- One of the most notable risk factors for ethical laxity is one that all of the above offenders share: Being a man. A number of studies demonstrate that men have lower moral standards than women, at least in competitive contexts
- Failure in these historically male-dominated situations is associated with diminished financial status, threat to professional rank, and - at least to some - weakness. It is possible that women may demonstrate similar vulnerabilities to their moral standards when faced with dilemmas that challenge their feminine competency or identity, or in arenas were women are (stereotypically) expected to be successful
Thursday, June 28, 2012
When Men Are Less Moral Than Women: Scientific American
When Men Are Less Moral Than Women: Scientific American
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Swedish Society, together to be apart
Interesting documentary on the Swedish model, which shows how despite often being held up as the ultimate welfare state, and hence presumably left wing Swedish society is at root almost more individualistic than even some conservatives in other countries would like. The point seems to be that they are prepared to have (and pay for) a large and intrusive state, because it actually thereby enables individuals to operate more freely and competitively.
BBC - BBC Radio 4 Programmes - Analysis, Cameron's Swede Dreams
Related articles with some extracts:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18432841
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/13/world/europe/13iht-swedes.3512334.html
http://www.economist.com/blogs/bagehot/2011/01/britain_and_nordic_world_0
transcript of Analsysis program :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/programmes/analysis/transcripts/18_06_12..pdf
BBC - BBC Radio 4 Programmes - Analysis, Cameron's Swede Dreams
Related articles with some extracts:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18432841
- Sweden is number one in Europe for competitiveness. Its economy last year grew six times faster than the UK's - and the deficit is at zero.
- Yet in the 1990s, Sweden was even worse off than we are now. The economy came crashing down when a housing bubble burst. Interest rates hit 500%; debt and unemployment reached crisis levels.
- "Oddly, Sweden - which is regarded by many as the most socialistic country in Europe - has managed to do things that right-wingers in Britain think would be impossible in their own country: too pro-market, too right-wing for even British consumption," he says.
- The fact is there is mutual trust between Swedish unions and employers and Scandinavian countries rank highest in the world when it comes to social trust - 70% of Swedes say they trust one another; just 35% of Brits feel the same way.
- The welfare state was designed to do away with dependency of all kinds: whether on charity - or even on family members. Professor Tragardh calls it a "Swedish theory of love". It says that love can exist only when neither party is dependent on the other. The state is seen as the vehicle for achieving this autonomy, hence the Swedish model aims to get women into the workforce, provide a good education to equip children to fend for themselves, and take on the burden of caring for elderly people. In other words, according to Lars Tragardh, "the state is there to provide fundamental resources that allow individuals to operate freely and competitively in the free society, including the market society." Not so much the land of free love, as of the free market.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/13/world/europe/13iht-swedes.3512334.html
- A recently published and widely discussed book, provocatively titled "Is the Swede a Human Being?" ("Ar svensken manniska?"), contends that Swedes are the opposite of collectivists: they are deeply individualistic.
- "The main purpose of the Swedish system has been to maximize the individual's independence," Tragardh, who has spent most of his life in the United States, said in an interview. "The picture of a collectivist animal is completely wrong; the modern Swede is a hyperindividualist."
- [The shyness of Swedes] is at heart the expression of a fundamental longing for individual autonomy and a desire not to depend on or be indebted to anyone, particularly not in intimate relationships - what the authors call "the Swedish theory of love."
http://www.economist.com/blogs/bagehot/2011/01/britain_and_nordic_world_0
- At the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, the five Nordic governments are to present a really interesting paper on "The Nordic Way", which sets out to challenge what it calls the "half-truth" that Nordic voters are simply rather left-wing and wedded to a big, intrusive and conformist state. Nordic voters like the state but are also exceptionally individualistic, the paper asserts. The circle is squared because Nordic voters believe that the state (which usually works pretty well in countries like Sweden) is the best referee and guarantor of their individual freedoms.
