Imagine that your stockbroker – or the friend who’s always giving you stock tips – called and told you he had come up with a new investment strategy. Price-to-earnings ratios, debt levels, management, competition, what the company makes, and how well it makes it, all those considerations go out the window. The new strategy is this: Invest in companies with names that are very easy to pronounce. This would probably not strike you as a great idea. But, if recent research is to be believed, it might just be brilliant. One of the hottest topics in psychology today is something called ‘cognitive fluency. Cognitive fluency is simply a measure of how easy it is to think about something, and it turns out that people prefer things that are easy to think about to those that are hard. On the face of it, it’s a rather intuitive idea. But psychologists are only beginning to uncover the surprising extent to which fluency guides our thinking, and in situations where we have no idea it is at work. Psychologists have determined, for example, that shares in companies with easy-to-pronounce names do indeed significantly outperform those with hard-to-pronounce names. Other studies […]
With national health reform in peril, California has taken matters into its own hands. Its Democratic-led Senate last Thursday approved the creation of a single-payer insurance system. Authored by Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), the bill passed in a largely party-line vote of 22-14. The legislation would replace private health insurance in the state with a Medicare-type program that covers all residents. Leno told Raw Story in an interview that ‘it really doesn’t matter’ if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger follows through with his veto threat because Californians will place the measure on the ballot. ‘In California, the voters get the final say,’ Leno said, suggesting the ballot initiative ‘could be as early as 2012, if not 2014.’ He said that even if Schwarzenegger signs the legislation into law, insurance companies would probably fight to overturn it in a ballot measure opposing single-payer. The state senator said he ‘[chooses] to remain confident’ it will succeed but refused to be complacent, admitting that taking on the insurance industry will be a huge challenge. He said proponents of the program must educate voters to protect them from disinformation. ‘Single payer is not socialized medicine,’ Leno explained. ‘We simply […]
Cancer patients are offering themselves as human guinea pigs as researchers investigate a possible cure for cancer found in north Queensland rainforests. Scientists have identified a compound in the fruit of the native blushwood shrub that appears to ‘liquefy and destroy cancer with no side-effects’, according to latest research. Found deep in the remnants of a 130 million-year-old rainforest, the fruit extract may yet hold the secret antidote to Australia’s No.1 killer disease. Victoria Gordon, of EcoBiotics, an Atherton Tableland-based company, said they hoped to go to human clinical trials later this year. Dr Gordon said a single dose injection of the extract, known as EBC-46, had been effective in 50 critically ill dogs and about a dozen cats and horses. ‘This is proving to be something exceptional,’ she said. ‘The tumour literally liquefies. ‘There is a rapid knock-down of the tumour, it disintegrates within 24 hours and we have a rapid healing response. ‘The biggest tumour we treated was the size of a Coke can in a dog, and that animal is fully healed and healthy.’ Dr Gordon said it had worked on skin cancers, such as carcinomas and melanomas, […]
Sen. Richard Shelby’s (R-Ala.) decision to place a ‘blanket hold’ on all presidential nominations until a pair of billion-dollar earmarks for his home state are fast-tracked has reignited the debate over the parliamentary tactics being deployed by the Republican Party. It also has thrust into the spotlight the clout that major defense contractors often wield on the political process. On Thursday evening, news broke that the Alabama Republican has taken the extraordinary measure of holding up at least 70 ‘nominations on the Senate calendar’ — essentially threatening to filibuster the confirmation processes if they came to a vote. The move has spurred a series of recriminations from Democratic officials who see it as yet another instance of over-the-top obstructionism of the president’s agenda. It also has turned inquisitive eyes towards Shelby himself. The Senator confirmed that he launched the hold, in part, because he is upset with a tanker contract worth $35 billion that remains unresolved between Northrop Grumman/EADs and Boeing. Shelby favors the Northrop Grummann-EADS bid largely because it would result in tankers being assembled in his home state. The two contractors, in turn, have donated to Shelby’s campaign committees, hoping ostensibly to secure favor or […]
Anthem Blue Cross customers got a shock this week when the health insurer informed thousands of individual policyholders that their premium rates will jump as much as 39 percent on March 1. ‘There aren’t any other parts of our society where people have no regard for inflation rate and increase their prices this much. I can’t imagine anything in the world that’s going up 39 percent,’ said Josh Libresco, 54, of San Rafael, as he grappled with the news that his family premium will go from $858 per month to $1,192 – and that’s with a $5,000 deductible. Anthem, which has reportedly sent letters this week to those who buy their coverage individually and are not covered by a group policy, said rising health care costs led to the increase. The company, based in Woodland Hills (Los Angles County), declined to say how many customers received the increase or what the average premium hike was, but the insurer has the largest number of individual customers in the state. Last year, when Anthem Blue Cross raised rates by as much as 68 percent for some customers, the company said it had about 800,000 members. The Department of […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
