The World of Ebooks

Recently, I saw a person reading an ebook. I have never seen an ebook before and to see a person actually using it in daily life was simply fascinating. I approached the person and asked cordially, "Is that an e-book that you are reading?" The person gave me an uneasy glance as if to suggest that I had no business in knowing what she was reading and nodded. I ended the conversation with an awkward "Oh..." and went away. It was interesting to see such a response because I remembered an article in NY times talking about a similar incidence. With the development of ebooks, the author of the article was able to notice less communication. People will no longer know what other people are reading. When a person is reading a paper book, some other people may look at the cover and think about reading that book in the future. I think this is one of the tragic results of development of technology. Technologically advanced devices have given people individual spaces that other people cannot invade. Though privacy is a valuable asset one can possess, people in this technologically advanced days have become less communicative and less social. Another thing that I am worried about ebooks is the strain the screen causes on the eyes. Increased usage and indispensability of computer have already caused failing eyesight in many people. Now, even a book is a type of computer screen? There are certainly countless benefits to ebook. Ebooks are more sanitary and easier to carry around. However, I don't want the paper book disappear because of advancement and spread of ebook. There is something magical about the smell of new book and the feeling of papers flipping through your fingertips that give meaning to reading. And as long as people remember such sensation when reading a paper book, I don't think paper book would vanish because of ebook's domination.

Mirror Movements

I remember when I was young, I used to play "mirror movements" with my sister. In this game, my sister and I would stand in front of each other and pretend that we are the mirror images of the other person. Therefore, after deciding who gets to go first, one person would make ridiculous poses and funny dance movements just to watch the other person follow you with laughter. Recently, Ed Yong and Neurophilosophy both posted a review about a recent scientific article that caused congenital mirror movements. It was surprising to find out there was a disease actually related to mirror movement within an individual's body. In 2002, a Chinese man who is suffering from mirror movement disorder could not enter the military. A gene called DCC was found to be the culprit for this disease. The basic background of this disease is that, a person cannot effectively transfer messages between the left and the right hemispheres due to a defect in the corpus callosum, a white matter connecting the two hemispheres. It is amazing and tragic at the same that that a single letter substitution in a gene sequence can cause such a huge change within a human body.

The Flaw with Merit in the Model: A Blog Response to Eamus Catuli’s “The flaw in the model”

Even though I am not an economist or a businesswoman, I know for sure that the economy of the United States has gone bad. The unemployment rate is lower than ever and the citizens of America are tightening their belts as they work on the long forgotten term: frugality. What happened to us? Is it really because capitalism failed in our country? Eamus Catuli brings up an argument about the failure of capitalism which he believes to be the reason for our current economic sufferings. Greed, he says, is the reason for capitalism’s failure.

Catuli’s criticism toward capitalism is mainly based on ethical principle of virtue. Ethical principle of virtue focuses on decisions that promote good habits of character such as altruism and selflessness. According to Catuli, capitalism, on the other hand, promotes self-interest and greed, meaning that the system seriously neglects virtuous ethics. The blog post starts off with a medieval example of loans without interest and contrasts it with capitalistic bank system—-an obvious demonstration of self-interest. Another example refers to heinous acts of head figures of major capitalist institutions as they demand huge salaries and bonuses at the expense of their own companies’ financial crisis—-a classic case of greed. What capitalistic society refers to as “demand,” Catuli translates it as greed which equals to one of the “seven deadly sins.” And as people attempt to survive in capitalistic society where people’s successes are measured by materialization of “greed,” they slowly learn to lose virtue and adapt to live according to greed.

True, capitalism is, simply put, not nice. It is the world of survival of the fittest. It is a society where niceness often gets manipulated by the greedy hands. But, should capitalism be completely responsible for the mess in today’s financial crisis simply because it failed to teach us how to be nice? I mean, socialism may have been nicer, but it failed in many countries throughout history and they converted to capitalism for a change. Also, there were times when the United States was ecstatic over booms in economy such as in the 1920s (the Roaring Twenties—-well, before the stock markets crashed) and 1950s (it wasn’t just the babies that boomed around that period). So I am guessing that capitalism doesn’t just teach self-interest and greed, but it teaches people something else as well. It teaches people about their rights and duties as an individual. It may fail to teach people to give up some portion of their greed for the benefit of the society. But it teaches other valuable virtues such as endeavor and work ethics for the demands in life.