- "The Nordic Way" cites a paper that compares Sweden to Germany and the United States, when considering the triangle formed by reverence for the Family, the State and the Individual. Americans favour a Family-Individual axis, this suggests, suspecting the state as a threat to liberty. Germans revere an axis connecting the family and the state, with a smaller role for individual autonomy. In the Nordic countries, they argue, the state and the individual form the dominant alliance. The paper cited, by the way, is entitled: "Pippi Longstocking: The Autonomous Child and the Moral Logic of the Swedish Welfare State". It hails Pippi (the strongest girl in the world and an anarchic individualist who lives without parents in her own house, with only a monkey, horse, a bag of gold and a strong moral compass for company) as a Nordic archetype.
- You do not hear much about the Big Society in Sweden, it is true. But it is a mistake to see only the state. The phrase "statist-individualism" is an ugly one, but it seems a pretty apt description of these societies that Mr Cameron seems to admire sincerely. The British are too grumpy and too mistrustful of their state to buy into anything as intrusive. But is there still a link between the Big Society and the Nordic Big State? Maybe it is this: in the Nordics, the state is the final guarantor of equal access to good things for autonomous individuals. In the Big Society, perhaps the hope is for the state to act as a catalyst for access to good things. There is one final difference, of course; we have already seen that the Nordic model works.
transcript of Analsysis program :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/programmes/analysis/transcripts/18_06_12..pdf
- In a way it can be sad as well because if you get this feeling that you pay your tax, then you don?t have to be part of society in other ways, you know civil society will be much weaker, the family will be much weaker. I mean if you feel that you know I pay my tax, then I won?t give away money if you meet a beggar in the street because you feel like well I pay high taxes, this is you know not my problem; it?s the social welfare state who has to take care for this.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Eurostat EU consumer price comparison for 2011
Eurostat EU consumer price comparison for 2011
2-22062012-AP-EN.PDF (application/pdf Object)
Extracts for Austria, Ireland etc. :
Price level indices for consumer goods and services, 2011 (EU27=100)
Total Food Alc/Tob Clothing electronics Restaraunt/hotels
EU27 100 100 100 100 100 100
Germany 103 110 97 103 99 103
Ireland 117 118 163 92 93 126
France 111 108 109 104 101 104
Austria 107 116 92 103 107 106
UK 102 103 147 97 95 105
Switz. 162 156 124 138 111 157
Ireland more expensive than Ausria overall, for food, Alcohol, cars, restaraunts & hotels, whereas Austria more expensive than Ireland for clothing, electronics
2-22062012-AP-EN.PDF (application/pdf Object)
Extracts for Austria, Ireland etc. :
Price level indices for consumer goods and services, 2011 (EU27=100)
Total Food Alc/Tob Clothing electronics Restaraunt/hotels
EU27 100 100 100 100 100 100
Germany 103 110 97 103 99 103
Ireland 117 118 163 92 93 126
France 111 108 109 104 101 104
Austria 107 116 92 103 107 106
UK 102 103 147 97 95 105
Switz. 162 156 124 138 111 157
Ireland more expensive than Ausria overall, for food, Alcohol, cars, restaraunts & hotels, whereas Austria more expensive than Ireland for clothing, electronics
Monday, June 25, 2012
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Dawkins-Wilson row....levels of selection
Richard Dawkins in furious row with EO Wilson over theory of evolution | Science | The Observer
For lay spectators, the row is a symptom of the long and controversial evolution of the very idea of evolution. At root it is a dispute about whether natural selection, the theory of "the survival of the fittest" first put forward by Charles Darwin in 1859, occurs only to preserve the single gene. Wilson is an advocate of "multi-level selection theory", a development of the idea of "kin selection", which holds that other biological, social and even environmental priorities may be behind the process.
According to one expert in evolution and development, Professor Georgy Koentges of Warwick University, the central problem is the impossibility of defining "fitness", whether in organisms, organs, cells, genes or even gene regulatory DNA regions. As a result, he sees both Dawkins and Wilson as "straw men" in this debate.
"Dawkins has a lot of unnecessary rhetoric in his review," he said this weekend. "He is usually on the spot, but it has to be said that some of his arguments are based on older models of calculating fitness. The difficulty is in assigning what Darwin called 'fitness' to a particular genetic feature. They are trying to set basic fitness conditions which they believe work over very long periods of time.
"This is a fantasy. There is no such thing as a good or bad gene. It doesn't work that simply. Genes are used and re-used in different contexts, each of which might have a different overall fitness value for a given organism or a group."
