‘Editor’s Choice’ Archives
Child Labor
Child Labor According to the INTERNATIONAL LABOR ORGANIZATION (ILO), some 250 million children between the ages of Bonded labor is otherwise known as debt bondage or peonage. It is outlawed by the 1956 UN Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of SLAVERY, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery. Bonded labor [...]
Computer Ethics
Computer Ethics The ethical use of computers and other types of electronic information technology (IT) devices is known as ‘‘computer ethics’’ or ‘‘cyber ethics.’’ These concepts informally emerged beginning in the 1950s with the invention of mainframe computers initially used by U.S. government agencies, followed by colleges [...]
American Body
American Body Is there an “American body”? Foreigners visiting the US often remark on the obesity of an affluent society where one-quarter of children and one-fifth of adults are overweight. Parents of teenagers worry about skinny female actors and models who may force daughters into eating disorders, or the dangers of steroids or violence [...]
DNA Testing
DNA Testing DNA testing has revolutionized the fields of law enforcement and criminal justice due to its ability to link a suspect’s DNA with DNA crime scene evidence by matching “genetic markers.” A genetic marker is a segment of DNA that can vary between people. The human DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) molecule is a person’s “genetic [...]
Advertising on the Internet
Advertising on the Internet Like broadcast or print, the Internet is an advertising medium. Companies and organizations working to promote their products and services must consider this medium as they would television, magazines, outdoor, and so on. Advertising on the Internet employs a variety of forms. Banners The most common form of [...]
E-Commerce
E-Commerce The Internet offers the opportunity to sell directly to customers in both the consumer market and the business-to-business market. This direct selling of goods and services has been labeled e-commerce. Many of the sites already mentioned in this chapter have a sales component— either as a primary or secondary goal. Many companies [...]
Consumer Safety
Consumer Safety Ralph Nader’s Unsafe at Any Speed (1965) warned Americans that many “things” could kill as surely as people. Freedom to consume entails risks which have become hotly debated in the litigious ambience of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century where not only faulty products—flammable children’s pajamas, unsafe [...]
Commencement
Commencement American graduations, from preschool through Ivy League doctorates, represent highly ceremonial public rites of passage. Typical features include academic robes (modeled on European ones), processions of faculty and students, music, prayers based in civic Christianity and speeches; graduations are also accompanied by rounds of [...]
Caffeine
Caffeine A chemical that has stimulant and diuretic effects found in many drinks and foods, notably coffee, tea, colas, and chocolate. Caffeine is also an ingredient of some medications. Caffeine exerts its primary action by blocking adenosine receptors. Adenosine is a byproduct of metabolism whose function is to slow the activity of neurons. [...]
Ginseng
Ginseng A family of herbs used for a variety of medicinal purposes. There are several varieties of ginseng. Panax ginseng, also called Korean red ginseng and Asian ginseng, generally is considered the most potent. Siberian ginseng, sometimes known by its Latin name Eleutherococcus senticosus, is milder than P. ginseng, and American ginseng is [...]
