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Ethical Enhancement
Scientists in America have found a way to reduce crime amongst some high risk groups by 30-40%. It involves a simulation of crime scenes where the victim is a hologram representing the potential criminal in question, followed by discussion with a trained therapist. The experience causes the subject to feel greater empathy and reduces violent crime. We should
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A death on the border
Several days ago, a middle-aged man named Nam Young-ho was shot to death while crossing the Imjin River, which divides North and South Korea. Such stories are sadly not uncommon, but the particular facts make this case quite unusual: Nam was a South Korean trying to enter the North, and was shot by South Korean
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Should some people be barred from pursuing higher education?
By Luke Davies Luke can now be followed on Twitter. Anders Breivik, the 34-year-old Norwegian man responsible for the death of 77 and wounding of 232 people in an attack in 2011, has been enrolled in political science modules at the University of Oslo. The attack Breivik carried out, which happened on 22 July 2011, was
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Polygraphs: placebo or trial by ordeal?
Chad Dixon, an Indiana man was recently sentenced to 8 months in jail for teaching people how to beat polygraph tests. The sticking point seems to be that polygraphs are used by the US federal authorities for screening applicants and detecting crimes, so if people could get past them they could do all sorts of
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Google and the G20
The furore over Syria at the G20 meeting has distracted attention from the potentially highly significant agreement by the leaders of the world’s largest economies to support an ‘ambitious and comprehensive’ plan to address the massive global problem of multinational corporations’ failure to pay tax where they earn it, using transfer pricing and other methods
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What’s wrong with adopting out an adopted child?
‘Re-homing’ is a term coined to describe the adopting out of adopted children. Reuters today published a long story on the practice, describing several cases in which children adopted from overseas by American parents were then put up for adoption again within the States, in one case only a few days after the initial adoption.
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Teenage annihilation on an Aegean boat
An Old Bore writes: Last week I got the boat from Athens to Hydra. It takes about 2 ½ hours, and takes you along the coast of the Argolid. The sun shone, the dolphins leapt, the retsina flowed, the bouzoukis trembled, and we watched the sun rise over the Peloponnese. It was wonderful. At least
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Burma, Myanmar and the Myth of Objectivity
by David Edmonds – twitter @DavidEdmonds100 Since my last blog post, there has been a decision within the BBC “to start to move” to calling ‘Burma, ‘Myanmar’. Burma has always been an interest of mine because it was the big story in the first few weeks when I began in journalism. Aung San Suu Kyi’s husband
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In defense of the double standard for chemical weapons
As the US and other nations gear up for war in Syria, the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime against civilians has received great, perhaps inordinate attention. A little over a year ago, US President Barack Obama called the use of chemical weapons a “red line”, though was vague about what would
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Twitter, paywalls, and access to scholarship — are license agreements too restrictive?
By Brian D. Earp Follow Brian on Twitter by clicking here. Twitter, paywalls, and access to scholarship — are license agreements too restrictive? I think I may have done something unethical today. But I’m not quite sure, dear reader, so I’m enlisting your energy to help me think things through. Here’s the short story: Someone posted