Suggested readings, 3 January 2021

Here are some interesting articles I've read over the past week I think are worth checking out.

Michael Clifford, “Irish laws on drugs need to grow up.” 26 Dec, Irish Examiner.

"Criminalising possession of a small amount of cannabis in today’s world serves no purpose other than to take a sledgehammer to the cornerstone of the drug war."

W. D. Budinger, “'Nuclear' Shouldn't Frighten You.” 29 Dec, Persuasion.

"Some environmental campaigners still insist on a decades-old horror of reactors that traces back to a justified hatred of nuclear bombs. But that has never been warranted for energy plants. If they -- and all of us -- are to find a way out of our climate crisis, we must recognize that we already have a large part of the solution."

Julia Hollingsworth, “Coronavirus has been with us for a year. Here's what we still don't know.” 29 Dec, CNN.

Good overview of what we know (and don't know) about Covid-19.

Zeynep Tufekci, “The Mutated Virus Is a Ticking Time Bomb.” 31 Dec, The Atlantic.

"[A] more transmissible variant is in some ways much more dangerous than a more severe variant. That’s because higher transmissibility subjects us to a more contagious virus spreading with exponential growth, whereas the risk from increased severity would have increased in a linear manner, affecting only those infected."

Johan Norberg, “Why 2020 was the fourth best year in history.” 27 Dec, The Spectator.

"Despite a pandemic and a global lockdown, the share in chronic hunger right now is a quarter less than it was in 2000, child mortality has declined by 40 per cent and extreme poverty by two thirds."

Michael Huemer, “Ideology Isn’t About Ideas.” 2 Jan, Fake Nous.

Philosopher Michael Huemer argues that ideology isn't about ideas, but about personality, genes and tribalism.

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Should We Use Neuroenhancement Drugs to Improve Relationships?

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