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Showing posts from August, 2013

Landscaping - It is an Art Or a Science?

Before we can try to understand whether landscaping is more of an art or a science (or both), it would be well in order for us to give ourselves a brief introduction to it. Such an introduction would insure us from being guilty of running a discussion in which some cannot quite follow; on account of their not being conversant with the subject of the discussion. Landscaping, as it turns out, simply refers to the set of strategies that are employed in a bid to make the surroundings of the entities (which could be organizations, institutions and so on) look more presentable. When an organization decides to develop lush lawns on its head office's grounds, that organization is said to be involved in a landscaping activity. Similarly, when an organization decides to plant some trees on its premises, it is said to be involved in landscaping. Often, landscaping involves planting things, though that is not all there is to it. Sometimes, where plants imply can't grow, we may have things

Junk Science and Criminal Trials

Unfortunately in the criminal justice system, real life is nothing like the television series CSI. Far too often, what is sold to jurors as science is junk science. In 2009, a distinguished panel under supervision by the National Academy of Sciences prepared a detailed report at the request of Congress analyzing science and the law. That report, entitled "Strengthening Forensic Science in the U.S.: A Path Forward," should give trial lawyers, judges, and jurors pause. The report found that disturbingly, "often there are no standard protocols governing forensic practice in a given discipline." "There is no uniformity in the certification of forensic practitioners, or in the accreditation of crime laboratories." Most frighteningly of all, the authors of the NAS Report questioned "whether - and to what extent - there is  science  in any given forensic science discipline." In addition to a scathing critique of forensic science practices the NAS