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 this particular surgeon 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 35 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: [email protected]
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23 replies on “Funny how you never see both of them in the same place at the same time…”
I think the snow should all be melted by then, Orac…
I’d love to attend but will be assisting the spousal unit. Any other meetup opportunities? 🙂
Darn, I have a birthday party to attend with my kids on Saturday – otherwise I would have loved to attend.
If you need any additional material with a local hook, Dr. John Young (one of Mark Geier’s partners in the Lupron Protocol) has had his Maryland medical license suspended.
I don’t know if there’ll be other meetup opportunities on this visit. Unfortunately, I have to catch a plane not long after my talk. I’ll hang out after my talk for as long as I can before I have to go to the airport, but I can’t go out to dinner or hang out Saturday night. At this point, I don’t know for sure when I’ll actually get there. All flights today from my locale to Reagan National have been canceled. The earliest I’ll get there is tomorrow sometime.
I will be in Washington again in April for the AACR meeting.
You saw Orac? Aw, I missed him again!
BTW, at random: Does anyone have access to this journal:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23449559
This soooo needs some not-so-Respectful Insolence.
Count me in, see you Sat.
What it needs is a revolution.
I’m still puzzling over this Vickers entry.
@Narad
It sounds like something Ben Goldacre has been advocating to do drug vs drug trials using (in the case of the UK, the NHS database).
awww…did someone’s wittle feelings get hurt? whatever happened to formal dispassionate style for technical papers? (I only read the abstract but that was enough)
Oh wait, that’s from the Acupuncture in Medicine: Journal of the British Medical Accupuncture Society. That explains it…
This one, which I admittedly still haven’t fully comprehended, seems an awful lot like just putting up a bigger antenna and hoping to filter out the noise, which is going to increase disproportionately to the signal. (To extend the radio analogy, one does exactly the opposite when DXing.) With a bit of complaining about burdensome IRBs.
Unfortunately, I can’t get access to that particular gem either. I’ll have to ask around if someone can.
If Vickers really wanted to make a difference and educate people, especially the general public, then he wouldn’t hide his objections behind a pay wall.
My university appears to have an access to the journal … will have to ask why they are wasting our very limited resources on this scheiseblatt.
wasting our very limited resources on this scheiseblatt
The publishers bundle them… you can’t just subscribe to the banana; you have to pay for the entire gorilla.
Sometimes (as seems to be the case here) the institutional subscription deal includes a “one year embargo” clause, so you can’t access the most recent issues.
Well, you can, but it makes little sense to from the point of view of a library. It’s reminiscent of the fallacy that advocates of à la carte cable-television fall prey to, although I don’t know the revenue model for Acupuncture in Medicine.
I think this is the EBSCO deal. (EBSCO sucks, BTW.) Subscribers to the real BMJ package naturally have immediate access.
Orac, I’m sure you will be prominently *mentioned* in Vicker’s article. You already did an analysis and delivered some Respectful Insolence of his meta analysis of acupuncture for pain studies. Scroll on down to see Vickers’ comment at # 63.
https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2012/09/12/can-we-finally-just-say-that-acupuncture-is-nothing-more-than-an-elaborate-placebo-can-we-2012-edition/
It’s a little odd; I have access to just about every other BMJ bundled journal… except that one.
Our library only has issues of Acupuncture in Medicine from 2006 to 2008.
Well, you can, but it makes little sense to from the point of view of a library.
The bundling results in me having access to Medical Hypotheses — obviously a waste of the library’s money, but good for lazy bloggers looking for easy targets to make fun of.
Fowler’s going to get you for that, not-pedant.
I’ve never seen Orac and Bonnie Offit in the same room.
Then again, I’ve never seen either Orac nor Bonnie Offit.