Which religion is the most violent?

Generalizations: How Accurate Are They?

    Fighting intolerance

  • The Boston Marathon attacks have revived old claims that Islam is inherently violent and all Muslims should face heightened scrutiny.
  • Christianity can keep up with anybody in the murder contest. You can still find Christians today who will passionately defend the slaughters of the Medieval Crusades. You can use Christianity to kill abortion doctors, massacre Muslims in Bosnia or Kosovo, Jesus is more flexible than some people might think.
  • (Editor: Nazi Germany could not have systematically annihilated Jews without the help of the German general public and Germany’s civi servants and courts. » more here. )
  • Go find the most peaceful, passive religious ethic in the world and you will still find violence. Buddhist teachings are so fanatically pacifist they probably couldn’t stomach football, but Sri Lankan Buddhists will rack up piles of dead Tamil civilians like nobody’s business. Nirvana can wait.
  • And Atheists have no room to gloat. Pol Pot, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Tse Tung tallied tens of millions of kills between them in the 20th Century alone. The absence of a religion is no more protection against fanatical rampages than blind faith.
  • No matter what a religion teaches, some bloody-minded believers will twist it to justify their own dark urges. Religion does what people tell it to do. There is a clear connection between religion and violence – human beings.» The full Washington Post article – Chris Ladd – May 1, 2013.

  • World Wise School – “How Accurate is It?” -
    This activity introduces students to the difficult concept of generalization so that they will challenge generalizations made about people. » Go to this Building Society Lesson Worksheet.

No Place for Bullies

Cyberbullying. Original image source

  • Bullying can happen to anyone at any age. Being bullied at school, home or online might involve someone pushing you, hitting you, teasing you, talking about you or calling you names.
  • No one has the right to hurt you or make you feel bad, and if you are being bullied you don’t have to put up with it, you can talk to someone about it.
  • If you are being bullied or worried about a friend who is being bullied, there are different ways that ChildLine can help. » More in this UK childline link

  • The New York Times – Learning Network – No Place for Bullies -
    Overview | Students reflect on the bullying in their community, hold an anonymous discussion about bullying and suggest solutions to the problem. » Go to this Building Society and Internet Lesson.

Timing a market lessons

World Bank Cuts Global Outlook as China Slows

  • It lowered its prediction for developing economies and sees the euro region’s gross domestic product shrinking 0.6 percent. In contrast, forecasts were raised for the U.S. and Japan, which was helped by fiscal and monetary stimulus.
  • Efforts by European policy makers to stem the region’s debt crisis have alleviated the main risk to global growth and financial-market stability, according to the lender. The bank now sees smaller threats, including lower commodity prices and the impact of unwinding unprecedented monetary stimulus in advanced economies including the U.S., the talk of which has sent currencies from India to Thailand lower and Mexican bond yields higher in recent weeks. » The full Bloomberg article – By Sandrine Rastello – June 13, 2013

Bernanke Says Pessimists are Wrong

  • “Pessimists may be paying too little attention to the strength of the underlying economic and social forces that generate innovation in the modern world,” Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said today in a speech at Great Barrington, Massachusetts. “Both humanity’s capacity to innovate and the incentives to innovate are greater today than at any other time in history.”
  • Commercial applications of personal computers and biotechnology have “arguably thus far only scratched the surface,” and they could contribute to a surge in productivity in health care, Bernanke said.
  • “A strong case can be made that the modernization of health-care IT systems would lead to better-coordinated, more effective, and less costly patient care than we have today,” he said. “Such advances could lead to another jump in life expectancy and improved health at older ages.” » The full Bloomberg article – By Steve Matthews & Jeanna Smialek – May 18, 2013.

Deflation not Inflation is the Danger

  • Bernanke and other Fed officials have shown intolerance for very low inflation in the past.
  • The central banks’ stance vindicates those who insisted inflation isn’t the pre-eminent threat to the world economy, said David Blanchflower, a former Bank of England policy maker.
  • “All those loonies saying the big fear is inflation are out of their minds,” said Blanchflower, who now teaches at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. “The downside risks to inflation are marked.”
  • Declining prices for everything from gasoline to coffee are good news for consumers. The danger comes when disinflation turns into deflation, which leads households to hold off purchases in anticipation of even lower prices, and companies to postpone investment and hiring as demand for their products dries up and profits drop. » The full Bloomberg article – By Rich Miller & Simon Kennedy – Apr 29, 2013

