G. Owen Schaefer

"What is happening right now is an attack against science, knowledge and the public good."

Enjoying a video game set in feudal Japan; richly animated, beautifully lit, suffused with the values of honor, balance, harmony with nature, the search for enlightening moments of stillness, and accumulating rad gear by systematically looting raw materials from the house or camp of anyone you meet.

📣 Introducing new JBI editors-in-chief (content) Chris Mayes and Diego Silva.

They both join our continuing editor-in-chief of production, Bronwen Morrell.

Thanks to our outgoing EiC (content) Michael Ashby, who is retiring from the JBI and leaving it in these great hands!

Pro tip: solve the whole thing in your head first before entering any guesses! Many days there's fakeout legit groups of 4, which fall apart when you try to sort the whole grid.

I know it's wrong, but ngl I like the Connections Bot feature as it periodically lets me feel smug and superior amongst the clique of fellow puzzle nerds.

Tbh, I would reject the idea that the list of artistically high quality games is small/constrained. There's a lot! The threads below scratch the surface, the lists can really go on and on esp in the indie space. If I had to pick one I'd highlight To the Moon, but really there's too many to count.

Ngl, I get a little choked up on refs like this to the late great animator Satoshi Kon. An artist who passed in his prime, and the world is so much worse for it. RIP.

Not a hard call.

Mild counterpoint: we just did a scoping review of ethics articles related to use of AI in emergency medicine. Most positive/optimistic, some neutral, but none overall negative or pessimistic. Just one domain, but if there's a bias it seems in the opposite direction.

Comrades check out my fanfic

archiveofourown.org/users/LastPo...

so glad to live after thomas bayes' illustrious theorem—now when i wake up and the sidewalk is wet, i can conclude that it rained last night. before father bayes, people would just sorta bump into walls

'Great jeans" or "Great Genes"?

Mitochondrial Donation in a Reproductive Care Pathway for mtDNA Disease | NEJM Pathogenic variants in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) are a common cause of severe, often fatal, inherited metabolic disease. A reproductive care pathway was implemented to provide women carrying pathog...

Interestingly, the NEJM papers themselves use less contentious language, emphasizing the interests of the mother in reproductive choice/health, and not claiming that any lives were saved or children spared from disease. www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

...on some arguments, because mitochondrial replacement is identity-affecting, no one can be said to be saved - rather the technique is just creating healthy people. But I've argued the media's language is actually defensible, on a wider population-level perspective. philarchive.org/rec/SCHCRG-3

Three-person IVF technique spared children from inherited diseases: Scientists Eight children in the United Kingdom have been spared from devastating genetic diseases thanks to a new three-person in vitro fertilisation (IVF) technique, scientists from Newcastle University report...

Understandably this flew in under the radar given recent events, but...the Newcastle Mitochondrial Replacement results are out! A lot to unpack here, but interesting the below coverage uses the contentious 'spared from disease' language... www.channelnewsasia.com/world/three-...

Sustaining priority services for HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections in a changing funding landscape This operational guidance provides a structured approach to support countries in sustaining priority services for HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections in the context of reduced ext...

As noted in my COI, I'm also involved in a depressing but necessary WHO effort to advise on triaging what public health funding remains. Here, local communities rather than int'l donors will take the lead - a small silver lining in an otherwise bleak situation. /end www.who.int/publications...

What now? I guess the blog post is doing what I can to bolster the chorus of ethical objection, for whatever its worth. As a US citizen I'll also be petitioning my (Dem) representatives to make all efforts to restore USAID when they return to power. But realistically, we can't rely on that. 5/

But USAID shortcomings merit reform and improvement, not slash and burn with the victims among the world's most vulnerable.

I've also seen national interest arguments for USAID. Maybe those are right, but IMHO, whether USAID advances US interests pales next to the weight of lives lost. 4/

Some Things We Don't Do Anymore - This American Life Trump froze U.S. foreign aid and dismantled USAID. We examine the agency’s impact and hear from people trying to navigate this chaotic moment.

