It has long been the standard practice in medical testing: Give drug treatment to one group while another, the control group, goes without.
Now, New York City is applying the same methodology to assess one of its programs to prevent homelessness. Half of the test subjects — people who are behind on rent and in danger of being evicted — are being denied assistance from the program for two years, with researchers tracking them to see if they end up homeless.
But some public officials and legal aid groups have denounced the study as unethical and cruel, and have called on the city to stop the study and to grant help to all the test subjects who had been denied assistance.
“They should immediately stop this experiment,” said the Manhattan borough president, Scott M. Stringer. “The city shouldn’t be making guinea pigs out of its most vulnerable.”
Friday, December 10, 2010
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Desperate Housewives Quells Jihad
From Slate (12-08-10):
Desperate Housewives may seem the epitome of American decadence, but in Saudi Arabia, the show is turning youth away from jihad according to a secret May 2009 cable released by Wikileaks. The cable, titled "David Letterman: Agent of Influence," says the satellite broadcast of U.S. TV shows like Housewives and the Late Show With David Letterman has been more effective at quelling extremist zeal than the U.S.-funded TV news channel al-Hurra. The $500 million Al-Hurra, which features extended interviews with policians, can't compete with Eva Longoria and Jennifer Aniston, reported U.S. diplomats who met with Saudi media executives. The diplomats also said Saudi audiences were particularly attracted to certain themes like "heroic honesty in the face of corruption" as evinced by films such as the George Clooney vehicle Michael Clayton, reports the Guardian. "Saudis are now very interested in the outside world and everybody wants to study in the US if they can. They are fascinated by US culture in a way they never were before," the cable reads.
Desperate Housewives may seem the epitome of American decadence, but in Saudi Arabia, the show is turning youth away from jihad according to a secret May 2009 cable released by Wikileaks. The cable, titled "David Letterman: Agent of Influence," says the satellite broadcast of U.S. TV shows like Housewives and the Late Show With David Letterman has been more effective at quelling extremist zeal than the U.S.-funded TV news channel al-Hurra. The $500 million Al-Hurra, which features extended interviews with policians, can't compete with Eva Longoria and Jennifer Aniston, reported U.S. diplomats who met with Saudi media executives. The diplomats also said Saudi audiences were particularly attracted to certain themes like "heroic honesty in the face of corruption" as evinced by films such as the George Clooney vehicle Michael Clayton, reports the Guardian. "Saudis are now very interested in the outside world and everybody wants to study in the US if they can. They are fascinated by US culture in a way they never were before," the cable reads.
Read original story in The Guardian | Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)