Links between trade and currency values (Jupiter images)

Europe austerity strategy is hurting growth, IMF says

  • Britain and the Eurozone are steadfastly sticking to austerity measures despite increasing evidence that such action alone isn’t working to revive their economies and is dragging down global growth.
  • Obama administration officials have repeatedly urged their European counterparts to ease up on austerity and focus more on growth, but the U.S. is struggling with its own fallout from a series of fiscal policy changes, most recently spending cuts under the so-called sequester.
  • The budget cuts and higher taxes recently implemented are expected to slice U.S. economic output by about 1.5 percentage points this year, leaving growth for the year at a sluggish 2% rate. » The full LA Times article – By Don Lee – April 19, 2013.

Slower Global economy reflected in China’s economy

  • China’s longest streak of expansion below 8 percent in at least 20 years is sending a message to suppliers and investors around the world to get used to slower growth in the second-biggest economy.
  • A sustained shift to a lower-growth gear would affect everything from iron-ore demand in Australia to the fortunes of companies including carmaker General Motors Co. (GM), who are counting on China to drive profits. It increases challenges for global policy makers contending with Europe’s debt turmoil and Japan’s record monetary easing, with BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) saying GDP gains will moderate toward 6 percent later this decade.
  • “While this is a shock in the short term, it is part of the growing-up of China’s economy,” said Louis Kuijs, Hong Kong-based chief China economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, who cut his forecast for 2013 expansion to 7.8 percent from 8.4 percent after yesterday’s data.
  • Investment in productive capacity lacks the knock-on effects on GDP it once had because of reduced overseas demand for the products of the nation’s factories, he said. » The full Bloomberg article – April 16, 2013.

“Only a strong economy can deliver persistently high real returns to savers and investors.”

  • Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke signaled he will keep the Fed’s target interest rate low to support the economy, even as some colleagues warn the policy risks triggering financial market instability.
  • “Premature rate increases would carry a high risk of short-circuiting the recovery, possibly leading — ironically enough — to an even longer period of low long-term rates,” Bernanke said. » The full Bloomberg article – By Joshua Zumbrun & Aki Ito – March 2, 2013.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the U.S. economy is far from operating at full strength and reiterated his commitment to record easing

  • “With unemployment at almost 8 percent, we are still far from the fully healthy and vibrant conditions that we would like to see,” Bernanke said today at a meeting in Moscow of his counterparts from the Group of 20. “The United States is using domestic policy tools to advance domestic objectives.”
  • “We believe that by strengthening the U.S. economy we are helping to strengthen the global economy as well,” Bernanke said.
  • “Because we live in a globalized financial system where transactions can take place in any jurisdiction and money flows easily across borders, it is critical that we have consistent financial regimes across all members of G-20,” Bernanke said. “We will work with our partners to establish consistent policies on matters such as derivatives reform and the resolution of systemically important financial institutions.” » The full Bloomberg article – By Aki Ito – Feb 16, 2013

    Looking Back:

  • Mexico. Brazil. Argentina. Mexico, again. Thailand. Indonesia. Argentina, again. And now, the United States.
    The story has played itself out time and time again over the past 30 years. Global investors, disappointed with the returns they’re getting, search for alternatives. They think they’ve found what they’re looking for in some country or other, and money rushes in.
    But eventually it becomes clear that the investment opportunity wasn’t all it seemed to be, and the money rushes out again, with nasty consequences for the former financial favorite. That’s the story of multiple financial crises in Latin America and Asia. And it’s also the story of the U.S. combined housing and credit bubble. These days, we’re playing the role usually assigned to third-world economies. Read the Column » By – Paul Krugman, New York Times – January, 2008

  • The New York Times – Learning Network – Examining Key World Economies and Comparing Their Current Volatility -
    Overview: Students review key economic terms and ideas necessary for understanding world economies. They then research the economies of countries in the Group of 8 (20) and present how their economies have changed over the past five years and how the relationships among these countries affect each other in light of world events. » Go to this Economy and Society Lesson.
  • The New York Times – Learning Network – Nowhere to Go but Up? Analyzing Economic Measures in a Downturn -
    Overview | How do we know when the economy is in a recession? How do key economic indicators perform in a downturn? In this lesson, students create graphs of various economic measurements, using quantitative and qualitative reasoning skills to compare, contrast and correlate the performance of measures like gross domestic product, unemployment and personal income. » Go to this Economy and Society Lesson.

