Europe is dangerously unprepared for a world without a US policeman

Europe is dangerously unprepared for a world without a US policeman

"If the Turks crush Syrian Kurdish forces this weekend, how should we react? You can say that these Kurds are our allies, who risked and gave their lives confronting Islamic State jihadists not so long ago. That decent countries defend their friends, and we should act. Or you might argue that there’s been too much Western 'acting' of late, costing billions and achieving nothing. So best leave the Kurds to fight their own battles.

I’m in the former camp..."

"It has historically been the rule, rather than the exception, that the encounter with a different society induces a measure of humility and relativism about one’s own."

The Critical Bite of Cultural Relativism

The pioneers of cultural anthropology taught not just how to study other cultures, but how to criticize their own.

"But this argument, on the whole, boils down to the banal observation that the people who studied other cultures taught us to appreciate diversity. It has historically been the rule, rather than the exception, that the encounter with a different society induces a measure of humility and relativism about one’s own. In his 1580 essay Of Cannibals Montaigne famously wrote about the ceremonies relayed to him by a traveler to the New World: 'every one gives the title of barbarism to everything that is not in use in his own country. As, indeed, we have no other level of truth and reason than the example and idea of the opinions and customs of the place wherein we live.'"

Hong Kong Protests Put U.S. Businesses In A Tough Spot With China

Hong Kong Protests Put U.S. Businesses In A Tough Spot With China 



"...the Chinese government is only going to become more sensitive to these issues, not less, especially as these protests in Hong Kong continue. They've been going on for months. They're escalating. And, you know, if you think about it, these are companies - they're hugely powerful. They're hugely popular. If they can't stand up to China, who can?"

"Cicilline’s bill assumes that small improvements in medications are unworthy of further patent protections..."

Cicilline Patent Bill Will Prove Devastating to Advancing Improvements in Medicine



This is what makes legislation that weakens patent protections on medical innovation so troubling, and so dangerous. The latest attempt at an end-around patent rights came this week from a bill introduced by Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI). Cicilline wants to inject Congress into the role of the U.S. Patent Office, and nullify patent protections for incremental yet critical improvements in existing medications. Deriding drug makers as “product hopping,” Cicilline’s bill assumes that small improvements in medications are unworthy of further patent protections that give the inventors exclusive rights to the medications they create. His goal is to speed up the timetable by which drugs enter the market less expensively through a generic equivalent. If successful, Cicilline’s bill will be nothing short of devastating to future medical innovation, and serve as a powerful headwind against the race for new cures and treatments.

"Companies birthed in the land of the free have been left on the horns of a dilemma by the protests and the Chinese reaction to them. They're not finding good answers..."

American businesses are facing a China crisis amid Hong Kong protests

Companies birthed in the land of the free have been left on the horns of a dilemma by the protests and the Chinese reaction to them. They're not finding good answers, says James Moore 

"The China crisis facing American business extends far beyond the NBA, which has generated headlines for all the wrong reasons. It’s seen its game plan for the country wiped out by a single tweet put up by Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets, that expressed support for the protesters in Hong Kong. 

Apple now finds itself uncomfortably in the spotlight..."

"Street art is not political, but it has been politicised."

Street art is a crime

Why is the metropolitan elite celebrating this vandalism?

"Attempts at giving street art historical and political lineage by linking it to anti-war sloganeering and fine-art movements of the early and mid-20th century is ahistorical and misses an important contemporaneous point. It is only today that the elites are gushing over and clamouring to co-opt street art as part of their cultural and political reinvention. Street art is not political, but it has been politicised."

CRISPR J. 2019 Oct;2(5):293-298. doi: 10.1089/crispr.2019.0042.

Societal and Ethical Impacts of Germline Genome Editing: How Can We Secure Human Rights?

Halpern J¹, O'Hara SE², Doxzen KW³, Witkowsy LB³, Owen AL².

Author information

1

UCSF-UCB Joint Medical Program, School of Public Health, Affiliate Innovative Genomics Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California.

2

School of Public Health, Innovative Genomics Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California.

3

Innovative Genomics Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California.

Abstract

Genome editing has opened up the possibility of heritable alteration of the human germline. The potential of this powerful tool has spurred a call for establishing robust regulatory frameworks to outline permissible uses of genome editing and to map a rational and ethical course. In response, major national scientific bodies and international organizations have convened and released comprehensive reports outlining recommendations for ethical regulatory frameworks. Significantly, these include an emphasis on public participation and the development of principles to guide future applications of genome editing. While essential, public input and principles are not sufficient to ensure ethical uses of this technology. We propose an approach that relies not only on agreed-upon principles and a democratic process but requires a Human Rights Impact Assessment to evaluate the potential burdens that such biomedical interventions may place on human rights.

