An interesting conservative book denouncing humanity's treatment of animals has appeared, and while it makes many good points about the importance of weighing harm to animals in our moral calculations, the author may have too extensive a definition of harm, which in turn causes him to undervalue the benefits to humans of using animals. In particular, he has trouble distinguishing between physical abuse of animals and their genetic modification.
Mice Are Little Men After All

Friday the Thirteenth is a fitting time to remind ourselves that there's no evidence risks and probabilities in the external universe the brute, physical facts of reality change in response to human attitudes. Your optimism or pessimism may alter your own behavior, but it doesn't change the odds of you winning the lottery, getting hit by a meteor, or having your picnic rained upon (any more than the number thirteen does). It will rain or it will not rain, and the odds are in no way tied to whether you remembered your umbrella, despite the common belief in "fate."

When I wrote a skeptical article about the alleged benefits of the fruit juice POM earlier in the year, some people thought I was being pretty radical. After all, it was one of the most popular beverages of 2005 -- and it's full of antioxidants.

One of the nice side effects of last month's elections was the defeat of a proposal in Berkeley that would have sentenced people to jail for selling non-organic coffee beans.

The following ditty will be performed at the American Council on Science and Health's Christmas Party on December 20, if all goes as planned:

"...it's literally true that something like a thousand people will not die each year that would have otherwise died..."
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, annoucing a sweeping ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, as quoted by the New York Times December 12, 2002

From: ACSH President Dr. Elizabeth Whelan
Re: Decisions Related to Distribution of the Smallpox Vaccine
Dear President Bush,
Recent press reports indicate that your administration is on the verge of making a determination about which Americans, if any, should be vaccinated against smallpox.
As a public health professional, I understand the complexity and gravity of the decision you are facing, and I wanted to offer some perspective and advice.

I recently gave a speech about cigarettes to a libertarian discussion group called the Junto here in New York City. I had expected the conversation to pivot on the question of free will not only do libertarians defend the legal right to smoke, many scoff at the idea of addiction, since each individual must ultimately be held accountable for his own decisions, healthy or unhealthy.

Harvey Washington Wiley had long hoped for passage of legislation that would give him police power to enforce a national food purity standard. As the government's chief chemist, he watched ruefully as late nineteenth-century efforts to pass an effective food law met organized resistance in Congress. The nation's major food processors demanded to see the government's scientific evidence justifying a proposed ban on the use of preservatives. Industry was backed by recognized academics like food chemist Ira Remsen, of Johns Hopkins University.