Cervical Cancer Vaccine

HPV Vaccination

  • By aggressively vaccinating girls against HPV (which is responsible for 90 percent of genital wart diagnoses), Australia appears to have offered considerable protection not just to its female population but also its men as well.
  • Vaccine against cervical cancer.
    The cancer vaccine could be given to girls as young as nine. – Image and article

  • Commenting on the report, Dr. Jocylen Glassberg, an obstetrician/gynecologist at Scott and White Healthcare in Round Rock, Texas, said that “the take-home message is the vaccine is obviously working.”
  • “It will take many more years to see the same decline in cervical cancer rates due to the naturally slow progression of that disease process,” she said.
  • “But the vaccine works. The fact that genital wart rates were virtually zero after such a short time in women and men, even in a program just aimed at vaccinated women, is a phenomenal result.” » The full health news article – By Alan Mozes – April 19, 2013.

In Thailand, a simple test for cervical cancer uses vinegar

  • Nurses using the new procedure, developed by experts at the Johns Hopkins medical school in the 1990s and endorsed last year by the World Health Organization, brush vinegar on a woman’s cervix.
  • It makes precancerous spots turn white. They can then be immediately frozen off with a metal probe cooled by a tank of carbon dioxide, available from any Coca-Cola bottling plant. » The full New York Times article – By Donald G. McNeil.Jr. – Published: September 26, 2011.

The Cervical cancer vaccine – who needs it, and how it works:

  • The cervical cancer vaccine is the first vaccine ever designed to prevent a cancer. In the United States – where cervical cancer strikes about 10,000 women a year and causes up to 4,000 deaths – the impact of the cervical cancer vaccine will be tremendous.
  • Worldwide, the impact may be even greater. According to the World Health Organization, there were 500,000 new cases of cervical cancer in 2005. » Mayo Clinic: questions and answers article.


  • Related article: HPV Virus to blame for rise in throat cancer:
  • Cancer of the back of the mouth and throat is on the rise, primarily because of more cases stemming from a viral infection called human papillomavirus (HPV), according to a U.S. study.
  • The number of people who were diagnosed with HPV-related oral cancer in 2004 was triple the number diagnosed in 1988 — due largely, researchers suspect, to changes in sexual behavior that have helped spread the virus. » The full Reuters article – By Kerry Grens – October 4, 2011.

  • The New York Times – Learning Network – The Vaccination Question:
    Overview | Students share opinions about common vaccines, then consider facts and opinions about the HPV vaccine and hold a “fishbowl” discussion. They then survey members of the community to determine their perspectives on the issue. » Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

Causes and ways to avoid breast cancer

  • Breast cancer is in the headlines: Angelina Jolie had a double mastectomy when she learned that she carries a gene that puts her at high risk for the disease.
  • We spoke to experts Powel H. Brown and Marisa Weiss to learn more about the genetics of breast cancer.
    Powel H. Brown is a breast medical oncologist and professor and chair of the department of clinical cancer prevention at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

    • Not every breast cancer is due to a gene?
      - – There are two kinds of breast cancer: the common kind, which is called a sporadic kind, which most people get. It usually occurs over the age of 50. And the strongly inherited kind.
    • What percentage of breast cancers are linked to a gene?
      - – It’s only about 5 to 10 percent—and probably 3 to 5 percent [are] BRCA1 or 2 associated.
    • How to lower the risk
      - – For the average-risk person, breast cancer occurs something on the order of one in seven or one in eight women in this country.
      - – The average-risk person should have a healthy lifestyle with a healthy diet, low in red meat, high in chicken, fruit, fish, and vegetables. Alcohol also puts you at risk: As little as three glasses per week increases your risk of breast cancer.
    • How are people responding to the news that Angelina Jolie was at risk for breast cancer?
      - – I think it really shocked people. I think people expect that someone who looks so sexual and beautiful and young and fancy and with so much celebrity is immune or has some free pass.» The full national Geographic article – By Mark Silver – May 15, 2013.

More and more evidence is demonstrating that even just 15 minutes a day of physical activity can have a significant impact on longevity.

