Author: Justin

I mentioned Michael Gazzaniga and his new book the other day, and thought it was so fascinating that I should plug it again. Judging from the on-line example I’ve seen, it reminds me somewhat of Oliver Sacks territory. Neurological disorders are both fascinating and appalling, particularly when they present a first impression of normalcy. The…

Only one week to go till the final Star Wars movie. How the time flew. Seems like only yesterday it was 1977. In honor of the historic event we’ll hit a few Star Wars related sites, just for the hell of it. First up, The Darth Side. Some people don’t think it’s funny. To help…

Via the Longevity Meme I found this heartening and amusing discussion between George Khushf and Christine Peterson. Here are a few lines from Ms. Peterson’s part of the presentation. I particularly admire the concreteness and simplicity of her examples. Let’s look, for a moment, at a longer-term issue, which is this question of extending the…

Well, Earth Day has come and gone. I suppose some sort of ecologically relevant sermon is in order, and I may actually have just the ticket. I?ve been idly musing about the impending Peak Oil crisis, a crisis that may eventuate this year, or fifteen years from now, or perhaps never. I won?t deny that…

Don’t you wonder why practically every house built in America after World War Two is a design abortion? The answer is actually simple but a little abstruse: ugliness is entropy made visible. When you live in a high entropy society, as we do, the entropy manifests in many ways… Until yesterday I had never heard…

Over at More Than Human, Ramez Naam has a few sensible observations to make regarding the term “transhumanist“. I tend to take the view that almost everyone is a closet (or at least potential) transhumanist. That is to say, when presented with a biotech product that will produce a clear improvement in their lives and…

Tuesday, October 29, 2002 Dr. Schaub: The cloning of human beings would be the triumph of the Machiavellian project to conquer fortune and bring everything within the power of human choice and calculation…It shows how human dignity is bound up with the lottery of nature and how the ground of human dignity could be imperiled…

Great news from Randall Parker. The Germans are now officially fatter than Americans… The International Obesity Task Force estimated that Finland, Germany, Greece, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Malta have exceeded the United States figure of 67% for overweight or obese males. Good news indeed. As a “Person of Weight” myself, I feel no…

Ray Radlein at Science Fiction Blog made a cogent point regarding Diana Schaub. He refers to her use of Star Trek as a springboard to wisdom? …one may well wonder about the qualifications of Professor Schaub, who is neither an Ethicist nor a Biologist, to sit on the President’s Council on Bioethics. Well, thanks to…

The Instapundit reminds us that yesterday was Norman Borlaug?s birthday. Happy returns! In honor of the occasion we?re going to the Classical Values Archives and pulling out an old tribute? Borlaug recalls, “We were to help Mexico solve its own food problems. In other words, alongside our own work we were to train local scientists…

I see that Diana Schaub?s frank admission of her Trekish philosophical influences has been winning mindshare across the blogosphere. The show has “left me receptive to the view that mortality is, if not precisely a good thing, then at least the necessary foundation of other very good things,” she wrote in an article last year.…

Over at Bioethics blog, there’s a link to a story in Forward (registration required) regarding a controversy which involves, among other things, Orthodox circumcision customs. Let repugnance inform your wisdom? …prominent Orthodox rabbi and medical ethicist Rabbi Moshe Tendler, a bioethics expert and Talmud instructor at Yeshiva University, who was criticized by ultra-Orthodox leaders and…

We were drunk with happiness in those early years. Everybody was, especially the young people. These were the first years of the Rediscovery of Man, when the Instrumentality dug deep in the treasury, reconstructing the old cultures, the old languages, and even the old troubles. The nightmare of perfection had taken our forefathers to the…

A few days ago I mentioned a new book, “More Than Human“, by Ramez Naam. I still haven’t read it, but as luck would have it, sample chapters are available online. You might also want to check out his blog. Over at “The Longevity Meme” Reason has posted a heartening exploration (by Mr. Naam) of…

I see that Daniel Moore has taken a non-swipe at Glenn Reynolds. En passant as it were, en route to these articles. Hmm… Glenn Reynolds manages to mention Leon Kass without some ad hominem, sophomoric attack attached to Mr. Kass’s name. Is he turning over a new leaf? I hear that Reynolds hasn?t eaten any…

Yes, indeed. I was treated to an amazingly tasty dessert earlier this week and thought I would share it with you. It’s not complex, but it’s still quite pleasing. Vanilla ice cream, lightly drizzled with red balsamic vinegar. That’s it. Sweet meets sour, creating the sublime. So simple.

This just in from Virginia Postrel, via The Speculist… The WaPost reports that Leon Kass and friends are promoting what they call an “offensive bioethics agenda….it looks like they want to separate their anti-research agenda from the convictions of Sam Brownback and other religious pro-lifers. They seem to think they’ll be stronger politically without their…

Ever since that unfortunate incident with my older brother, I’ve been fascinated by the story of Atlantis. You’ve got a sunken city? Please, tell me all about it. Helike, Port Royal, Alexandria, it doesn’t really matter. They’re all good. But none can top Atlantis for, how to say this properly, _Style_. That is, until we…

Apparently this story has been kicking around the blogosphere for over a week, but I only noticed it today. Sad to say, I was immediately indignant. I was all set to slip on my crime-fightin’ jammies and Pontificate in Unison with all the other freedom lovin’ typists. Then I re-read the article. A George Rogers…

I was talking with an old friend, just passing the time of day, and he asked me if I knew what had happened in the area around Chernobyl. “No.” I said, “But let me guess. It’s a lush, green, paradise for wildlife.” “Ahhh, you’ve heard about it before.” “Nope. Just a lucky guess.” But since…