"A statement of fact cannot be insolent." The miscellaneous ramblings of a surgeon/scientist on medicine,
quackery, science, pseudoscience, history, and pseudohistory (and anything else that interests him)
Orac is the nom de blog of a (not so) humble pseudonymous surgeon/scientist with an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his miscellaneous verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few will. (Continued here, along with a DISCLAIMER that you should read before reading any medical discussions here.)
Orac's old Blog is archived at Archived Insolence.
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July 31, 2008
Category: Announcements • Blog carnivals • Blogging • Skeptics' Circle
It's that time again, the time that comes around once a fortnight for skeptical bloggers and blog readers to gather together to celebrate that best that skeptics have had to offer since the last time they gathered. It's time for...
Posted by Orac at 2:30 PM • 2 Comments
Category: Clinical trials • Medicine
Has it really been a whole year? The longer I blog, the faster time seems to fly. Or maybe it's just because I'm getting older. Whatever the case, you may (or may not) recall that about a year ago I...
Posted by Orac at 9:00 AM • 138 Comments
Category: Humor • Pareidolia • Religion • Skepticism/critical thinking
All hail the Jesus Cat. Not The Jesus Lizard, the Jesus Cat.
Posted by Orac at 12:00 AM • 33 Comments
July 30, 2008
Category: Cancer • Medicine • Surgery
I've been a bit remiss in my duty toward a fellow ScienceBlogger. No doubt a few were wondering (or maybe not), why I, as the resident breast cancer expert here, didn't point out that my fellow ScienceBlogger Janet live-blogged her...
Posted by Orac at 2:13 PM • 13 Comments
Category: Clinical trials • Medicine • Quackery • Skepticism/critical thinking
With all the negativity around this blog lately, thanks to the continued moronic antics of the anti-vaccine contingent, which have irritated me more than they do usually, so much so that I can't recall a time since Jenny McCarthy's "Green...
Posted by Orac at 10:00 AM • 55 Comments
Category: Antivaccination lunacy • Medicine • Politics
I just can't escape them. Even when I want to, even when I'd like to take a break, they're there. The anti-vaccine nutcases. This time around, they showed up at, of all places, Netroots Nation, where the deceptively named National...
Posted by Orac at 12:40 AM • 21 Comments
July 29, 2008
Category: Anti-Semitism • History • Holocaust • Holocaust denial • Politics • World War II
Somehow, someway, a bit of slime oozed its way into a Manhattan church to insinuate itself into that fair city and thereby contaminate it. Somehow, I managed to miss it. Sadly, the world's most famous Holocaust denier, David Irving, is...
Posted by Orac at 10:30 AM • 86 Comments
Category: Alternative medicine • Antivaccination lunacy • Medicine
The stupid continues to metastasize. I wrote yesterday about a truly bad and irresponsible hit piece on Paul Offit and the American Academy of Pediatrics written by the anti-vaccinationist sympathizer Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News. Since I've already rehashed what...
Posted by Orac at 7:55 AM • 16 Comments
July 28, 2008
Category: Announcements • Blog housekeeping
I demand the sum of.....three MILLION visits! Muhahahahahaha! Yes, I know I did that bit before--twice, even!---but I liked it so much that I wanted to do it again, at least until my readers run screaming away, annoyed that...
Posted by Orac at 2:36 PM • 16 Comments
Category: Antivaccination lunacy • Autism • Entertainment/culture • Medicine • Quackery • Television
The stupid metastasizes as anti-vaccine correspondent Sharyl Attkisson CBS News delivers a biased and incompetent hit piece on Paul Offit.
Posted by Orac at 8:54 AM • 29 Comments
July 27, 2008
Category: Announcements • Blog carnivals • Blog housekeeping • Skeptics' Circle
I'm a bit late with this plug, but hopefully our host this week won't be too mad at me. It's that time again, time for those interested in the application of critical thinking to dubious claims to gather, as we...
Posted by Orac at 12:00 AM • 1 Comments
July 26, 2008
One final (I hope) and less histrionic (I hope) post on the PhysioProf kerfuffle.
Posted by Orac at 10:45 AM • 22 Comments
July 25, 2008
Category: Bioethics • Cancer • Medicine
I'm very puzzled. Now, I know that my being puzzled isn't particularly unusual. I'm frequently puzzled. I can't figure out how, for example, anyone with the slightest bit of reasoning ability can do anything other than laugh when informed what...
Posted by Orac at 11:00 AM • 86 Comments
You know, it really annoys me when I see idiocy as idiotic as the idiocy of this surgeon in New Jersey: In a lawsuit filed yesterday, a Camden County woman accused her orthopedic surgeon of "rubbing a temporary tattoo of...
Posted by Orac at 2:00 AM • 38 Comments
July 24, 2008
Category: Cancer • Computers • Medicine
Regular readers of this blog know that I'm an Apple geek. The Macintosh is my preferred axe and has been, with few interruptions, since the late 1980s. Indeed, the only time I've used anything other than a Mac is...
Posted by Orac at 9:00 AM • 33 Comments
July 23, 2008
Category: Alternative medicine • History • Hitler Zombie • Medicine • Politics • Quackery
Orac avoids the mini-Hitler Zombie of alternative medicine.
Posted by Orac at 3:00 PM • 30 Comments
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