February 2012
25 posts
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Wealthy More Likely to Lie, Cheat: Researchers →
Bloomberg: The “upper class,” as defined by the study, were more likely to break the law while driving, take candy from children, lie in negotiation, cheat to raise their odds of winning a prize and endorse unethical behavior at work, the research found. The solution, Piff said, is to find a way to increase empathy among wealthier people.
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WatchFinancial Task Force: CNBC aired its new documentary, “Filthy Rich“, for the first time last night. The documentary was the product of a year-long investigation:
One way to hide illicit assets is through shell corporations. The United States is one of just a handful of countries that allow the formation of companies without disclosing the true owner.
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Google augmented reality glasses to hit market in... →
Get ready for a landmark shift in human mental and social environments: Google is getting set to release Internet eyeglasses.
As augmented reality (AR) technology improves and is mass marketed we will increasingly create and personalize our own social worlds. When AR is merged with facial recognition technology, the possibilities become extraordinary. Think Facebook 5.0, in 3D, overlaying real...
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WatchThe Arab Spring’s spin doctors: A look at how embattled Arab governments have employed the services of Western PR companies to clean up their image (AJE)
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Monsanto Found Guilty of Chemical Poisoning in... →
Anthony Gucciardi: In a major victory for public health and what will hopefully lead to other nations taking action, a French court decided today that GMO crops monster Monsanto is guilty of chemically poisoning a French farmer.
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WatchA Trip to The iFactory: ABC/Disney’s ‘Nightline’ Gets an Unprecedented Glimpse Inside Apple’s Chinese Core.
The full report airs tonight.
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WatchTruth, Lies, and Psychotropic Medication.
Good report from 60 Minutes (CBS) summarizing evidence that exercise and placebo pills are just as effective as psychiatric medications for treating mild and moderate cases of depression. By discarding clinical trials that don’t show the results they like, pharmaceutical corporations are able to manipulate the public’s attitudes about the...
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For NYT, Apple Making Less Profit Is Not Even an... →
FAIR: Consumers could almost certainly have something close to cheap gadgets and well-paid workers—but it would mean making Apple a very profitable company instead of a massively profitable one.
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Another March to War? →
Matt Taibbi: As a journalist, there’s a buzz you can detect once the normal restraints in your business have been loosened, a smell of fresh chum in the waters, urging us down the road to war. Many years removed from the Iraq disaster, that smell is back, this time with Iran.
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The U.S., Bahrain, and Iran →
Just Foreign Policy: Do you think it’s right for U.S. officials to pontificate about human rights abuses in an “adversary” country where the U.S. has little influence, but then to stay quiet while human rights are abused in a U.S. “ally” where the U.S. has much more influence, because it’s claimed that staying quiet about abuses by an “ally” serves...
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Apple's Sordid Business Practices Are Even Worse... →
As Apple bows to pressure to let independent auditors into its supplier factories, Arun Gupta exposes further exploitation by the most admired corporation in the US and the world. Criticizing the recent NYT exposé, Gupta writes that, “the Times highlighted environmental hazards and overtime,” explaining in detail how the investigation, “gloss[ed] over wages, working conditions...
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WatchU.S. has 1929-style income inequality, says Nouriel Roubini, NYU Economist.
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CIA's drone tactics in Pakistan include targeting... →
Los Angeles Times: When the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism released a report Sunday claiming that U.S. drone strikes have killed dozens of civilian rescuers and mourners in Pakistan, the American media scarcely noticed.
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$14 Billion To Be Spent On First New Nuclear... →
A boon for industry profits, a debacle for local public health, and a potential catastrophic accident waiting to happen. Despite the fairytale of “clean, safe” nuclear power, the Obama administration is offering $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees as incentive towards this plant instead of investing in renewable energy like solar, wind, or water.
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Top Israeli Soldiers and Spies Who Oppose Bombing... →
Peter Beinart: Some of Israel’s leading soldiers and spies are warning against bombing Iran. American Jews should listen to them rather than accept Netanyahu’s apocalyptic claim that Tehran’s nuclear program is an existential threat to the state.
