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.
...because some serious weirdness has invaded Respectful Insolence.
If you want to know where, just look at these comments that popped up overnight about an old post of mine about the moon landing in 1969.
It may be Thanksgiving weekend here in the States, and fellow ScienceBloggers PZ and Ed may be getting sniping at each other over Larry Moran's rather intemperate comments. (Can't we all just get along, guys, at least for the holidays anyway?). Worse, this kerfluffle is threatening to suck in other…
Since some other members of the ScienceBlogs collective are doing it, link whore that I am, I couldn't resist putting my blog into this site and seeing where it ranked.
And here's the result:
With 516 links in the last 180 days, Technorati places http://scienceblogs.com/insolence in the very high…
Here's some reading to keep you entertained while the Respectfully Insolent gang loads up on turkey:
1. Grand Rounds Vol. 3, No. 9 (albeit a couple of days late)
2. Tangled Bank #67: Giving Thanks for Science
3. The Carnival of Bad History No. 11
Here's wishing everyone who celebrates it a Happy Thanksgiving. As you might expect, our blog mascot is joining in the fun, preparing the turkey, and loading up on tryptophan!
And one more below the fold.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
So hit him.
Hit him hard.
He's 40,000 hits away from 1,000,000 visits.
Help get him over the top.
Given that I'm starting to get in that range (866,000 hits as of this morning), here's hoping someone will help me out in around two or three months, which is when I estimate that I'll be approaching 1…
Fellow ScienceBlogger Alex Palazzo has discovered autism quackery.
I'm hurt.
I'm hurt because apparently Alex doesn't read my blog. (Just kidding; I don't read every ScienceBlog, either, although I do read many of them and peruse the Last 24 Hours Feed regularly for topics of interest.) If he did…
This time around for 48th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle, a skeptic by the 'nym of decorabilia presents his Last Will and Testament to the Circle, and bequeaths his worldly possessions to his fellow skeptics:
I am old and tired, my son. I feel the creeping chill of death in these creaking bones…
A few days ago, I posted a response to another physician who was not happy with me, no, not happy with me at all. What made him unhappy was the vociferousness with which I criticized the creeping infiltration of woo that is insinuating itself into medical school curricula and expressed dismay at…
On Saturday afternoon, after a morning of rounding on the service's patients and doing some odds and ends in the office and the lab, on the way home I stopped at the local Best Buy because I needed some blank DVDs. To my puzzlement, there were people lined up outside as though they were camping out…
I tried not to do it. I really did.
I tried to resist the temptation to respond to Deepak Chopra's latest incursions into woo as he flailed futilely at Richard Dawkins' arguments for science. Fortunately, PZ Myers and MarkCC have been around to take down his idiocy. But then I thought about it Why…
I don't know about you, but I was getting a little tired of writing so often about the same topic last week, namely the insinuation of unscientific and unproven "alternative medicine" into the medical school curriculum and its promotion by the American Medical Student Association (AMSA). I had…
Via Recursivity and Pharyngula, I've learned that, after being an embarrassment to Princeton University for nearly three decades, the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) laboratory is closing due to lack of funding. I'm only amazed that it held on so long. Let's just hope that Deepak…
A couple of days ago, I wrote a criticism of the increasing tendency to teach woo in American medical schools and then later followed up with a post questioning the contention that teaching woo has the benefit of improving the doctor-patient relationship. A physician going by the 'nym Solo…
Via Holocaust Controversies, I've become aware of a new anti-denier blog, Holocaust Denial Absurdities. Its first couple of posts look promising, such as this description of the censorship of opposing viewpoints that goes on at a denier forum.
Mourn, Michigan fans. On the eve of the most important Big Ten game of the season this year between two of the greatest rivals in college football history, the University of Michigan and Ohio State University, the greatest coach in U. of M. history has passed away:
Legendary University of Michigan…
Fellow ScienceBlogger (I'm not all that enamored of the term "SciBling") Abel Pharmboy has finally weighed in on the issue of alternative medicine woo finding its way into medical school curricula and its promotion by the American Medical Student Association, which Dr. RW, Joseph, and I have been…
It's almost here. In fact, it's closer than you would think, because of the Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S.
Yes, the Skeptics' Circle is due to land at this session's host (decorabilia) one day early, on Wednesday, November 22. So this time around the deadline will be Tuesday, November 21.…
Given my love of science and advocacy of evidence-based medicine, people may have come to the erroneous conclusion that I hate all woo. Nothing could be further from the truth. I just want medical woo to be subject to the same scientific testing as conventional medicine, because I believe that…
My recent post (coupled with similar posts by Dr. R. W. and Abel Pharmboy) about the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) and its credulous promotion of non-evidence-based alternative medicine while posing as being "skeptical" of big pharma brought this rejoinder from Joseph of Corpus…
Although I'm clearly not as vociferous about this as other ScienceBloggers, I do remain concerned about the rise of fundamentalist religion, whether it be Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or whatever. Whenever dogmatic, literal, fundamentalist interpretation of whatever holy scriptures someone believes…
I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I really loved Babylon 5 while it was on; it was one of my favorite TV series of all time, and I own all five seasons on DVD. Even though the fifth and final season seemed a bit stretched out, the last five or six episodes of the series made up for it, so…
Effect Measure has a good post about the NIH granting process. I'm not going to rehash what revere said, as far as the description of what happens once a grant application arrives at the NIH and how it winds its way through the Initial Review Group to one of many study sections through programmatic…
I always thought that David Copperfield was a bit cheesy. Heck, I still do. But this incident gives me a bit of respect for him:
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) -- One of three teenagers charged with attempting to rob illusionist David Copperfield as he left a performance has pleaded guilty.
Terrance…
Light blogging today, I'm afraid. My high speed Internet access was on the fritz last night, leaving odds and ends. Truly annoying. (On the other hand, maybe it's the FSM's way of telling me to slow down a bit.)
Patch Adams, the famous doctor who advocates humor in medicine and has been known to…
