Gallup finds shifting views on morality
A recent Gallup poll shows new highs in acceptance of various morality issues.
The American public has become more tolerant on a number of moral issues, including premarital sex, embryonic stem cell research, and euthanasia. On a list of 19 major moral issues of the day, Americans express levels of moral acceptance that are as high or higher than in the past on 12 of them, a group that also encompasses social mores such as polygamy, having a child out of wedlock, and divorce.
What Gallup didn’t provide in this post—and what would be informative to see—is a trend line on how views on these issues have changed over time. The title of the post says they are record highs, but there’s not much details about how much higher the percentages of moral acceptability the respondents reported. Overall, I’d expect to see views on most of these issues becoming increasingly morally acceptable. But I wonder if any of these issues have become more taboo over time?
Women Listening To Men In Art History
This is a picture of my dad (on the right) receiving the UW Parkside Alumni Scholarship. My mom say he looks a bit like Clark Kent. I can see the resemblance.
Technohyperbole
The Economist examines Gartners techno-hype chart.
The annual “hype cycle” chart from Gartner, a market research firm, tries to depict the degree to which certain technologies are exaggerated. Smart robots? Don’t hold your breath. Big data? Not yet. In the firm’s view, innovation advances in stages: from exuberance to pessimism to adoption. Not every technology progresses at the same speed, so Gartner assigns each an estimated time until the end of its ride.
Most of the Technologies listed in Gartner’s chart seem well placed. However, Cloud Computing seems off, especially since much of the ‘computing’ most consumers and even business users do is over the Internet and in the cloud in one sense or another. For example, even a Google search is a cloud computing task. You ask a question and Google’s vast technical infrastructure computes and delivers an answer.
Unless you are actively working to develop the technologies in the “Innovation Trigger” section of the chart, it is probably safe to ignore most news articles about how ‘X’ technology is going to change the world. However, the toys that emerge from the technologies in this section are fun to play with. Technological innovations have to prove themselves by passing through the “Trough of disillusionment” to prove that they are actually useful.
The next disruptive technology: wearable coffee.
The next disruptive technology: wearable coffee.
Relaxing in the afternoon
Besides capturing them while they are sleeping, the only way to get the boys to stay still long enough for an in-focus closeup photograph is to have one of their favorite movies on for them to watch.
This photograph is by my very talented friend, Viktorija Girton, who visited us earlier in the year.
45 years ago, men walked on the moon
Astronaut Neil Armstrong, back in the lunar module, after his historic moonwalk. (NASA)
What an incredible accomplishment. Someone should go back to the Moon today and take a selfie. via.
Of course it’s a trick question
via SMBC