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POPSThe drum beat of idiocy... Capt Fogg nails it again: patriotism trumps any type of reason in our (right wing) politics... Will anyone actually listen to what the candidates has to say on the issues? Or is it all decided based on imagery...
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POPSTo Trust or Not to Trust? It has been hypothesized that oxytocin, a hormone recognized for its role in social attachment and facilitation of social interactions, is also important in the formation of trust. For instance, application of oxytocin to “investors” in experimental games increases their tendency to engage in social risks and trust someone else with their money (see this and this). The study by Baumgartner and his colleagues highlights the neural mechanisms through which oxytocin acts to facilitate trust behavior by investigating what happens in the brain when trust breaks down.
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POPSCommon Wealth: Sustainable future We are in one another's faces as never before, crowded into an interconnected society of global trade, migration, ideas and, yes, risk of pandemic diseases, terrorism, refugee movements and conflict. We also face a momentous choice. Continue on our current course, and the world is likely to experience growing conflicts between haves and have-nots, intensifying environmental catastrophes and downturns in living standards caused by interlocking crises of energy, water, food and violent conflict. Yet for a small annual investment of world income, undertaken cooperatively across the world, our generation can harness new technologies for clean energy, reliable food supplies, disease control and the end of extreme poverty.
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POPSMcCain has another bad week. The sad thing is he'll still probably get elected, because the voters only listen to the fluff and razzle-dazzle and ignore the substance.
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POPSBaltimore's Capital Punishment Policies Back in the good old days, Baltimore had a smaller percentage of residents living in poverty (22.7%) than the nation as a whole (27.8%), and a greater percentage of families (23.1%) earning a middle-class income of at least $44,600 in today's dollars than the rest of the country (19.1%). Today, the city has a population that is almost 50% smaller, and about 40% of families with children live at or near the federal poverty line. Among the country's 100 most populous cities, Baltimore ranks a shameful 87th on median household income. There are now at least 30,000 housing units in Baltimore that are abandoned and waiting to be demolished, while even old, upper-crust neighborhoods now have a seedy look. Property taxes are so high – as well as the strong likelihood they will soar even higher in the future – that even maintenance, no less capital improvements, are a losing proposition.
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POPSGoners We've all heard that coral reefs are in trouble, but this is one of the first major studies showing just how much trouble.
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POPSFrance the the beneficiary of nuclear growth... even though their construction projects aren't going so well. That great sucking sound you hear is proposed or in-the-works nuclear plants blowing their budgets everywhere. French company Areva's first EPR project, in Finland, is two years behind schedule and at least $1.5-billion over budget. Its second, in France's Normandy region, is headed in the same direction, after construction stalled for several weeks recently. It's not just the skyrocketing price of basic materials, such as concrete and steel, that's driving costs upward. So-called third generation reactors - such Areva's EPR and Atomic Energy's ACR-1000 - are still works in progress. And the two decades during which nuclear power faced desert-like prospects has left the industry grappling with a severe shortage of skilled workers.
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POPSThe Costs of Trying to Save without Thinking Higher medical and hospitalization costs, lost wages, homelessness and even incarceration of mentally ill patients account for the potential increase in cost, Fleeter concluded. About 45,000 people on Medicaid could be directly affected, the study said. Other studies concluded that three of four schizophrenics suffer a relapse when switching drugs, often resulting in hospitalization, homelessness or violence and incarceration.
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POPSReaganomics A suburb of Atlanta and a bastion of Conservatism discovers cognitive economic dissonance. They want government services but don't want to pay for them. Sound familiar? It's the drum beat from the Right that we hear every election season. Cut taxes (especially for the wealthy) and do away with government services. It seems the residents of this small town are finding out, albeit somewhat late, that "trickle down" is a myth and doesn't work. Wake up Republicans!
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POPSMore on the future of Iraq's oil In case you missed this bit from last month (I did), a number of no-bid contracts have been put in place to bring US oil giants (plus BP and Total) back to Iraq as "service" operators. And -- surprise -- they get to be paid in oil, not cash.
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