[1] Praise be to your child. But, could you please be specific? Dave Munger at Cognitive Daily on how even four year olds are quite responsive the subtle differences in language, and how specific praise is more effective.
[2] Coturnix reports on the efforts in UK to come up with a Scientific Ethics Code (with a couple of links to commentaries on the same). But I do have a problem with this one:
Minimise impacts on people, animals and the environment
First problem is of course the language–impact, in the sentence above seems to have a negative connotation. However, this is the Oxford dictionary entry for impact (on):
2 (often impact on) have a strong effect
We do want our research to have a strong effect on people, animals and environment, don’t we? Apart from this linguistic problem, there is also a technical problem. Suppose somebody is working on a weapons project for the military. What does it mean to say to the scientist that his/her research should minimize the impact on people, animals and environment? Or, in other words, the impact problem is as much political as an ethics related issue for scientists.
Having said all that, it still is a very interesting exercise to think about the code and modifications/additions/deletions to the same. Take a look!
