Ethos, The Weblog
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Two Excellent Educational Programs
If you have never yet caught one of these programs on TV (on your local educational programming channel as a part of the Annenberg/CPB broadcast), I highly recommend you take some time to watch an episopde. The links below forward you to the site which provides each episode through online video on demand, free of charge with registration.
Each program explores controversial issues though Socratic debate, many hosted by notable Harvard Law professor Arthur Miller.
The Constitution: That Delicate Balance
Constitutional issues come to life in this Emmy Award-winning series. Key political, legal, and media professionals engage in spontaneous and heated debates on controversial issues such as campaign spending, the right to die, school prayer, and immigration reform. This series will deepen understanding of the life and power of this enduring document and its impact on history and current affairs, while bringing biases and misconceptions to light.
Ethics in America
This series uses the Socratic method to build analytical skills and examine ethical questions. The programs aim to sharpen moral reasoning without favoring a particular position by exploring ethical dilemmas in legal, political, medical, corporate, and military arenas. Panelists include Antonin Scalia, Faye Wattleton, and Peter Jennings.
Monday, February 14, 2005
In Honor of Valentine's Day
Two articles from the NYTimes, and one website I am identifying with...single as usual ;-)
In City of Excess, No Theatrics Are Too Grand for 'Marry Me'
Cook and Tell Confessions of a Kitchen Romeo
Be My Anti-Valentine
Monday, February 07, 2005
Testerone and Leadership
I have included a link to the recent press release and the working draft of a study done by several psychology professors at UT researching testosterone and leadership status. They begin with earlier research which has mainly focused on other animals, such as the Rohwer study of situations when a domainant sparrow has its feathers bleached and the submissive sparrowd had their feathers colored to represent a new dominant position. Even this alone was fascinating, seeing that the once-dominant sparrows engaged in aggressive bullying to regain their lost status while the once-submissive birds often left the flock to feed in solidude.
In short, the researchers found that when people were mismatched (i.e. high testosterone level in a low status and low testosterone in high status), they focused more on their status position and showed worse cognitive functioning. These findings seem to build upon previous findings that "naturally occurring levels of testosterone are correlated with position in the hierarchy, as well as with dominant behavior."
News Release 2/2005: Leadership status affects cognitive performance of people with higher testosterone levels
The study: http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/HomePage/Faculty/Josephs/pdf_documents/2004-0054-R-RJosephs.pdf