In later life Darwin said he wished he had called his theory natural preservation, rather than selection, but even the preservation of certain genes down the ages is no proof that they are good.
Reality TV, keeping up with the cretins
Kim Kardashian: how did she become such a threat to western civilisation? | Life and style | The Observer
Extracts:
But others point beyond the "media" to the consumers of celebrity culture. "Kim Kardashian is not famous for being famous," said Robert Thompson, a professor of television and popular culture at New York state's Syracuse University, who pointed out that "most celebrities get rich because we line their pockets."Now it may be that her skill is one that's harder to identify than a prize-winning scientist, but she's good at what she does: getting people to pay attention to her. People have been complaining about it as long as it's existed – it's an abstraction. I don't think we really want it to go away." Thompson believes if all celebrities disappeared tomorrow, we would clamour for them to be back.
The desire for attention is, however, where the major danger of celebrity culture lies, according to Dr Angie Hobbs, a senior fellow in the public understanding of philosophy at the University of Warwick. She said the human desire for status had been documented as far back as Plato. "But when a society starts divorcing status from doing honourable things and awards it for materialistic things, that's when you are in trouble. You have to look very carefully at why people want to be famous, what they are lacking. And at why people who don't want to be famous themselves want to follow famous people, what they are lacking."
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Friday, June 22, 2012
Happiness doesn't increase with growing wealth of nations, finds study | Science | guardian.co.uk
Happiness doesn't increase with growing wealth of nations, finds study | Science | guardian.co.uk
"With incomes rising so rapidly in [certain] countries, it seems extraordinary that no surveys register the marked improvement in subjective wellbeing that mainstream economists and policy makers worldwide expect to find," he said.
In the paper, Easterlin cites surveys from Chile, China and South Korea. In these countries, per capita income has doubled in less than 20 years but overall happiness does not seem to have followed the same path. In China and Chile, there appeared to be small drops in life satisfaction, but the numbers were not statistically significant. For South Korea there was a modest, again not statistically significant, increase in life satisfaction in the early 1980s, but it declined slightly from 1990 to 2005.
The results, he said, were "strikingly consistent": over the long term, the sense of wellbeing in a country's citizens did not go up with income. His work is published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"With incomes rising so rapidly in [certain] countries, it seems extraordinary that no surveys register the marked improvement in subjective wellbeing that mainstream economists and policy makers worldwide expect to find," he said.
In the paper, Easterlin cites surveys from Chile, China and South Korea. In these countries, per capita income has doubled in less than 20 years but overall happiness does not seem to have followed the same path. In China and Chile, there appeared to be small drops in life satisfaction, but the numbers were not statistically significant. For South Korea there was a modest, again not statistically significant, increase in life satisfaction in the early 1980s, but it declined slightly from 1990 to 2005.
The results, he said, were "strikingly consistent": over the long term, the sense of wellbeing in a country's citizens did not go up with income. His work is published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Microsoft reveals Surface Windows 8 tablets | Technology | guardian.co.uk
I am very much of the opinion that tablets with good detachable keyboards will be an important sector (and am very happy with my ASUS transformer) -and interesting to see Microsoft thinks the same
Microsoft reveals Surface Windows 8 tablets | Technology | guardian.co.uk
While important to still catch the Ipad slick and easy tablet feel, with the devices becoming more and more powerful, and valid alternatives to laptops, then a keyboard becomes even more important. since what good is the power to run more programs etc. without the matching ease of controlling them? Of course for a lot of people browsing is all they need in a tablet...but there is more to variation than 16GB or 32GB ;-)
Microsoft reveals Surface Windows 8 tablets | Technology | guardian.co.uk
While important to still catch the Ipad slick and easy tablet feel, with the devices becoming more and more powerful, and valid alternatives to laptops, then a keyboard becomes even more important. since what good is the power to run more programs etc. without the matching ease of controlling them? Of course for a lot of people browsing is all they need in a tablet...but there is more to variation than 16GB or 32GB ;-)
Monday, June 18, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Everyday Stress Can Shut Down the Brain's Chief Command Center: Scientific American
Neural circuits responsible for conscious self-control are highly vulnerable to even mild stress. When they shut down, primal impulses go unchecked and mental paralysis sets in
Everyday Stress Can Shut Down the Brain's Chief Command Center: Scientific American
complete article : http://www.mc3cb.com/pdf_articles_interest_physiology/2012_4_10_Stress_Shut_%20Down_Brain.pdf
Everyday Stress Can Shut Down the Brain's Chief Command Center: Scientific American
complete article : http://www.mc3cb.com/pdf_articles_interest_physiology/2012_4_10_Stress_Shut_%20Down_Brain.pdf
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
The brain as peripheral
Neuroscience could mean soldiers controlling weapons with minds
Neuroscience breakthroughs could be harnessed by military and law enforcers, says Royal Society report
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/feb/07/neuroscience-soldiers-control-weapons-mind
Neuroscience breakthroughs could be harnessed by military and law enforcers, says Royal Society report
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/feb/07/neuroscience-soldiers-control-weapons-mind
- A growing body of research suggests that passing weak electrical signals through the skull, using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), can improve people's performance in some tasks.
