Alzheimer's, Suicide & Happiness, Internet, Dog Food, Women In Philosophy
Brain Power: A Treatment For Alzheimer’s?
Andrew Ward & David Crow | Financial Times | 20th July 2015 | | Read with 1Pass
Industry buzz suggests that Eli Lilly may have found an effective treatment for early-stage Alzheimer's disease using a drug that clears amyloid plaque from the brain. The company's shares are up sharply. More data from clinical trials will be published this week. "With Merck also making progress on a product, the chances of the first disease-modifying drug reaching market in the next few years seem to be rising" (2,160 words)
Suicide And Happiness
Angus Deaton & Anne Case | Vox EU | 18th July 2015
Some of the highest suicide rates in the world are found in countries and regions with high rates of self-reported happiness. So either we are bad at measuring happiness, or we are wrong to think of suicide solely as an act of despair — or the data is incomplete. "Within eastern Europe, the extraordinarily high suicide rates are positively correlated with life evaluation. Much the same is true across the states of the US" (1,500 words)
I Link, Therefore I Am
Josh Cohen | New Statesman | 17th July 2015
Psychoanalyst Josh Cohen reviews Laurence Scott's The Four-Dimensional Human, about the way we live now — when the light of our lives is the blinking of an internet router under the table. Scott’s "forays into literary and philosophical texts from Sophocles to Walter Benjamin" remind us that "the derangement of space-time now being realised by the digital world has always lurked at the outer edges of the imagination" (1,570 words)
How To Feed Dogs
Sophie Roell | Five Books | 19th July 2015
Dog-food maker Jonathan Self explains how to feed dogs. "Dogs in the wild aren’t planning five servings of vegetables per day. Dogs can go a week without eating. If you're giving your dog raw meat and bone in roughly the right proportion you can't really go wrong. And then you think, well, from time to time a wild dog might find an egg, so I'll throw in an egg. Or they might find some fish, so you could give them a tin of pilchards" (4,300 words)
Why Are There So Few Women In Philosophy?
David Papineau | Times Literary Supplement | 15th July 2015
Men hold three-quarters of academic posts in philosophy. Why so few women? Institutional and public sexism has subsided; implicit bias doubtless remains, but can be overcome. The adversarial style of philosophical debate may be a factor. But the bigger message may be that philosophy has made itself into a marginal pursuit. Looking from without, women conclude "that they could be doing something better with their lives" (2,450 words)
Video of the day: Chuck Jones, by Tony Zhou
What to expect: Tribute to Chuck Jones, whose Loony Tunes cartoons stand fifty years on as masterpieces of animation (8'50")
Thought for the day
There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line
Oscar Levant