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Plato’s Euthyphro, Roboticised
To most who have read Plato’s Euthyphro, this YouTube video will be funny. It captures what I think is the general “tone” of Socrates’ style, which might be the real reason he was put to death by Greek society. Despite his attitude, Socrates was a brilliant character, and gave structure to many of the most enduring [...]
Continue reading...Government to Review Pfizer CIHR Appointment
3 December 2009
I recently blogged about the appointment of Dr. Prigent, a VP of Pfizer Canada, to the governing board of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and of the resulting objection raised by leading Canadian bioethicists. I’ll reiterate the problem here, for completeness. Dr. Prigent is a drug industry representative who works for Pfizer Canada. Pfizer [...]
Continue reading...Swarm Bots Pull Child to Safety – Yeah Swarm Bots!!
2 December 2009
If you want to sell the idea of swarm bots as a “good” idea (seems harmless), show them dragging a child to safety. This video is a good example of swarm bots to the rescue. (Notice the expression on the child’s face–mildly freaked out? or simply bored?) There is an interesting question that pops into my [...]
Continue reading...Weekly Wordle: World AIDS Day and CNN Twitter Feeds
1 December 2009
Wordle is fantastic! You go to their site, and create a word cloud, or Wordle, from a piece of text, RSS feed, tag cloud–basically any text you want. The visuals are a lot of fun to play with. The words it uses in the Wordle are the most frequently appearing words. So Wordle gives you [...]
Continue reading...The Top 10 Unethical Psychology Experiments
30 November 2009
I came across a great blog post detailing the Top 10 UNethical Psychology Experiments in modern history. It features one of my favourite examples, Little Albert, who I have blogged about in a previous post. This list includes animal studies as well as human studies, a point to keep in mind given that we still treat [...]
Continue reading...Pfizer’s CIHR Insider: an Update and a Petition
25 November 2009
Yesterday I wrote about the appointment of Dr. Bernard Prigent to the governing board of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR), Canada’s publicly funded health research branch. I also described some of the controversy surrounding that appointment. Today I received notice that a petition is being circulated calling “for the withdrawal of the appointment of [...]
Continue reading...Pfizer VP Appointed to CIHR Governing Board
24 November 2009
The CMAJ recently reported that a Pfizer VP has been appointed to the governing council of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR). Here are a couple of the criticisms raised over the appointment, as taken from the CMAJ article (I would encourage you to read it in its entirety): “The appointment is “very surprising and [...]
Continue reading...It’s World Philosophy Day…Think!
19 November 2009
So it’s UNESCO’s World Philosophy Day, and I’m suggesting you celebrate it by taking some time to think. WTF?, you say. The intention here is not to suggest that you don’t think. Rather it’s to remind you of what John Stuart Mill said so long ago about the frailty of our capacity to think well–use it, or [...]
Continue reading...Pfizer Accused of Publishing Misleading Research
13 November 2009
The Associated Press is reporting on a study in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) which finds that Pfizer seriously misrepresented drug trial results related to their epilepsy drug Neurontin. You can find a more complete report of both the NEJM article and the AP piece at Udo Schüklenk’s blog. It’s been a bad stretch for [...]
Continue reading...UNESCO: Philosophy on the World Stage
13 November 2009
I’ve added some links to sections of the United Nation Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) web site. They have useful collections of information within their Social and Human Sciences section on hot topics, news and events, declarations, and reports organized around various themes, such as: Philosophy Ethics Bioethics Ethics of Science and Technology As with most of the United Nations [...]
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- Plato’s Euthyphro, Roboticised
- Government to Review Pfizer CIHR Appointment
- Swarm Bots Pull Child to Safety – Yeah Swarm Bots!!
- Weekly Wordle: World AIDS Day and CNN Twitter Feeds
- The Top 10 Unethical Psychology Experiments
- Pfizer’s CIHR Insider: an Update and a Petition
- Pfizer VP Appointed to CIHR Governing Board
- It’s World Philosophy Day…Think!
- Pfizer Accused of Publishing Misleading Research
- UNESCO: Philosophy on the World Stage
- Guest: Surely the issue is not about Pfizer reps specifically on the CIHR governing board.? I feel the issue is more about a conflict of interest between...
- Jason Millar: I take your point regarding the market/business experience. My understanding is that the board is required (though maybe in a loose sense) to have the...
- Michael Karlin: It's not as contrversial as it seems. He is one vote of 17, and adds some element of market expertise to the group. Most of the Governing Council...
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4 March 2010
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