Utility Companies Deny Right-Wing Media Claims Of Union Discrimination

Same old same old. As a Facebook friend commented:
Breitbart was a right wing political mouthpiece with the Washington Times who had a history of making up stories out of whole cloth. He died in March, and I suspect that his "media empire" is now essentially just another propaganda outlet for the Wash Times, itself a very right leaning newsrag.
To put it in other terms, I'd give the National Enquirer higher marks for journalistic integrity and accuracy here.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/11/02/utility-companies-deny-right-wing-media-claims/191101

November 2, 2012 3:18 PM EDT ››› ANDY NEWBOLD

The right-wing media falsely reported that Alabama-based utility companies were turned away in New Jersey for hurricane disaster relief because they use non-union labor. However, multiple Alabama utility companies mentioned in these media reports say the claims are "rumors" and simply "not true," and New Jersey utility companies have also denied that non-union working crews have been turned away.

Matt Romney Goes To Russia, Secretly Tells Putin To Ignore Dad’s Campaign Rhetoric

http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/11/02/1131011/matt-romney-russia/

By Hamed Aleaziz posted from ThinkProgress Security on Nov 2, 2012

This week Mitt Romney’s son Matt traveled to Moscow for business and, reports say, allayed any concerns the Russian government had about his father’s harsh stance on Russia. When it comes to Russia, Mitt Romney has been brash, at one point labeling Russia “without question our number one geopolitical foe” and “a geopolitical adversary.” He’s also repeatedly lashed out at President Obama for allegedly being weak on Russia. But according to a New York Times report, Matt Romney is trying to convince Russia that the tough talk is just talk:

“But while in Moscow, Mr. Romney told a Russian known to be able to deliver messages to Mr. Putin that despite the campaign rhetoric, his father wants good relations if he becomes president, according to a person informed about the conversation.”

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Job Growth Continuing under Obama

See the link below for a graph of all job growth/decline. It shows a trend of increasing jobs, but somewhat lower because of loss of government jobs. Of course, the conservatives say we should have fewer government jobs, so that should make them happy.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/11/02/14879550-us-job-growth-accelerates-exceeds-expectations?lite

By Steve Benen
Fri Nov 2, 2012

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The U.S. economy created 171,000 jobs in October, far more than expected, while American businesses created 184,000 jobs -- the best month for the private sector since February.

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For context, I'd note that so far in 2012 (which still has two months to go), the economy has created over 1.56 million jobs, which is already better than five of the eight years of the Bush/Cheney era.

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Here's another chart, this one showing monthly job losses/gains in just the private sector since the start of the Great Recession.

Chevron Earns $19 Billion Profit So Far This Year, Spending Millions To Elect House GOP

The oil companies are also making big payments to organizations that try to convince people that global warming is not happening; or if it it, humans are not the cause; or if humans are the cause we shouldn't let the government take action because we want to be free; etc.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/11/02/1129671/chevron-earns-19-billion-profit-so-far-this-year-spending-millions-to-elect-house-gop/

By Rebecca Leber on Nov 2, 2012
By Jackie Weidman and Rebecca Leber

Chevron, the second largest oil company in the United States and eighth largest in the world, earned $5.3 billion in profits in the third-quarter of 2012. This brings their total profits for the first nine months of this year to $19 billion.

Last month, Chevron made the single-largest corporate donation since Citizens United. The company dropped $2.5 million with the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC for House Republicans, after congressional GOP voted at least twice to protect Chevron’s $700 million tax breaks.

Below is a glimpse at what Chevron is spending its billions in profits:

– Chevron paid a 19 percent effective federal tax rate in 2011, after making $26.9 billion profit.

– Since 2011, Chevron has spent $16.6 million lobbying Congress to block pollution controls and safeguards for public health.

– Chevron spent $3.7 million on campaign contributions this election, with 85 percent of contributions going to Republicans. Chevron gave more than any of the other Big Five Companies.

