Right Way to Draw Legislative Districts

How The Iowa Process Works: Under chapter 42 of the Iowa Code, enacted in 1980, the Iowa legislature has the final responsibility for enacting both congressional and state legislative district plans. However, the nonpartisan Legislative Services Bureau starts the process. The Bureau must develop up to three plans that can be accepted or rejected by the legislature.

The four criteria for the Bureau's plans, in descending order of importance, are:

1 - population equality,
2 - contiguity,
3 - unity of counties and cities (maintaining county lines and “nesting” house districts within
senate districts and senate districts within congressional districts), and
4 - compactness.

Neuroethics

From the description:

Philosophers have long sought to answer questions about who we are, where we come from and where we’re going. Stephan Chorover frets that a widening circle of contemporary scientists embrace Sigmund Freud’s approach to these questions, which is to say, “Biology is destiny.” Neuroscientists are promoting an even narrower dogma, says Chorover, where “everything we are trying to understand can be understood in terms of underlying brain mechanisms, neurons and molecules.” How can we cultivate individual ethical acts, and how can society hope to respond to such challenges as violent conflict, or social and economic inequity, if all human behavior reduces to a set of neurological inevitabilities?

Don Norman's suggested readings

From a genius of human factors & design. Annotated recommendations.