Since this “Illusory Truth Effect” was first noted in the late 1970s, it has been widely assumed that this ploy is effective only on people unfamiliar with the issue in question. Knowledge of the subject matter will lead people to dismiss the lie and distrust the liar, one might assume. But a newly published study reports that’s not necessarily true: …
James McWilliams – When Big Ag Gobbles Up Small Ag Is There Any Hope for Real Reform? Sadly No
Perdue, the fourth-largest chicken company in the United States, is a giant among giants in the agribusiness world. Recently, it purchased Natural Food Holdings, which owns Niman Ranch, a niche meat producer known for its comparatively impressive welfare and sustainability standards. News of Niman’s acquisition was generally greeted with the big media equivalent of a shrug, but I think it …
David Anderson – An End To American – And Global Oligarchy
A worldwide revolution is about to begin. It is too early to tell whether it will be sudden and painfully crushing or gradual and peaceful, but it will come. It will be a battle between the dispossessed and the very rich. We saw one of the early signs in the US with the Wall Street protests. Since then the societal …
Cole Mellino – Arctic Warming Produces Mosquito Swarms Large Enough to Kill Baby Caribou
Some Alaskans joke that mosquitoes are “Alaska’s state bird,” but the pesky insects are becoming no joke. Warming Arctic temperatures have caused their numbers to swell immensely in the region in recent years. Lauren Culler has been studying insects in Greenland for the last several years. Culler, a postdoctoral researcher for Dartmouth College’s Institute of Arctic Studies, along with a team of researchers published …
Slavoj Zizek – We Can’t Address the EU Refugee Crisis Without Confronting Global Capitalism
n her classic study On Death and Dying, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross proposed the famous scheme of the five stages of how we react upon learning that we have a terminal illness: denial (one simply refuses to accept the fact: “This can’t be happening, not to me.”); anger (which explodes when we can no longer deny the fact: “How can this happen …
Meryl Nass, M.D. – The Real Afghanistan Surge is in Heroin Production and Tripled Opium Cultivation since the US military arrived/ UN and US Government documents
Recently I worked in another Maine city and was astonished at the number of patients I encountered who were using heroin. I had never seen anything like it, during a lifetime practicing medicine. In New Hampshire, it was said, deaths from heroin now exceed deaths from car accidents. Nationwide, CDC noted, “Between 2002 and 2013, the rate of heroin-related overdose deaths nearly quadrupled, and more than …
Neela Banerjee, Lisa Song and David Hasemyer – Exxon’s Own Research Confirmed Fossil Fuels’ Role in Global Warming Decades Ago
At a meeting in Exxon Corporation’s headquarters, a senior company scientist named James F. Black addressed an audience of powerful oilmen. Speaking without a text as he flipped through detailed slides, Black delivered a sobering message: carbon dioxide from the world’s use of fossil fuels would warm the planet and could eventually endanger humanity. “In the first place, there is …
Dean Baker – The Elite’s Childlike Commitment to Austerity
The landslide victory of left-wing candidate Jeremy Corbyn for Labor Party leader in the United Kingdom has many establishment types bent out of shape. The Blair-wing of the party was literally obliterated, with Corbyn drawing more than four times the votes of his nearest competitor. After giving the country the war in Iraq and the housing bubble whose collapse led …
Alexander Reid Ross – A New Chapter in the Fascist Internationale
An Ominous Prospect With an insignia of a shield crossed by broadswords on a granite background, the World National-Conservative Movement announced its birth with the declaration, “The time has arrived to take responsibility for our peoples and nations of the world!” The confluence of some 58 parties, organizations, and groups, theWorld National-Conservative Movement (WNCM) developed out of the efforts of the …
GLAXOSMITHKLINE Fined $488.8 Million Dollars For ‘Massive Bribery Network’ With Doctors
Think that the medical doctors don’t get kickbacks for prescribing certain medications? Think again! China has fined the British pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) $488.8 million (3 billion Yuan) for a “massive bribery network” to get doctors and hospitals to use its products. Five former employees were sentenced to two to four years in jail, but ordered deported instead of imprisoned, according to …