–Meanwhile, Chevron’s production has decreased by over 6 percent since this time last year, from 1.7 billion barrels of net liquids (oil + natural gas liquids) to a current rate of 1.68 billion barrels per day.

– Chevron is sitting on cash reserves totaling $21.3 billion, up from $15.8 billion in January.

– Chevron spent 24 percent of its Q3 profits buying back stocks ($1.25 billion), which enriches the largest shareholders.

– Chevron paid a 19 percent effective federal tax rate in 2011, well below the statutory corporate rate of 35 percent.

– Chevron CEO John Watson received over $17 million in compensation last year.

The Big Five companies are on track to make over $100 billion in profits this year, while they collect $2.4 billion in annual tax breaks. Meanwhile, they are producing 5 percent less oil than the third quarter last year. The Big Five has spent more than $100 million lobbying Congress since 2011, and millions on campaign contributions.

“Glitch” wipes out 1,000 early votes in black FL neighborhood

Such things do happen by accident, but we have to be suspicious when they seem to consistently happen in the same direction of reducing votes for the opposition.

http://americablog.com/2012/11/computer-glitch-votes-black-florida-county-election-fraud.html

11/1/2012 12:54pm by John Aravosis

There was a story over at NBC’s The Grio http://thegrio.com/2012/10/29/florida-early-vote-totals-revised-raising-questions/?fb_ref=http%3A%2F%2Fthegrio.com%2F three days ago noting that at one Florida polling location, in a heavily black neighborhood, the number of people who voted early was suddenly “revised” from 2,945 to 1,942 – that’s a 34% decrease.

At first, polling officials blamed it on a “computer glitch.” Uh huh. And what glitch would that be?

The local supervisor of elections (SOE) didn’t inspire a lot of hope when speaking about another, smaller, change to the early voting numbers at another polling location:

Broward SOE spokesperson Mary Cooney acknowledged that the Sunday totals were revised, and said she would look into why.

“I can’t tell you definitively now,” Cooney said, “but I queried the person who posts those numbers and the most significant number he told me he changed was an instance where 1050 should have been 1150 — the numbers were transposed.”

He transposed the numbers by hand? And this is how Florida tallies votes?

The Grio followed up on the story the next day, Tuesday of this week, and got a different answer about the 1,000 vote discrepancy: now they’re saying “human error.”

Acceptable Georgia Photo ID

A friend asked me about a rumor someone had told her about acceptable Georgia voter ID for voting. It was false.

http://www.sos.georgia.gov/gaphotoid/default.htm

What IDs are acceptable?

Any valid state or federal government issued photo ID, including a FREE Voter ID Card issued by your county registrar's office or the Georgia Department of Driver Services (DDS)
A Georgia Driver's License, even if expired
Valid employee photo ID from any branch, department, agency, or entity of the U.S. Government, Georgia, or any county, municipality, board, authority or other entity of this state
Valid U.S. passport ID
Valid U.S. military photo ID
Valid tribal photo ID

Georgia's Voter Identification Card

If you do not have one of the six acceptable forms of photo ID, the State of Georgia offers a FREE Voter Identification Card. An identification card can be issued at any county registrar's office or Department of Driver Services Office free of charge.
To Receive a voter identification card, the voter must provide:
A photo identity document or approved non-photo identity document that includes full legal name and date of birth
Documentation showing the voter's date of birth
Evidence that the applicant is a registered voter
Documentation showing the applicant's name and residential address

High blood pressure damages the brain in early middle age

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-10/uoc--hbp103012.php

Public release date: 31-Oct-2012
Contact: Phyllis Brown
University of California - Davis Health System

Research is the first to demonstrate structural damage to the brain from high blood pressure among people as young as 40

Uncontrolled high blood pressure damages the brain's structure and function as early as young middle-age, and even the brains of middle-aged people who clinically would not be considered to have hypertension have evidence of silent structural brain damage, a study led by researchers at UC Davis has found.

The investigation found accelerated brain aging among hypertensive and prehypertensive individuals in their 40s, including damage to the structural integrity of the brain's white matter and the volume of its gray matter, suggesting that vascular brain injury "develops insidiously over the lifetime with discernible effects."