  • The benefits applied to all age groups and both sexes, as well as to those at risk for heart problems.
  • “If the minimum amount of exercise we suggest is adhered to, mortality from heart disease, diabetes and cancer could be reduced,” the researchers wrote.
  • “This low volume of physical activity could play a central part in the global war against non-communicable diseases, reducing medical costs and health disparities.” » The full Washington Post article – By Rod Stein – Published: August 17, 2011.

Vigorous Exercise Cuts Breast Cancer Risk

Exercise Reduces breast cancer risk Image Source

  • The findings suggest that exercise itself protects against breast cancer, regardless of whether it leads to weight loss, note Michael F. Leitzmann, MD, and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute.
  • The researchers analyzed data on more than 32,000 postmenopausal women collected over 11 years as part of the Breast Cancer Detection Demonstration Project. » The Article from WebMD – By Daniel J. DeNoon

  • The New York Times – Learning Network – What Will You Do With Your Life?
    Overview | Students consider what it means to live a life well-lived by creating life lists of goals they would like to accomplish and analyzing patterns in the lists of their peers. » Go to this Life’s Lesson.
  • The New York Times – Learning Network – Talking about Breast Cancer:
    Overview | Students share words and associations related to cancer. They then investigate and participate in dialogues about the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. » Go to this Health, Science and Life’s Lesson.
  • The New York Times – Learning Network – The Science of Aging -
    Overview | Student reflect on the lives of older people they know, then research and debate the key issues surrounding scientific experimentation in anti-aging. (Related NYT article: » Even more reason to get moving – By Jane E. Brody) » Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at 80

Exercising

  • “When I started, I looked like a survivor of Auschwitz,” Ginsburg said. Now I’m up to 20 push-ups.”
  • Personal trainer Bryant Johnson watches his tiny client pump her body up and down on a green yoga mat, spotting her with his hands at her waist in case she falls.
  • “Exercise is the great equalizer. It doesn’t matter what size, shape or color you are,” Johnson said in his office cubicle at the federal courthouse on Constitution Avenue, about a half-mile down the hill from the Supreme Court.
  • “A push-up is a push-up, no matter how you look at it.” » The full Washington Post article – By Ann E. Marimow, Published: March 20, 2013.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg receives a warm welcome at the State of the Union – Image source and article.

How Ruth Bader Ginsburg has moved the Supreme Court.

  • There is some irony in Ginsburg’s reputation for reserve, because she is, by far, the current Court’s most accomplished litigator.
  • Ginsburg, during the nineteen-seventies, argued several of the most important women’s-rights cases in the Court’s history.
  • She has always prided herself on knowing which fights to pick. (Ginsburg won that 1976 case, as well as four of the five other cases she argued before the Justices.)
  • As an advocate, Ginsburg had exquisite timing; she brought women’s-rights cases at precisely the moment the Supreme Court was willing to decide them in her favor. . . . For Subscribers the full New Yorker article “Heavyweight” – By Jeffrey Tobin – March 11, 2013.

The U.S. Constitution

  • Appearing on Egyptian television before concluding a four-day trip in Egypt (in February, 2012) Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg extolled the virtues of the U.S. Constitution but urged Egyptians to look to other countries’ newer constitutions for guidance as they craft their own in the coming months.
  • “We were just tremendously fortunate in the United States that the men who met in Philadelphia were very wise,” Ginsburg said. “Now it is true that they were lacking one thing,” she continued with a chuckle. “And that is that there were no women as part of the Constitutional Convention.”
  • When asked by her interviewer how best to draft a constitution and protect it from contemporary political pressures (perhaps alluding to Islamic parties’ dominance in the new parliament’s lower house), Justice Ginsburg answered, “A constitution, as important as it is, will mean nothing unless the people are yearning for liberty and freedom.”
  • “If the people don’t care, then the best constitution in the world won’t make any difference,” she said.
  • “The spirit of liberty,” she continued, “has to be in the population.” » The full Huffington Post article – First Posted February 1, 2012.

  • The New York Times – Learning Network – What Will You Do With Your Life?
    Overview | Students consider what it means to live a life well-lived by creating life lists of goals they would like to accomplish and analyzing patterns in the lists of their peers. Go to this Life and Building a Health Society Lesson.
  • The New York Times - Learning Network – The Political is Personal
    Overview | Students explore their own personal political philosophies by identifying events, people and experiences that have helped shape their beliefs and writing an essay. Go to this Building Society and ESL Lesson.
  • The New York Times – Learning Network – The Science of Aging -
    Overview | Student reflect on the lives of older people they know, then research and debate the key issues surrounding scientific experimentation in anti-aging. (Related NYT article: » Even more reason to get moving – By Jane E. Brody) Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

Have we become Sugar Addicts?

