Now here’s something that’ll go to Orac’s head (if, in fact, he actually had a head instead of a Plexiglass cube of blinking colored lights). He’s been named by Rebecca Watson (a.k.a. The Skepchick) as one of the Top 10 Skeptics Who Kicked Ass in 2008!
I’m tellin’ ya, to be included in a list with luminaries such as Ben Goldacre, Amanda Peet, Susan Jacoby (whose book, The Age of American Unreason, I really really need to get around to reading), Phil Plait, and fellow ScienceBlogger P.Z. Myers. Of course, my favorite skeptic on the list this year is Sanal Edamaruku, the Indian skeptic who was threatened with death by a Tantrik’s death chants and cheerfully challenged the Tantrik to go ahead and try to kill him. The only condition was that no physical contact could be made. Then, on national TV he was seen cheerfully smiling as the Tantrik tried over and over and over again to chant him to death with his “magic.”
Rebecca is wrong about one thing though. It’s not true that no one has ever seen Orac, not even his wife. Trust me, my wife has seen me (although, unfortunately, of late not as much as we should see each other). Also, a certain super secret cabal of skeptics have actually seen Orac “in the flesh” (or “in the plastic”), so to speak, including fellow members of the ScienceBlogs collective and even her Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe co-podcaster Steve Novella. Amusingly, however, at the time Steve was utterly unaware that it was me and didn’t realize it until I told him later in another context.
But that, perhaps, is a story for another day.
As for 2009, here’s hoping this skeptic can continue to kick ass in the coming year.
