Alternative Medicine under the Microscope – Part II
@ HealthThe seventh annual Trottier Symposium spotlights “Alternative Medicine.” Four world-renowned experts examine some of its tenets “under the microscope.”
Alternative medicine can be described as practices that are available to the public but which are not taught in conventional medical schools. The focus there lies on evidence-based methods and controlled experiments. Lack of evidence does not mean that a particular treatment cannot work; there may be alternative methods and practices worth pursuing. Alternative treatments can range from acupuncture to reflexology, and its practitioners range from energy healers to magnet therapists. Although risks tend to be low, there is always the danger of patients being seduced by unsubstantiated claims, possibly to the extent of forgoing evidence-based treatments.
Irrespective of one’s views on alternative medicine, there is no doubt that the subject merits attention and scrutiny.
Dr. Edzard Ernst is a former homeopathic practitioner who has become a vocal critic of alternative medical techniques that are not supported by scientific evidence.
January 10, 2012 at 5:50 pm
Alternative Medicine under the Microscope – Part I
@ HealthThe seventh annual Trottier Symposium spotlights “Alternative Medicine.” Four world-renowned experts examine some of its tenets “under the microscope.”
Alternative medicine can be described as practices that are available to the public but which are not taught in conventional medical schools. The focus there lies on evidence-based methods and controlled experiments. Lack of evidence does not mean that a particular treatment cannot work; there may be alternative methods and practices worth pursuing. Alternative treatments can range from acupuncture to reflexology, and its practitioners range from energy healers to magnet therapists. Although risks tend to be low, there is always the danger of patients being seduced by unsubstantiated claims, possibly to the extent of forgoing evidence-based treatments.
Irrespective of one’s views on alternative medicine, there is no doubt that the subject merits attention and scrutiny.
Dr. Paul Offit is one of the most public figures speaking out against the alleged relationship between vaccines and autism. Dr. Harriet Hall is a retired family physician who writes about pseudoscience and questionable medical practices. Dr. Robert (Bob) Park is an Emeritus Professor of physics at the University of Maryland, College Park who has written pseudoscience, alternative medicine, and the creation/evolution debate.
January 10, 2012 at 2:59 pm
Canada & the United States: Conversations and Relations – Gary Doer and David Jacobson
@ Law & SocietyAnnual conference of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada – Canada & the United States: Conversations and Relations, March 2011
Speakers:
- Gary Doer, Canadian Ambassador to the United States, The Embassy of Canada
- David Jacobson, United States Ambassador to Canada, The Embassy of the United States of America
December 15, 2011 at 12:53 pm
Canada & the United States: Conversations and Relations – Opening Address: David Johnston
@ Law & SocietyAnnual conference of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada – Canada & the United States: Conversations and Relations, March 2011
Opening address by His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General and Commander in Chief of Canada
December 15, 2011 at 12:52 pm
Canada & the United States: Conversations and Relations – Brian Mulroney and James A. Baker, III
@ Law & SocietyAnnual conference of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada – Canada & the United States: Conversations and Relations, March 2011
Speakers:
- The Right Honourable Brian Mulroney, Lawyer & Senior Partner, Ogilvy Renault
- The Honorable James A. Baker, III, the 61st U.S. Secretary of State and 67th U.S. Secretary of the Treasury
December 15, 2011 at 12:50 pm
Canada & the United States: Conversations and Relations – Jean Charest and Peter Shumlin
@ Law & SocietyAnnual conference of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada – Canada & the United States: Conversations and Relations, March 2011
Speakers:
- The Honourable Jean Charest, Premier of Québec, Canada
- The Honorable Peter Shumlin, Governor of Vermont, United States of America
December 15, 2011 at 12:44 pm
Tom Beghin: The Virtual Haydn: a New Recording Experience
@ Arts & HumanitiesKeynote Lecture at the conference The Ghost in the Machine: Technologies, Performance, Publics
December 9, 2011 at 2:29 pm
Mark Antaki: The Trial of Louis XVI
@ Arts & HumanitiesThe Nuremberg War Crimes Trial of the “major war criminals” of 1945-1946 and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 are often understood as opposite sides of the same very modern moral coin: the trial articulating an understanding of supreme wrong and the Declaration a vision of the ultimate good. It is customary to locate one of the origins of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the French Revolution’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789.
However, the trial of Louis XVI (1792-1793), the opposite side of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, tends not to be identified as an antecedent of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial. This lecture will consider the trial of Louis XVI as perhaps the first trial for crimes against humanity, a trial in which the medieval figure of the tyrant begins to give way to the modern figure of the criminal against humanity.
December 9, 2011 at 2:28 pm
Desmond Manderson: The Trial of Billy Budd
@ Arts & HumanitiesHerman Melville’s story “Billy Budd” contains one of the most famous trial scenes in US literature. It has given rise to a number of conflicting interpretations which relate to the relationship between legality and legitimacy, or between justice and law. Indeed the story contains surprising connections not only to question about law that have concerned writers for thousands of years, but to particular issues of slavery and judgment that were of immediate concern in 19th century America.
December 9, 2011 at 2:27 pm
Eugenio Bolongaro: The Trial of Sacco and Vanzetti
@ Arts & HumanitiesNicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti emigrated from Italy to the US in 1908. They did not meet, however, until 1917 during a strike in which they both participated as anarchist activists. They were accused of the murders of Frederick Parmenter, a paymaster, and Alessandro Berardelli, a security guard, at the Slater-Morrill Shoe Company, in Braintree, Massachusetts, on April 15, 1920. Their trial was heavily politicized, eventually polarizing public opinion and becoming an international “cause celèbre.” The defense strongly argued that the two men were innocent and that the justice system was participating in a political repression of radical dissent.
On August 23, 1927, after a long and vain legal struggle to obtain a new trial, their pardon or, at least, the commutation of the death sentence, Sacco and Vanzetti were executed in the electric chair. On the 50th anniversary of their execution, Governor Michael Dukakis, acting on the basis of recommendations from the Massachusetts Office of Legal Counsel, declared August 23, 1977 the Sacco and Vanzetti Memorial Day. In his proclamation, the Governor stated that the two Italian immigrants had been unfairly tried and convicted, and that “any disgrace should be forever removed from their names.” The legal, political and cultural debates provoked by the Sacco and Vanzetti’s case raise fundamental questions about the nature of justice and the role of the legal system in Western democracies.
December 9, 2011 at 2:26 pm
