Born too small

Heartwrenching.

Full stop

No more periods, here. I have a lot of questions about this, though. First of all, when you're on the regular pill, you don't have a true period, so you don't get true PMS, either. (Some women believe they do, of course, but that's because most of PMS is psychological. Says me, smugly, who doesn't have it anyway.) So "alleviating PMS" is not a valid reason for the no-period pill; regular pills alleviate it already (and are often prescribed for this reason precisely). And Saletan makes a good point: the regular pill has benefited men as much as (or perhaps even more than) women, and this super-pill is just more of the same, making women seem more sexually available to men for more of the time, without taking into account the nature and sources of genuine female desire. However Saletan also makes the important point that monthly periods for thirty or fourth years aren't natural either, since the female body evolved to be pregnant or lactating (and thus not ovulating) during most of the fertile years. And there's no doubt that preventing pregnancy has been a mostly unalloyed good for women. I just wish men would pitch in a little. (I'm lucky in this regard.)

I promise this isn't just a bitter personal rant; this particular issue doesn't affect me one way or the other. I don't have difficult periods, and in any case I loathe being hostage to a daily pill and would never go on the pill for that reason and others.

Philosophies of Men (no scripture)

Is there an "ought" in that "is"? Adventures in natural and moral philosophy, here. I followed most of it, but got lost in the last few paragraphs where the author purports to bring the thread back around to a real reason why one ought not boil babies.

Sex is bad for girls

Here.

Repro-tech Man

Fatherless kids, and other unnatural wonders, here.

I actually don't have too much of a problem with fatherless kids, provided the mother has money, but I hate the idea of motherless kids.

Also interested in the language of "intentionality"; it seems to me that a version of this idea underlies the LDS abortion position.

Totalitarianism

Sensational for obvious reasons, but I'm interested in the comments on totalitarianism and private judgement. Dalrymple on Koestler, here.

To keep me honest...

Something I don't know how to account for, under my present assumptions, here: once all controls are properly applied, sex appears to be academically detrimental for boys, but not for girls.

More and more books

This time from British booksellers, here.

Mother-load

Once again, it's fertility, not discrimination, that's holding women back. Women in science, here.

How many kids?

One child brings more subjective well-being to the parent than none or more, here. What about the kids, though?

Nice round-up of the science-religion skirmishes, here.