Psychology (playlist)

Legal Studies (playlist)

The Mystery of Original Sin

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egend has it that G. K. Chesterton, asked by a newspaper reporter what was wrong with the world, skipped over all the expected answers. He said nothing about corrupt politicians or ancient rivalries between warring nations, or the greed of the rich and the covetousness of the poor. He left aside street crime and unjust laws and inadequate education. Environmental degradation and population growth overwhelming the earth's carrying capacity were not on his radar. Neither were the structural evils that burgeoned as wickedness became engrained in society and its institutions in ever more complex ways.

What's wrong with the world? As the story goes, Chesterton responded with just two words: "I am."

His answer is unlikely to be popular with a generation schooled to cultivate self-esteem, to pursue its passions and chase self-fulfillment first and foremost. After all, we say, there are reasons for our failures and foibles. It's not our fault that we didn't win the genetic lottery, or that our parents fell short in their parenting, or that our third-grade teacher made us so ashamed of our arithmetic errors that we gave up pursuing a career in science. Besides, we weren't any worse than our friends, and going along with the gang made life a lot more comfortable. We have lots of excuses for why things go wrong, and—as with any lie worth its salt—most of them contain some truth.

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Supreme Court considers validity of cancer gene patents

As I've said numerous times, including in yesterday's roundup, it is Supreme Court season both in Washington, DC and on LexBlog Network as our members have been on a tear when it comes to providing detailed analysis of major decisions. It's impossible for me to accurately describe, so do go visit LXBN's Supreme Court section for the full view. In the meantime, here's two of the most interesting cases covered—ones we've been tracking all the way up through the circuit courts—and another trending topic on our network.

• There's no way around it, Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics is absolutely a landmark case—one that could have a very huge bearing on scientific and healthcare research in our country. At dispute in the case is whether or not companies can patent human genes, and specifically in this case, genes that cause cancer. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case on Monday, and as she's done with this case at every level, Antoinette Konski provides excellent analysis on the Personalized Medicine Bulletin.

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Self-Sabotage When You Can't Sleep

It's 3 a.m. and I'm awake. Ordinarily I'd be asleep but right now I'm awake and I don't like it. Strangely this happens at least once every couple of weeks for me. I just wake up early. No real rhyme or reason, it just happens.

At one time in my life, this used to bug me. I would look at the clock and think, "oh no, I must get back to sleep or I'll be so tired in the morning." And then I'd spend the next hour or two willing myself to go back to sleep: tossing and turning, demanding that I slip back into unconsciousness; huffing and puffing that I wasn't sleeping. I'd even check the clock every 10 minutes to see if I'd slept.

But the reality was, and still is, the more that I demand something of myself, the less likely I am to achieve that goal — and that really is the principle of living an unhappy life.

Sure I want to go back to sleep. I would even really, really, really, prefer to be sleeping right now, but I'm not. So, instead of lying there, beating myself up for waking when I "absolutely shouldn't have," I get up. I grab a drink, get something to eat and power up my laptop.

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Five Ways To Turn Fear Into Fuel

Uncertainty. It's a terrifying word.

Living with it, dangling over your head like the sword of Damocles, day in day out, is enough to send anyone spiraling into a state of anxiety, fear and paralysis.

Like it or not, though, uncertainty is the new normal. We live in a time where the world is in a state of constant, long-term flux. And, that's not all. If you want to spend your time on the planet not just getting-by, but consistently creating art, experiences, businesses and lives that truly matter, you'll need to proactively seek out, invite and even deliberately amplify uncertainty. Because the other side of uncertainty is opportunity.

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Changing Your Brain By Changing Your Mind

When it comes to managing stress, the Eastern traditions may be especially effective. The Western health model is based on diagnosing the underlying cause of a problem and then finding an active medical or behavioral intervention to remove it. People with chronic illness are often urged to "stay strong," or to have "a fighting spirit." Eastern medicine has a more holistic view of disease as indicating a lack of balance or an energy blockage. The solution is to bring the body and mind back into balance using gentle, noninvasive techniques such as herbs, manipulative techniques, movement, or meditation.

How the Brain Processes Emotion

Our lower brain centers, such as the amygdala or hypothalamus, were made to detect and respond to threats, such as a tiger about to eat us. They generate an immediate "fight ot flight" response to increase the odds of survival, but they can become hypersensitive, interfering with our ability to experience the present moment in an open and relaxed way. Daily meditation practice can help to correct this imbalance and allow us to retrain our minds so we are less likely to overreact with intense anger or fear to psychological threats, such as rejection. Being less chronically stressed can also help our immune systems function more efficiently to fight off disease.

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Collective Consciousness

Introduction

Have you ever experienced a time when the collective enthusiasm of a large event seemed to rise to such a peak that you could almost feel a crackle in the air? Or felt a haunting sense in the air while visiting a place that caused sadness or suffering for thousands of people? 