- One of the report's most striking scenarios involves the use of devices called brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) to connect people's brains directly to military technology, including drones and other weapons systems.
- The US military research organisation, Darpa, has already used EEG to help spot targets in satellite images that were missed by the person screening them. The EEG traces revealed that the brain sometimes noticed targets but failed to make them conscious thoughts. Staff used the EEG traces to select a group of images for closer inspection and improved their target detection threefold, the report notes.
Apple likes Facebook on new iOS 6, but dumps Google from maps | Technology | guardian.co.uk
Apple likes Facebook on new iOS 6, but dumps Google from maps | Technology | guardian.co.uk
Interesting that Apple is making a bit of an alliance with Facebook...in clear opposition to Google. While it may be largely due to brainwashed brand loyalty, due to being hooked early, even though I worry about Google's vast data collection projects, emotionally I am more comfortable with them than with Apple, or especially Facebook. Ironically while my issue with Apple is it doesn't let me do enough, with Facebook it's a case of suspecting them of wanting to do too much with me, though ultimately both come across as restrictive, and for their own purposes, even if Apple's motives are more respectable (ensuring product consistency and quality) than Facebook's.
So it suits me, and entrenches my current feelings, to see Facebook and Apple join forces, since I then reject them both together. Not completely of course (I use Itunes and Facebook) but I wouldn't be as comfortable with having my facebook account integrated into my smartphone as much as my google account is (though Google is pushing my patience with G+ armtwisting).
Techwise my main interest currently is what happens in the TV market, and no news from Apple on that front. Though it does make sense that they would avoid the screen business, and go instead in the direction of set top box upgrades, since it matches their business model much better - expensive but open to regular upgrade with high added value. As long as not with added facebook as well :-)
Interesting that Apple is making a bit of an alliance with Facebook...in clear opposition to Google. While it may be largely due to brainwashed brand loyalty, due to being hooked early, even though I worry about Google's vast data collection projects, emotionally I am more comfortable with them than with Apple, or especially Facebook. Ironically while my issue with Apple is it doesn't let me do enough, with Facebook it's a case of suspecting them of wanting to do too much with me, though ultimately both come across as restrictive, and for their own purposes, even if Apple's motives are more respectable (ensuring product consistency and quality) than Facebook's.
So it suits me, and entrenches my current feelings, to see Facebook and Apple join forces, since I then reject them both together. Not completely of course (I use Itunes and Facebook) but I wouldn't be as comfortable with having my facebook account integrated into my smartphone as much as my google account is (though Google is pushing my patience with G+ armtwisting).
Techwise my main interest currently is what happens in the TV market, and no news from Apple on that front. Though it does make sense that they would avoid the screen business, and go instead in the direction of set top box upgrades, since it matches their business model much better - expensive but open to regular upgrade with high added value. As long as not with added facebook as well :-)
Monday, June 11, 2012
Is the future of drugs safe and non-addictive? | Science | The Guardian
Is the future of drugs safe and non-addictive? | Science | The Guardian
extract :
extract :
- could or should we vaccinate people to protect them from developing an addiction in the first place, just as we do today with vaccines for polio and whooping cough? Is it violating somebody's human rights to take away their choice to experience pleasure from a drug at some point in the future?
