Today researchers in Britain's close and active ally New Zealand have published a paper that claims cannabis use amongst adolescents can cause a permanent and irreversible decline in a persons IQ. This obviously promotes discussions about cannabis and neuro-biology. I'm actually quite interested in reading the paper though because IQ testing has long been acknowledged as a deeply flawed way of measuring intelligence. Therefore any discussion about IQ quickly leads into a discussion about cultural and observer bias within scientific research - things that will no doubt be hot issues throughout the para-Olympic games especially in the classification of athletes who suffer with things like cerebral palsy.
Also today the parents of Rachel Corrie - a US citizen who was killed while attempting to stop the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) illegally demolishing Palestinian homes - have lost the latest round of their legal battle to win a symbolic single dollar in compensation over the death. That an Israeli court has once again cleared Israel of any wrongdoing is hardly a surprise or even newsworthy. If anything the case only demonstrates the futility of trying to prove a regime's wrongdoing through the regimes own courts. The timing in the verdict has obviously been planned to provoke any form of criticism of from the US Presidential candidate in order to have that candidate labeled as 'anti-Semitic.' This is a big issue in US politics. In fact you could argue that Apple's recent victory over Samsung in a US court owed more to a US desire not to be labelled anti-Semitic over the questions raised that same day about New York Mayor Micheal Bloomberg rather then any facts of the case.
11:45 on 28/8/12.
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