"Despite its iconic status and effectiveness at communicating specific ethical issues, Brave New World provides relatively poor examples of interventions such as gene therapy or enhancement."

CRISPR J. 2019 Oct;2(5):316-323. doi: 10.1089/crispr.2019.0046.

The Use and Misuse of Brave New World in the CRISPR Debate.

So D¹.

Author information

1

Centre of Genomics and Policy, Department of Human Genetics, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

Abstract

When writing about CRISPR and similar technologies, many bioethicists use science-fiction references to help readers picture the ramifications of germline gene editing. By a large margin, the most frequently referenced novel in this debate is Aldous Huxley's 1932 dystopia Brave New World. Despite its iconic status and effectiveness at communicating specific ethical issues, Brave New World provides relatively poor examples of interventions such as gene therapy or enhancement. In addition, the eugenic tropes that Huxley promotes in much of his work make Brave New World an uncomfortable choice for authors who oppose the use of CRISPR for illiberal purposes. Ethicists should consider bringing a wider variety of fiction references into the discourse on genome editing, especially stories that can complement Brave New World with insights about the ethical issues left undeveloped in Huxley's novel.

Camb Q Healthc Ethics. 2019 Oct 4:1-9. doi: 10.1017/S096318011900080X. [Epub ahead of print]

The Immoral Machine.

Harris J.

Abstract

In a recent paper in Nature1 entitled The Moral Machine Experiment, Edmond Awad, et al. make a number of breathtakingly reckless assumptions, both about the decisionmaking capacities of current so-called "autonomous vehicles" and about the nature of morality and the law. Accepting their bizarre premise that the holy grail is to find out how to obtain cognizance of public morality and then program driverless vehicles accordingly, the following are the four steps to the Moral Machinists argument:1)Find out what "public morality" will prefer to see happen.2)On the basis of this discovery, claim both popular acceptance of the preferences and persuade would-be owners and manufacturers that the vehicles are programmed with the best solutions to any survival dilemmas they might face.3)Citizen agreement thus characterized is then presumed to deliver moral license for the chosen preferences.4)This yields "permission" to program vehicles to spare or condemn those outside the vehicles when their deaths will preserve vehicle and occupants.This paper argues that the Moral Machine Experiment fails dramatically on all four counts.

China's business bullying jumps to new heights over tweet by NBA Rockets GM

China's business bullying jumps to new heights over tweet by NBA Rockets GM


"So it has come to this. Not only are American companies expected to bend to the government’s way in China (which includes tech companies that assist in its internet censorship),now they are expected to be China’s speech police in democratic countries.

That is, in a word, repulsive."

"If artificial intelligence (AI) can do everything better than a human being can, then human endeavor is pointless and human beings are valueless."

Artificial Intelligence: What’s to Fear? Ronald W. Dworkin

What should worry us most about artificial intelligence: losing our jobs to cheaper labor or losing our lives to killer robots? The real threat may lie in yet another danger: losing our minds.

"Many people fear such events. It’s not just the potential job losses. If artificial intelligence (AI) can do everything better than a human being can, then human endeavor is pointless and human beings are valueless."

"Where records are abundant, fights break out over relevance and meaning."

Why can’t we agree on what’s true any more?

"What we are discovering is that, once the limitations on data capture are removed, there are escalating opportunities for conflict over the nature of reality. Every time a mainstream media agency reports the news, they can instantly be met with the retort: but what about this other event, in another time and another place, that you failed to report? What about the bits you left out? What about the other voters in the town you didn’t talk to? When editors judge the relative importance of stories, they now confront a panoply of alternative judgements. Where records are abundant, fights break out over relevance and meaning."

Cancer Biomarker Conference IV - Saturday, October 5, 2019 - Sunday, October 6, 2019 #CBCIV

Cancer Biomarker Conference IV

#CBCIV
Saturday, October 5, 2019 - Sunday, October 6, 2019

The field of biomarker testing for targets of tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy and immune therapy is constantly advancing with introduction of new tests and new therapies. The Cancer Biomarker Conference (CBC) series provides real-world practical updates for general community pathologists, molecular pathologists, oncologists and related specialties and professions for this ever-changing field. The conference includes state-of-the-art lectures and panel discussions on specific biomarker testing in solid and hematologic malignancies for TKIs and immune therapies, liquid biopsy, next generation sequencing, preanalytic management, billing, regulations and malpractice for everyday practice as well as the needs and expectations of the oncologist. The CBC is now sponsored by the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the next two-day CME conference plus one day Boot Camp will take place at the Saddle Brook New Jersey Marriott in collaboration with local sponsor Princeton Medical Center. 