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Top Underreported U.S. Stories of 2011 →
According to Project Censored: 1. More US Soldiers Committed Suicide Than Died in Combat
2. US Military Manipulates the Social Media
3. Obama Authorizes International Assassination Campaign
4. Global Food Crisis Expands
5. Private Prison Companies Fund Anti–Immigrant Legislation
6. Google Spying?
7. U.S. Army and Psychology’s Largest Experiment–Ever
8. The Fairytale of Clean and Safe Nuclear...
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The Cancer in Occupy →
Chris Hedges: The Black Bloc anarchists, who have been active on the streets in Oakland and other cities, are the cancer of the Occupy movement. The presence of Black Bloc anarchists—so named because they dress in black, obscure their faces, move as a unified mass, seek physical confrontations with police and destroy property—is a gift from heaven to the security and surveillance state.
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How Facebook and Google are Using You →
In this NYT op-ed, law professor Lori Andrews explains, “Ads that pop up on your screen might seem useful, or at worst, a nuisance. But they are much more than that. The bits and bytes about your life can easily be used against you. Whether you can obtain a job, credit or insurance can be based on your digital doppelgänger — and you may never know why you’ve been turned down. ...
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ABC's Iran Propaganda: Alarmist reporting on... →
FAIR: The January 31 ABC World News broadcast featured a blatantly propagandistic report on the supposed threat from Iran…Tell ABC that its January 31 report on Iran failed to challenge official claims about the supposed threat from Iran. At a time of heightened tension, journalists should act to question official rhetoric—not generate propaganda.
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Watch“The Atomic States of America”: Exploring a Nation’s Struggle with Nuclear Power
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The Generals try to stop an Iran War →
Juan Cole: It has leaked that US chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Gen. Martin Dempsey warned the Israelis that if they launched a strike on Iran that spiralled into a war, they would be on their own.
January 2012
31 posts
6 tags
How Swedes and Norwegians Broke the Power of the... →
George Lakey: While many of us are working to ensure that the Occupy movement will have a lasting impact, it’s worthwhile to consider other countries where masses of people succeeded in nonviolently bringing about a high degree of democracy and economic justice.
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Audio: Going to China to Research the Human Costs... →
This American Life: Mike Daisey was a self-described “worshipper in the cult of Mac.” Then he saw some photos from a new iPhone, taken by workers at the factory where it was made. Mike wondered: Who makes all my crap? He traveled to China to find out.
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The CEO Bankruptcy Bonus →
The Wall Street Journal: “As companies struggle through bankruptcy court, many still pay significant bonuses to top executives - despite a federal rule designed to curb such pay…By examining court documents and regulatory filings, The Wall Street Journal was able to determine the pay of executives at 21 of the 100 largest companies that recently went through bankruptcy. Together,...
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USA Press Freedom Down Significantly →
In the latest Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Ranking the USA dropped 27 places to 47th in the world, mostly due to arrests of journalists covering Occupy Wall Street.
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WatchA short video blurb published by the New York Times about the Apple assembly line in China, along with this much more in-depth article.
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Human Costs of Apple's Production Scheme →
New York Times: The workers assembling iPhones, iPads and other devices often labor in harsh conditions, according to employees inside those plants, worker advocates and documents published by companies themselves.
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Dean Baker: An Alternative to Copyright Can End... →
Economist Dean Baker: The idea of alternatives to copyright should not sound strange. There already is a vast amount of work supported through universities, private foundations and different levels of government…
One route would be to allow individuals a modest refundable tax credit - an artistic freedom voucher (AFV) - that would allow them to give $75-$100 a year to support creative...
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A French Film Takes Issue With the Psychoanalytic... →
The outdated approach to autism in France discussed in this NYT article offers a good example of how intellectual stagnation can have serious real-world consequences.
Unfortunately, French autistic children are not getting the treatment they deserve because of overly conservative and rigid thinking on the part of psychoanalysts.
Yet in comparing the US vs. France on the issue of autism, David...
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Report: "Representation Without Taxation: Fortune... →
“How Do Tax Haven Schemes Work?
Imagine a hypothetical pharmaceutical company creates a new drug. Before putting it on the market, they sell the drug patent to a subsidiary that consists of just a post office box in the Cayman Islands, at practically no cost. The drug is produced, marketed and sold to U.S. customers in the United States. The U.S. company then pays inflated ‘royalties’ or...
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How to help end violence and child labor fueled by... →
The BBC reports on how “‘conflict minerals’ that help fuel war in the Democratic Republic of Congo often end up in the most popular electronic gadgets” along with the “growing campaign to end the use of ‘conflict minerals’ in personal technology” by international consumers of laptops and cellphones. “The demand for profits contributes to...
