Word: britishism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Butler and his colleagues were worried that it was becoming too dangerous. A search by the Iraqis would have revealed that select team members were wired up with special recording and eavesdropping devices. Another problem was the sheer volume of information that was flooding in over these taps. The British, who had been deciphering the tapes, were tired of digging through thousands of hours of Arabic conversations--99% of which was useless...
...Bishop of Edinburgh tried. After overseeing a British Medical Association study on bioethics, he embraced genetic tinkering for "medical reasons," while denouncing the "Frankenstein idea" of making "designer babies" with good looks and a high IQ. But what is the difference? Therapists consider learning disabilities to be medical problems, and if we find a way to diagnose and remedy them before birth, we'll be raising scores on IQ tests. Should we tell parents they can't do that, that the state has decided they must have a child with dyslexia? Minor memory flaws? Below-average verbal skills? At some...
...government does try to ban certain eugenic maneuvers, some rich parents will visit clinics in more permissive nations, then come home to bear their tip-top children. (Already, British parents have traveled to Saudi Arabia to choose their baby's sex in vitro, a procedure that is illegal at home.) Even without a ban, it will be upper-class parents who can afford pricey genetic technologies. Children who would in any event go to the finest doctors and schools will get an even bigger head start on health and achievement...
...democracy had been the mammoth increase in the measurement and survey of all sorts of things. Galton relished this new flood of data--"Whenever you can, count" was his motto--and eventually became absorbed in studying the mathematical distribution of what he called "natural ability" among a sample of British subjects. Galton thought natural ability could be tracked down by reading the biographical sketches of eminent Britons in handbooks and dictionaries. When he did so, he discovered that a disproportionate number of these worthies were in some way related to one another. Ergo, he concluded, intelligence and talent were bestowed...
Perhaps because of Europe's deeper suspicions of Big Business, the food fight has prompted a regulatory go-slow on the Continent. One factor is the scare that erupted in 1996 over "mad cow" disease in British beef. Though the disease was caused by feeding animal parts to cows, rather than by genetic meddling, the panic left consumers extremely wary about what goes onto the family dinner table. Herbert Krach of the Swiss Small Farmers Union notes, "For years scientists assured us that feeding animal-based feeds to cattle was harmless." But the cautions also owe something to romantic...