Blog Makeover Two

Various redesign ideas have been implemented. Is it better or worse?

Law and Magic

Everybody has to be a specialist in something, I suppose. Law and Magic takes the cake for interdisciplinary efforts, although it is really more of a skepticism endeavor than a place to learn the procedures of the Wizengamot or substantive wizarding law.

Honestly, the historical institution of the Witenagemot, from which the Wizengamot derives its name, which was the proto-parliament (really more of a House of Lords, as it was made up of secular aristocrats and religious dignataries) in England before Norman conquest for about four hundred years, is really even more interesting. Like a modern corporate board of directors, the body was mostly consultative, but did approve certain kinds of legislation and played a role in the royal succession process by choosing a successor from within the royal family and in rare instances removing a weak king, similar to that of the extended royal family in modern Saudi Arabia.

Demons and Eden

Australian professor Christopher Ryan gave "a fifty minute lecture, but it only took one utterance to provoke one of the students to launch a three page complaint to the sub-dean:"

"In the past, say Eliminative Materialists, numerous folk theories have bitten the dust, under the advance of science: the celestial sphere theory of astronomy, the phlogiston theory of combustion, the demon theory of disease, the creationist theory of speciation. All were once seen as the truth; all are now historical relics."

It was that last example that was the offending one. My complainant did not appear to favour the demon theory of disease – which is reassuring in a trainee doctor, but she was outraged at my suggestion that the creation theory of speciation was dead. It may be relevant that the complainant was from North America.

The sub-dean took the complaint seriously (as he should) but there was (of course) no suggestion I should alter my lecture in the future.

Creationists have not had near the influence in Australia that they apparently have in the US. I had briefly thought this throw away line might provoke some response, but I did not anticipate the vituperative attack that it inspired.

An interesting question is why creationism is a hot button issue, while the demon theory of disease is not. The demon theory of disease permeates the New Testament, is used by Jesus and his apostles and was one of the core doctrines passed down to the apostles according to the New Testament. It remains valid doctrine in multiple denominations of Christianity to some extent.

I recall no time at which Jesus mentions the creation story, and it doesn't figure prominently in the Bible after Genesis, a book itself attributed by tradition to Moses who comes along thousands of years after the creation story. It is curious then, that creationism, and not the demon theory of disease, is the hot button issue.


Most likely this is because creationism has less practical application for non-scientists, and so exacts less of a cost for being wrong about in real life. The relevant importance of the issues illustrate the mechanisms that lead to "folk theory surviving in the face of advancing science," or not, depending upon the theory.

Colorado DOC Awash In Rapist Guards

197 reports of sexual misconduct were made against state prison staff [from 2005 to 2007]. Of the complaints logged between 2005 and 2007, 62 cases were substantiated and resulted in firings, Colorado Department of Corrections spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti said Thursday. The DOC's inspector general turned over the complaints to local prosecutors.

From here. Related Colorado Department of Correction Report here.

This is in a prison system of 23,000 inmates and presumably significantly fewer guards.

Some cases, such as a case decided this week involving a guard convicted of sexual assault on a female inmate against whom a $1.3 million judgment was awarded this week (on top of a $250,000 judgment against the Colorado Department of Corrections) involve deliberate indifference by other prison staff and lead to underreporting and failure to substantiate incidents that do happen.

A large share of prison rapes are by other inmates, and the most 2007 government study estimated that 4.7% of inmates have been sexually assaulted by either staff or other inmates in the last twelve months.

Released inmates account for 13% to 19% of all HIV cases and 17% of all AIDS cases in the general population.