There have been a number of reasonable critiques of USAID from a variety of corners, some resurfacing now that it's disappearing. (a recent fair-minded episode of This American Life www.thisamericanlife.org/862/some-thi... covered a few of the reservations) 3/

I recognize countries can legitimately prioritize their own interests, but duties to the rest of humanity remain. Where to draw the line is tricky, but it's going to be much more than the current measly .2% of national income the US devotes. Slashing that incredibly low rate is morally perverse. 2/

New post at JME Forum: USAID Cuts - A Moral Failure. This is a topic that's been gnawing at me for a while, and with the new modelling published in Lancet estimating millions of resulting deaths, I felt compelled to speak out, even if it's an ethically obvious issue. 1/ blogs.bmj.com/medical-ethi...

Professor Jonathan Wolff retires from the Blavatnik School of Government Professor Jo Wolff, the inaugural Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy, first joined the School in 2016. Almost a decade later, the School is marking his retirement with an event…

🎓 Celebrating Prof @jowolff.bsky.social's career

Please join us in saying a big thank you to Jo for his pioneering research and teaching. The School will also host a special event to mark his career at the School on Wednesday.

Find out more here ⬇️

What happens when the wrong embryo gets implanted? Do genetic or birth parents have stronger moral claims to the child? @juliansavulescu.bsky.social and I consider some preliminary answers to the recent questions arising from the Monash IVF mix up in this JME blog: blogs.bmj.com/medical-ethi...

Philosophy Professor Reportedly Assaulted & Abducted During ICE Raid on Farm - Daily Nous Jonathan Caravello, a lecturer in philosophy at California State University Channel Islands, was reportedly "piled on by multiple agents all at once" as "he tried to help a man in a wheelchair" who wa...

A philosophy professor was assaulted and abducted by ICE while protesting the agency's raid on a farm near his university.

Evaluating the impact of two decades of USAID interventions and projecting the effects of defunding on mortality up to 2030: a retrospective impact evaluation and forecasting analysis USAID funding has significantly contributed to the reduction in adult and child mortality across low-income and middle-income countries over the past two decades. Our estimates show that, unless the a...

Important new study estimates that USAID-funded programs have saved over 90m lives in the last 21 years. And cuts to USAID will result in over 14m deaths in just the next 5 years.
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

No bones, no scales, no problem: The first lab-grown salmon sold in the U.S. Wildtype’s cell-cultivated salmon is the first seafood to earn FDA approval, marking a significant milestone for the alternative protein industry.

"At Wildtype, cells derived from Pacific salmon are grown in big steel tanks and fed with a mix of nutrients, including amino acids, vitamins, salts, sugars, proteins and fats. 'Imagine kind of a fancy Gatorade.'" www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solu...

Sustaining HIV, hepatitis and STIs services amid declining health aid The global health responses to HIV, hepatitis, STIs and other communicable diseases (malaria, TB, vaccine preventable diseases and NTDs) have been severely impacted by the recent suspensions and reductions in official development assistance for health. This page provides key data and updates on reported disruptions as well as technical resources, guidance, and recommendations to help sustain the provision of essential services.

Recent suspensions & reductions in official development assistance for health have impacted responses to HIV, hepatitis, STIs, and other communicable diseases. See pre-publication draft of @who.int guidance to sustain priority services in this changing funding landscape:

www.who.int/activities/s...

Dear all,

Helen passed away at 13:21 local time. Helen would not have wanted us to be sad for a long time. All they wanted was to be remembered. They looked forward to being rid of pain and to being at rest. Helen took great comfort in you, their friends and readers.

pt. 1/2

Saw Thom Yorke at a pub in Oxford a while back. A mate asked for his autograph; he politely declined.

I’m happy to share some news bit.ly/440Iim7