Why I . . . horse ride

Introduction: Why beat a tired horse?

Why do cancer drugs get such an easy ride?

Unlike most other diseases, cancer instils a special fear and “is treated as an evil, invincible predator, not just a disease.” The ability of drug companies to charge very high prices, even when most approved cancer drugs provide little gain for patients, drives much of the research, as desperate patients lead some governments and private insurers to pay whatever companies charge. Officials wi...

WHY FREE RIDE? Strategies and Learning in Public Goods Experiments

The free riding hypothesis has been the subject of laboratory experiments for more than a decade. While the extent of free riding has often varied across experiments, three observations are consistently replicated. First, there is no significant evidence of free riding in single-shot games. Marwell and Ames (1981) for instance, found that subjects generally provide the public good at levels hal...

Why Do I Smoke and Why Do I Keep Smoking?

Shortly after smoking their last cigarette, smokers start to feel a negative mood change. This “withdrawal” from the chemical nicotine makes the smoker uncomfortable. Many smokers report feeling anxious, irritable and restless when they stop smoking. This is because they are not getting what the brain feels it needs to work well. Smokers usually experience relief from these unpleasant feelings ...

Why I Believe

When I came to UCSD, a professor asked me how I could be a professing intellectual and still be a Christian. The topic came up a few weeks back as well. So I thought I would collect my thoughts about reasons that I personally find helpful when considering whether Christianity makes sense. Note that I do not accept the definition that faith is "belief without reason". Instead I prefer the defini...