“The Descent into Immanentism”

Dr. Lawler asks, in a question re: my previous post, "Are today’s sophisticated Western individuals the first people to ever have lost all contact with any sense of transcendence of their biological existence?" To be intellectually sophisticated there must be . . . . Continue Reading »

The Peril of "Stem Cell Tourism"

I have warned against this from time to time, but it always bears repeating. The hype tossed around so casually in the great stem cell debate—mostly but not exclusively by ESCR proponents—has raised hopes so high that some people are rushing for unproven stem cell treatments in places . . . . Continue Reading »

Halloween It Is a Comin’

Halloween is just around the corner, and we know many readers’ chief preoccupation will be finding an original costume. Who better to go to for ideas than Bob Dylan , one of our greatest purveyors of weird and wacky images? . . . . Continue Reading »

Warming Up to Strangers, with Coffee?

We drink a lot of coffee in the office, so imagine my surprise when I read researchers have found that people who held a cup of hot coffee for 10 to 25 seconds warmed to a perfect stranger. Holding a cup of iced coffee had the opposite effect . . . . The study, to be published today in the journal . . . . Continue Reading »

Only in California …

The Wall Street Journal offers the following pop quiz: Who’s donated the most money to an effort in California to defeat Proposition 8, an initiative on the November 4 ballot that would define marriage as between a man and a woman in the state? A) Gay-advocacy organizations B) Civil-rights . . . . Continue Reading »