^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  My background

My academic background consists of 12 years as a student--from 1962 to 70 and 1977-81, including 2 years of graduate school in philosophy.  The 14 undergraduate semesters in science consumed nearly three academic years (I earned 85 credit hours).  These science courses gave me the foundation for a molecular understanding of life and life systems, and philosophy taught me to critically examine a field of knowledge so as to spot anomalies in an overall theory and arrive so as to sculpture the solution to real-world situations.  Unlike science which relies on expert consensus, philosophy teaches problem solving.  For example there are Five Types of Ethical Theory (work by C.D. Broad); I had to examine each theory and then arrive at an overall meta-ethical theory and justify it.  I had 2 years of philosophy as a major, and 2 more years in graduate school, University of Manitoba.  Problem solving was not just the domain of philosophy:  in the 60s undergraduate liberal arts course-work consisted mostly of using evidence to justify conclusions—liberal arts consisted of a minimum of 12 semester-long courses (36 credit hours), I had 15.  I applied those skills to social questions:  human behavior, political science, and economics, and to process such as imperialism, historical analysis, consumerism, religious behavior, and almost everything else that was puzzling to me.  Upon leaving the academic world in 1981, I continued to explore topics as varied as psychology, ethics, the brain as the source of behavior, poetics, the Greco-Roman World, Old Testament mythology, historical Jesus, US Federal court system, health issues, and other topics.  I also had 7 semesters in mathematics.  I was like a mathematician, only instead of numbers I think of processes measured by consequences and completeness.   For one year I was a psychology major during the era when the experimental basis of behavior was used as a scaffolding to explain complex behavior.  In 2001 I started the  http://www.skeptically.org/, whose theme is to expose beliefs that are not justified by the evidence.  There are two sections applying the behavioral approach.  In 2004 I started an evidence based medical site.  The deeper I looked into health related topics, the more I came to understand the inroads that drug and food manufacturers made upon the evidence base.  The behavioral analysis, social Darwinism, fiduciary goals of corporations and topics is understanding helps me to understand why and how the perverse corporate system produce perverse treatment practices, and thus how the corporate system causes well-meaning scientists and doctors to cause harm.  A system which is measured by profits has evolved into a health care monster.  In 2011 I started the recommended section of healthfully.org.