While databases and sharing information can lower costs and improve service in a range of industries, the ownership of information can impinge upon one’s privacy and allow access to private information by people that you don’t know or would not want to have access to your data. The line between utility and invasion of privacy …
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Toxic emissions coming under control in north America, but SMEs lag
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation, a NAFTA industrial grouping, released their latest annual study (2004 data) which shows a 15% drop in emissions among large companies in North America, but warned that emissions were rising from some small and mid-size industries. The report compares data from 10,000 facilities across nine industrial sectors and incorporates data …
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Parental smoking causes cot death
A comprehensive study, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and Parental Smoking, carried out at Bristol University’s Institute of Child Life and Health and published in the Early Human Development medical journal, reviewed existing evidence from numerous studies on smoking and cot death and concludes that 9 out of 10 mothers who lose a baby to cot …
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Chinese party congress seeks improvement
The five year Chinese Communist Party Congress, taking place over 5 days, was opened by President Hu Jintao. While the event is carefully orchestrated it is refreshing to note self criticism which one would hardly expect from US or European political leaders. Hu drew attention in particular to the problems of corruption and local governance, …
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Behaving like monkeys
A couple of articles discussed recent research in to the genetic programming of fairness. A study by Keith Jensen of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology published in Science concludes that a sense of fairness is genetically encoded in humans, but not in chimpanzees. It is also apparent that some people are fairer than …
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We love China, but …
October saw China’s Communist Party Congress, a gathering held every five years to publicise the party’s objectives, endorse policy and make senior appointments. As China prospers and expands its presence on the world stage, this offered an opportunity to reflect on political and social developments at home. While the general commentary is positive, critics highlight …
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Lying to ourselves
The delusion of our own integrity has worn thin. Linked here is an NYT editorial, The Good Germans Among Us, detailing the quilt of lies and deception that we have sewn to keep ourselves in “the right” while portraying others (Iraqis, Burmese, Chinese, Afghan …) as brutal, terrorists and wrong. While the tale is focussed …
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Nuclear may be popular with politicians, but not people
Over the past year politicians have been leaning more towards nuclear as it seems to be a convenient solution to climate change. While safety and economic concerns have been depreciated, the public has not been convinced by the political spiel, at least in the UK. That is good and offers hope that appropriate energy alternatives …
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Knowing what you can’t see
Geoffrey Miller recently published research which clearly shows that human males can detect whether or not females are fertile. The data support the conclusion that males can detect whether or not females are ovulating, even if they don’t know that that’s what they are detecting. His unusual study took place in lap-dancing clubs and the …
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Islam and Christianity must work together
In a letter, A Common Word Between Us and You, addressed to Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian leaders, 138 prominent Muslim scholars from every sect of Islam urged Christian leaders “to come together with us on the common essentials of our two religions”, spelling out the similarities between passages of the Bible and the …
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