Provocative evidence suggests that there are significant departures from chance expectation in the outputs of random number generators (electronic devices that produce truly random bits, or sequences of zeros and ones) during times of collective upheaval, global crises and major celebrations.

This year, the Institute of Noetic Sciences, along with several collaborators, conducted an exploratory experiment at Black Rock City, the temporary city created each year in the Nevada desert for the festival known as Burning Man. Burning Man is a week-long event that attracts upwards of 50,000 people. It is unique in its concentrated intensity, isolation, and collective intention, culminating with the burning of a large man-shaped effigy at the center of Black Rock City on Saturday night. See this article in the Atlantic magazine to get a feeling for the event, or these pictures in Rolling Stone magazine.

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CYBERCRIME AND CYBERCRIMINALS

​Cybercrime has many definitions (Wall 2001), and in recent years it has become synonymous with computer crime.  Technically, the definition of computer crime is any illegal act which involves knowledge of how to use a computer to offend.  Most definitions of cybercrime, by contrast, point to some "special knowledge" of cyberspace or "expert" use of a computer to offend.  Regardless of how special or expert some offenders are, it is customary today to just lump them all together as cybercriminals for ease of discussion.  Most observers agree it is the wave of the future, and it's here to stay.  With over one trillion dollars moved electronically every week, the Internet is where the money is.  The rates of cybercrime are skyrocketing.  The annual "take" by theft-oriented cybercriminals is estimated as high as $100 billion, and 97% of offenses go undetected (Bennett & Hess 2001).  Then, there are those who just abuse the Internet and computer systems -- hackers or hooligans, whatever you want to call them -- but cybercriminals nonetheless.  Their shenanigans cost an additional $104,000 per incident in damage, labor, and lost productivity (Brown et al. 2001).  In addition, there's corporate espionage (pdf), which some experts say is the real problem, with annual losses of proprietary information in the $40-60 million range.  Toss in organized crime, terrorism, piracy, fraud, embezzlement, extortion, predation, harassment, and a variety of other ways to offend or harm with computers, and it's anybody's guess what the real cost is.

Criminological theory is admittedly weak in this area.  There are things that are criminally wrong, deliberately wrong, accidentally wrong, wrong for all the right reasons, wrong for all the wrong reasons, and just plain annoying.  Legal systems everywhere are busy studying ways of passing new laws dealing with Internet misbehavior, so the arena has become a sort of "test-bed" or "mini-society" where all sorts of moral deconstruction and decoding goes on.  This ethereal realm we call CYBERSPACE is intriguing but full of potential dangers.  Barney (2000), for one, hopes that it will eventually be used to perfect democracy.  Others see it as offering little more than an underground economy and tempting addictions.  It is both a blessing and curse. Nobody has any good idea about how to regulate or police it.

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Why Are Mathew and Luke Genealogies Different?

At face value it may seem strange that Matthew and Luke record different genealogies of Jesus. Many, including Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion, and Islamic apologist Shabbir Ally (Further Reading 4), have alluded to this comparison when accusing the Bible of contradiction.


However, these genealogies can be better understood with some general background information:

Biblical Genealogies

Biblical genealogies have different properties from the family trees that we are familiar with today.

Firstly, Biblical genealogies use the terms 'son' and 'father' loosely. They can mean either direct descendant or distant descendant. For example, we read in Luke 3:8 and John 8:39 that a group of religious teachers said to Jesus, 'Abraham is our father', which is absurd in the modern sense, since Abraham lived thousands of years before. Similarly, Jesus is described throughout the New Testament as 'the son of David' (Matthew 1:1), who lived hundreds of years before Jesus was born.

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Jared Loughner Incompetent to Stand Trial

Jared Loughner is incompetent and will not stand trial for now, a federal judge ruled at Wednesday's mental incapacity proceeding. Loughner was arrested in the fatal Tucson shootings that wounded congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and killed six people.

Loughner had to be removed from the mental incapacity proceeding after an outburst. A reporter said he heard Loughner lower his head and say, "Thank you for the freak show. She died in front of me," reports CNN.

After his removal from the courtroom, Loughner watched the rest of the proceeding on a TV screen in a nearby room.Loughner had spent the last five weeks undergoing a mental health evaluation. Prosecutors had ordered the mental health evaluation after they saw YouTube videos of Loughner wearing a hood, garbage bags and burning an American flag, reports The Houston Chronicle.

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Mom Streamed Sex Abuse of Daughter Over Webcam

Many of us feel that the worst crime a person can commit is sexual abuse of a child.

But even that can be made much worse.

In a shocking story out of Mars Hill, Maine, a woman was sentenced to 20 years in prison for making--and sharing--pornographic videos of herself performing sex acts on her two year old daughter.

