Posts tagged “Health”
Increasing housing density along arterial roads just reinforces inequality
Vancouver is densifying in areas that will make people sick and exacerbate inequality. Vancouver has a housing affordability crisis. They are trying to make homes more affordable by building more of them, and they’re primarily building in dense strips along arterial roads. Living near a road with lots of car traffic is very, very dangerous. […]
While you’re waiting for the bus
The enormous cost of propping of the banks was justified by the refrain “too big to fail.” You know what’s really too big to fail? Ecosystems. Zen Faulkes wonders about the constant pressure to explain the relevance of your science: People love all sorts of things that aren’t relevant to them apart from their own […]
Homeopathy & a quack in Anna Karenina
From Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy: And the celebrated doctor expounded his plan of treatment with Soden waters, a remedy obviously prescribed primarily on the ground that they could do no harm.
What I’ve Noticed
The existence of god in general might be difficult to disprove (as is the existence of invisible flying purple elephants), but the existence of a specific gods is all to easy to debunk. For example, the Bible story and Jewish genetics don’t match at all. Israel is doing a great job of getting on everyone’s […]
The Placebo Effect & the Power of Ritual
Most (all?) cultures combine medication with ritual – something simple like ginger or pepto for your stomach combined with a prayer of some kind, for instance, or something less familiar, like this Paraguayan man who chants and sings before searching for the healing plant. After growing up with chronic pain in a church that believed […]
What I’ve Noticed
Women in Afghanistan are setting themselves on fire in astonishing numbers. Getting child marriage banned must be higher on our list of priorities. Think you’re not going to get into grad school this year? Toaster Sunshine has some words of wisdom for you. A review of acupuncture’s effect on heart rate variability. Conclusion: bullshit. On comparing Obama […]
Christianity isn’t concerned about women
Christianity is concerned about losing control of women’s bodies. The FDA has finally approved Plan B over the counter for teenage girls. It is very clear that the reason it wasn’t originally approved without a prescription for teenagers had everything to do with the Christian right’s terror of women’s sexuality and nothing to do with […]