Following Catuli’s arguments based on the ethical values, one can evaluate capitalism based on ethical principle of rights and duties. Interestingly, the ethical principle of rights and duties is implicitly based on morality. This principle encourages decisions that respect what others are entitled to and/or people’s duties to protect those rights. Rights and duties are interrelated concepts; rights of one person indicate other person’s duties. Catuli mainly focuses on the rights and duties for the others which is quite apparent in his admiration for the ascetic life (demonstrated by Catuli’s examples of saints: Buddha, Gandhi, Jesus, St. Francis, and Mother Teresa). Indeed, these saints are truly admirable. But Catuli should also realize that people have rights and duties for their own lives. People have rights to gain happiness and one way happiness can come is through financial profit. If that is the case, loans with interest might be the perfect system that fulfills both rights of an individual and duty for the others. Through adding an interest, the lender is profiting to some extent for his or her personal gain and at the same time, fulfilling the duty to help the borrower who may be needing money immediately. A win-win situation!

Another way to view capitalism is through the perspective of ethical principle that is based on utilitarianism. Ethical principle of utilitarianism stresses decisions that can bring about the maximum benefit to a maximum number of people. There are two types of utilitarianism based on whether they are the actions or the rules that determine the outcome. Catuli brings up an example of failure in capitalistic society in terms of act utilitarian principle.

We now have heads of key capitalist institutions demanding huge salaries and bonuses even as they destroy their companies, their clients’ investments and their employees’ pension funds.

Once again, greed and self-interest made these heads of capitalist institutions to become blind to the harms stemming from self-interest. They took actions that will benefit only themselves and few others and at the expense of harming the other majority of the people.

Additionally, Catuli belittles Smith’s idea of “invisible hand” and its proclaimed function as the rule utilitarian measure to regulate the forces of excessive self-interest. The abstract concept of the “invisible hand” cannot function well in a capitalistic society because unlike Smith’s intention of increasing the ratio of sympathy, self-interest will always shadow sympathy people feel for the others. Moreover, since people’s success hinges on financial profit, people in capitalistic society have come to accept the misconduct of big bankers or the CEOs as something to be tolerated, or worse, something to be justified.

If that is the case, to some extent, excessive capitalism, a.k.a. greed, is the reason for today’s financial crisis. Granted, those big bankers or CEOs may simply be claiming their rights as they ask for compensation for the high positions that they hold in a society. Usually, in order to reach the top tiers of the social pyramid, much effort, much brain effort, is required whether it be high educational level or great amount of intellectual experience. Such privilege is not something everyone can have. However, if the company or the economy comes to a crash because of the “better” ones’ greed, these “better” ones who gained some amount of temporary cash-success will eventually be affected. And such result will be un-utilitarian for those individuals as well.

Perhaps, in general, the concept of virtue is indispensable when it comes to ethical principles. The core of Catuli’s argument is based on virtue which he considers as the epitome of human value. He even ends his essay with this note: live for what really matters. It is great to live for virtue. Virtue is what really makes human beings different from other species. Human beings have the capability to suppress and regulate natural instincts for something more classy and noble. However, Catuli argues that capitalism forces people to choose something more instinctive, something easier like greed and self-interest. And since capitalism failed to promote ethical principles of virtue, the major concept that influences the other ethical principles, it may have failed in many dimensions regarding ethics.

But there is one distinction to be made in Catuli’s arguments: there are basic, biological human demands that must be satisfied such as food, clothing, and shelter before one can think about ways to live morally. And these necessities are “demands” in life that is inevitable, indispensable and inherent. To equalize the concept of demand and greed might be asking too much for people who are not so spiritual like the saints Catuli mentions. Capitalism urges people to endeavor for the demands in life. If all the demands in life were fulfilled easily, people will be more prone to be selfless.

Unfortunately, that is not true in today’s society for we have to cope with limited resources. This brings up another point: easy attainment of demand may encourage people to become lazy. Therefore, the downside to complete elimination of greed may lead to sloth which is also one of the “seven deadly sins.” Greed is a side-effect from the system that has to work with limited resources and excessive demands. Thus, capitalism may have inevitably caused greed and self-interest to dominate over compassion and altruism. Nonetheless, the original purpose was to promote endeavor and hard work to people with the motivation of earning the needed “demand.”

