Kennedy’s Comments on Circumcision Are Only Going to Confuse and Shame Parents

…Circumcision is an instructive example, because it epitomizes the Kennedy method of undermining public health expertise. Whether this is conscious or not, he seizes on hot-button issues that already have entrenched and aggressive internet partisans, uses quasi-scientific language and bolsters his case using minor, cherry-picked studies. As a result, he muddies the water and creates more guilt and confusion among new parents who are already inundated with conflicting information online...

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/opinion/kennedy-autism-circumcision-parents.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

The A.I. Prompt That Could End the World

… A.I. is highly capable. Its capabilities are accelerating. And the risks those capabilities present are real. Biological life on this planet is, in fact, vulnerable to these systems. On this threat, even OpenAI seems to agree.

In this sense, we have passed the threshold that nuclear fission passed in 1939. The point of disagreement is no longer whether A.I. could wipe us out. It could. Give it a pathogen research lab, the wrong safety guidelines and enough intelligence, and it definitely could. A destructive A.I., like a nuclear bomb, is now a concrete possibility. The question is whether anyone will be reckless enough to build one.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/opinion/ai-destruction-technology-future.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

A Plea From Doctors: Cool It on the Supplements

As Americans take more gummies, pills and powders than ever, some physicians are trying to convince patients to be a bit more careful.

Earlier this year, a 49-year-old man visited Dr. Danielle Belardo, a cardiologist, with chest pain. For some time, he had been treating his high cholesterol not with the statin suggested by his doctor, but with berberine and red yeast rice supplements. He had heard they were more natural.

The supplements hadn't managed his condition — far from it. Dr. Belardo discovered that he not only still had high cholesterol, but also had elevated liver enzymes and coronary artery disease so severe that he needed open-heart surgery.

She referred him for the procedure and started him on two medications to bring down his cholesterol, including a statin. She also told him to quit the supplements. A few weeks later, the liver issues resolved.

At a time when Americans are buying and taking record amounts of supplements — well over half of adults consume one — some doctors and dietitians are trying to convince patients to take it easy...

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/well/doctors-supplements.html?smid=em-share

Dr. Megan Craig, Stony Brook University, at MTSU’s Applied Philosophy Ly...

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZhTSYE66Jg0&feature=shared

For Trump, Who Has ‘Strong Feelings’ About Autism, the Issue Is Personal

… "All of us who are in the advocacy world and who love people with autism had high hopes that the president and R.F.K. Jr. were serious when they said they wanted to find the causes of autism and that they wanted gold standard autism science," Ms. Singer said.

"But what we heard today was not gold standard science," she said. "It wasn't even science. Instead, President Trump talked about what he thinks and feels without offering any scientific evidence."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/us/politics/autism-vaccines-trump-personal.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

"William James, MD: Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician"

"James was awarded his MD from Harvard Medical School in March 1869, after more than five years of interrupted study. This certificate lists his examiners, who included Oliver Wendel Holmes Sr., and the subject of his thesis, namely, the effects of cold on the body. (Diplomas, degrees, notifications of appointments, etc., William James papers [MS Am 1092.9–1092.12, MS Am 1092.9 (4571), Box: 40], Houghton Library, Harvard University.)

There is one element of James’s life and work that unites these disparate identities, however. In 1869, several years before he secured his first lectureship, he graduated from Harvard Medical School and earned his MD. Hampered by his own ill health, James abandoned his plans to practice as a doctor, but these studies were only the beginning of a profound and lifelong occupation with questions about the essential nature of health, healing, and invalidism and their implications for society. His writings, across their disciplinary breadth, return time after time to issues of a medical provenance. In this book I make the case that James’s medical interests, concerns, and values are the threads that bind many of his seemingly unconnected pursuits together. They are the warp and weft of many of his best-known publications and major lines of thought."
...
"William James, MD: Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician" by Emma K. Sutton: https://a.co/4PTkAZq

Can’t argue with that

NYTimes: What Happens to Your Brain When You Retire?

"There is great evidence that finding meaning in life gives one a great personal satisfaction."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/well/mind/retirement-brain-mental-health-tips.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare