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Kevin Pezzi, MD

I developed technology to instantly
stop school shooters and other criminals,
such as rapists, robbers, home invaders,
and shoplifters. I also created ways to block
airborne germ transmission. Read more >

Iconoclastic views on economics, politics, technology, science, and life.

Disagree with something I wrote? So do I! Read more

“To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.”

— Elbert Hubbard, American editor, publisher, and writer (1856–1915)

Trivia: He and his wife, Alice Moore Hubbard, the noted feminist and writer, died aboard the RMS Lusitania, which was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine on May 7, 1915, when they were heading to Europe to cover the war and interview Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.

If you disagree with something I wrote, feel free to challenge it. Some of my viewpoints are the antithesis (exact opposite) of what they once were. That isn't flip-flopping; that is changing opinions with scant evidence to support them into convictions with a firmer foundation of facts.

My political philosophy is an amalgamation of libertarian, conservative, and liberal principles. My opinions have changed so significantly that my conservative friends might be horrified by how I strongly believe that liberals are correct on certain issues. I've previously written about some of them, but to make this more fun, I will present others as challenges in which I offer $100,000 to the first person who can refute the logic I used in forming that opinion. Please note that due to my limited time and difficulty using my hands after I broke my neck, I cannot quickly update my previously published opinions. However, now that I am balancing the promptings of head and heart, I strongly disagree with many opinions I expressed in my writings.

I like finding people who make me think, not necessarily those who agree with me. Genius Robert Heinlein said, “I never learned from a man who agreed with me.” If you can educate me, I'm all ears.

“Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.”
— Albert Einstein

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
— Albert Einstein

“What I would like to see more often in this nation is an open and intelligent conversation, not people just casting aspersions at each other … it's unbelievable to me the way people act like third graders. And if somebody doesn't agree with them, they're this and they're that … it comes from both sides. And it's just so infantile.”
— Dr. Ben Carson, neurosurgeon

“The ultimate ignorance is the rejection of something you know nothing about and refuse to investigate.”
— Dr. Wayne Dyer

“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.”
— General George Patton

“Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.”
— Oliver Wendell Holmes

“A lot of people risk their lives in a brief act of heroism, which is kind of cool, but Jill has what I call slow heroism. She is risking her professional life on something that her own calculations show may not work for a thousand years—may not ever. So I like to support people that are risking their lives.”
— ex-Microsoft billionaire brainiac Nathan Myhrvold speaking about Jill Tarter, who inspired the character played by Jodie Foster in the movie Contact. It takes a brilliant person to see that others who go against the grain of conventional wisdom may be sages although lesser minds often ridicule their ideas.

“I am not young enough to know everything.”
— Oscar Wilde

“You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.”
— Winston Churchill

“Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.”
— Euripides, Greek tragic dramatist (484 BC - 406 BC)

“It is socially unacceptable to be right too early.”
— Robert Heinlein

“I'd rather stand alone on the truth than with millions on a lie.”

“The most distinctive mark of a cultured mind is the ability to take another's point of view; to put one's self in another's place, and see life and its problems from a point of view different from one's own. To be willing to test a new idea; to be able to live on the edge of difference in all matters intellectually; to examine without heat the burning question of the day; to have imaginative sympathy, openness and flexibility of mind, steadiness and poise of feeling, cool calmness of judgment, is to have culture.”
— Arthur H. R. Fairchild

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
— Theodore Roosevelt

“It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.”
— Abraham Lincoln

This reminds me of something stressed by one of my psychology professors, who said that society imposes rigid boundaries for what behavior is acceptable, and applies tremendous pressure trying to force people to conform to the behavioral expectations. Some of the most brilliant and productive outside-the-box thinkers led unconventional lives. One of the side effects of forcing people to think inside the box is that by lopping off outside-the-box behavior, potentially great outside-the-box ideas are lost, too.