In essence, capitalism, too, started out with virtuous intents. It is a system that makes people believe in their rights, perform necessary duties to the others, endeavor and work for personal pursuit of happiness. What Catuli sees today is the result of excessive endeavor and a workaholic fight to make ends meet and reach further for the ultimate personal happiness that advances with time as people aim for higher goals. I agree that today, with serious financial crisis, we need to restrain excessive capitalism. As Catuli recommends, enforcing semi-socialism may be a rule-utilitarian solution to rein in capitalism that has gone too far. And Catuli may be right—-perhaps it is time to pay attention to less-prioritized virtues like taking-one-for-the-team.

Nonetheless, condemning capitalism based on its loss of more spiritual virtues is extreme. Every system has side effects. It would be too ideal to believe that a system with perfect moral values exists.

Perhaps Catuli should give capitalism a break. There are flaws in the system, but there are also valid merits. And who knows? The “invisible hand” might just be working its magic as it builds up upon its previous errors. And that “invisible hand” might just be people’s greed to re-build a better ground for another competitive capitalism that can satisfy people’s self interest and stabilize the economy simultaneously.

The 21st Century McCarthyism: the Spread of Anti-Vaccination Movement

The process of vaccination is that people are injected with small, innocuous amounts of specific virus in order to help them form immunity against that virus. This is how human bodies work to protect themselves from viruses and diseases that invade their bodies—-we form immunity against those invaders after we get the taste of them (well, at least the ones that we can fight off). And with this incredible innovation in medicine, human beings have benefited from vaccination for more than two centuries.

Granted, vaccination was not without controversy; it was deemed inappropriate for different reasons since its birth—-religious, ethical, or safety-related. Therefore, it may not be a surprise to see another phenomenal anti-vaccination movement (considering its cycle) arising in the 21st century with yet another interesting head figure named Jenny McCarthy. Jenny McCarthy, an ex-Playboy model, an actress, and the “mother warrior,” is the leading heroine who firmly believes that vaccination causes autism. I’m sure her intentions are genuine, stemming from motherly love. Nevertheless, I must also ponder the oddity of such spread of misinformation in today’s society which we proudly call the Age of Information.

As there is small, but significant growth in non-vaccination, public health officials are becoming worried. The CDC is making an attempt to clarify the misconceptions through carefully explaining the process of vaccination. Also, countless scientific-minded bloggers have explained the misleading arguments that McCarthy presented in her interviews and books. There are three main McCarthy arguments that many people tend to believe: “toxins,” intense “toxins” injection schedule and side-effects.

Many scientific-minded bloggers have already made excellent and hilarious rebuttals about her ideas. Orac summarizes his counterarguments concisely regarding “toxins” which McCarthy believes to be the cause of autism. Steven Novella refutes McCarthy’s and her ex-boyfriend Jim Carrey’s argument about harms involved with too much vaccination injected into young children’s body. CDC explains the potential of side effects of all the vaccinations and the high unlikelihood of getting extreme side-effects. By the way, autism is not even part of vaccinations’ side effect; studies have shown that vaccination does not cause autism quite clearly. So why are people misled when there are resources to clarify their doubts?

Through the advancement of the internet, obtaining information has become easier than ever (just google it). Perhaps such ease in getting information may have given people a double-edged sword as they are bombarded with diverse information. It has become hard to figure out which information is correct because everybody sounds so convincing! And one of the reasons why people can be easily misinformed is that they choose to believe in information that is more palatable and easy to understand. Moreover, parents of autistic children who support anti-vaccination are desperate to find a cure for their children. They want to believe that there is a cause to their children’s illnesses and eventually a cure.

Our society is basically motion without memory, which, of course, is one of the clinical definitions of insanity.

This is how James Billington, the thirteenth librarian of the United States Congress, describes our society in a too-much information age. In fact, many critiques are realizing people’s diminishing attention span as they flip through (no, scroll through) enormous amounts of information on-line. And we don’t peruse it—-we skim it! Nick Carr mentions a research article done by researchers in University College London whose result many can agree.

Internet research shows that the speed of young people’s web searching means that little time is spent in evaluating information, either for relevance, accuracy or authority.

We generalize what we skim through and mash them up with other information to create a whole entire meaning or perhaps no meaning at all. The fact is that we are not allowing ourselves to become analytical readers, but training ourselves to be impulsive readers. Such impulsive reading is spurring people to make impulsive conclusions such as vaccination is the cause of autism.

And what creates such impulse? Stimulating stories! No matter how much scientists and doctors cry out the importance of vaccination, people still find it dubious after watching, say, the Oprah Show, or say, reading Mother Warriors: A Nation of Parents Healing Autism Against All Odds by Jenny McCarthy. It is true that watching Oprah talk with McCarthy about McCarthy’s heart-wrenching stories of her son’s ailment is much more entertaining compared to listening to pedantic, preachy and pathetic-looking doctors. Moreover, reading CDC’s explanation about vaccination is far less influential than McCarthy’s empowering, though batty, story of hope and optimism toward the cure of disease that medical advocates dismiss as incurable.