Are you a secret sugar addict?

    sugar addiction Image source

  • It makes us fat, rots our teeth and has been linked to heart disease and cancer, yet sugar is found in just about everything we eat – and in rapidly rising amounts.
  • Indeed, for many of us sugar has become our drug of choice, helping us through the afternoon energy crash in the form of a handful of biscuits, chocolate or cereal bars, and going without it makes us tired, grumpy and downright miserable.
  • To top things off, studies have suggested that sugar could be as addictive as drugs and alcohol, which earlier this year led academics in the journal Nature to call for sweet stuff to be taxed and restricted like booze and cigarettes. The full New research suggests excess sugar could be deadlier than fat and more addictive than heroin.» The full UK Mirror article – By Caroline Jones.

  • The New York Times – Learning Network – Investigating Science and Health Questions About Sugar and Our Bodies -
    Overview | In this series of lesson ideas, which can be done individually or together as part of a larger unit, we’ll help students investigate the science and myths about added sugars. How unhealthy are they? What happens to sugar when ingested? How much sugar do we actually consume? Is there a real difference between sugar and corn syrup? And what has the public health response been, and how could it be better? » Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

Rating risk – What does “AAA” actually mean?

  • “There is an information fog” that “is very much associated with the loss of confidence in the credit-rating agencies,” Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said at a meeting on Aug. 7, 2007.
  • The U.S. is seeking as much as $5 billion in penalties in punishment for inflated credit ratings that Attorney General Eric Holder said were central to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. » The full Bloomberg article – By Joshua Zumbrun & Jeff Kearns – February 6, 2013

News from Wall Street

Image source – The Globe and Mail
    “Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made.”
    John Godfrey Saxe, American poet and lawyer, 1869

  • Add bond ratings to that list. » More in this New York Times article – By Floyd Norris November 8, 2012.

S&P found guilty of misleading investors

  • Standard & Poor’s misled investors by awarding its highest rating to a complex derivative product that collapsed in value less than two years after it was created by ABN Amro, an Australian judge has ruled, in a landmark case that paves the way for legal action in Europe.
  • In a damning verdict the Federal Court of Australia ruled S&P and ABN Amro, now owned by RBS, had “deceived” and “misled” local councils that bought triple-­A rated constant proportion debt obligations (CPDOs) from an intermediary in 2006. » The full Financial Times article – By Neil Hume in Sydney – November 5, 2012.

  • Bank Investors Dismiss Moody’s Cuts as Years Too Late

    • Moody’s Investors Service suffered a downgrade of its own as markets responded to the company’s rating cuts of 15 of the world’s largest banks by bidding up the value of their stocks and bonds.
    • “We view the Moody’s downgrade as another overhyped story of 2012,” David Trone, analyst at JMP Securities LLC, wrote to his clients. “The corporate market thinks for itself and credit rating agencies are often lagging indicators.” » The full Bloomberg article – By Dakin Campbell and Michael J. Moore on June 22, 2012.
    • Looking back
    • A report by the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said that S&P, Moody’s and Fitch Ratings helped trigger the financial crisis when they cut thousands of mortgage securities they rated AAA to junk status. The raters had engaged in a “race to the bottom” to win business, lawmakers said.
    • Even after Congress included rules in the Dodd-Frank Act last year designed to cut reliance on ratings, S&P and its competitors remain a key part of the financial markets. Pension and mutual funds often require minimum ratings to buy debt securities. Banks are generally required to hold less capital to back higher rated bonds as regulators including the Federal Reserve have yet to find an alternative. » The full Bloomberg background article – By Zeke Faux and Jody Shenn – Sep 1, 2011

    • The New York Times – Learning Network – Examining Key World Economies and Comparing Their Current Volatility -
      Overview: Students review key economic terms and ideas necessary for understanding world economies. They then research the economies of countries in the Group of 10 and present how their economies have changed over the past five years and how the relationships among these countries affect each other in light of world events.  Go to this Economy and Society Lesson.
    • The New York Times – Learning Network – Understanding Credit Cards and Credit Card Debt -
      Overview: Students examine and learn the basics about credit cards and credit card debt, then create an informational brochure for young students. Go to this Economy and ESL Lesson.