The study is the first to demonstrate that there is structural damage to the brains of adults in young middle age as a result of high blood pressure, the authors said. Structural damage to the brain's white matter caused by high blood pressure previously has been associated with cognitive decline in older individuals.

Published online today in the medical journal The Lancet Neurology, the study will appear in print in the December 2012 issue. It emphasizes the need for lifelong attention to vascular risk factors for brain aging, said study senior author Charles DeCarli, professor of neurology and director of the UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Center.

"The message here is really clear: People can influence their late-life brain health by knowing and treating their blood pressure at a young age, when you wouldn't necessarily be thinking about it," DeCarli said. "The people in our study were cognitively normal, so a lack of symptoms doesn't mean anything."

Normal blood pressure is considered a systolic blood pressure -- the top number -- below 120 and a diastolic pressure -- the bottom number -- below 80. Prehypertensive blood pressure range is a top number between 120 and 139 and a bottom number between 80 and 89. Blood pressures above 140 over 90 are considered high.

New Multiple Sclerosis Drug Proves Effective Where Others Have Failed

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121031214144.htm

ScienceDaily (Oct. 31, 2012) — Alemtuzumab, a drug previously used to treat a type of leukemia, shown to help people with early multiple sclerosis who relapsed on previous drugs as well as patients who had not yet been treated.

A drug which 'reboots' a person's immune system has been shown to be an effective treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) patients who have already failed to respond to the first drug with which they were treated (a 'first-line' therapy), as well as affected individuals who were previously untreated. The results of these two phase III clinical trials were published November 1 in the journal The Lancet.

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In the CARE MSII trial, confined to patients who had recently relapsed on a licenced therapy, new episodes were reduced by 49 per cent more than that achieved by the current standard treatment for MS, interferon beta-1a. Over a two year period, 65 per cent of patients on alemtuzumab compared to 47 per cent of patients on interferon remained relapse free. Additionally, alemtuzumab reduced the risk of acquiring disability by 42 per cent compared to interferon: disability worsened in 20% of interferon patients and 13% of alemtuzumab patients. Moreover, at the end of the study, on average, patients taking alemtuzumab had less disability than when they started the trial whereas those on interferon had experienced worsening disability.

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The results of a second phase III clinical trial (CARE MS I) also examined the effectiveness of alemtuzumab against the drug interferon beta-1a but in 581 drug-naïve patients.

It found that alemtuzumab reduced the number of attacks experienced by people with relapsing-remitting MS by 55 per cent over and above that achieved by interferon beta-1a. Over a two year period, 78 per cent of patients on alemtuzumab compared to 59 per cent of patients on interferon remained relapse free. The proportion of patients experiencing worsening of disability on this trial was slightly lower after alemtuzumab than interferon beta-1a, but this result was not statistically significant.

For both studies, the principal side-effect of treatment with alemtuzumab was the development of other autoimmune diseases. During the trials, roughly 20 per cent of patients developed thyroid autoimmunity and 1 per cent developed an immune thrombocytopenia. Previous work has shown that up to 30 per cent of patients may develop autoimmune thyroid disease over time.

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Neuroscience Reveals Brain Differences Between Republicans and Democrats

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121101105003.htm

ScienceDaily (Nov. 1, 2012) — New research from the University of South Carolina provides fresh evidence that choosing a candidate may depend largely on our biological make-up. That's because the brains of self-identified Democrats and Republicans are hard-wired differently and may be naturally inclined to hold varying, if not opposing, perceptions and values. This study showed a strong link with broad social connectedness with Democrats, and a strong link with tight social connectedness with Republicans.

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The results found more neural activity in areas believed to be linked with broad social connectedness in Democrats (friends, the world at-large) and more activity in areas linked with tight social connectedness in the Republicans (family, country). In some ways the study confirms a stereotype about members of the two parties -- Democrats tend to be more global and Republicans more America-centric -- but it actually runs counter to other recent research indicating Democrats enjoyed a virtual biological lock on caring for others.

