Saturday, March 01, 2003

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Alternative Medicine "In our increasingly technological society, spotting voodoo science is a skill that every citizen should develop." For instance, "There is a persistent myth that hundreds or even thousands of years ago, long before anyone knew that blood circulates throughout the body, or that germs cause disease, our ancestors possessed miraculous remedies that modern science cannot understand. Much of what is termed "alternative medicine" is part of that myth. Ancient folk wisdom, rediscovered or repackaged, is unlikely to match the output of modern scientific laboratories." 10:50:34 PM    comment []

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Are Some Expectations of Google's Ethics Unrealistic? Google is receiving criticsim, from Dave Winer and others, for devolving into "just another BigCo", willing to compromise and taint the purity of search with ads in various forms. I am totally sympathetic to the criticism. I also think this is an occasion to re-visit a central problem of getting valued services from the web: nobody expects to pay. I have mentioned to a number of other ardent Google lovers that I would pay $20 a year for Google, without a second thought (I'd probably pay more, but might have a second thought). They almost all respond as if the very thought of paying is crazy. 10:31:43 AM    comment []