Nowhere celebrates its criminals like America. In books and on film, in fact and in fiction criminals sell.
The way people break the law has shaped American national identity just as clearly as any war according to research by University of Exeter historian, Dr Kristofer Allerfeldt. (more…)
Torture. The United Nations defines it as the “infliction of severe physical or mental pain or suffering.” But how severe is severe? That judgment determines whether or not the law classifies an interrogation practice as torture.
Now, a study published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, condemns this method of classification as essentially flawed. The reason: The people estimating the severity of pain aren’t experiencing that pain—so they underestimate it.
As a result, many acts of torture are not classified—or prohibited—as torture, say authors, Loran F. Nordgren of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, Mary-Hunter Morris of Harvard Law School, and George Loewenstein of Carnegie Mellon University. (more…)
Collaboration reveals results from 100-day experiment
Today, scientists from the XENON collaboration announced the result from their search for the elusive component of our universe known as dark matter. After analyzing one hundred days of data taken with the XENON100 experiment, they see no evidence for the existence of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), the leading candidates for the mysterious dark matter. The XENON100 experiment is operated deep underground at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory of the Italian National Institute for Physics (INFN). (more…)
Peter Molyneux, creator of the popular “Fable” games series and head of Microsoft Game Studios in Europe, recalls the highs and lows of a 22-year career in video games – a career that was just honored by two lifetime achievement awards.
GUILDFORD, U.K. — April 15, 2011 – Peter Molyneux, one of the video game industry’s most celebrated designers and the creative force behind hits such as “Fable,” “Populous” and “Dungeon Keeper,” credits much of his 22-year career to a happy accident involving baked beans. (more…)
Declining Majority Supports U.S. Airstrikes
COLLEGE PARK, Md. – A new University of Maryland in-depth survey of American public opinion gives a detailed picture of how the country is reacting to the major, unfolding drama in the Middle East. (more…)
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Stock analysts’ earnings forecasts for companies with hard-to-read annual financial reports are more informative, but less accurate, say University of Michigan researchers.
A new journal article in the May issue of Accounting Review shows that sell-side financial analysts expend greater effort to generate earnings forecasts of publicly traded firms with less readable 10-K filings. This increased effort by analysts results in earnings reports to investors that contain more information—but less accuracy and greater uncertainty. (more…)
*Online Behaviour of Clickers Does Not Reflect Desired Audience for Most Advertisers*
Moscow, Russia, April 14, 2011 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the release of a 
report entitled “ Natural Born Clickers in Russia – Understanding How Display Advertising Works,” which indicates that a very small group of Internet users who are not representative of the total Russian online population is accountable for the vast majority of display ad click-through behaviour. The report includes findings from several studies of the view-through effectiveness of online display advertising and highlights key implications for stakeholders in the Russian digital media ecosystem. (more…)
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Researchers from the University of Florida and six other institutions have unlocked some of the key foundations for the evolution of seed and flowering plants. (more…)
