Odds and Sods

An occasional collection of interesting material that I don’t have time to comment on.

• Does having a good wash make you more likely to commit unethical acts?  Some recent research may suggest that “[p]hysical purification … produces a more relaxed attitude to morality.”
• And talking of unethical acts, the New York Times has a useful survey of how people used modern technology to stay in touch and informed during the Mumbai attacks.
• A country’s adoption of technology around 1500 CE is a good predictor of current economic development, say some researchers, taking the direct lineage of today’s economies back before both the colonial expansion and the industrial revolution.