Friday, March 11, 2016

Backstories behind the news

Diversity is good, right?

Uh, maybe: but actual studies don't back up that widely held assumption.

As a woman who is scientifically oriented, might I suggest that including a woman who thinks like a man might not be diversity; including a radical "feminist" is diversity, but might not help you, since she sees you (and most other women) as the enemy and has an agenda to push her radical views on the company will not help, but including a woman who actually has experience in the real world might indeed help.

where diversity helps is when the group can become a group, with interpersonal relationships and trust.

so why should people object when these fake claims are made?

Uh, maybe because it makes a lot of us with a hard science background suspicious that "social science" is just a way to push a political agenda, more "social" and not really science...

or as the article notes:

First of all, social science myths make a mockery of evidence-based advocacy and policy. 

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News reports on Fukushima affecting health were few.

Corporations and government agencies had disproportionate access to framing the event in the media, Pascale says. Even years after the disaster, government and corporate spokespersons constituted the majority of voices published. 
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-03-news-coverage-fukushima-disaster-health.html#jCp
a lot of US sailors were nearby. And the seafood caught nearby was contaminated.

Yes, which is why you need to read sites like Mom Jones or listen to "conspiracy" radio programs like C2C...

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BEER!

South and Meso American Indians drank beer made from corn before Colombus.

And WesternDigs has the backstory: reconstructing diet via tarter on teeth. Fascinating study: one of several ways to figure out what was eaten in the past.

they note stories that this was used "ritually", but I suspect folks just brewed and drank it in the same way ordinary folks do today...

My (adopted) son relates how his grandmother would brew a batch and the neighbors would come over and drink it while listening to the portable radio (no electricity in their town).

Western Digs webpage includes link to stories of cocoa and other drinks...including a drink that induces vomiting that might indeed be part of a ritual.

I just finished reading a story where a Navajo sing ended by the person going out and vomiting the evil spirit. What is interesting about this is that Derek Prince the Pentecostal preacher mentions that in serious cases of demon oppression, sometimes vomiting the spirit shows you have been delivered.

Psychologically it makes sense. And of course, doctors until recent times purged and induced vomiting as a cure for various diseases.

Wonder if there is a study on the history of vomiting in medicine on the web? Will have to google about it later.

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Do you understand cat? And does your cat understand you?

I understand cat, but I always assumed they understood me but preferred to ignore me.


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