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10 reasons the U.S. is no longer the land of the... →
The Washington Post published an annotated list summarizing the weakening of basic civil liberties under Bush and Obama. Jonathan Turley writes:
The list of powers acquired by the U.S. government since 9/11 puts us in rather troubling company.
Assassination of U.S. citizens
President Obama has claimed, as President George W. Bush did before him, the right to order the killing of any citizen...
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Asked to shoulder more economic burden,... →
Yep, it’s 2012 and Republicans have actually begun dismantling child labor laws—it’s for the kids own good, they say.
Child labor laws are being dismantled in Republican-led states like Missouri, Wisconsin, and Maine, while their propagandists promote the importance of learning an improved “work ethic,” “life lessons,” etc.
GOP canididate Newt Gingrich...
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WatchWikipedia to Shut Down Wednesday to Protest Legislation That Would Censor Internet in USA
DemocracyNow! discusses the bills in Congress that would effectively create a website blacklist in order to protect media conglomerates but would also create a filtered internet in the US.
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MLK Jr. on Being Socially "Maladjusted"
“Modern psychology has a word that is probably used more than other word in psychology. It is the word ‘maladjusted.’ Certainly we all want to live the well-adjusted life in order to avoid neurotic and schizophrenic personalities. But I must honestly say to you tonight, my friends, that there are some things in our nation and some things in the world for which I am proud to be...
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Danger Waters: Energy "chokepoints" and global... →
Michael Klare: In the new Geo-Energy Era, the control of energy and of its transport to market will lie at the heart of recurring global crises. This year, keep your eyes on three energy hot spots in particular: the Strait of Hormuz, the South China Sea, and the Caspian Sea basin.
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WatchThe line between politics and entertainment in America just got a little blurrier, but maybe this time in a good way. Stephen Colbert has been using his show’s platform for some time now to reveal the absurdities of campaign financing law and electoral politics in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling. Last year he started his own SuperPAC, a new type of political...
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DEBATE: Should journalists challenge the...
Yesterday’s piece by the New York Times public editor raises a critical question: Should reporters at major news outlets “challenge ‘facts”’ offered by sources and seek the truth?
Public editor Arthur Brisbane was right to say he doesn’t think the newspaper’s sources are being appropriately challenged. He also wondered, somewhat perplexingly, if maybe, just maybe,...
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"Mass suicide" protest at Chinese factory for... →
What are the links between Western consumer technology and human rights violations on the other side of the world?
What could possibly have compelled 150 workers to spend two days on a roof threatening to jump to their deaths?
In a related piece, Delly Mawazo Sesete argues that Apple should stop profiting from human suffering in Africa and agree to “be the first company to create a Congo...
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Drones now account for almost one-third of all... →
DemocracyNow!: According to a recent Congressional Research Service report, 31 percent of all U.S. military aircraft are drones, compared with just 5 percent in 2005.
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The Rise of Cyberschools →
Alternet: The Associated Press reports that more than 200,000 kindergarten to 12th grade students are enrolled in full-time “virtual charter schools” in at least 40 [U.S.] states. That number soars to two million schoolchildren nationwide when one takes into account students who are enrolled in at least one course.
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Is economic growth necessary for a healthy... →
Most people take it as gospel that modern economies must see “growth” in order to be healthy. Why is this?
Growth — as defined by an increase in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) — is a measure of all goods and services produced, but does not account for human health or environmental degradation. So, as has been pointed out elsewhere, when someone gets cancer or a forest gets...
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Why A Teen Who Talks Back May Have A Bright Future... →
Does one’s experience of disobedience during childhood have an effect on future independent thinking and independent action?
Recently published research in Child Development adds to the evidence that respect and active listening on the part of caretakers is the best way to respond to rebellious children and adolescents.
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Chevron Must Pay $18 Billion to Indigenous... →
AmazonWatch: Yesterday, an Ecuadorian appellate court upheld a historic $18 billion award against Chevron for the company’s deliberate contamination of the Ecuadorian Amazon. The decision is the largest environmental award ever handed down and the result of an 18-year legal battle brought by some 30,000 indigenous peoples and farmers seeking a clean up of contaminated sites, clean...