Begrudgery hasn't worked. It's time to break our addiction to 'failure porn'

Not all domestic abuse is physical

During the current global 16 Days of Action Opposing Violence Against Women, Women’s Aid reminds us that one in five Irish women has been abused by her partner, while Safe Ireland reveals that more than 11,000 women and children sought refuge from domestic violence in 2011. That is an increase of 15 per cent on the previous years.

Between 2010 and 2011, there was a 38 per cent increase in interim barring orders issued by the courts. But victims of abuse can’t get access to barring orders at the weekend, prompting calls from campaigners for urgent reform in this area, along with the extension of legal help to those who are not living with their partners.

In Britain, there are plans to offer protection to those in dating relationships, but there, the laws may go even further. Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg recently unveiled plans to extend legislation to non-violent crimes, including “coercive control”. If his proposal goes ahead, verbal insults, taking control of a spouse’s finances or isolating them from family and friends could all count as domestic abuse.

The move has come in for some criticism from those who believe the laws may just criminalise teenagers for immature or unpleasant, but not dangerous, behaviour. And if it’s not happening in the context of a shared home, and it’s not actual violence, then can it really come under the “domestic violence” umbrella? Well, yes – it can. Controlling and coercive behaviour is domestic abuse and, in extreme cases, it can be every bit as harmful as physical abuse.

The politics of  robot wars

The prospect of an army of robots rising up against their human creators is one of many threats to humankind that will be investigated by the Cambridge Project for Existential Risk, the cheerily-named initiative founded by two Cambridge professors and a Skype co-founder.

The project will aim to assess the dangers posed by “progress in artificial intelligence, developments in biotechnology and artificial life, nanotechnology, and anthropogenic climate change”.

Huw Price, one of the professors leading the research team, has said that as robots and computers become smarter than humans, we could find ourselves at the mercy of “machines that are not malicious, but machines whose interests don’t include us”.

So just like politicians, then.