Announcements
oracknows | July 9, 2014Today, I'm winging my way to sunny Las Vegas. Yes, in the middle of summer, when southern Nevada's weather is most like an oven, I will be there. The reason? I'll be doing a workshop and a panel with fellow supporters of science-based medicine at The Amazing Meeting.
I don't know how many of my readers will be there, but if you're there and see me hanging out at the Del Mar or in the hall between sessions, feel free to introduce yourself. For everyone else, I guess we'll have to consider this an open thread. Don't worry. I plan on doing some blogging while I'm away, but it might be more…
oracknows | May 16, 2014As seems to happen more frequently, Orac has had his attention wholly taken up by contemplating a black hole. (Actually, he's at a medical conference on quality care in breast cancer.) Consequently, after a four and a half hour drive to the hotel, dinner out with the conference staff, and preparing for his talk, he didn't have time to deliver the Insolence you all know and crave. So he's asking you—yes, you!—to create your own Insolence. That's right. It's open thread day, although I do want there to be a bit of guidance. Are there any particular topics or targets deserving of Orac's loving…
oracknows | March 30, 2014Weekends seem to be the time for shameless self-promotion. At least, some weekends are. So, in that tradition, I can't help but blowing my own horn a bit and urging my readers to head on over to listen to The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, Episode #455, March 29, 2014. There, Bob Blaskiewicz and I are interviewed about Stanislaw Burzynski and what you, as supporters of science-based medicine, can do to counter the efforts of his supporters to pressure the FDA to let children with cancer receive antineoplastons, efforts that are yielding fruit.
Bob Blaskiewicz has set up a Change.org…
oracknows | March 17, 2014A couple of days ago, I got so carried away writing a response in the comments about David Lauser, Sammy Hagar's drummer and husband of a woman named Liza Cozad, who is being used as a tool to pressure the FDA to allow more single patient INDs (also sometimes called compassionate use exemptions) for Stanislaw Burzynski's antineoplastons (ANPs). Sadly, despite decades of failures and recent efforts to expose those failures, I still see credulous stories about Burzynski like this one, in which the reporter completely misses the point.
That's why, in these days when credulous reporters still, in…
oracknows | February 24, 2014Grant deadlines strike again, and there's no new Insolence for you to peruse today. (The problem with doing real science, as opposed to blogging, is that you actually have to apply endlessly for grant money, and, believe it or not, that comes first, before even Insolence.) Fortunately, I've been made aware of an endless source of entertainment for you, my readers. I've explained before from where I chose the pseudonym "Orac." It was from what was at the time a popular British science fiction series that ran for four years back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Unfortunately, the passage of…
oracknows | February 19, 2014The title says it all. I was too beat last night after a hard day in the OR to get the Tarial cells fired up to produce a daily dose of the Insolence you all know and love (or, if you're an antivaccinationist or quack, hate). It happens occasionally, but, fortunately for the universe. not too often. So I guess it means it's open thread time. Oh, and there have been somethings happening that I've meant to comment on but somehow haven't gotten around to, which means I'm probably good for posts for the next few days, but if you think you can catch my attention with something else and knock some…
oracknows | January 6, 2014Because of my involvement in this organization, I am hijacking my own blog for one day for my own nefarious purposes. To that end, I am republishing an announcement that originally appeared yesterday at a blog that a significant fraction of you are familiar with, but nowhere near all of you. And I want all of you to know about this, because I hope that some of you will join our cause.
I'm also going to add a few words of my own, because I can't help it. (As Hans Solo once said, "Hey, it's me.") The reason this new organization, the Society for Science-Based Medicine, is so needed is because,…
oracknows | December 17, 2013Whoa.
How did I miss this? Maybe it was all the other stuff going on last week, such as the Sarah Hershberger case, multiple updates on Stanislaw Burzynski, and Katie Couric's sort-of apology about her awful segment on HPV vaccines. So much stuff was going on that I forgot that December 11 was my nine year blogiversary.
Yes, nine years ago on that day, the wonder (or at least obnoxiousness) that was Orac was born (or at least stolen from an obscure 30 year old British SF show). Since I was so exhausted last night that I fell asleep on the couch with my wife and my dog, I figure I might as…
oracknows | November 19, 2013And now for something completely different. Well, not exactly. It's just that I have an announcement to make that is for your benefit. Our (usually) benevolent overlords have informed us that they are going to be moving ScienceBlogs over to a new server beginning sometime after midnight tonight:
ScienceBlogs will be moving to a new server environment on Wednesday, November 20th. Although the site will be available throughout the transition, you should not post, edit, draft, comment, or do anything else in WordPress after Tuesday evening, or your work may be lost. Once the new server…
jhalper | October 10, 2013Here is a photo of one of the Golem computers on which Arieh Warshel and Michael Levitt -- this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry winners, along with Martin Karplus -- did much of their original work.
Golem computer
My dad was a computer programmer at that time, so I have some idea of what their work must have entailed. To this science writer, that makes their feat nothing short of amazing.
