"Miller-mcCune" - One Surprising Reason People May Believe Bizarre Conspiracy Theories

Miller-McCune Magazine
Posted on April 25, 2011, Printed on April 26, 2011
http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture-society/belief-in-conspiracies-linked-to-machiavellian-mindset-30295/

K now any conspiracy theorists? No doubt they’ve tried to convince you that man didn’t really land on the moon or President Obama was born in Kenya.

In fact, they were imparting genuinely interesting information — about themselves. New research suggests belief in such theories may reveal a Machiavellian mindset.

“At least among some samples and for some conspiracy theories, the perception that ‘they did it’ is fueled by the perception that ‘I would do it,’” University of Kent psychologists Karen Douglas and Robbie Sutton write in the British Journal of Social Psychology.

“These studies suggest that people who have more lax personal morality may endorse conspiracy theories to a greater extent because they are, on average, more willing to participate in the conspiracies themselves.”

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"Miller-mcCune" - One Surprising Reason People May Believe Bizarre Conspiracy Theories

Miller-McCune Magazine
Posted on April 25, 2011, Printed on April 26, 2011
http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture-society/belief-in-conspiracies-linked-to-machiavellian-mindset-30295/

K now any conspiracy theorists? No doubt they’ve tried to convince you that man didn’t really land on the moon or President Obama was born in Kenya.

In fact, they were imparting genuinely interesting information — about themselves. New research suggests belief in such theories may reveal a Machiavellian mindset.

“At least among some samples and for some conspiracy theories, the perception that ‘they did it’ is fueled by the perception that ‘I would do it,’” University of Kent psychologists Karen Douglas and Robbie Sutton write in the British Journal of Social Psychology.

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"Vince Besier" - Save the Poor by Selling Them Stuff — Cheap

Miller-McCune Magazine,  April 25, 2011

The bottom-of-the-pyramid marketing movement tries to profit the developing world and make a profit at the same time.

By Vince Beiser

http://www.miller-mccune.com/business-economics/save-the-poor-by-selling-them-stuff-cheap-29860/

The first slide comes up on the white-walled lecture room’s double display screens. In capital letters, it declares: “EMPATHY.”

The 40-odd Stanford students gathered in a semicircle of plastic chairs on the cement floor blink at the screen, awaiting explanation. Almost all of them are pursuing graduate degrees in some form of engineering or business — disciplines known more for unemotional logic and bare-knuckle competitiveness than getting in touch with someone else’s feelings.

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"Joan Melcher" - More Evidence Linking Pesticides and Malformations

Additional studies suggest that common pesticides may be endocrine disruptors, bad news that nonetheless warms the heart of one citizen scientist.

By Joan Melcher, Miller McCune Magazine

http://www.miller-mccune.com/environment/more-evidence-linking-pesticides-and-malformations-30560/

Concern about toxic chemicals in the environment has erupted into the mainstream media again, with new reports tying pesticides to disruption of male hormones, birth defects and cancer.

Andres Carrasco, head of the molecular Embryology Lab at the University of Buenos Aires and chief scientist at the National Council for Science and Technology, linked glyphosate, the active ingredient in the popular herbicide Roundup, to escalating rates of animal birth defects — including cyclopia, where a single eye is present in the center of the forehead), infertility, stillbirths, miscarriages and cancers — in agricultural areas of the country. The result “opens concerns about the clinical findings from human offspring” exposed to the chemical in the same areas, he wrote.

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"Helium" - NASA issues warning of solar superstorm 2012

Helium.com  April 25, 2011

http://www.helium.com/items/2144934-nasa-issues-warning-of-solar-superstorm-2012

Could a superstorm generated by the sun destroy civilization as we know it in 2012?

No less than NASA thinks it's a distinct possibility. In a remarkable move the normally conservative US space agency has taken the extraordinary step of warning the world.

The headlines reverberating around the world speak volumes: 'Leaks discovered in Earth's magnetic field,' Solar storms to wreak havoc,' 'The end of life as we know it,' 'Magnetic shift to cause global superstorms.'

Can such things really happen?

NASA and the European Space Agency say yes.

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"Finian Cunningham" - "The President Who Became an Actor": And This Year’s Oscar Goes To… Barack Obama

by Finian Cunningham

Global Research, April 23, 2011

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24468

If Ronald Reagan was known as the actor who became a president, then perhaps Barack Obama should become known as the president who became an actor.