- We may be able to make better recreational drugs too. I have carried out research on replacing ethanol in "alcoholic" drinks with a safer alternative, such as a benzodiazepine; ideally these drinks would be impossible to get drunk on, producing a moderate buzz with no increase in effects at higher doses, and could be switched off at the end of the night with a "sober pill".
- We might be able to make alcohol safer by combining it with chemicals that stop it affecting certain receptors. Ideally, we would develop an alcohol that targets just Alpha-2 or 3, giving us the sensation of relaxation and enjoyment without the negative effects.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Stuxnet and Obama
Stuxnet: the worm that turned Obama into a hypocrite? | Technology | The Observer
"revelations raise some thorny issues, of which two immediately spring to mind. One: does Obama's duplicity – publicly espousing the internet as a space that is unpolluted by cyberwar and cyberespionage while covertly sponsoring a cyberweapon like Stuxnet – fatally undermine America's credibility as a defender of internet freedoms?
Or should it be seen as a defensible exercise in realpolitik – on the grounds that using software to sabotage Iran's nuclear ambitions would cause less collateral damage than an Israeli airstrike? And two: given that (a) software like Stuxnet could bring our entire industrial infrastructure to a halt, and (b) the likelihood that any piece of malware will escape into the wild, should we treat cyberweapons like biological weapons and ban their use entirely?"
"revelations raise some thorny issues, of which two immediately spring to mind. One: does Obama's duplicity – publicly espousing the internet as a space that is unpolluted by cyberwar and cyberespionage while covertly sponsoring a cyberweapon like Stuxnet – fatally undermine America's credibility as a defender of internet freedoms?
Or should it be seen as a defensible exercise in realpolitik – on the grounds that using software to sabotage Iran's nuclear ambitions would cause less collateral damage than an Israeli airstrike? And two: given that (a) software like Stuxnet could bring our entire industrial infrastructure to a halt, and (b) the likelihood that any piece of malware will escape into the wild, should we treat cyberweapons like biological weapons and ban their use entirely?"
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Monday, June 4, 2012
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Drone wars and state secrecy – how Barack Obama became a hardliner
Drone wars and state secrecy – how Barack Obama became a hardliner | World news | The Observer
" He was once a liberal law professor who campaigned against the Iraq war. Now, according to revelations last week, the US president personally oversees a 'kill list' for drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan. Then there's the CIA renditions, increased surveillance and a crackdown on whistleblowers. No wonder Washington insiders are likening him to 'George W Bush on steroids'"
The dark side of Poland and Ukraine
Euro 2012: antisemitic echoes that threaten celebration of football | World news | The Observer
What is most bizarre is the antisemitism in Poland, despite there being virtually no Jews (for the obvious reason), but still horrific.
" Perhaps that's to be expected given the catastrophic destruction visited on the two countries, but it has led many to a world-view that is a perversion of the golden rule: do unto others as others have done unto you.
It is most visible in the culture surrounding football. Racism, xenophobia, Jew hatred, all manifest themselves at the footie. Why this hatred should be so strong has social historians grasping for answers.
Jan Olaszek, of Poland's Institute of National Remembrance, says: "People don't know history. They know stereotypes." This is what lies behind one of the strangest phenomena of contemporary Polish life, what Olaszek calls "antisemitism without Jews".
Poland was the centre of the Holocaust. There are virtually no Jews left in the country, yet antisemitism persists. This is what Olaszek means by stereotypes. "Some Poles think all Jews were communists."
What is most bizarre is the antisemitism in Poland, despite there being virtually no Jews (for the obvious reason), but still horrific.
" Perhaps that's to be expected given the catastrophic destruction visited on the two countries, but it has led many to a world-view that is a perversion of the golden rule: do unto others as others have done unto you.
It is most visible in the culture surrounding football. Racism, xenophobia, Jew hatred, all manifest themselves at the footie. Why this hatred should be so strong has social historians grasping for answers.
Jan Olaszek, of Poland's Institute of National Remembrance, says: "People don't know history. They know stereotypes." This is what lies behind one of the strangest phenomena of contemporary Polish life, what Olaszek calls "antisemitism without Jews".
Poland was the centre of the Holocaust. There are virtually no Jews left in the country, yet antisemitism persists. This is what Olaszek means by stereotypes. "Some Poles think all Jews were communists."
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