Category Archives: uncategorized

Before Trump started talking about choloroquine, health experts were looking into it as part of the solution. But now the drug is flying off the shelves in pharmacies and it’s so scarce that pharmacists are saying they don’t have enough … Continue reading →

There’s been a lot of rather loose talk recently about the distinction between “mitigation” and “suppression” which are really just expensive words obscuring the simple difference between “make it grow less fast” and “make it shrink”. The basic fact is … Continue reading →

This is a poorly phrased question because it uses the ill-defined term “important”. But it is one that is often asked so maybe it needs an answer. The word “important” is used in many ways. If you value human life, … Continue reading →

It seems clear(?1) that the pandemic will proceed in each community until about 70% of the population has acquired immunity by having survived the infection. The question is just how many will not survive. The good news is that the … Continue reading →

Here’s an interesting counterpoint to Jonathan Haidt’s ‘Moral Foundations‘ theory. Before deciding that something is wrong, we might ask ourselves, is it just that I’m disgusted by it? Source: Find something morally sickening? Take a ginger pill | Aeon Ideas

Here’s a nice bit of writing that gives the reader just enough information to start a journey in each of several important directions: Why symmetry gets really interesting when it is broken | Aeon Ideas

My good friend and 1964-5 college roommate John Butler is the editor of The Village Green, an environmental newsletter focused on the area around his home in Ontario but with much of more general interest as well. In the latest … Continue reading →

Source: Vox.com via (178) Habib’s Reading List – Quora

Must work on a “for the layman” clarification of all this: OneTab shared tabs

Alexander Parker’s favorite thought experiment is Plato’s cave. But what caught my eye was the comment by Gergely Mészáros which ended with the claim that “the analogy fails because we are not the watchers, we are the shadows on the … Continue reading →

Aeon writer Julia Maskivker asks Source: Given how little effect you can have, is it rational to vote? But her answer, though in accord with my own, is unconvincingly supported. Rather than argue from some set of vague moral principles … Continue reading →

I think it was with good reason that BC has been slow to allow ride-hailing services to undercut the service provided by well-regulated and market controlled taxis and encourage people to jump into cars with random unvetted strangers. But I … Continue reading →

It may be a “one off” in the light of recent Canadian and US decisions but let’s hope that whether or not it gets overruled this marks the trend in global jurisprudence. Source: Swiss Judge Acquits Credit Suisse Protestors – … Continue reading →

Interesting article with good comments Source: If you could choose, what would make for a good death? | Aeon Essays

Sex is complicated. Some plants require the cooperation of more than two different gametes to produce a viable seed, and some animals live parts of their lives as male and part as female while others switch sex according to chemical … Continue reading →

With regard to the question of who speaks for the nation with regard to the use of its land, one answer is provided in this video: But although the existence of a competing claim from the elected band council is … Continue reading →

Biased presentation of a potentially good idea Using the Moral Foundations Questionnaire, Haidt and Graham found that libertarians are most sensitive to the proposed Liberty foundation,[4] liberals are most sensitive to the Care and Fairness foundations, while conservatives are equally … Continue reading →