For every facial movement evinced, every gesture of the hand, every word enunciated by the 44th president turns out to be a complete charade.

This is the guy who ran for the presidency presenting himself before the US nation, hand on heart, as the candidate who would end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; end the killing of civilians in those countries; and the brutalizing of young American men. Two years on, Obama has donned the costume of US commander-in-chief with ever-frightening zeal. Far from ending the wars, Obama has not only ramped up America’s foreign wars of aggression, he has expanded them into new territories, including Pakistan, Libya and East Africa, adding countless more innocent lives to Washington’s global death toll.

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"Tom Engelhardt" - Imperial Bets That Go Awry

Published on Tuesday, April 26, 2011 by TomDispatch.com

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175383/tomgram%3A_mccoy_and_reilly%2C_an_empire_of_failed_states/

by Tom Engelhardt

Imperial powers hedge their bets.  The most striking recent example we have of this is in Egypt.  While the Pentagon was pouring money into the Egyptian military (approximately $40 billion since 1979), it turns out -- thank you, WikiLeaks! -- that the U.S. government was shuttling far smaller amounts (millions, not billions) to various “American government-financed organizations” loosely connected with Congress or with the Democratic and Republican parties. Some of that money, in turn, was being invested in “democracy-building campaigns” aimed at teaching young Egyptian activists how to organize a movement against their autocratic ruler, how to make the best use of social networking sites, and so on. 

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"Duncan Clark" - Carbon Cuts by Developed Countries Cancelled Out by Imported Goods

Published on Monday, April 25, 2011 by The Guardian/UK

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/apr/25/carbon-cuts-developed-countries-cancelled

Kyoto protocol means carbon footprints are calculated for the countries producing goods, not those consuming them

by Duncan Clark

Cuts in carbon emissions by developed countries since 1990 have been cancelled out three times over by increases in imported goods from developing countries such as China, according to the most comprehensive global figures ever compiled.

Previous studies have shown the significance of "outsourced" emissions for specific countries, but the latest research, published on Monday, provides the first global view of how international trade altered national carbon footprints during the period of the Kyoto protocol.

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"Stephen Lerner" - We Have to Fight the Plutocrats to Build an Economy that Works

By Stephen Lerner, In These Times
Posted on April 20, 2011, Printed on April 26, 2011
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/continued/7201/take_the_fight_to_the_streets/

This can be our moment. A new activism is emerging in the United States and abroad, where people, in unexpected places, are standing up to challenge the rich and powerful. From recent uprisings in Egypt, to young people and workers in Europe marching and striking against shortsighted austerity plans, to the battle of nurses, teachers, firefighters and community members in Wisconsin, and the sit-ins and occupations of banks starting around the country, a movement is starting to grow.

After being battered and on the defensive, we have an opportunity in the United States to go on the offensive to transform the economy and politics of our country and create shared prosperity for all. Corporations have $1.6 trillion in cash reserves and are making record profits. The CEOs of Wall Street and the big banks paid themselves record compensation and bonuses of $135 billion in 2010 ($7 billion more than in 2009). After trillions in bailouts, they are even bigger and more dominant than before the economic crash. Now can be our moment to build a movement that both captures the popular imagination and has a strategy to engage millions of people to improve their lives by harnessing:

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“Laura Fraser” - Strawberry grower shows how to make a profit without poisons

OnEarth

April 26, 2011

http://www.grist.org/organic-food/2011-04-26-strawberry-grower-shows-how-to-make-a-profit-without-poisons

This story was written by Laura Fraser.

Along California's rugged coastal Highway One, just north of Santa Cruz, a yellow vintage pick-up truck and tidy rows of strawberries mark the entrance to the Swanton Berry Farm. Inside the cheerful farm stand, decorated with old photos of the region and fluttering United Farm Worker flags, locals gather at blue picnic tables, sipping coffee, eating strawberry shortcake, and chatting with Jim Cochran, the owner.

The air is scented with the first berries of the season. They're fresh and sweet, intensely red and fragrant, and firm -- not pumped up with nitrogen like most commercial strawberries. Cochran, 63, a silver-haired man with an easy manner and quietly fierce intelligence, takes evident pride in watching a visitor savor one. He was California's first organic strawberry grower, harvesting his initial crop more than 25 years ago.

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