"The results were a little surprising," Newman-Norlund said. "This shows the picture is more complicated. One possible explanation for our results is that Democrats and Republicans process social connectedness in a fundamentally different way."

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The research also suggests that maintaining an open mind about political issues may be easier said than done. In fact, bridging partisan divides and acting contrary to ideological preferences likely requires going against deeply ingrained biological tendencies. And while there is evidence that mirror neuron connections can change over time, it's not something that happens overnight, Newman-Norlund said.

"The (brain) differences could be a result of genetics, experiences, or a combination of both," he said. "It takes a lot of effort to see the other side and we're not going to wake up one day and all start getting along."

Understanding the differences and their origins, however, is a step in the right direction, he said.

Why Seas Are Rising Ahead of Predictions

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121101153549.htm

ScienceDaily (Nov. 1, 2012) — Sea levels are rising faster than expected from global warming, and University of Colorado geologist Bill Hay has a good idea why. The last official IPCC report in 2007 projected a global sea level rise between 0.2 and 0.5 meters by the year 2100. But current sea-level rise measurements meet or exceed the high end of that range and suggest a rise of one meter or more by the end of the century.

"What's missing from the models used to forecast sea-level rise are critical feedbacks that speed everything up," says Hay. He will be presenting some of these feedbacks in a talk on Nov. 4, at the meeting of The Geological Society of America in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.

One of those feedbacks involves Arctic sea ice, another the Greenland ice cap, and another soil moisture and groundwater mining.

"There is an Arctic sea ice connection," says Hay, despite the fact that melting sea ice -- which is already in the ocean -- does not itself raise sea level. Instead, it plays a role in the overall warming of the Arctic, which leads to ice losses in nearby Greenland and northern Canada. When sea ice melts, Hay explains, there is an oceanographic effect of releasing more fresh water from the Arctic, which is then replaced by inflows of brinier, warmer water from the south.

"So it's a big heat pump that brings heat to the Arctic," says Hay. "That's not in any of the models." That warmer water pushes the Arctic toward more ice-free waters, which absorb sunlight rather than reflect it back into space like sea ice does. The more open water there is, the more heat is trapped in the Arctic waters, and the warmer things can get.

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Superstorm Sandy a ‘wake-up call,’ says former climate change skeptic James Balog

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/article/1281278--superstorm-sandy-a-wake-up-call-says-former-climate-change-skeptic-james-balog

Published on Thursday November 01, 2012
By Linda Barnard

“Nature isn’t natural anymore,” says photographer James Balog, whose dramatic work chronicling the devastating impact of climate change on the world’s glaciers is profiled in director Jeff Orlowski’s award-winning documentary Chasing Ice.

The film, which won the audience award at Hot Docs in May, opens in theatres (including Toronto at the TIFF Bell Lightbox) Nov. 8. But the New York premiere is in doubt.

The theatre is south of the blackout line in lower Manhattan, one of the areas slammed by super-storm Sandy earlier this week, a weather event directly related to climate change according to scientists, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and, of course, Balog.

“I was pleased to see distinguished political figures acknowledge what the information has been saying all along,” said Balog from his Colorado office. “Things that should have been talked about and dealt with . . . Sandy is a wake-up call.”

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Chasing Ice shows the result of several years’ work by Balog, initially an avowed climate change skeptic. He and his team later expanded their work into an ongoing international monitoring project called the Extreme Ice Survey.

Cameras were placed in remote spots, often with great difficulty, in order to gather time-lapse photographs of glaciers in Iceland, Greenland, Alaska and Montana. The resulting images, gathered over periods as short as months and as long as several years, becomes shocking as glaciers melt and retreat before the audience’s eyes.

“Nobody had ever photographed what this process looks like over the short term,” said Balog. “I expected to see marginal changes, but the volume of change, the rate of change and the sheer dynamics of these changes was an absolute shock. It remains an absolute shock.”

