At sixteen years of age, Andrew Demeter investigates the veil of esotericism between American producers and consumers — genetically-modified organisms (GMOs).
Via WeAreChange… Read the rest
What this Millionaire Thinks of Poverty Will Make Your Blood Boil | Heroes and Villians
Abby Martin calls out TV show host Kevin O’Leary, for his callous celebration of the latest Oxfam statistics on the widening gap between the world’s rich and poor.
LIKE Breaking the Set @ http://fb.me/BreakingTheSet
FOLLOW Abby Martin @ http://twitter.com/AbbyMartin… Read the rest
An App To Make Your Smartphone Sense Collective Consciousness
Based on the controversial idea that spikes in mass consciousness can influence seemingly chaotic phenomena, the Collective Consciousness app turns users’ phones into random number generators and then pings you at times when spooky, anomalous patterns emerge in your area:
Collective Consciousness is a free mobile app. Data will be collected in formal investigations into “collective consciousness” effects.
In the simplest sense, labs have produced good evidence that conscious intention or attention can influence probabilistic physical systems, such as random number generators (RNGs).
The Global Consciousness Project [at Princeton University] has also shown that RNGs spread around the world produce statistical anomalies (unexplained coherence) when global events synchronize the attention and emotions of millions of people. Recent examples include the death of Nelson Mandela, and the attacks of 9/11.
Humans Can Use Smell to Detect Levels of Dietary Fat
Pic: Rasbak (CC)
Via ScienceDaily:
New research from the Monell Center reveals humans can use the sense of smell to detect dietary fat in food. As food smell almost always is detected before taste, the findings identify one of the first sensory qualities that signals whether a food contains fat. Innovative methods using odor to make low-fat foods more palatable could someday aid public health efforts to reduce dietary fat intake.
“The human sense of smell is far better at guiding us through our everyday lives than we give it credit for,” said senior author Johan Lundström, PhD, a cognitive neuroscientist at Monell. “That we have the ability to detect and discriminate minute differences in the fat content of our food suggests that this ability must have had considerable evolutionary importance.”
As the most calorically dense nutrient, fat has been a desired energy source across much of human evolution. As such, it would have been advantageous to be able to detect sources of fat in food, just as sweet taste is thought to signal a source of carbohydrate energy.
Strange Ball Lightning Caught on High-Speed Video
Some scientific groups, including the Max Planck Institute, have reportedly produced a ball lightning-type effect by discharging a high-voltage capacitor in a tank of water. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Chinese scientists gain new information on ball lightning from a chance recording.
via Live Science
A video recorded by accident of ball lightning in China is now shedding light on the phenomenon’s mysterious origins, researchers say.
Ball lightning occurs as glowing spheres ranging in size from a golf ball to a very large beach ball (1 to 100 centimeters, or 0.4 inches to 39 inches, in diameter). These fiery orbs can be white, yellow, red, orange, purple or green, and can persist for seconds or even minutes. Ball lightning typically appears during thunderstorms and usually hovers near the ground, drifting over the Earth at a few miles per hour, but it has also been seen on ships and even within airplanes.
Over the centuries, people have reported thousands of sightings of ball lightning.
MSNBC Interrupts Interview With Congresswoman On NSA To Report On Justin Bieber Arrest
YouTube User Jonmanization says:
Host Andrea Mitchell interrupts former Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-CA) to report breaking news regarding the arrest of popstar Justin Bieber. Aired on Andrea Mitchell Reports on MSNBC, 22 January 2014.
The Danger of Ignoring Eisenhower’s Warning about the Military Industrial Complex
Abby Martin remarks on the anniversary of President Eisenhower’s farewell address, citing his warning to the American people of the danger of the military industrial complex.
Dinesh D’Souza, ’2016: Obama’s America’ Filmmaker, Indicted For Campaign Finance Violation
.jpg)
Dinesh D’Souza. Photo: Mark Taylor (CC)
No doubt this will make Dinesh D’Souza (director of the breakout documentary 2016 Obama’s America) even more of a hero to a certain Obama-hating segment of the American population, but are the charges really politically motivated? From the Hollywood Reporter:
Dinesh D’Souza is accused of giving too much money to a candidate who sought to replace former New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. Producer Gerald Molen tells The Hollywood Reporter the charges are politically motivated.
Conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza, whose documentary 2016: Obama’s America took a critical look at President Barack Obama and was a surprise hit in 2012, will be arrested in New York on Friday for allegedly violating campaign-finance laws, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Federal authorities accuse D’Souza of donating more than is legal to the campaign of Wendy Long, who ran in 2012 for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton but lost to now-Sen.
Verizon Says U.S. Authorities Made 320,000 Requests For Customer Data Last Year
This is, of course, setting aside the much broader data collection conducted by the NSA. PCWorld writes:
Verizon Communications received more than 320,000 requests for customer information from U.S. federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in 2013, more than 100 times the number of requests from any other country, the telecom carrier said in its first surveillance transparency report.
Verizon received more than 164,000 subpoenas from U.S. law enforcement agencies and nearly 71,000 court orders, including more than 6,300 pen-register or trap-and-trace orders and nearly 1,500 wiretap orders last year, Verizon said.
Verizon is one of a handful of tech and telecom companies that have begun to publish surveillance transparency reports after revelations last year of U.S. National Security Agency programs by former contractor Edward Snowden.
Hannibal Lecter Isn’t a Psychopath, But You Might Be
Robert Stroud (Birdman of Alcatraz). Mug shot 29 October 1951. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) (PD)
It appears that the many forms of media may have skewed the common perception of what a psychopath is and how they appear.
via QUARTZ
Some of the most famous psychopaths of the silver screen are anything but, according to an extensive analysis by forensic psychiatrist Samuel Leistedt. In fact, you probably have the wrong idea about psychopaths in general—and you almost certainly know a few.
A psychopath, Leistedt told ScienceNews, is someone who lacks empathy. “They’re cold-blooded,” he said. “They don’t know what emotion is.” To create a cinema-based curriculum for teaching psychiatry students about psychopaths—and about how popular perception of them has shifted over time—Leistedt watched 400 movies depicting psychopaths (and “sociopaths”—some distinguish between the two, but there’s no official diagnostic difference) and diagnosed each and every one of their featured villains. Once he weeded out supernatural characters, he was left with 105 male and 21 female characters to analyze with a team of 10 forensic scientists.
