David Canter

Is this an example of a government following the science? Some years ago, as a way of showing the impotence of social science, especially psychology, I asked, ‘Why has psychology not created any weapons of mass destruction?” After all, the natural sciences, which are used as the models for social science, each have their own WMD. Biology has its biological weapons, chemistry its toxins and

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When the levee breaks … An example of Newton’s First Law of Motion as it applies to human behavior? (Image: Lt. Cmdr. Mark Moran, NOAA Corps, NMAO/AOC) It may be thought that the slow reaction in many countries to the emergence of COVID-19 was due to the invisibility of the pathogen. Not being able to see the enemy may have been the explanation of waiting until it was having visible

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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy had it right Pictures of supermarket shoppers filling their .trolleys to overflowing with large packets of toilet paper is labelled ‘panic buying’. Brought on by the apparently imminent spread of COVID-19, these rabid consumers seem to be concerned that the greatest risk from the demise of civilization as we know it, is not being able to wipe their

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