Human Technology May Be a Good Bit Older Than We've Thought

From today's Globe and Mail:

Ancestors used stone tools millennia earlier than thought: fossil study

I'm not qualified to comment on the paleoanthropological controversy (though, to me, the objections raised by Toth do sound pretty worrisome).

Berkeley Backs Down on Gene Tests for Students

via Chris MacDonald's Biotech Ethics Blog.

I'm less convinced than MacDonald that harm is only relevant moral standard in a case like this. Though, on the other hand, I'm more impressed than MacDonald with the prospects for this sort of testing leading benefits, both scientific and, as the proponents of the Berkeley plan had hoped, educational.

But even more so I reckon there's at least a few lawyers in Berkeley's risk management office who are breathing a sigh of relief: The state, specifically the California Department of Public Health, has taken a potential hot potato out of their hands.

Radio Silence

I haven't posted anything to this blog in a quite a while. Obviously.

Expect the occasional posting from now until the beginning of term. Thereafter, though, I plan to move the Ethics and Technology blog to a WordPress platform hosted in my own web space.