Even though her views were extreme on this matter, she wrote this in genuine sympathy with the Third World. This was when the Vietnam War was raging and when the Non-West was seeking alternative paths to development. Also, even those on the Right may recognize a kernel of truth in Sontag's characteri

Can be quite substantial. Jump off the Empire State Building and see for yourself. But, beyond that, the question remains how much of the variation in health outcomes and longevity can be explained by behavioral variation? Well, we don't quite know. But we do have evidence which indicates that – at least in the developed... Read More

In the mid 1970s, only 50 percent of patients diagnosed with cancer survived for more than five years. On the latest statistics, more than 70 percent do. We laymen not only take this good news for granted but tend to project it into the future. Should we? Put another way is there a sort of... Read More

Updated, 10/17/15. See below! In this post, I will review Gregory Cochran's "gay germ" hypothesis. I wanted to make an index of Cochran's posts from his and Henry Harpending's blog West Hunter that discuss it. These posts don't seem to all show up under the "Homosexuality" category there, and I wanted links to them to... Read More

In my previous post, I noted that the oft-mentioned association between obesity and poor health and "early" death may be a function of the lower average IQ of obese people. I suggested that the true correlate of these things was in fact low IQ. And indeed, I've stumbled on additional studies that suggests that this... Read More

Did you know that four percent of the U.S. population — one in 25 of us — are now "cancer survivors"? This I read in the current issue of Time magazine, whose cover story concerns what John Wayne called "the big C," its diagnosis and treatment. That means that twelve million of us are entitled... Read More