For most of us, science arrives in our lives packaged neatly as fact. But how did it get that way? Science is an active process of observation and investigation.
Evidence: How Do We Know What We Know? [HTML version, Flash version also available] examines that process, revealing the ways in which ideas and information become knowledge and understanding. In this case study in human origins, the folks from the
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology explore how scientific evidence is being used to shape our current understanding of ourselves: What makes us human—and how did we get this way?
posted by netbros
on Mar 25, 2009 -
15 comments
Cofer Black, Director of the CIA Counterterrorism center until May 2002 said before the 9/11 commission: “All I want to say is that there was ‘before’ 9/11 and ‘after’ 9/11. After 9/11 the gloves come off… ‘No Limits’ aggressive, relentless, worldwide pursuit of any terrorist who threatens us is the only way to go…”
Since that time there have been allegations of
abduction and indefinite detention in secret
prisons abroad , abuse in prisons
within the U.S. and the
suppression of evidence of coercion overseas in confessions in U.S. courts. (
Ahmed Omar Abu Ali prev.
here). In addition to Amnesty Int’l, it’s getting the U.S. some
UN attention as well.
posted by Smedleyman
on Apr 7, 2006 -
30 comments
Discarding evidence because of a possible
Miranda violation. Sure, Miranda serves a (good) purpose but are the scales of justice tipped a little too much in favor of the accused when the entire chain of evidence can
be discarded because of a confession of a
possibly dubious nature?
posted by owillis
on Feb 16, 2002 -
16 comments
So you read the "Madman and the Professor" and thought it interesting.
Edward Ruloff is another murdering philologist with the extra cachet that his 1871 trial for killing a dry-goods clerk was one of the first to test the
admissability of photographs as evidence. The Supreme Court agreed with lower rulings that they could be allowed; Ruloff was
hanged. In 1845, he had been accused of murdering his wife and child and was imprisoned for ten years for the abduction of his wife, but without a
corpus delecti, he could not be convicted for the murder of his child.
This man is writing a biography of Ruloff; a publisher could do a lot worse.
posted by Mo Nickels
on Sep 26, 2001 -
3 comments
$145 million in a search for evidence of Big Bangs! So far the popular vote indicates most are in favor of the spending--whatever the cnn data is worth. Am I the only one who'd prefer it spent on my undergrad work, or even biosciences research?
posted by greyscale
on Jul 1, 2001 -
21 comments