    The American Election 2012

    In an assertive State of the Union address that fleshed out the populist themes of his inauguration speech,

    • Mr. Obama declared it was “our generation’s task” to “reignite the true engine of America’s economic growth — a rising, thriving middle class.”
    • “Every day,” he said, “we should ask ourselves three questions as a nation: How do we attract more jobs to our shores? How do we equip our people with the skills to get those jobs? And how do we make sure that hard work leads to a decent living?”
    • “It is our unfinished task to restore the basic bargain that built this country,” he said. “The idea that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, what you look like, or who you love.”
    • “It is our unfinished task to make sure that this government works on behalf of the many, and not just the few,” he continued. “That it encourages free enterprise, rewards individual initiative and opens the doors of opportunity to every child across this great nation of ours.”
    • He urged lawmakers to act on immigration, climate change, budget negotiations, and, above all, on gun violence, delivering an emotional appeal for stricter controls that drew on recent tragedies like the schoolhouse massacre in Newtown, Conn. » The full New York Times article – By Mark Landler – February 12, 2013.

      The election victory

    • It was a strong endorsement of economic policies that stress job growth, health care reform, tax increases and balanced deficit reduction — and of moderate policies on immigration, abortion and same-sex marriage.
    • It was a repudiation of Reagan-era bromides about tax-cutting and trickle-down economics, and of the politics of fear, intolerance and disinformation.
    • Mr. Romney’s strategy of blaming Mr. Obama for just about everything, while serenely assuring Americans he had a plan to cut the deficit without raising taxes or making major cuts in Medicare, simply did not work. » The full New York Times Editorial – November 6, 2012

    Republican presidential team looks back


    • The New York Times - Learning Network – Election 2012: Teaching Ideas and Resources » Go this Building a Healthy Society Lesson.
    • The New York Times - Learning Network – The Political is Personal
      Overview | Students explore their own personal political philosophies by identifying events, people and experiences that have helped shape their beliefs and writing an essay. » Go to this Building Society and ESL Lesson.

    A First for South Korea – Juries come to Asia

    Mistrust in justice system

    • South Korean Legal experts trace the growing public resentment to what they say is a highly insular and hierarchical culture in the justice system.
    • “Because judges aren’t elected and we don’t have a jury system, the public has no power of oversight,” said Kim Dae-in of the Good Law group. “The whole system is vulnerable to corruption and mistrust.” » The New York Times article – By Choe San-Hun – Published: March 12, 2012.

    Could jury trials improve the credibility, fairness and competence of the Thai court system?

    • Editor: Juries offer what judges lack, experience with living everyday life outside courtrooms.
    • As a step in that direction all Thai court testimony should be digitally recorded. The digital recording should be a permanent part of the record and available to both the defendant and plaintiff or prosecutor.
    • The current practice in which the judge interprets what witnesses have said then has a witness try to recall if the judge’s interpretation was correct allows judges to ignore or slant what they heard or thought they heard. This practice makes their rulings unfair and removes critical evidence that could be used on appeal.
    • Thai law school students (and practicing lawyers and judges) should study jury selection in other countries, to avoid the common myth that Thai juries won’t work because they can be easily bought.

    South Korean Jury Trial
    Jurors take an oath at the nation’s first trial by jury at Daegu District Court, Tuesday. The experiment to introduce the U.S.-style jury system is aimed to help modernize Korea’s judicial system. The reforms are being closely watched by Japan, which also plans to adopt a jury system. Article By Kim Rahn – Staff Reporter The Korea Times

    The jury unanimously found the defendant guilty of the assault of a 70-year-old woman during an attempted burglary.
    But in a passionate closing argument, the defence counsel urged leniency, saying the defendant had taken his victim to hospital and turned himself in, said Korean news agency Yonhap.
    After a two-hour deliberation the jury recommended a suspended sentence of 30 months and 80 hours’ community service, and the judge agreed. Read this BBC Article »

    More Background: This initial learning process has been facilitated by the South Korean government, which is running commercials about jury service and conducting mock trials. Read the IHT article » By Thaddeus Hoffmeister.

    Related Lesson The New York Times – Learning Network - Exploring the (American) Youth Court System by Engaging in a Mock Trial
    Overview: Students learn about youth courts and explore the system further by engaging in a mock youth court trial. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.

    The Learning Foundation – “What to Teach” – Simplified Mock Trial Lesson Plan.