“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.”
— Edward R. Murrow, American journalist (1908-1965)

“You will not do incredible things without an incredible dream.”
— John Eliot

Challenging the symmetry = beauty assumption

I don't see enough of this model to know if she is symmetrical, but from what's visible, she is obviously very attractive. More examples of unknown symmetry but unquestionable beauty:

The image below shows a model with “a so-called perfect face,” according to the photographer. She is attractive, but much of her beauty stems from her youthful skin. She is much more symmetrical than Anne Hjelle, who was mauled by a mountain lion, causing severe hemifacial injuries that multiple surgeries could not fully undo, yet I think that Anne is exceptionally attractive—much hotter than the younger and more symmetrical model.

People with more symmetrical bodies and especially faces are supposedly more attractive, according to many experts. If that is true, how can I tell if a woman is beautiful by seeing only half her face? By not seeing the other half, I can't tell if she possesses bilateral symmetry. Some people with virtually perfect symmetry are at best average-looking, and some are optically boring or even downright unappealing, lacking the physical attributes that make the opposite sex want to kiss and hug them. And more. You know.

Researchers used image editing software to duplicate one facial half and flip it to create perfect bilateral symmetry, yet the results didn't make anyone's heart beat faster or inspire them to write love songs.

Some UCLA researchers agree with me. They “found that symmetry and attractiveness were not strongly related in faces of women or men.” They said “there was a significant difference between attractiveness and health. Facial symmetry may be critical for the appearance of health but it does not seem to be critical for the appearance of attractiveness.”

Some people claim that symmetry is associated with good genes that confer resistance to disease (ultimately explaining why people are supposedly so fixated on mating with such people so the genes they pass to the next generation are most adaptive), but of the many thousands of patients I had in the ER, some of the most attractive women were the least healthy.

A very beautiful local college student died from meningococcemia, and a physically yummy friend died from what began as a common cold. Her child sneezed and got over it; she went to her grave. Actress Nicole DeHuff had dazzling looks, but died at age 30 from pneumonia. College student Aimee Copeland is so stunning she makes many models look like Plain Janes, but she lost parts of her body due to a flesh-eating bacterial infection (and now that she is highly asymmetrical, she is still a knockout).

Contrary to what you might expect, who gets that and other infections is not just a matter of who is unlucky enough to be exposed to the germs that cause them, figuratively stepping on a hidden landmine. People are frequently exposed to germs that could infect and even kill them, yet our immune systems are able to fend off most infections.

These models are winking so much their bilateral symmetry can't be assessed, yet they are beautiful:

Furthermore, although winking temporarily reduces symmetry, it is considered to be something that enhances appearance.

Despite overwhelming evidence that symmetry is not essential for beauty, this myth persists and is frequently cited by people writing for prestigious publications and experts who should know better but swallow this falsehood hook, line, and sinker, along with sheeple who go through life differentiating fact from fiction not by thinking for themselves, but by letting other sheeple determine what is true and what is not. This explains why scientists and inventors with innovative valuable ideas are often ridiculed by sheeple and experts who think they know better, but don't.

This article is part of the $100,000 Challenge Series

People often think they are enlightened even when they believe things that should have been left in the Dark Ages. In this series, I will challenge conventional wisdom and explore some odd and unjustifiable beliefs that persist, offering $100,000 to the first person who can solve each challenge, proving me wrong. My opinions are bound to ruffle some feathers and make you think.

The $100,000 challenge: Prove that symmetry equals beauty. Good luck.

The views expressed on this page may or may not reflect my current opinions, nor do they necessarily represent my past ones. After reading a slice of what I wrote in my various websites and books, you may conclude that I am a liberal Democrat or a conservative Republican. Wrong; there is a better alternative. Just as the primary benefit from debate classes results when students present and defend opinions contrary to their own, I use a similar strategy as a creative writing tool to expand my brainpower—and yours. Mystified? Stay tuned for an explanation. PS: The wheels in your head are already turning a bit faster, aren't they?

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”
— F. Scott Fitzgerald

Reference: Imagining dialogue can boost critical thinking: Excerpt: “Examining an issue as a debate or dialogue between two sides helps people apply deeper, more sophisticated reasoning …”

Kevin Pezzi, MD

Challenging the symmetry = beauty assumption

This article is part of the $100,000 Challenge Series

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