Reflections on the Highway - Briza

Reflections on the Highway - Briza

"But given the government’s harsh record on e-cigarettes, this is just the beginning."

Is America Alone in its Vaping Hysteria?

"If the FDA is unwilling to reclassify e-cigarettes, then it should at least realize that flavors aren’t the culprit of this “epidemic.” According to their own estimates fruit and menthol-based flavors are now equally favored by high school students at 66 and 64 percent, respectively. Based on the consumption trajectory of their trend, menthol-based flavors would take over fruit flavors by next year. By 2020, the FDA could no longer claim that companies are attracting kids with fruity flavors if menthol becomes the most popular flavor.

But given the government’s harsh record on e-cigarettes, this is just the beginning. San Francisco has already banned e-cigarettes this year, while Michigan and New York just recently announced to outlaw all flavored e-cigarettes.

Perhaps if the U.S. were to consider more efficient approaches, as England has, and treat e-cigarettes like NRTs then more people would transition off smoking. This action by the administration sets a dangerous precedent that misleads people and can become disastrous for cigarette smokers looking to quit. Unfortunately for these people, things just got a whole lot harder."

The thoroughly modern genius of George Gershwin

"When he was bestriding the nation, Gershwin was the most modern guy around; 82 years later — guess what? — he still is. The “serious” music that confounded the fogeys nearly a century ago is played in every symphony hall around the world. There’s hardly a popular recording artist — from Garland to Gaga, from Ella to Elvis (Costello) — who hasn’t performed his songs in every manner of interpretation. Since 1983, there have been nine major revivals/reimaginings of his stage works on Broadway. And the magisterial “Porgy and Bess” — itself a signal lodestar for the insistent argument of cultural appropriation — opens at the Metropolitan Opera in a new production this month."

"Every state in the U.S. has more than 20% of adults with obesity, according to the CDC – a significant uptick since 1985, when no state had an obesity rate higher than 15%."

Obesity in America: A Public Health Crisis

Obesity is a public health issue that impacts more than 100 million adults and children in the U.S.

"While researchers say the obesity epidemic began in the U.S. in the 1980s, there has been a sharp increase in obesity rates in the U.S. over the last decade. Nearly 40% of all adults over the age of 20 in the U.S. – about 93.3 million people – are currently obese, according to data published in JAMA in 2018. Every state in the U.S. has more than 20% of adults with obesity, according to the CDC – a significant uptick since 1985, when no state had an obesity rate higher than 15%. Certain states have higher rates than others: there are more obese people living in the South (32.4%) and Midwest (32.3%) than in other parts of the country." 

When the Public Feared That Library Books Could Spread Deadly Diseases

“The great book scare” created a panic that you could catch an infection just by lending from the library

The “great book scare” rose from a combination of new theories about infection and a distaste for the concept of public libraries themselves. Many Americans and Britons feared the library because it provided easy access to what they saw as obscene or subversive books, argues Mann. And while fears of disease were distinct from fears of seditious content, “opponents of the public library system” helped stoke the fires of the book scare, Greenberg writes.

Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/during-great-book-scare-people-worried-contaminated-books-could-spread-disease-180972967/#39lOfVwGKo6Hd4wX.99
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Bioethics. 2019 Jun;33(5):577-590. doi: 10.1111/bioe.12560. Epub 2019 Feb 13.

The injustice of fat stigma.

Nath R1.

Author information

1

Philosophy, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States.

Abstract

Fatness stigma is pervasive. Being fat is widely regarded a bad thing, and fat persons suffer numerous social and material disadvantages in virtue of their weight being regarded that way. Despite the seriousness of this problem, it has received relatively little attention from analytic philosophers. In this paper, I set out to explore whether there is a reasoned basis for stigmatizing fatness, and, if so, what forms of stigmatization could be justified. I consider two lines of reasoning that might be advanced to defend fat stigma. The first is broadly consequentialist. It seeks to justify stigmatizing fatness based on the public health benefits that might be produced by doing so. The second argument takes stigmatizing fatness to be a warranted response to the morally blameworthy failure to slim down exhibited by fat persons. Clarifying and assessing each of these two lines of reasoning is the main task of this paper. I argue that, upon careful examination, both these attempts to justify the stigmatization of fatness fail.

Bill Maher Weighs In On U.S. Obesity: Fat Shaming “Needs To Make A Comeback”

Bill Maher served up a super-sized portion of steamed snark on Friday night as he weighed in on the American obesity crisis by equating overeating to racism and littering as a behavior that should be admonished in public ways.