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Romney’s ‘Plan’ To Help The Auto Industry: Massive Corporate Tax Breaks

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/10/31/1115891/romney-auto-plan-massive-tax-breaks/

By Travis Waldron posted from ThinkProgress Economy on Oct 31, 2012

Mitt Romney’s misleading auto bailout ads that hit Ohio this week touted his plan to help the auto industry, even though no specific plan was mentioned, no plan exists on his web site, and his presidential campaign did not respond to requests from reporters when asked about the plan.

Writing on Romney’s campaign web site, ex-Chrysler chairman and Romney endorser Lee Iacocca has now laid out Romney’s plan to help the auto industry: it’s a massive corporate tax break that will make it easier for businesses to offshore their profits.

When Mitt Romney is president, he will reduce our nation’s corporate tax rate to 25 percent from 35 percent – currently the highest combined tax rate in the industrial world – so that American car companies can compete on a level playing field at home and abroad. He will also stop the extra tax automakers are forced to pay when they want to bring home their profits to reinvest in the United States. President Obama could have done this the day he took office since his party controlled both houses of Congress, but he chose not to. [my emphasis]

Steven Rattner, Treasury’s lead adviser during the auto rescue, said on a conference call today that he would “take issue” with the idea that auto companies need tax breaks. “I’m not sure what Lee Iacocca is talking about,” Rattner said. “The least of the industry’s problems has been taxes. When you lose as much money as they lost, you don’t pay taxes and you often don’t pay them for a very long time. That’s not the industry’s problem.”

Romney’s plan, at a cost of more than $1 trillion, wouldn’t help the American economy or auto workers if history is any guide. The amount the U.S. actually collects from corporations is among the lowest in the developed world. And if the U.S. is failing to remain competitive with the rest of the world, its auto companies haven’t noticed: American auto companies are thriving at home.

The plan to eliminate the tax on repatriated profits — those earned overseas and returned to the U.S. — surely won’t help auto workers. George W. Bush’s repatriation tax failed to spark economic and job growth, and many of the companies that lobbied for it ended up cutting jobs and stashing even more money overseas in its wake.

While Romney is falsely attacking Chrysler and General Motors for moving auto jobs to China, his plan for the corporate tax system would make it even easier for them to do so. Romney’s shift to a territorial tax system would add incentives for corporations to outsource jobs and offshore profits, and one study estimates that it would lead to the creation of 800,000 overseas jobs at the expense of American workers.

Fox News’ John Stossel Blasts Federal Flood Insurance Program, Plans To Collect His Money Anyway

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/11/01/1121831/stossel-flood-insurance-hypocrisy/

By Igor Volsky posted from ThinkProgress Economy on Nov 1, 2012

Fox News’ John Stossel railed against the National Flood Insurance Program during an appearance on Fox & Friends on Thursday, blaming the government for encouraging people to build homes in high-risk areas and arguing that private companies should take over the practice.

During the segment, Stossel showed pictures of his own beach front property and explained that while he supported repealing program, he did purchase its coverage and planned to collect its benefits. The contradictory position stumped conservative guest host Peter Johnson Jr,. who couldn’t understand why the longtime libertarian would voluntarily benefit from a governemnt program he opposes:

PETER JOHNSON JR: Wait a second. That are not on the beach that, are not on river fronts that are blocks in that never anticipated that the ocean would come, that the bay would come. They paid their premiums. They’re not rich people like you were. If you’re so rich, why don’t you give the money back? [...]

STOSSEL: Why was the federal government selling it? I blame the politicians. We don’t have special car insurance for Lindsay Lohan. … I paid the premium. I’m going to take the money. Of course you’re going to take the money. [...]

STEVE DOOCY (HOST): You know John, I know you collected three times from the federal government, it was an absolutely great deal…

The federal government established the National Flood Insurance Program in 1968, after private insurers deemed the peril of flood “uninsurable.” The NFIP provides direct coverage for properties and contracts with some 90 private insurers, who mostly service insured properties but bear no insurance risk.