It is easy to target doctors because it seems highly unlikely that they will understand the plight of parents with autistic children. Doctors sit at the top of the social pyramid, make millions of dollars and play safe for the sake of their golden jobs. Many times, doctors would tell various side effects and potential causes often related to family history—-genetics. The fact that there is some correlation (or worse, causation) to genetics for the disease their children are going through will make the parents feel only guiltier and more hurt. In an attempt to find salvation for their undeserved guilt, it is possible that they found vaccination as their villain. To these parents, finding the cause is just as important as finding the cure. The cause will eventually lead to the cure. Moreover, the cause will exempt them from self-deprecation. Watch this youtube clip from an episode of Doctors. Parents who believe vaccination to be the cause of autism would not hear a word from the doctors and the doctors’ urge to promote vaccination.

People become short-sighted when it comes to accepting something negative happening to yourself, not to mention happening to your own children. The small, safe amount of vaccine seems “toxic” when it is injected into your skin. Words like “autism” and “side-effects” catch your eyes more powerfully compared to the words describing the benefits. What pierces your heart is McCarthy’s unfounded theories dressed up with 30-second close-up of tear-brimmed eyes of a ludicrous yet loving mother. What relieves parents of autistic children is the bashing of vaccination as the cause of all evil rather than facing the truth. Finally, what matters to parents is protecting their children even if that means they have to take the anti-vaccination stance.

What these parents need to know is that currently there is no known cure for autism. However, there are treatment options that can improve autistic children’s behaviors and communication skills. Accusing vaccination as the cause of all evil and preventing autistic children from receiving any vaccination will not only jeopardize their health, but also endanger the health of their community. Vaccination works as a team-play; if a significant number of people within a community are vaccinated against a specific illness, there is less chance that the whole community will become sick, an effect called community or herd immunity. This means that the opposite is also true—-if significant amount of people are not vaccinated, the community as a whole is susceptible to disease in question. A recent study done with Hutterite group in Canada with H1N1 vaccination again emphasizes the importance of vaccination as the best way to prevent an illness for you and your community.

It is important that people see beyond the massive information in the internet, touching anecdote of a good-looking mother warrior, and the necessity to target something for the cause of their beloved children. Though less attractive and less acceptable, people need to heed to medical voice over celebrity appeal in order to make medically safe decisions for their children.

By choosing valid information in the internet such as information posted in the CDC website (which is run by the government), reading the site carefully before coming to a decision, and talking to their doctors, parents will be able to form medically safer decisions for their children. Lastly, although autism does have significant correlation to genetics, parents should not beat themselves too hard for their children’s illnesses, not to mention targeting the cause at unrelated matters such as vaccination. The most important step for parents with autistic children is to find the best treatment option for the children and help them maintain a healthy and meaningful life.

Now is the time to wrap up 21st century’s cycle of vaccination controversy. Anti-vaccination advocates must put on prescribed lenses of scientific truth to look beyond their myopically skewed views. If not, maybe this time they may have no other scapegoat to victimize other than themselves.

Chcolate Addiction

As finals week kick in, students hibernate in the libraries with few absolute essentials other than materials related to studying. Cup of coffee, energy drink, energy bars, and chocolates! Being a chocolate and a caffeine addict myself especially during stressful times, it is quite unsettling to see a study that indicates strong correlation between depression and chocolate consumption. Out of stubbornness or not, I deny to believe that truth because chocolate love does not translate into depression for me and this news will only make chocolate lovers more depressed.

Stephen Hawking and the Aliens

An interesting event happened in the field of astrology that caught the world's attention. Stephen Hawking, the world-renowned British astrobiologist, supported the possibility of extraterrestrial lives and their potential threat to the Earth. My first response to this news was laughter. It's not that I think Hawking's theory is ludicrous (I know for sure that he is way more intelligent than I am), but it was comical that such a scientific minded person would talk about a topic that is easily dismissed as crazy should some other normal person talk about it. Responses vary in the blogosphere. But many seem to just laugh it away. David Ng talks about how the astrobiologists took the news--chuckle and then indifference. I think the 21st century citizens of the planet Earth is too busy focusing on the current Earth life to think about the extraterrestrials floating around the universe to find the next colony.