“The ideologies of the left and right took shape before Darwin, before Mendel, before anyone knew what a gene or a neuron or a hormone was. Every student of political science is taught that political ideologies are based on theories of human nature. Why must they be based on theories that are three hundred years [...]
July 11, 2008
By Harriet Hall, MD Reprinted from this week’s eSkeptic. Charlatan: America’s Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam, by Pope Brock, is not only a rip-roaring good read, but it brings up serious issues about regulation of medical practice and prosecution of quackery. It tells the story of John [...]
May 24, 2008
How wild horse advocates spin-doctor a volatile issue and spread misinformation They are one of Nevada’s most misunderstood attributes. From long eyelashes in Disney movies to the ongoing anthropomorphic attitudes expressed by all stripes of mostly well-intentioned folks, Nevada’s wild horses are universally admired. They are also endlessly mired in controversy. This is to be [...]
May 20, 2008
Yesterday could have been fun. One of what is bound to be many wildfires this summer started up just behind my house, about 45 minutes from where I work. It started ironically right about the time that I was on the phone with a reporter discussing one of Nevada’s greatest environmental threats: fire. Despite my [...]
March 28, 2008
Michael Shermer likes to tread dangerous waters. His latest dip into challenging the received turbulance of our times is an evolutionary explanation for the state of Modern Capitalism. Politicos, religionists and the lay masses, if they actually take a gander through Shermer’s The Mind of the Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from [...]
August 30, 2008