It's 1957, on a verandah in North End, Bulawayo - 6 Gifford Avenue, to be more precise. Playing on the radiogram just next to the door opening on to the verandah, Come Go With Me by the Del Vikings. You can listen to it. But if, as is more than possible, you weren't of an age in 1957, or weren't of any age at all, you can't listen to it and have it bring back the feeling of being on that verandah.
Do you know the Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel? OK, so how do you get the words 'frog' and 'Pope' into the same story? This is how. The Pope says that the sculpture 'has offended the religious feelings of many people'. Imagine generalizing from the proposition that no one should ever do anything that offends the feelings of others - because if religious feelings are to be spared, then feelings due to any important belief, moral, cultural or whatever, would seem to be legitimate candidates.
A US federal task force recently concluded that doctors should stop testing elderly men for signs of prostate cancer, and put in question 'whether the screening is worthwhile for younger men'.
Screening for prostate cancer standardly begins with a simple blood test to measure the level of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in the blood. The procedure is both quick and painless. But, in view of the anxieties the results of a PSA test can produce, and the possible risks and side effects of the biopsy tests and treatments that might follow, the federal task force judged that the risks of harm for men of 75 and over outweighed the possible benefits. As this report from the Washington Post (free registration) says, it is 'perhaps the most important and contentious issue in men's health'. The report also mentions a 'highly critical' response to the task force's conclusions from other specialists.
One such specialist is William J. Catalona. In a piece earlier this week, also from the Washington Post, he argues that screening has paid off:
Rates of death from prostate cancer and rates of diagnosis at advanced stages have decreased markedly since testing became widespread.
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Consider that in the United States alone, the rate of advanced cancer at the time of diagnosis has fallen 75 percent since the PSA screening era began, and age-adjusted prostate cancer death rates have declined 35 percent. Statistical studies suggest that 45 to 70 percent of this decrease is due to PSA screening.
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On a global scale, prostate cancer death rates have decreased in countries where PSA screening and active treatment are typically practiced and have remained stable or increased in countries where screening and active treatment are not practiced.
Catalona also notes that prostate cancer can reach an incurable stage before any symptoms appear; and he refers to a recommendation for screening 'beginning at age 50 in men with a life expectancy of 10 years'.
I'm in no position to comment on the medical evidence either way. But men who discover they have prostate cancer too late to benefit from curative treatments are unlikely to be convinced by the arguments against screening. Most of them will prefer to have had a PSA test in good time and, after getting the result, to have been able to weigh the options before them in the light of the known risks.
Update on August 30, 2008: For another view, see Anthony at Black Triangle.
Earlier this year I posted about the threat to The Mount - Edith Wharton's house that is now a museum and facing closure if the necessary funds cannot be raised to save it. They were given a six-month extension on the initial deadline, so you have till October to make a contribution. Please consider doing so.
War crimes and crimes against humanity should not be subject to any statute of limitations (see also Article 29 here). Michael Gawenda puts forward some of the reasons for this in discussing the international campaign to extract an official apology from the Japanese government for Japan's policy of forcing women to serve as prostitutes, 'comfort women' - in fact, sexual slaves - for the Japanese army during World War II.
Continuing the well-established normblog tradition of bringing you analysis of all the minutiae of the US presidential election campaign, I draw your attention to two different views about how the upcoming Republican convention and Gustav might intersect. Gerard Baker:
Next week in St Paul, Minnesota, at his own party's convention, Senator McCain has a tricky task: to keep his party's base - among whom President Bush is still popular - energised, while persuading the rest of the electorate that he is not in fact a Bush clone.
He may not be helped by what could be a freakish moment of meteorological fate. On Monday night President Bush is scheduled to speak to the convention at almost precisely the moment that a potentially lethal hurricane is expected to make landfall at or near New Orleans. Perhaps God is a Democrat after all.
Justin Webb, on the other hand, wonders if it could be an opportunity for McCain:
Out of such conjunctions are historically important events forged.As for this [ref. Gustav] - could they perhaps just miss the Bush-Cheney bit and then carry on? What a shame that would be for John McCain.
You read so much these days about people's luggage going missing when they travel by air. That suggests to me that we're not being told everything in this story: she wanted to keep an eye on her suitcase.
Marko Attila Hoare is a Senior Research Fellow at Kingston University, London. He was born in London and educated at the University of Cambridge and Yale University. He has been researching and writing about the history and politics of South East Europe since the early 1990s and has lived and worked in Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia and Serbia. He is the author of The History of Bosnia: From the Middle Ages to the Present Day; Genocide and Resistance in Hitler's Bosnia: The Partisans and the Chetniks, 1941-1943 (which won the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow Monograph Competition in 2004); and How Bosnia Armed. Marko blogs at Greater Surbiton.
Why do you blog? > So I can write about topics that I otherwise wouldn't have the chance to write about, and work out my thoughts on them. So I can write about South East Europe more freely than I otherwise could. And because I was spending so much time commenting on other people's blogs, I thought I might as well have my own.
What would be your main blogging advice to a novice blogger? > Bottom line: don't humiliate or degrade yourself, e.g. by wallowing in exhibitionism about your private life or by flinging around vulgar abuse. The difference between a blogger who is entertaining and provocative, and one who is an embarrassment and/or disgusting, is both huge and painfully obvious to anyone who reads them. And a stench will linger...
What are you reading at the moment? > The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver.
What is the best novel you've ever read? > Madame Bovary; Wuthering Heights; 120 Days of Sodom; Candide; Catch-22.
