Charity: Why It’s the Thought That Counts
Do we treat giving presents and giving to charity too differently?Read More »Charity: Why It’s the Thought That Counts
Charity: Why It’s the Thought That Counts
From Ivory Coast to Ivory Tower
The former president of Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbabgo, did little to enhance his democratic credentials by refusing to step down from power after defeat at the polls. President Barack Obama, it has recently transpired, tried to encourage him to depart by offering him an ivory tower carrot – an academic post at a prestigious East… Read More »From Ivory Coast to Ivory Tower
Belgium: where rapists and muffin thieves are treated alike
Some recent prison sentences in Belgium, as reported in several articles in De Standaard, one of the major Flemish newspapers:
Repeated rape of 13-year old stepdaughter: 2,5 years
Repeated rape of 15-year old girl:2 years
Rape of 2 mentally disabled girls: 2,5 years
Repeated rape of 2 girls younger than 15, making one pregnant: 2 years
Violent rape of a student: 3 years
Rape of 3 boys by a bishop: o years (but he lost his job)
Stealing 2 bags of muffins from a supermarket’s rubbish container: 6 months
(Prisoners are often released after doing half of their sentence)
Is it just me, or is something not right here?
Should Journalism be Amoral?
George Orwell was not a peace journalist; he was a proper journalist!
Jean Seaton, professor of media history at the university of Westminster and official historian for the BBC, hurled the comment from her seat in the audience onto the stage, interrupting the current speaker, Richard Keeble, professor at the University of Lincoln’s school of journalism. Keeble’s passing claim on George Orwell in last Saturday’s OxPeace conference on “Media in Conflict and Peace building” (recordings of the talks will shortly be available on OUCS iTunes) visibly (and audibly) upset Seaton, who was present also as a speaker.
Why did Seaton treat the title of “peace journalist” as an insult?
‘No smoking’ signs trigger urge to light up: Communism, Marriage, Evidence-Based Medicine and the Fate of the World
Before you read the blog, please take:
General Knowledge Ethics Quiz
- What is the main cause of climate change?
- What is main cause of global poverty?
- Why does terrorism exist?
- What caused the Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster?
Write your answers on a piece of paper for reference. I will provide my answers presently and we can compare.
THE BLOG
Brian Earp, a master’s student at Oxford University’s Department of Experimental Psychology, has found that ‘no-smoking and anti junk food adverts can be counter-productive by encouraging the behaviour they warn against’. Mr Earp asked 29 smokers to look at 25 images, some of which included ‘no smoking signs’. He found that when they viewed images of the signs they were more motivated to smoke than when they did not see the images.
Should the US have Killed Osama Bin Laden?
I heard the news that Osama Bin Laden (OBL) had been killed by US forces on the BBC World Service this morning. In the hour or so before I left for a conference I was struck by the absence of discussion of whether this was morally justified.
Why Wills and Kate must breed
By Charles Foster
As some may have noticed, today there is a wedding. It has been immensely costly, and while I do not for a moment resent that expenditure, the cost has an important ethical corollary.
The money has been spent primarily to ensure dynastic continuity. By accepting our money for their Bollinger and bobbies, William and Kate are impliedly accepting our commission to use their best endeavours to breed. They have taken the People’s Shilling, and have become, first and foremost, breeding animals. Their gametes are held in trust for the nation, and they should guard them. Kate must marinate her eggs in the finest organic nutrients that Fortnums has to offer: William must never wear tight underpants, and always wear a box when he plays cricket.Read More »Why Wills and Kate must breed
Would the End of the World really be so Bad?
As always, we sentient beings on earth are at risk of being wiped out by some global catastrophe. Some of the risks – diseases or meteorites – are old; others – nuclear weapons or global warming – are more recent. They are discussed very well in Nick Bostrom and Milan Cirkovic’s edited collection Global Catastrophic… Read More »Would the End of the World really be so Bad?
Could Groupons Save the World?
Two-and-a-half year old web start-up Groupon is a stunningly successful company. It reportedly turned down a six billion US dollar buyout offer from Google in December, and Reuters reports that is now planning an initial public offering that may value the company at between $15-20 billion. It has achieved this staggering valuation with a simple business model: every day in each of a number of cities (now hundreds worldwide) it offers on its web site a deal from a merchant wanting to access Groupon’s email subscribers in the local market. The daily deal might offer such luxuries as a massage, a day of paintball, a restaurant meal or hotel stay for two, or tooth whitening treatment, at a discount of about 50-70% off the regular price. The concept is that a minimum number of people have to sign up to the deal for it to be valid, so Groupon provides a bundle of willing buyers to the merchant. In return, the merchant provides what amounts to a bulk discount. The Groupon company makes money by operating as a middleman for payments: it sells buyers a voucher for the product, and Groupon passes on some of the money it received for the voucher to the merchant, keeping a chunk of it for itself.
For sale: one womb
In a world where you shouldn’t have to wait for anything, why wait nine months for your child to be born?
This is the marketing pitch of Silver Sling, a Manhattan-based surrogacy clinic. Silver Sling offers ‘chemically accelerated births’ that can shorten the duration of surrogate births to three months. Wealthy clients who wish to have a child but do not wish to undergo pregnancy themselves – much less have to wait nine months to have a child – may pay for these accelerated pregnancies as a means of convenience and time efficiency. Silver Sling enables them to have a child in three months by transferring the couple’s embryo to the uterus of another woman who agrees to act as a surrogate for a fee. These surrogates are, for the most part, women from the lower end of the economic spectrum.
Lydia is one of these women. She is a Russian immigrant in her late 20s and is considering becoming a surrogate for the third time. In doing so, she will make enough money to bring her brother to the USA from Russia, something she promised her dying mother she would do. This is despite the fact that undergoing a third accelerated pregnancy will make her sterile, ending her own dreams of having a child with her boyfriend, Stephan.Read More »For sale: one womb