Now on ScienceBlogs: Neck-breaking, disembowelling, constricting and fishing - the violent world of raptors
Jake Young is a MD/PhD student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC getting a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience. He holds a BS and MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. If a volcano were to erupt Pompei-style in Central Park, his body would be preserved in a scoliotic posture over his lab desk. Archeaologists would later conclude that he spent most of his day training rats to perform tricks, until he went blind building electrical equipment by hand using a dissecting microscope. But, still, he died happy...because science is cool.
Pure Pedantry is a blog about science -- social sciences and otherwise -- as well as academic and scientific culture. No one can live on science alone, so I also like to dwell on pop culture, periodically explore the humanities, and indulge in other types of geeky goodness.
DISCLAIMERS: 1) Jake Young is not a licensed physician (yet). He is merely a medical student. The information published on this site is not intended for use in medical decision-making. Please seek advice from a licensed, medical professional before making any health decisions. 2) The opinions expressed are my own. They do not represent the views of SEED magazine or the educational establishments I currently attend or attended in the past.
Category: Philosophy
Dennis Overbye at the NYTimes somewhat unintentionally answers the "what is science's rightful place?" question in his column. He emphasizes the similarity and symbiosis between science and democracy: And indeed there is no leader, no grand plan, for this hive....
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 10:59 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Philosophy
Will Wilkinson takes anarchist Crispin Sartwell over the proposition that an illegitimate state is therefore a morally indefensible state: The point is: Showing that the state is not legitimate does not deliver anarchy because "If the state is not legitimate,...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 2:33 PM • 1 Comments •
Category: Philosophy
Steven Wiley, writing in the Scientist, discusses the contradiction of the recent fad for "hypothesis-free" research: Following a recent computational biology meeting, a group of us got together for dinner, during which the subject of our individual research projects came...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 11:27 AM • 9 Comments •
Category: Labor
Recently, there were a set of posts arguing for different models of the effects of the minimum wage on employment. Megan McArdle argues that perfect competition models of the effects of minimum wage on the labor market implies that increases...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 1:43 PM • 4 Comments •
Category: Philosophy
This Kant attack ad is awesome:...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 9:57 AM • 2 Comments •
Category: Philosophy
Who knew anybody, much less the Economist had an opinion on whether or not Belgium should exist? One question: if Belgium goes through a 'velvet' divorce, who gets custody of the chocolate?...
Posted by Kara Contreary at 2:03 PM • 3 Comments •
Category: Philosophy
In response to my earlier post on the limits of utilitarianism Ezra Klein, blogger and journalist at The American Prospect, had this to say: Reading this perfectly serious attempt to lay out Ayn Rand's objections to utilitarianism, I'm reminded of...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 7:47 PM • 19 Comments •
Category: Philosophy
Here is your philosophical conversation to ponder over for the day. (I am cleaning out links, and this is the sort of stuff you get when I am cleaning out links.) I recently read an interesting interchange on about Weber's...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 10:02 AM • 3 Comments •
