PHI 2070 coming soon to a classroom near you

Should “ahimsa” rule the world? Can “nothingness” exist? Is evil good? Is God “in the excrement”? Why “miracle” is just a metaphor for the containment of power. Does “reincarnation” mean to change one’s personality? Did the Chinese invent pragmatism? How “koan” can change your life (and your idea of poetry). What’s Bodhidharma’s mindless mind? Why losing is not always losing and winning not always winning. Can “bravery” consist in dying? Why to destroy is to transform (careful! only for gods!).

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For this Summer A session, I'm teaching PHI 2070 (Eastern Philosophy). In case you're interested.

Help-Wanted for Fraud Investigations

In the NYTimes: Recently, the FBI announced that the number of open mortgage-fraud investigations was more than 1,600 at the end of fiscal 2008, which ended Sept. 30, compared with 881 two years earlier. In addition, 530 corporate-fraud investigations were open, it said.

A hero of the breed recently emerged in the form of Harry Markopolos, who repeatedly warned the Securities and Exchange Commission that Bernard L. Madoff was running a giant Ponzi scheme at the expense of investors. Mr. Markopolos, who was working for an investment company when he started looking into Mr. Madoff’s activities, left in 2004 to start his own investigation firm. Although the S.E.C. did not act on Mr. Markopolos’s warnings, he has helped ease the way for investigators in his wake who may suspect various “mini-Madoff” scandals and other types of fraud.

Wiki/Topics Chapters 6-8

Informed consent
Polygraph test: Despite claims of 90% - 95% reliability, critics charge that rather than a "test", the method amounts to an inherently unstandardizable interrogation technique whose accuracy cannot be established. A 1997 survey of 421 psychologists estimated the test's average accuracy at about 61%, a little better than chance.[18] Critics also argue that even given high estimates of the polygraph's accuracy a significant number of subjects (e.g. 10% given a 90% accuracy) will appear to be lying, and would unfairly suffer the consequences of "failing" the polygraph. In the 1998 Supreme Court case, United States v. Scheffer, the majority stated that "There is simply no consensus that polygraph evidence is reliable" and "Unlike other expert witnesses who testify about factual matters outside the jurors' knowledge, such as the analysis of fingerprints, ballistics, or DNA found at a crime scene, a polygraph expert can supply the jury only with another opinion...
Personality test
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Conflict of interest
Insider trading: For example, illegal insider trading would occur if the chief executive officer of Company A learned (prior to a public announcement) that Company A will be taken over, and bought shares in Company A knowing that the share price would likely rise.
Trade secret: a trade secret is information that: 1- is not generally known to the public; 2- confers some sort of economic benefit on its holder (where this benefit must derive specifically from its not being generally known, not just from the value of the information itself); 3- is the subject of reasonable efforts to maintain its secrecy.
Bribe: a form of pecuniary corruption, is an act implying money or gift given that alters the behaviour of the recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined as the offering, giving, receiving or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or other person in discharge of a public or legal duty. The bribe is the gift bestowed to influence the recipient's conduct.
Whistleblowing

Political pressure

In the NYTimes:

The judge ruled that the agency had improperly bowed to political pressure from the Bush administration in 2006 when it set 18 as the age limit.

A case of political pressure? Indeed.

Wednesday night class (midterm extension)

For all of you who have not done the midterm.

I suggest to meet in my office this Wednesday at 6pm. This time I'll make sure the door is not locked. Call my extension (305)237-7554. We used to have a secretary until 6:30pm. Due to the money shortage, she leaves now at 6pm (something I wasn't aware of). If you have any questions, please, leave a note on this post.

Sorry about tonight (Wednesday class)

Kids: I won't be able to teach the class tonight. It seems I have a case of food poisoning. The homework is to go over chapter 8. Next week, we'll review for quiz #2, on chapters 6-8, due on april 1.

For the following week, I'll post the homework for chapter 9. I'll leave the post open for comments or questions.

More Madoff!

His accountant is charged with securities fraud. In the meantime, more on the A.I.G. saga.

From the NYTimes: Across the country, attorneys general have already begun indicting dozens of loan processors, mortgage brokers and bank officers. Last week alone, there were guilty pleas in Minnesota, Delaware, North Carolina and Connecticut and sentences in Florida and Vermont — all stemming from home loan scams.

Matter of fact vs. opinion

Journalism should be ethical. Generally, reporting the news and commenting the news are different endeavors. The former is objective and factual, the latter, subjective and emotional. Professional journalism makes a distinction between news and opinion (which may lack evidence). The result is referred to as newsworthiness. Thus, this piece in the NYTimes.

Ethical quandary (even in Harvard)

In the NYTimes: In a first-year pharmacology class at Harvard Medical School, Matt Zerden grew wary as the professor promoted the benefits of cholesterol drugs and seemed to belittle a student who asked about side effects. Mr. Zerden later discovered something by searching online that he began sharing with his classmates. The professor was not only a full-time member of the Harvard Medical faculty, but a paid consultant to 10 drug companies, including five makers of cholesterol treatments.