An in-depth look at stupidity and things that we do not know we don't know. The article is a first in a series by by Errol Morris. Although published several years ago, the series offers valuable insight into why we are the way we are.

Part 1 starts out with an interview of David Dunning, Cornell professor of social psychology.  David Dunning is one-half of the Dunning-Kruger team that wrote the paper, "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties of Recognizing Ones Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-assessments," was published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 77(6), Dec 1999, 1121-1134. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.77.6.1121. Dunning and Kruger state in their paper:

When people are incompetent in the strategies they adopt to achieve success and satisfaction, they suffer a dual burden: Not only do they reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it. Instead, . . . they are left with the erroneous impression they are doing just fine.

In other words, those who are incompetent are unable to recognize their own incompetence.

NEW UPDATE! The Foreskin of the Day and Intact For Life websites are shutdown. For those wanting to see foreskin pictures, there are other websites. My favorite is Celebrating Foreskin on Tumblr.

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Old Update! The creator of the Foreskin of the Day website created a new website in March 2011. Intact for Life features information and pictures on intact men. The new site provides a positive view for being intact, as nature intended men to be. Intact for Life will continue the tradition of the Foreskin of the Day site by offering pictures of intact men in its blog section. Other sections of the site provide information for young men on what it means to be intact, including the care and handling of the foreskin.

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Old Breaking News! The Foreskin of the Day website is down! As of February 20, 2011, I have not been able to load the site. I have no idea when the site will return, if it ever does. In the mean time, you may want to check out Intact Men, 4skindelight, NORM: New England, Acroposthion, and Celebrating Foreskin on Tumblr for some good foreskin pictures of intact men. These Tumblr sites are NSFW.

I was circumcised at birth and looking at these pictures reminds me of what I lost by being circumcised. Fortunately, foreskin restoration is letting me enjoy some of the advantages of a foreskin.

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Old Post: Foreskin of the Day is an intactivist site that celebrates the male foreskin.

Every day a new picture is shown. The pictures are in the style of glamour shots, showing the beauty of the model and his intact equipment. As a man who was circumcised shortly after birth, I wish I still had my whole sex organ. These pictures remind me of what I lost.

Along with each featured picture is a comment, some information, tip, or advice relating to intactivism. The site hopes to debunk foreskin myths and educate as well as show all what a foreskin looks like. People may be surprised by what they learn.

Foreskin of the Day is explicit. The site asks how can a blog celebrate the foreskin if it can't show pictures of them? Anyone offended by nudity, should not visit the site.

An article published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, Volume 35, Issue 5, pages 459–465, October 2011. DOI: 10.1111/j.1753-6405.2011.00761.x

Objective: To conduct a critical review of recent proposals that widespread circumcision of male infants be introduced in Australia as a means of combating heterosexually transmitted HIV infection.
 

Approach: These arguments are evaluated in terms of their logic, coherence and fidelity to the principles of evidence-based medicine; the extent to which they take account of the evidence for circumcision having a protective effect against HIV and the practicality of circumcision as an HIV control strategy; the extent of its applicability to the specifics of Australia's HIV epidemic; the benefits, harms and risks of circumcision; and the associated human rights, bioethical and legal issues.
 

Conclusion: Our conclusion is that such proposals ignore doubts about the robustness of the evidence from the African random-controlled trials as to the protective effect of circumcision and the practical value of circumcision as a means of HIV control; misrepresent the nature of Australia's HIV epidemic and exaggerate the relevance of the African random-controlled trials findings to it; underestimate the risks and harm of circumcision; and ignore questions of medical ethics and human rights. The notion of circumcision as a ‘surgical vaccine’ is criticised as polemical and unscientific.

Ken McGrath, Senior Lecturer in Pathology at the Faculty of Health, Auckland University of Technology and Member of the New Zealand Institute of Medical Laboratory Scientists discusses his research into the neural anatomy of the human penis and the physical damages caused by circumcision.

The Taylor study was published in the British Journal of Urology (BJUI), Volume 77, Issue 2, pages 291–295, February 1996. DOI: 10.1046/j.1464-410X.1996.85023.x A copy of the Taylor study is available at the The Circumcision Reference Libarary. Wiley Online Library maintains the journal copy of the study.

The authors, Taylor and Cold, dissected cadavers to thoroughly study the male prepuce (foreskin). They documented the innervation ofthe ridged band at the opening of the foreskin. The objective of the study was to assess the type and amount of tissue missing from the adult circumcised penis.

This is a YouTube video of a male infant circumcision showing the doctor informing the parents that infant circumcision is only cosmetic and has no medical benefits. For some reason, the parents still want to cut the sex organ of their baby boy. There there is the surgery in graphic detail. I cannot watch such videos. I cannot bear to hear the screams of a baby boy having the most sensitive part of his body being cut off.

A study published in WebmedCentral Epidemiology, 2011;2(9):WMC002206, by Dr. Devon D Brewer. The study examined the association between male circumcision, scarification, and HIV infection in Mozambican children and youth with data from the 2009 Mozambique AIDS Indicator Survey. The study provides compelling evidence that male circumcision of infants and children, even if done in a medical setting, results in a higher rate of HIV infection for the males than if they remain intact. The study also calls into question studies that do not apply rigorous standards for controlling for other causes of HIV infection.