The Golem, by the way, which is preserved in the basement of the Weizmann Institute's mathematics building, was not the first computer at the Institute. The WEIZAC (below) was built at the Institute in…
oracknows | September 4, 2013Antivaccinationists, quacks, and apologists for antivaccinationists and quacks (but I repeat myself) seem to have an illusion that I'm just swimming in pharma lucre, that I sit in my underwear grinding out magnum opus-worthy after magnum opus-worthy blog posts, all so that I can rake in the cash hand over fist, lead a life of pure luxury, and enjoy ruthlessly crushing any hint of dissent regarding science-based medicine. Even if that assessment were completely true, as Lord Draconis Zeneca tells us that it is, it's not all easy being a prolific, logorrheic pharma shill servilely doing the…
illconsidered | July 14, 2013Things have been quiet here, even more than the usual slow pace...
I am back now from a trip to Europe where I left the family with the kids maternal grandparents and I won't see them for nine weeks in all. This was a bad plan, but it was the plan. I have been home for a couple of weeks already, but I managed to lose my laptop traveling. Yes, that is a big pain in the behind and it has made many previously simple and efficient things more difficult. Mind you, it could have been much worse as the external hard drive I always keep in my laptop bag was not in my laptop bag and this is where…
oracknows | April 1, 2013This is just a quick announcement. I've been informed by Steve Novella that the Science-Based Medicine blog is currently down. It's been down for several hours now. Steve's crack team of techies is working on the problem right now. More information as updates come in.
oracknows | March 6, 2013I know I have quite a few readers in the Washington, DC area; so I thought I'd just take advantage of the prerogative of the blog to do a little pimping. (And what good is having a blog if you can't do a little shameless promotion every now and then?) A "very good friend" of mine will be in DC this weekend giving a talk forthe National Capital Area Skeptics. The talk will take place at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, VA on Saturday, March 9, 2013 at 1 PM. So if you're in the DC area and want to hear a familiar voice pontificate about quackademic medicine (and, really, what…
oracknows | February 15, 2013You might have noticed that I've been...preoccupied. I posted a "rerun" on Thursday, and yesterday I didn't even post at all. That doesn't mean that I don't check in from time to time to see what you all are doing in my absence. That's how I saw this comment from Dangerous Bacon (cool 'nym, BTW—I've always wanted to mention that):
Hey, enough of this “I’m working on a grant application” excuse.
Orac needs to get back up to his mom’s attic and crank out some new posts.
Fear not. The grant has been submitted. On the other hand, I'm giving a talk next week in Missouri, and I have to put the…
oracknows | January 22, 2013While I'm using my blog as an announcement platform today, I would be remiss not to mention that tomorrow is Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski's birthday, and the Skeptics for the Protection of Cancer Patients are still raising money for St. Jude's Children's Hospital in order to try to get Dr. Burzynski to do something good for cancer patients for a change. The beauty of it is that, even if Burzynski declines, as is likely, there'll still be a nice big donation to a real cancer center that does real good for children with cancer, which is in marked contrast to Burzynski. Harriet Hall has joined in the…
oracknows | January 21, 2013Time really flies. It's hard to believe that the first national skeptical conference of the season is NECSS 2013 (The Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism), hosted by the New York City Skeptics and the New England Skeptical Society, is fast approaching. In fact, it's only a little more than two months away. The conference will be held in New York City on April 5-7. Sadly, that conflicts with the American Association for Cancer Research meeting, meaning that I'll be in Washington, DC that weekend and can't go. (As an aside, maybe anyone from the DC area who also can't go to NECSS and…
jhalper | December 11, 2012At the beginning of the year, we published an interview with Dr. Zohar Komargodski on this blog. Apparently we were not the only ones impressed by Komargodski’s accomplishments: The Fundamental Physics Prize Foundation has announced that he will be one of three recipients of a New Horizons in Physics Prize. This prize is given to promising young theoretical physicists, and it includes $100,000 in prize money.
We also wrote about last year’s Fundamental Physics Prizes, handed out by billionaire Yuri Milner. The new Prizes will be officially announced in March, 2013, at CERN.
Our…
oracknows | December 10, 2012As I mentioned yesterday, Orac is currently away at an undisclosed location that is someplace warm. He is there, taking a rare pre-solstice break, preparing for the Mayan apocalypse that is to come on the 21st of this month. (Actually, he's recharging his Tarial cell, the better to be prepared for the utter nonsense that is to come in 2013, given that there is, at the very minimum, going to be another Stanislaw Burzynski hagiography released early in the year.) In the meantime, as I mentioned yesterday, most, if not all, of the posts this week will appear...familiar. At least, they might be…
oracknows | October 25, 2012Instead of the usual logorrheic (usually) well-thought out Insolence you've come to expect every day, Instead, you'll hvae an announcement and a couple of random thoughts. The reasons are multiple. First, today's a travel day. I'm heading off to Nashville to attend and speak at CSICon. My topic? What do you think it will be? Why, quackademic medicine, of course! (What else would it be?) Not only will I get to share the stage with old friends and blogging collaborators, but with Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education! Yes, as part of the overall discussion of the problem of…