone (and it's really not hard to guess who) has created a little sockpuppet site for me. Whomever (ahem) it is has also started sprinkling the blogosphere with spicy comments…
March 14, 2006
The 30th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle is scheduled to appear at Paige's Page on Thursday, March 16. It's less than two days away. But, even more importantly, the deadline is less than 24 hours away. Submissions are due Wednesday night. Get them to Paige by tomorrow night if you want your…
March 14, 2006
Grand Rounds, vol. 2, no. 25 has been posted over at GeekNurse. It's time once again to enjoy the best medical blogging from the last few weeks.
March 14, 2006
I'm beginning to fear for Kathleen Seidel. No, I don't fear for her safety, but I do fear for her sanity. You see, she's spent way too much time delving into the house organ of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), namely The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (with…
March 13, 2006
The Carnival of Bad History #5 has been hosted at Ahistoricality. Of course, the carnival features a number of posts about ultimate in bad history, Holocaust denial. How could it not, with the recent trial of Holocaust denier David Irving in Austria?
March 13, 2006
He'll build a glass asylum With just a hint of mayhem He'll build a better whirlpool We'll be living from sin, then we can really begin Please savior, saviour, show us Hear me, I'm graphically yours Someone to claim us, someone to follow Someone to shame us, some brave Apollo Someone to fool us,…
March 13, 2006
A new RINO Sightings: Monday the 13th Horror Edition is up at Searchlight Crusade.
March 13, 2006
{NOTE: Here is the post that was delayed last week due to my announcement of arson at the Holocaust History Project.} It occurs to me that I haven't done much straight science blogging lately. Yes, debunking pseudoscience and quackery is fun, useful, and has the potential to educate people about…
March 12, 2006
I have mixed feelings about the season finale of Battlestar Galactica, which aired Friday night. Overall, the second season has been a lot less consistent than the first. Some episodes (Downloaded, for example) were as good or better than anything in the first season, while a couple (Black Market,…
March 12, 2006
Regular readers of this blog since before the move to ScienceBlogs a month ago have probably wondered when everybody's favorite blog mascot would return. It's likely that Christopher Mims and the rest of the ScienceBlog editors probably hoped that he wouldn't, so as not to associate the Seed…
March 11, 2006
Given the spring-like weather we've been enjoying the last couple of days, I happened across a reminder of what the weather was like just a few weeks ago. I've never understood the attraction of doing this for fun. To me it looks profoundly unpleasant at best. Insanity.
March 11, 2006
Need more cowbell? Not if you're this guy. Bummer. Next we'll hear about miraculous "cowbell cures" from alties.
March 11, 2006
Just a reminder that the Skeptics' Circle is nearly upon us. It's scheduled to appear this Thursday at Paiges' Page. Get your submissions to Paige at paige@paiges-page.net before Wednesday night. The guidelines can be found here, with more detail than you probably want to know here. Let's help…
March 10, 2006
It's good to see the Pooflinger back in action. It really is. I don't even mind that he's starting to muscle in on my territory, because, as he points out, alties need poo-love too. In the process He's unearthed a "gem" of altie wackiness that even I had never encountered before. Better still, he's…
March 10, 2006
As a skeptic, when discussing psychics and how there is zero scientific evidence for the existence of psychic powers, I often come up against the attitude that says, "What's the harm if people believe in psychics?" What's the harm indeed? Have your palm read, and it's kind of fun, but you generally…
March 9, 2006
An update to the story of arson at the Holocaust History Project that I first discussed on Wednesday. A local news report showing the extent of the damage to the offices of the Holocaust History Project and including an interview with Harry Mazal can be found here. Not unexpectedly, the cockroaches…
March 9, 2006
Those of you who've been around a while may have noticed something different about the blog over the last few days. What's happened is that, instead of doing what I normally used to do with my old Blogspot blog and either posting right after midnight or posting messages that I had written the night…
March 9, 2006
A little bird told me that today is PZ Myers' birthday and instigated a little blog birthday party for him among various science bloggers. I wondered how I might send my wishes to him for a happy birthday or whom I might invite. Then it came to me. There was only one entity, one creature…
March 9, 2006
Light blogging today, as I'm in the O.R. (Although there will be one more brief post, which, thanks to the wonders of Movable Type's ability to let me schedule a time when posts are published, will be appearing early this afternoon, while I'm still working.The reason why I'm delaying it will,…
March 8, 2006
Yesterday, after writing about the arson at the offices of the Holocaust History Project (THHP) earlier this week, I made an appeal to the blogosphere to link to THHP. My concept was thus: Since the arsonists appear to have wanted to silence THHP, I thought that it would be a fine "screw you!" to…
March 8, 2006
Today's regularly scheduled post has been delayed due to an important and tragic development. Something bad happened a couple of days ago, something that cuts rather close to home. Arsonists targeted the offices used as a mailing address for the Holocaust History Project (THHP). (Video here, but…
March 8, 2006
Here's an interesting new blog that I discovered via Trackback. Remember my post yesterday praising a certain commenter who chimed in about the Geiers. He's started his own blog called Good Math, Bad Math, which he describes thusly: ...in my experience, one of the most clear ways of identifying a…
March 7, 2006
I'm a bit late on this one, but Deborah Lipstadt won the National Jewish Book Award for best book about the Holocaust for her book History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving. I started reading the book a couple of months ago, but got sidetracked. Last weekend, I picked it up again and…
March 7, 2006
Geez, it snuck up on me this week. Grand Rounds vol. 2, no. 24 has been posted at Emergiblog, and I totally forgot to submit some custom Respectful Insolence. Go forth and experience the best that the Orac-less medical blogosphere has to offer. (It's probably an improvement over the weeks when I…
March 7, 2006
After all the violence and controversy over the Danish cartoons about the Prophet Mohammed, why is nobody protesting this real blasphemy?
March 7, 2006
I'm a bit burned out from spending far more time than they deserve debunking the Geiers' bad science and even worse statistics; so today's blogging will tend towards lighter fare (and shorter posts). One thing I found recently via PharmaGossip is some rather compelling evidence in support of global…
March 6, 2006
I was going to give this a rest for a while, but this is too good not to post a brief note about. Posted in the comments of my piece debunking the Geiers' pseudoscience and their laughable "scientific" article claiming to show a decrease in the rate of new cases of autism since late 2002, when…
March 6, 2006
Holy crap! They killed off... {Spoiler below the fold--if you're in a time zone west of Eastern Standard, haven't yet seen the episode because of the time difference, and don't want to know what happens at the end of the episode, don't read below the fold. You've been warned!} ... Edgar at the end…
March 6, 2006
Curse you, Mark and David Geier. I'm getting tired of having to subject my scientific and critical thinking skills to the assaults on science and reason that you routinely publish in dubious journals to use as weapons in your apparently never-ending crusade to extract as much money as possible out…