Thursday, April 21st, 2016
Elliott Negin , Senior Writer - Alternet/Union of Concerned Scientists
Stephan: In the lead story in today's edition the report covered the corruption of science, particularly in areas of research where big money comes into play. Here is a case study making the point even clearer. The coal industry just like the tobacco industry a generation before, in fact coal adopted the Tobacco playbook, found scientists willing to be intellectual whores, and threw a slop bucket of money at them to produce obfuscation concerning climate change. The thing about history though is that eventually this kind of corruption comes to light one way or another.
Credit: Shutterstock
Peabody Energy, the nation’s largest investor-owned coal company, declared bankruptcy Wednesday. Among the many consequences, the company’s court-ordered disclosures are likely to yield hard evidence of Peabody’s direct links to climate science denial.
After all, that’s what we learned from the bankruptcy filings of two other major U.S. coal companies, Arch Coal and Alpha Natural Resources. The companies’ lists of creditors accompanying their Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings both cited known climate science deniers. So far, the bankruptcy cases have not revealed the details of these financial relationships. But there is no doubt the coal companies contracted with these groups and individuals to either make a donation or pay for services.
This new evidence is important at a time when coal and oil and gas companies are under increased scrutiny about their ongoing climate science disinformation campaigns. ExxonMobil currently faces state and possibly federal investigations into whether the discrepancies between what the company knew about climate science and what it told its shareholders and the public amounted to fraud.
Of course, there’s no shortage of historical […]
No Comments
Wednesday, April 20th, 2016
Stephan A. Schwartz, Columnist - Explore - The Journal of Science and Healing
Stephan: In this election cycle much is talked about concerning supporting children. Everyone is for children right? Well... no, as it turns out. I got interested in what the social outcome data actually showed about children in the United States, and this is what I found.
As President Obama said at the Newtown, Connecticut memorial service for the children murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School, “Caring for our Children. If we don׳t get that right, we don׳t get anything right.”
So do we take good care of our children? If you use actual facts, instead of fantasy, ideology or theology, it is pretty clear that while individual parents struggle against all odds working multiple jobs to protect and nurture their children, as a society the answer must be: No. It is a horrible truth, and I expect most people would be resistant to that conclusion, using their own intentions for their own children as their measure. But when we stand before ourselves, naked for just a moment of our illusions, facts tell us something very different.
Start at the beginning, with infant mortality. How likely is it that an American baby will survive birth? We are the richest country in the world, and we spend more, so very much more, on healthcare than any other country on Earth. Yet the data says there is no correlation between money expended and outcome. Two years ago […]
No Comments
Wednesday, April 20th, 2016
Neal Gabler , - The Atlantic
Stephan: Here I think is the sad and bitter truth of America and those who once made up its middle class. As a person who makes his living from research, writing, and speaking I can only concur with the views expressed here. I could write a $400 check but I definitely don't have the income I once had -- the collapse of book publishing, and magazine writing as income sources has been very dramatic -- and I see many formerly economically secure friends who might have trouble writing that check.
And the tragedy of all this is it is entirely self-inflicted. We are in the situation we are in not because of external forces, but because we will not make wellness America's first priority, and we have consistently elected corrupt Rightists who haven't a clue how to govern in a way that increases wellness and who are mostly driven by ideology, theology, fear, and hate.
Since 2013, the Federal Reserve Board has conducted a survey to “monitor the financial and economic status of American consumers.” Most of the data in the latest survey, frankly, are less than earth-shattering: 49 percent of part-time workers would prefer to work more hours at their current wage; 29 percent of Americans expect to earn a higher income in the coming year; 43 percent of homeowners who have owned their home for at least a year believe its value has increased. But the answer to one question was astonishing. The Fed asked respondents how they would pay for a $400 emergency. The answer: 47 percent of respondents said that either they would cover the expense by borrowing or selling something, or they would not be able to come up with the $400 at all. Four hundred dollars! Who knew?
Well, I knew. I knew because I am in that 47 percent.
I know what it is like to have to juggle creditors to make it through a week. I know what it is like to […]
No Comments
Wednesday, April 20th, 2016
Sara Peach, - Scientific American/Environmental Health News
Stephan: In this report you can see clearly the corporate/government corruption that created this mess the report describes, as well as the effect this corruption has had on the lives of ordinary people. This plus a Congress whose majority party takes pride in doing as little as possible goes a long way to explaining why we are in the situation we are in. Nothing but wellness oriented citizens voting to support their life-affirming goals will change this.
North Carolina Coash Ash Pit Spill
Credit: NYTijmes
DUKEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA — Deborah Graham’s life changed on April 18, 2015, with the arrival of a letter.
Graham was in the kitchen, pouring a cup of coffee. Her husband, Marcelle, opened a large certified envelope just dropped off by the mail carrier.
“The North Carolina Division of Public Health recommends that your well water not be used for drinking and cooking,” the letter said.
“What did you just say?” Graham asked, incredulous.
“The water’s contaminated,” her husband replied.
Graham’s eyes flew to her kitchen faucet. She thought about the coffee she’d just swallowed. The food she’d cooked and sent over to her church. The two children she’d raised in this house.
She dumped the rest of her coffee down the sink.
The ordinary routines of the Graham household had been disrupted by vanadium, which can cause nausea, diarrhea and cramps. In animal studies, vanadium has caused decreased red blood cell counts, elevated blood pressure and neurological effects.
While the element is found in Earth’s crust, it’s also one […]
1 Comment
Wednesday, April 20th, 2016
Stephan: "In 2009, a
Harvard Business School study found that residents of Utah were the highest per capita purchasers of online adult entertainment in the United States." That's the starting fact. To me the next question should be, Utah is overwhelmingly Mormon, with very particular views about the role of women so why does this conservative patriarchal religious society feel the need to look at porn? The most queried term in Utah by the way is "shemale", which is an interesting insight in itself. Here's a third fact: Mormon women are the per capita highest users of antidepressant medications in the country.
Why is this happening is the obvious question, but it is not the one being asked. In fact no one is asking questions; as this report lays out the impulse is not to understand the sexual dysfunction that pervades the culture but to create a legal prohibition outlawing it, and we all know how prohibitions work don't we? And of course, the red flag to catch the bull's attention is that this is about child porn. In fact porn sites are rigidly controlled and scrupulous about underage participants. Studies show that unless you know sites in the Deep Web child porn is not an issue unless you are yourself sending and receiving it. Is that a particular issue with Mormons? I don't know. The Utah governor and legislature seem to think so.
Do I need to mention that this is all being done by Republicans? Probably not.
Utah Gov. Gary R. Herbert signed two pieces of legislation on Tuesday that aim to combat what’s called “a sexually toxic environment” caused by porn.
“Pornography is a public health crisis. Today I signed two bills that will bring its dangers to light. S.C.R. 9 calls for additional research and education so that more individuals and families are aware of the harmful effects of pornography,” said Herbert on the governor’s Facebook page.
One is technically a resolution, and the other one is a bill:
— S.C.R. 9 Concurrent Resolution on the Public Health Crisis.
This resolution declares that pornography is “a public health hazard leading to a broad spectrum of individual and public health impacts and societal harms.”
The resolution claims Utah would be the first state in the nation to make such a […]
1 Comment
