Commentary
The YouTube IllusionAt a conference here in Silicon Valley last weekend, I heard two predictions that fell together for me like tumblers in a lock. The first came from Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd, who pointed out that “only about 2 percent of the world’s data is digitized.” In other words, only a tiny fraction of our knowledge is currently available for use on computers, DVDs, or iPods. He expects that number to double in the next four years — a period during which, he says, there will be “more data created than in the history of the planet.”
...[read more]Statline
Free Time More Valuable Than Money: Poll
For more information, see this week’s Research Report.
What They're Saying
Intentional“FDA’s working hypothesis is that this was intentional contamination, but this is not yet proven.”
Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the drug center at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in written testimony provided last week to the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. The House committee is investigating allegations that a Chinese company deliberately adulterated […]
News
House Passes Bill Outlawing Genetic DiscriminationThe U.S. House of Representatives last week passed a bill that would bar companies from firing, refusing to hire, or otherwise discriminating against workers based on their genetic profiles.
...[read more]Quote from the Ethics File
Genius“Genius is childhood recalled at will.”
– Charles Baudelaire (French poet, critic, and translator, 1821-1867)
Letters From Readers
Disclosure or Silence?Last week’s commentary by Rushworth Kidder, which examined a parent’s decision not to tell her son’s teachers that the boy had been treated for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), drew an unusually high number of responses.
The moral question at stake involved a parent’s belief that her son, now no longer taking the drug Ritalin, would be […]
