Links and videos from around the web.
PM Links | January 30, 2012
Politics and economics:
- Chile currently ranks high on the world index of economic freedom, but there is a growing movement within Chile to change that.
- Radley Balko at the Huffington Post reports on the feds war on prescription painkillers.
- Egypt’s ruling military cabal has barred dozens of foreigners, including US citizens, from leaving the country, and some are hiding in the Cairo embassy compound while the government tries to arrest them for “instigating” protests.
- A woman in northeastern Afghanistan has been arrested for strangling her daughter because she gave birth to a girl.
- The Pauline Epistles: Another article in the Washington Post calls into question Ron Paul’s degree of involvement with the company that published his newsletters.
- The Lively Dead: a report finds almost a thousand dead people voted in the South Carolina primary, which Newt Gingrich won in a landslide. Was one of them Mitt Romney’s dead atheist father-in-law, angry about being posthumously converted to Mormonism by Romney’s family?
The Skeptical Libertarians:
- David Bier at GlobalWarming.org on Democrat Ed Markey’s reverse protectionism–trying to prohibit the export of American energy.
- Dave highlights the disagreements between Aristotle and Hayek: “Orders aren’t imposed–they evolve.“
- Skeptics, Neuroscience, and Free Will: a dozen or so videos, lectures, and interviews giving a range of opinions on the question of free will, morality, and punishment.
- “Free Will” Is a Free Lunch: I kick the hornets’ nest of controversy and call out Stefan Molyneux’s poor reasoning.
Science and skepticism:
- The Allen Institute for Brain Science has a very cool multi-model atlas of the human brain, including gene expression.
- Is this Article on Conspiracies Part of a Conspiracy? Or did we just blow your mind?
- When Pseudoscience Kills: Here’s a safety tip from your friendly skeptical doctor – don’t wrap yourself in mud and then stay in a sweat lodge for hours.
- Female orgasms switch off many parts of the brain. “At the moment of orgasm, women do not have any emotional feelings,” says Gert Holstege of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.
Video and media:
- Reason TV covers the feds’ war on doctors who prescribe pain medication last year:
- Sam Harris on the Illusion of Free Will (an excerpt from The Moral Landscape)
“Thoughts and intentions simply arise in the brain. What else could they do?” - CNN: Nigeria on the edge as Islamist group extends campaign of violence (article)
Quote of the Day:
- “Am I ‘free’ to change my mind? Of course not. It can only change me.”
– Sam Harris, The Moral Landscape
If you have suggestions for “In Other News” links or topics we should blog about, shoot us an email at othernews@skepticallibertarians.com, or leave a comment below.