Private insurers were always reluctant to cover floods, noting that they couldn’t possibly “earn excess premiums to cover their cost of capital (they have to pre-fund losses), whereas the U.S. government can easily borrow money to cover catastrophic flood events after they occur.” Unlike private companies, the government can also require homeowners in flood hazard areas to purchase insurance, thus mitigating the problem of adverse selection, wherein only high-risk homeowners buy coverage.

The program has failed to discourage construction in storm-vulnerable areas — it had required county and local governments “to enact zoning and building rules to reduce construction in flood-prone areas” — and in some cases even “paid to have some homes rebuilt multiple times.” Stossel’s beach front house has been rebuilt at least three times– much of it using the federal dollars that he is paid to oppose on television.

Business Abandons Romney as Bloomberg and The Economist Endorse Obama

http://www.politicususa.com/business-community-abandons-romney-bloomberg-economist-endorse-obama.html

By: Sarah JonesNovember 1st, 2012

Days before the election, the business community is abandoning Republican “businessman” Mitt Romney in order to endorse the Democratic incumbent President Obama. These are not ringing endorsements, but rather concern over Romney’s failure to make the math work and his hard turn to the right. In other words, Mitt Romney has finally managed to lose the faith and confidence of the one constituency that he was supposed to have locked up.

The Mayor of New York and the founder/majority owner of Bloomberg News endorsed Obama today. Bloomberg said if the old Mitt Romney were running, he might have voted for him. But given Romney’s tack to the right, Bloomberg is endorsing the President for a second term. He concluded, “If he (Obama) listens to people on both sides of the aisle, and builds the trust of moderates, he can fulfill the hope he inspired four years ago and lead our country toward a better future for my children and yours. And that’s why I will be voting for him.”

Don't be a freeloader!

Eclise of the sun in southern hemisphere Nov. 13/14 2012

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmono/TSE2012/TSE2012.html

Possible Voter Supression in Washington State

Just discovered this election watchdog site:

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/

http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-bin/forums/board-auth.cgi?file=/8/82298.html

Eleanor Munro of the Metropolitan Democratic Club read an email message at the request of MDC Director Joan Burton. Ms Burton’s daughter received a phone call from the "Washington State Democratic Voter Identification Committee" (which does not exist) noting that because of printer errors she should not vote until she received a new ballot.

Ms. Burton wants to warn people of this effort to suppress Democratic voting.

FBI Voter Intimidation Hotline: 202-514-1888

The race for governor is close in Washington State.

http://waliberals.org/voter-suppression-scam-in-washington-state/2012/10/28/

FBI Voter Intimidation Hotline: 202-514-1888}

New Cat Breed, Selkirk Rex, Genetically Different from Other Curly-Haired Cats

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121030161410.htm

.....

it should come as no surprise that pet owners and animal breeders are frequently attracted by curly-haired animals. Indeed, three curly-haired varieties of cat are already recognized and have been developed into competitive breeds. Serina Filler at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna now shows that a fourth curly-haired breed, Selkirk Rex, is genetically distinct from previously known breeds and presents a genetic analysis of the new cats.

Her results are published in the current issue of the Journal of Heredity.

In 1987, a domestic cat rescued from a shelter in Montana, USA surprisingly gave birth to a curly-haired kitten. The kitten ended up mating with a Persian male and giving birth to a mixture of curly-haired and normal-haired kittens, which strongly suggested that the mutation in the rescued cat was dominant in nature: its presence on one of the two copies of the gene involved is sufficient to cause cats to have curly hair. The curly-haired kittens were attractive and were soon recognized as a new breed: the Selkirk Rex.

.....

Filler's results confirm that the Selkirk Rex breed arose from a spontaneous mutation in a single cat around 25 years ago. As the mutation is dominant it has been comparatively easy to retain and the breed appears to have a healthy level of genetic diversity because of the number of crosses with other breeds.