What is your favourite poem? > 'The Road Not Taken' by Robert Frost; 'When You Are Old' by W.B. Yeats; 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' by John Keats.
What is your favourite movie? > The Talented Mr Ripley; Twelve Angry Men; Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!; Divided We Fall; Breakfast at Tiffany's.
What is your favourite song? > 'Misguided Angel' by the Cowboy Junkies; 'Michel' by Anouk; 'Silhouettes' by The Rays; 'Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow' by The Shirelles; 'Le Tourbillon' by Jeanne Moreau.
Can you name a major moral, political or intellectual issue on which you've ever changed your mind? > The most important change of opinion I've ever had - and the one that required the most agonizing - was realizing that 'anti-imperialism' (or 'opposition on principle to Western military intervention') was something highly negative and reactionary, rather than positive and progressive.
What philosophical thesis do you think it most important to disseminate? > That positive principles, goals, societies and individuals should continually grow, evolve and be reinvented, while those that remain rigid and unchanging will stagnate and cease to be positive.
What philosophical thesis do you think it most important to combat? > The misguided belief that true morality lies in attachment to a set of dogmas - be they religious, political or other - and that these dogmas must be rigidly adhered to, by ignoring evidence that undermines them or changes in the world that render them obsolete, and by suppressing one's own sense of scepticism.
Can you name a work of non-fiction which has had a major and lasting influence on how you think about the world? > Two stand out in particular: Pornography and Silence by Susan Griffin and The Birth of Fascist Ideology by Zeev Sternhell.
Who are your political heroes? > Those with whom I most identify are Tony Blair, Latinka Perovic and Stjepan Mesic. Those whose historical contribution to human emancipation I most appreciate are Josip Broz Tito and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
If you could effect one major policy change in the governing of your country, what would it be? > A total overhaul of the UK's pathetic excuse for an education system. I'd abolish all faith-based and private education in favour of a universal system of state education in which all children would receive the best – wholly secular - education possible and be taught the values of free thinking, hard work, achievement, citizenship and patriotism, and in which there'd be absolutely zero tolerance of anti-social behaviour.
What would you do with the UN? > Lots of things, but above all: expel Russia and China from the Security Council, and suspend the memberships of all states run by dictatorships, or guilty of genocide, state-sponsored racism or other forms of massive human rights abuse.
What do you consider to be the main threat to the future peace and security of the world? > The rise of militantly anti-Western ideologies outside the democratic world (whether nationalist, religious-fundamentalist or left-wing or right-wing extremist), occurring in conjunction with the rise of self-hating anti-Western sentiment among the political and chattering classes within the Western democratic world.
Do you think the world (human civilization) has already passed its best point, or is that yet to come? > There will never be a best point for human civilization. I believe that, overall and in general terms, human civilization is continually improving, but the improvement is not uniform or absolute. There's a price to be paid for human progress, but that doesn't mean one should look back nostalgically to a mythical 'golden age'.
What would be your most important piece of advice about life? > Be totally honest with yourself about your motives, weaknesses and character flaws; don't allow irrational fears, prejudices or small-mindedness to stop you from doing what you want to do, or what you feel is right.
Do you think you could ever be married to, or in a long-term relationship with, someone with radically different political views from your own? > Definitely; it can be very intellectually stimulating. But I'm inclined to believe it's better to be with a kindred spirit in the long run.
What do you consider the most important personal quality? > Loyalty and commitment to the people you love.
What personal fault do you most dislike? > The readiness to sacrifice love, morality or integrity for the sake of one's public appearance or personal interest.
In what circumstances would you be willing to lie? > When telling the truth would cause wholly unnecessary pain or offence to someone, without benefiting anybody or anything.
Do you have any prejudices you're willing to acknowledge? > I loathe and despise the anti-Western, so-called 'radical' left out of all proportion to their actual political significance.
What is your favourite proverb? > 'The perfect is the enemy of the good.'
What commonly enjoyed activities do you regard as a waste of time? > Going clubbing; watching sport on television; praying to God; obsessing over houses, cars and consumer goods.
What, if anything, do you worry about? > That at the end of my life, I'll feel intellectually dissatisfied with myself.
Where would you most like to live (other than where you do)? > Newnham in Cambridge would be just about ideal.
What do you like doing in your spare time? > Reading, travelling, watching movies, eating out, walking, going to the gym and blogging – not necessarily in that order.
What is your most treasured possession? > My library.
What talent would you most like to have? > To be a great public speaker.
Who is your favourite comedian or humorist? > The team behind Viz magazine.
Under the heading 'Encyclopaedia Idiotica', the Times Higher Education carries another of those laments about Wikipedia. It's by Martin Cohen, a philosopher, and the worry he expresses is about the popularity of Wikipedia, about its displacing other conventional encyclopaedias and more scholarly sources, given its own inexpert character. Though I've said it before, I'll say it again: for all the inaccurate information there may be on Wikipedia there's also a huge amount of information that is genuine, unobjectionable, useful. And no one is obliged either to use the site or to rely on it exclusively. Cohen says that its 'version of reality has... become a monopoly'. Pull the other one. He says:
To control the reference sources that people use is to control the way people comprehend the world. Wikipedia may have a benign, even trivial face, but underneath may lie a more sinister and subtle threat to freedom of thought.
The threat is indeed subtle, since there's no control. You're always just a click or three away from other sources. Plus there are libraries. The relation between the facts of the matter and Cohen's generalization about control of reference sources is not helpful to him.
How do you stop a giant asteroid colliding with the Earth? Simple - you wrap it in reflective sheeting. (Via.)
