Sniffing women’s tears reduces male aggression
By PLOS
The study led by Shani Agron at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, finds that sniffing tears leads to reduced brain activity related to aggression, which results in less aggressive behavior.
Pay more, put up with more ads or get less
Kathryn Cramer Brownell, Purdue University
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| U.S. Sen. John Kerry grills representatives from the cable industry during a 1990 hearing on consumer protections. C-SPAN |
The major streaming services – Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, Disney+ and Max – have all announced rate hikes and new advertising policies.
As I show in my new book, “24/7 Politics: Cable Television and the Fragmenting of America from Watergate to Fox News,” the streaming boom that has imperiled cable television is actually built upon the very same business model that made television viewers pay for monthly subscriptions decades ago.
Like their cable predecessors, streaming companies have lured people in with promises of a better and cheaper viewing experience. Now that they have a robust subscriber base, they’re in the process of raising rates while also introducing more commercials and bundling programming to make customers pay more and more.
There is a difference, though. When cable companies tried similar tactics in the late 1980s, there was an uproar from politicians who called such business practices “unfair” to their constituents. Now, there’s nary a peep – a sign of just how inured Americans have become to the whims of corporations trying to squeeze their customers.
Will Trump do it again this year - or has he already begun?
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What set Jan. 6 apart was the defeated president of the United States using his cellphone to direct an attack on the Capitol, and those who stormed the Capitol being wired and ready for insurrection.
My co-authors and I, a media and disinformation scholar, call this networked incitement: influential figures inciting large-scale political violence via social media. Networked incitement involves insurgents communicating across multiple platforms to command and coordinate mobilized social movements in the moment of action.
The reason there was not more bloodshed on Jan. 6 emerged through investigation into the Oath Keepers, a vigilante organization composed mostly of former military and police. During their trials for seditious conspiracy, members of the Oath Keepers testified about weapons caches in hotels and vans, stashed near Washington, D.C. As one member described it, “I had not seen that many weapons in one location since I was in the military.”
“It Sounds Bad, and It Is Bad”
By WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF
MEDICINE
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The good news is that quitting smoking prevents further loss of brain tissue — but still, stopping smoking doesn’t restore the brain to its original size. Since people’s brains naturally lose volume with age, smoking effectively causes the brain to age prematurely, the researchers said.
The findings, published in Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science, help
explain why smokers are at high risk of age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease.
Surprising study results show limits of using recommended steps to debunk false content
New York University
The findings,
which appear in the journal Nature, offer insights into the impact
of search engines' output on their users -- a relatively under-studied area.
Van Slyke spins the facts about Charlestown
By Deborah Carney, Charlestown Town Council President
Be honest Bonnie, the CCA made mistakes. Stop trying to
convince everyone that things in Charlestown were perfect under the CCA
leadership. They were not. As issues come to light, this current Town
Council is not sweeping them under the rug. We are addressing them, in
public, as we should.
The buck stops with the Town Council, not the
staff. The issue is not that there was a mistake, the issue is how you
handle the mistake. The CCA handled mistakes by trying to convince people
that everything was fine when it was not. Candidates endorsed by Charlestown
Residents United face these issues in a transparent manner.
As to the assertions in her letter:
I never said the staff violated the Impact Fee
Ordinance. I said the town violated the ordinance. That falls on
past councils. CCA supporters can claim the impact fees have been handled
properly, but no one can seem to find the required documentation for
expenditures of this money.
The issue of the legality of an elected Planning
Commission has been raised in the past but never decided by the
courts. A recent change in Rhode Island state law provides for
applicants to appeal decisions of the Planning Commission directly to the
Superior Court. It is highly likely that this issue will once again be
raised by an applicant aggrieved by a Planning Commission decision.
The Charlestown Affordable Housing Commission raised the
issue of applications for Accessory Dwelling Units not being accepted by the
town and requested the Town Council act upon this matter. The Town Council will
hold a public hearing on the ADU ordinance amendments in January.
There was in fact a problem with the payroll, which was
evidenced by the fact the council had to transfer a large sum of money to cover
the shortfall. The problem was addressed and corrected, not swept under
the rug.
This Town Council is not afraid to discuss town issues in
public. Nor will we sweep problems under the rug. If something is
not being done correctly, we will fix it.
As mistakes come to light, the CCA desperately tries to
convince the taxpayers that under their leadership everything was perfect, and
they did everything correctly. They did not. Stop making statements
that aren’t true as you try to divert attention away from what really happened.
To my fellow Charlestown residents, stay tuned, because we have also seen the CCA tall-tale machine spinning with regards to the Ninigret Master Plan Update. The truth will come out on that matter, despite their best efforts to the contrary.
Rational Riddles: Unpacking the Puzzle of Political Polarization
By PETER DIZIKES, MASSACHUSETTS
INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
This is often regarded as a product of irrationality: People can be tribal, are influenced by their peers, and often get information from very different, sometimes inaccurate sources.
Tribalism and misinformation are real enough. But what if people are often acting rationally as well, even in the process of arriving at very different views?
What if they are not being misled or too
emotional, but are thinking logically?
He's rich but claims to be broke - and you're not
ROBERT REICH in Robertreich.Substack.Com
Within days of a nearly $150 million judgment against
former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani for defaming Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss,
the election workers Giuliani falsely claimed stole the 2020 election in
Georgia for President Joe Biden, Giuliani filed for bankruptcy.
Getty Images
He thereby shielded himself from having to surrender his
assets to fulfill the judgment, at least in the near term.
The long term may be quite long. Freeman and Moss may not
see a penny of that judgment for many years, and when they do, it’s likely to
be far less than $150 million.
One of the most basic of all questions in a market
economy is what to do when someone can’t pay what they owe. The U.S.
Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Clause 4) authorizes Congress to enact
“uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States.”
Congress has done so repeatedly. In the last few decades,
Congress’ changes have reflected the demands of the wealthy, giant
corporations, and Wall Street banks, which have made it harder for average
people to declare bankruptcy but easier for themselves to do it.
Many people are too broke to go bankrupt. Filing for
bankruptcy costs money, as does hiring an attorney (which is the best way to
make sure you actually get debt relief). Because attorney fees, like other
debts, are wiped out in a bankruptcy, most bankruptcy lawyers require clients
to pay in full before filing.
