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Spin city: why improving collective epistemology matters
The gene for internet addiction has been found! Well, actually it turns out that 27% of internet addicts have the genetic variant, compared to 17% of non-addicts. The Encode project has overturned the theory of ‘junk DNA‘! Well, actually we already knew that that DNA was doing things long before, and the definition of ‘function’…
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Refusing Treatment to the Overweight: A Case Analysis
It was recently reported that a doctor in Shrewsbury Massachusetts refused to treat a patient named Ida Davidson because she was overweight. Dr. Helen Carter recently decided to stop admitting patients who weighed over 200 pounds to her practice, justifying her decision by citing three incidents in which her co-workers were injured in the course…
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Chemical castration and homosexuality
Last week the Sydney Herald published details about an Australian Doctor who has been struck off as a GP (although not as a Radiologist) after prescribing Cyprostat to an 18 year man in order to treat his homosexuality.1 Both men were members of the Exclusive Brethren Church and the patient was taken to see Dr…
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The Paralympics and Short Basketball
It has always been a puzzle to me that there is no league in basketball for small people. Height is a vague concept, like baldness, but just as some people are unquestionably bald, others are unquestionably short. Shortness is a category to which I, unfortunately and indisputably belong.
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The deadly dangers of peer review
By Charles Foster I’m just reading Michael Rosen’s (very good) book, ‘Dignity: Its history and meaning’ (Harvard University Press, 2012). He robustly questions the use of peer review in philosophy. Of course it is an essential part of science, but philosophy is rather different. He writes: ‘If [as he argues] the idea of completeness in…
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The Continuing Tragedies of Home Birth and the Rights of the Future Child
By Lach De Crespigny and Julian Savulescu Windsor Coroner’s Court has heard that a mother died within hours of giving birth at home after a private midwife committed a horrifying catalogue of errors . According to reports, the woman had previously delivered twins by emergency caesarean section, one of which later died. Her husband said…
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The Immorality of the News
People tend to worry a great deal about censorship of the press, and to talk about the obligation governments and others are under to allow the press the freedom it needs to report accurately. But maybe we should worry more about what the press itself chooses to leave out, and think about its reporting obligations.
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Home Alone? On Being Liberal in East Asia
A version of this piece was originally published on carnegiecouncil.org. What is it like to be liberal in East Asia, where political leaders repeatedly denounce liberal values for various purposes—from suppressing dissenters to pursuing popular support? I recently had the privilege of visiting the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, where I met academics…
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The times they are a changing…
In 1920, Jackson Scholz set the men’s 100m world record at 10.6 seconds. The 100m race is one where progress is very hard; we’re getting towards the limit of human possibility. It’s very tricky to squeeze out another second or fraction of a second. Still, in 2009, Usain Bolt set the men’s 100m world record at 9.58…
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The AAP report on circumcision: Bad science + bad ethics = bad medicine
By Brian D. Earp See Brian’s most recent previous post by clicking here. See all of Brian’s previous posts by clicking here. Follow Brian on Twitter by clicking here. UPDATED as of 27 May, 2013. See the bottom of the post. The AAP report on circumcision: Bad science + bad ethics = bad medicine For…