Empathy Represses Analytic Thought, and Vice Versa

Of course, one can use their analytical ability to solve problems they care about because of empathy. Eg., how to construct the study to find out things like this!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121030161416.htm

ScienceDaily (Oct. 30, 2012) — New research shows a simple reason why even the most intelligent, complex brains can be taken by a swindler's story -- one that upon a second look offers clues it was false.

When the brain fires up the network of neurons that allows us to empathize, it suppresses the network used for analysis, a pivotal study led by a Case Western Reserve University researcher shows.

How could a CEO be so blind to the public relations fiasco his cost-cutting decision has made?

When the analytic network is engaged, our ability to appreciate the human cost of our action is repressed.

At rest, our brains cycle between the social and analytical networks. But when presented with a task, healthy adults engage the appropriate neural pathway, the researchers found.

The study shows for the first time that we have a built-in neural constraint on our ability to be both empathetic and analytic at the same time.

.....
The finding has bearings on a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders, from anxiety, depression and ADHD to schizophrenia -- all of which are characterized by social dysfunction of some sort, Jack said. "Treatment needs to target a balance between these two networks. At present most rehabilitation, and more broadly most educational efforts of any sort, focus on tuning up the analytic network. Yet, we found more cortex dedicated to the social network."

Perhaps most clearly, the theory makes sense in regards to developmental disabilities such as autism and Williams syndrome. Autism is often characterized by a strong ability to solve visuospatial problems, such as mentally manipulating two and three-dimensional figures, but poor social skills. People with Williams syndrome are very warm and friendly, but perform poorly on visuospatial tests.

But, even healthy adults can rely too much on one network, Jack said. A look at newspaper business pages offers some examples.

"You want the CEO of a company to be highly analytical in order to run a company efficiently, otherwise it will go out of business," he said. "But, you can lose your moral compass if you get stuck in an analytic way of thinking."

"You'll never get by without both networks," Jack continued. "You don't want to favor one, but cycle efficiently between them, and employ the right network at the right time."

Republicans Want To Abolish FEMA So They Can Profit From Natural Disasters

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/09/16/the-real-reason-why-republicans-want-to-abolish-fema-so-they-can-profit-from-natural-disasters/

Posted by Stephen D. Foster Jr.

It looks like we finally know the reason why Republicans are refusing to fund FEMA, the federal agency that responds to natural disasters.

Former Republican Governor Jeb Bush is set to lead a newly formed FOR-PROFIT natural disaster response company. According to the Maritime Executive, Bush’s newly created firm, Old Rhodes Holding LLC, joined forces with O’Brien’s Response Management, a subsidiary of SEACOR Holdings, to form a for-profit disaster response company.

“We are pleased to enter into this partnership with one of the leading response organizations in the United States, backed by SEACOR’s global network,” Bush said. “Together we look forward to helping a broader array of organizations and communities become more resilient through preparation, response, communication and recovery.”

Of course, this response team only helps people for a price. Rather than come to the aid of people affected by a natural disaster out of the kindness of their hearts, like FEMA and other organizations do, the response team led by the former Florida Governor will respond to disasters if the price is right. In other words, they’ll profit off of death and destruction.

All of this comes as House Republicans continue their assault against FEMA, an organization that helps people at no charge beyond the taxes paid to the United States Government by the American people. This is all too coincidental to not be connected in some way. If FEMA is non-existent, people, cities, and states would have to hire disaster response companies to come to their aid which is a recipe for fraud, as these companies could hold disaster areas hostage until they get the price they demand. Worse, these response companies could hold individual disaster victims hostage until the company gets the price it wants or ignore helpless victims altogether if they don’t pay the fee. Remember the home in Tennessee a couple years ago that was allowed to burn down by the local for-profit fire house because the residents failed to pay the fee? Well, you can bet that same scenario will play out across the country and on a more sickening scale.

This is precisely why we pay local, state, and federal taxes to fund our emergency services. Private companies only care about their bottom line and thus don’t care about the human lives at risk of dying in the aftermath of disaster. Their first priority would be money and they would fleece the people in their most desperate time of need. It’s a blood profit that each of us should find morally unacceptable.