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A brand marriage made in heaven? Reputational risks in corporate partnerships

In this digital age of social media and 24/7 rolling news, the need for a company to manage and maintain a positive image has never been more important. Today's increasingly competitive commercial landscape can make correctly managing a reputation vital to commercial success. However, getting it right can be a tough challenge. Managing the reputation of a brand is difficult enough, but what happens when a company decides to associate their brand with another? 


Companies of all kinds invest large sums of money in brand associations, sponsorship deals, entertainment partnerships and community-based partnerships. Yet how often do companies consider the potential for brand bed-fellows to inflict damage on their own enterprises? Any sponsorship deal obliges a company to relinquish a degree of control over its reputation. Sponsorship in itself is a risk – any relationship can break down – so a deal must be a calculated risk. 


Warren Buffett famously said that a reputation takes years to build but can be ruined in five minutes. In 2011 five seconds might well be more accurate. Risks take many guises. Examining how an organisation deals with its corporate relationships could be a preventative exercise that helps maximise the many benefits to both parties, and also saves time and – potentially – a great deal of money.


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What if Facebook Removes My Business' Page?

So you've got a Facebook page for your business. You have some likes, some friends. What happens if another business comes along and demands Facebook take down your business page?

One recourse may be to sue Facebook. Just ask a New York spa named Complexions.

A California spa also named Complexions discovered the New York spa's page; and sent a "take down notice" to Facebook.

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Clarence Thomas Too Biased to hear Obamacare?

When Ginny Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, stepped onto the political stage during the Obamacare debate, it was previously unheard of to see the spouse of a court member make a political statement. Ginny Thomas' ties to anti-health care reform groups, including her own Tea Party-aligned Liberty Central, may now be causing her husband some problems.

Seventy-four House Democrats have called for Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself should the health care reform law make its way into the Supreme Court, reportsThe Huffington Post. In a letter, they assert that Ginny Thomas' ties to, and financial gain from, anti-Obamacare groups raises questions of her husband's ability to rule impartially.

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Is Calif. Ban on Violent Video Games Legal?

Are violent video games analogous to literature, which is not restricted by age, or is that a silly comparison? The U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to hear a case regardingCalifornia's state ban on the sale of violent video games to minors.

Those in favor of the ban say it is important and necessary to protect the children. (You always hear a lot about "the children" around election time.) Publishers and filmmakers say the kids are going to be just fine, but restricting video games is wrong and could have a chilling effect. California officials and their defenders say the ban is important to protect children. Publishers and filmmakers argue that if the Supreme Court sides with California, the action could chill creativity in other media.

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Welfare, Well-Being, and Happiness

Normative legal theory is concerned with the ends and justifications for the law as a whole and for particular legal rules.  Previous entries in the legal have examined exemplars of the three great traditions in normative theory--consequentialist, deontological, and aretaic (or virtue-centered) perspectives.  There are important differences between these three families of theories at a very general and abstract level: for example, deontologists emphasize rights and wrongs while consequentialists emphasize the goodness or badness of states of affairs.  And there are differences between particular theories within the broad families: within consequentialism, for example, welfarists emphasize preference satisfaction, whereas hedonistic utiliarians emphasize pleasure and pain...

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Prosecutor Accused of 'Sexting' Abuse Victim

According to MSNBC, Kratz sent over thirty sexually suggestive text messages to the 26 year-old abuse victim in a case he was assigned to prosecute. The three day sexting barrage was in an effort to start a relationship with a women who was fresh off a very, very bad relationship. Telling her several times she is "hot" or referring to her as a "tall, young, hot nymph," the 50 year-old Kratz originally denied that his texts were sexual in nature. The victim, Shannon Van Groll, felt otherwise. Van Groll reported the sexting to the police, but was worried that Kratz would drop the case against her ex-boyfriend if she did not respond to his advances. MSNBC quotes spokesman Tony Gibart: "His actions were more than a lapse in judgment. They in fact do have far reaching implications for victim safety and public safety."

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Michael Douglas Cancer: Failure to Diagnose?

Recently, producer and actor Michael Douglas announced he has stage IV throat cancer and is currently undergoing radiation and chemotherapy. According to interviews,Douglas said he sought treatment for a very sore throat earlier in the summer. He saw many doctors who could not find the cause of the problem until very recently.

According to the London Telegraph, it was not until a biopsy in early August that the cancer was revealed. A walnut-sized tumor was discovered at the base of Douglas's tongue. Reportedly, symptoms of a dry and sore throat, ear pain and vocal problems did not point the way to the true problem until months after Douglas first sought help.

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Restaurant Fined for Toad Licking Chef Video

Do you know what your employees are up to? If you don't chances are someone else will, and you might face legal trouble because of it. A restaurant owner in Iowa is being fined, thanks to the toad loving antics of his chef. The Scott County Health Department officials also very much appreciated the fact that the chef's actions violating the health code were captured on video, making their job that much easier.

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