“In August, 53 Americans died from mass shootings,” the host of Real Time with Bill Maher told his live studio audience in Los Angeles. “Terrible right? Do you know how many died from obesity? Forty thousand. Fat shaming doesn’t need to end it needs to make a comeback. Some amount of shame is good. We shamed people out of smoking and into wearing seat belts. We shamed them out of littering and most of them out of racism. Shame is the first step in reform.”

Timothy Craig Allen (2019) The Evolution of Decedent Ownership. Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine: September 2019, Vol. 143, No. 9, pp. 1048-1051.

EDITORIAL

The Evolution of Decedent Ownership

Timothy Craig Allen, MD, JD

From the Department of Pathology, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson.

Corresponding author: Timothy Craig Allen, MD, JD, Department of Pathology, University of Mississippi Medical Center, 2500 N State St, Jackson, MS 39216 (email: tcallen@umc.edu).

"As society’s mores evolve into and through the 21st century, the issue of autopsy and periautopsy consent will require increased attention by state legislatures and courts."

Ann Diagn Pathol. 2019 Aug;41:43-50. doi: 10.1016/j.anndiagpath.2019.04.008. Epub 2019 Apr 24.

Micropapillary adenocarcinoma of lung: Morphological criteria and diagnostic reproducibility among pulmonary pathologists.

Monroig-Bosque PDC1, Morales-Rosado JA2, Roden AC3, Churg A4, Barrios R1, Cagle P1, Ge Y1, Allen TC5, Smith ML3, Larsen BT3, Sholl LM6, Beasley MB7, Borczuk A8, Raparia K9, Ayala A1, Tazelaar HD10, Miller R1, Kalhor N11, Moran CA12, Ro JY13.

Author information

1

Department of Pathology and Genomic Medicine, Houston Methodist Hospital, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Houston, TX, USA.

2

Health Sciences Research Department, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.

3

Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.

4

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

5

Department of Pathology, The University of Mississippi Medical Center, MS, USA.

6

Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.

7

Department of Anatomic Pathology, The Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY, USA.

8

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY, USA.

9

Kaiser Permanente, Santa Clara Medical Center and Medical Offices, Santa Clara, CA, USA.

10

Department of Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZ, USA.

11

Department of Pathology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA.

12

Department of Pathology and Genomic Medicine, Houston Methodist Hospital, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Houston, TX, USA; Health Sciences Research Department, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.

13

Department of Pathology and Genomic Medicine, Houston Methodist Hospital, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Houston, TX, USA. Electronic address: JaeRo@houstonmethodist.org.

Abstract

CONTEXT:

Invasive micropapillary adenocarcinoma (MPC) is an aggressive variant of lung adenocarcinoma, frequently manifesting with advanced stage lymph node metastasis and decreased survival.

OBJECTIVE:

Identification of this morphology is important, as it is strongly correlated with poor prognosis regardless of the amount of MPC component. To date, no study has investigated the morphological criteria used to objectively diagnose it.

DESIGN:

Herein, we selected 30 cases of potential MPC of lung, and distributed 2 digital images per case among 15 pulmonary pathology experts. Reviewers were requested to diagnostically interpret, assign the percentage of MPC component, and record the morphological features they identified. The noted features included: columnar cells, elongated slender cell nests, extensive stromal retraction, lumen formation with internal epithelial tufting, epithelial signet ring-like forms, intracytoplasmic vacuolization, multiple nests in the same alveolar space, back-to-back lacunar spaces, epithelial nest anastomosis, marked pleomorphism, peripherally oriented nuclei, randomly distributed nuclei, small/medium/large tumor nest size, fibrovascular cores, and spread through air-spaces (STAS).

RESULTS:

Cluster analysis revealed three subgroups with the following diagnoses: "MPC", "combined papillary and MPC", and "others". The subgroups correlated with the reported median percentage of MPC. Intracytoplasmic vacuolization, epithelial nest anastomosis/confluence, multiple nests in the same alveolar space, and small/medium tumor nest size were the most common criteria identified in the cases diagnosed as MPC. Peripherally oriented nuclei and epithelial signet ring-like forms were frequently identified in both the "MPC" and "combined papillary and MPC" groups.

CONCLUSIONS:

Our study provides objective diagnostic criteria to diagnose MPC of lung.

What does your waist say about your health? According to a new study, a lot more than you’d think.

"Excess visceral fat — the fat that collects around your abdominal organs — has been linked to poor metabolic health. The problems start with unhealthy cholesterol and triglyceride levels, chronic inflammation and insulin resistance, when the insulin the body produces has trouble getting blood sugar into cells. These conditions increase the risk of heart disease and other chronic health problems."