Educating children on matters of food
As evidenced by recent declarations by the Children’s Secretary (see here and here), the British government is determined to fight childhood obesity and to initiate nothing less than a “lifestyle revolution”, resulting in more childre…
Read MoreAchievement and the welfare of children
A report commissioned by the Children’s Society claims that the aggressive pursuit of individual achievement is damaging the interests of children in the UK: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7861762.stm The principal author is Lord Rich…
Read MoreWhich issues are moral issues? The Case of Egg Freezing
The link in the Guardian reads "Fertility experts warn about morality of egg freezing". In the Telegraph the word "moral" doesn't appear in the headline, but does appear in the lede (the first sentence of…
Read More<del>Eight</del>Fourteen is enough
As the Guardian reports, what started out as the more usual happy, wonder-of-modern medicine story of octuplets born in California has turned a little bit sour. It turns out that the 33 year old single mother of the eight newborns who lives…
Read MoreLies, libel and layered voice analysis
Two Swedish scientists have been threatened with legal action after publishing a scientific article sharply criticizing what they consider "charlatanry" in detecting deception. Nemesysco, a company named in the article wrote to th…
Read MoreWhy We Need a War on Aging
Based on presentation given at 2009 World Economic Forum in the Live Long and Prosper session, January 28, 2009 by Professor Julian Savulescu. There is no normal human life span, or if there is, it was very short. Life-expectancy for the an…
Read MoreAllen Buchanan: Leverhulme Lectures 2009′ Ethics in Political Reality’
We are pleased to announce Professor Allen Buchanan’s Leverhulme Lecture Series ‘Ethics in Political Reality’. Allen Buchanan is James B. Duke Professor Philosophy at Duke University. His research is in political philosophy, with a focus on…
Read MoreDaisy, Daisy, give me your answer do. Does it matter if I give a name to you?
According to the Daily Mail yesterday scientists have found that giving cows individual names boosts milk yields. This extravagant and utterly unsubstantiated claim has been repeated in numerous places including the BBC and Scientific Ameri…
Read MoreSid Vicious, Julieraptor, and the Ownership of Fossils
There is a thriving market in fossils, much of which can be found on-line. Extinctions, Inc (www.extinctions.com) claim to have the ‘… largest, most complete, and most detailed fossil websites on the internet’ and claim to have been selling…
Read MoreTennis and Sex
Once a week I thrash around haplessly on the tennis court. This week, I’m also a tennis spectator. While the global economy implodes, at least one event appears to be untouched – the 2009 Australian Tennis Open. …
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