How Engineering the Human Body Could Combat Climate Change
Facebook’s ‘dark side’: study finds link to socially aggressive narcissism
Researchers have established a direct link between the number of friends you have on Facebook and the degree to which you are a “socially disruptive” narcissist, confirming the conclusions of many social media sceptics.
People who score highly on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory questionnaire had more friends on Facebook, tagged themselves more often and updated their newsfeeds more regularly.
The research comes amid increasing evidence that young people are becoming increasingly narcissistic, and obsessed with self-image and shallow friendships.
The latest study, published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, also found that narcissists responded more aggressively to derogatory comments made about them on the social networking site’s public walls and changed their profile pictures more often.
A number of previous studies have linked narcissism with Facebook use, but this is some of the first evidence of a direct relationship between Facebook friends and the most “toxic” elements of narcissistic personality disorder.
Belarus executes 2 men convicted of subway bombing
Two men convicted of carrying out a deadly subway bombing last year in Belarus’ capital have been executed, drawing strong condemnation from activists and the European Union.
The mother of one of the two 26 year olds said that she had received official notification of the execution of her son, Vladislav Kovalyov. State television reported late Saturday that both Kovalyov and Dmitry Konovalov had been put to death, which in Belarus is done with a shot to the back of the head.
Human rights activists condemned the hasty executions, saying they deprived society of the opportunity to learn the truth. “The government was in a rush to throw a white shroud over all the contradictions and discrepancies in the case,” activist Lyudmila Gryaznova said Sunday. “The execution of the so-called terrorists, whose guilt remains under suspicion, gives the appearance that the government is concealing the traces of the crime.”
Critics of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko accused his government of staging the bombing to divert attention from the worst economic crisis in the country’s post-Soviet history. Belarusians angered by the executions came to lay flowers or light candles outside the subway station on Sunday.
Bolivian President Threatens to Shut Down US Embassy in La Paz
Bolivian President Evo Morales says he will shut down the American embassy in La Paz if Washington continues to interfere in Bolivia’s internal affairs. ”If the US embassy continues bothering Bolivia, as it is doing now, then it is best we close the United States embassy in Bolivia because we are anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist and anti-neoliberals,” Morales said on Sunday.
Scoundrel Media Afghan Massacre Cover-Up
In all US war theaters, troops commit unspeakable atrocities. Trained to dehumanize enemies, their mission involves killing, destruction, and much more.
Local treasures are looted. Women are raped. Civilians are treated like combatants. Children are indiscriminately harmed like adults. Prisoners are tortured. Mutilations are common. Crimes of war and against humanity are institutionalized. It’s all in a day’s work like taking out the garbage.
Viciousness defines US wars. No crime’s too great to commit. Human lives are valueless. Only winning matters, then on to the next war. Lies, deception, unspeakable brutality, and cover-up define them.
Media Accuses Syrian Government of Collaborating with Al Qaeda. How the Media Refutes its own Lies…
The latest terrorist attack in Damascus is described by the media as yet another government sponsored initiative geared towards killing Syrian civilians. The CTV-AP report of this tragic event resulting in 27 deaths and some 140 wounded is riddled with contradictions. First it acknowledges that the target of the attacks was government buildings including Air Force Intelligence and National Security buildings in Damascus:
Two explosions rocked the Syrian capital of Damascus Saturday … The twin suicide car bombs were aimed at intelligence and security buildings in the capital. Obviously, it follows, says the report, that the Syrian regime is responsible for targeting its own government buildings.
Now why on earth would it do that? The answer: “The attacks occurred in areas where government security is typically high, raising opposition suspicions that the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was responsible.”
Indian Call Centres Selling YOUR Credit Card Details and Medical Records for Just 2p
Confidential personal data on hundreds of thousands of Britons is being touted by corrupt Indian call centre workers, an undercover investigation has discovered. Credit card information, medical and financial records are being offered for sale to criminals and marketing firms for as little as 2p.
Two ‘consultants’, claiming to be IT workers at several call centres, met undercover reporters from The Sunday Times and boasted of having 45 different sets of personal information on nearly 500,000 Britons.
Fracking: Pennsylvania Gags Physicians
A new Pennsylvania law endangers public health by forbidding health care professionals from sharing information they learn about certain chemicals and procedures used in high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing. The procedure is commonly known as fracking.
Fracking is the controversial method of forcing water, gases, and chemicals at tremendous pressure of up to 15,000 pounds per square inch into a rock formation as much as 10,000 feet below the earth’s surface to open channels and force out natural gas and fossil fuels.
Executive Order Panic – Martial Law In US?
The White House’s late-week release of an executive order has sent the online community into an uproar, worried that President Obama had secretly provided himself means to institute martial law in America.
In the common practice of dumping government documents on a Friday afternoon, just as the news cycle is wrapping up for the week – a move critics say allows the administration to avoid widespread coverage of embarrassing actions – the White House released an executive order on “National Defense Resources Preparedness.”
David Cameron unveils plan to sell off the roads
There will be no tolls on the existing road network. But if the road companies create new capacity – by adding lanes to existing roads or building new roads altogether – then they would be entitled to charge for their use.
The prime minister will say: “We need to look at innovative approaches to the funding of our national roads – to increase investment to reduce congestion. Road tolling is one option, but we are only considering this for new, not existing, capacity. For example, we’re looking at how improvements to the A14 could be part-funded through tolling.
“But we now need to be more ambitious. Why is it that other infrastructure – for example water – is funded by private-sector capital through privately owned, independently regulated utilities, but roads in Britain call on the public finances for funding?
“We need to look urgently at the options for getting large-scale private investment into the national roads network – from sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and other investors. That’s why I have asked the Department for Transport and the Treasury to carry out a feasibility study of new ownership and financing models for the national roads system and to report progress to me in the autumn.”
The bankers NM Rothschild suggested in a report in 2010 that privatising the road network could raise £100bn. Government sources said the scheme proposed by Cameron would raise far less because he plans to lease out trunk roads and motorways, rather than embarking on a full-scale sell-off, as NM Rothschild suggested.
NATO ‘covers up’ Libyan death shame
NATO has failed to investigate scores of civilian deaths incurred during its seven-month military campaign in Libya, Amnesty international says. NATO expressed its “regret” for civilian casualties but has taken no steps to initiate an investigation.
“It is deeply disappointing that more than four months since the end of the military campaign, victims and relatives of those killed by NATO airstrikes remain in the dark about what happened and who was responsible” said Donatella Rovera, the Senior Crisis Response Adviser at Amnesty International on Monday.
She stressed that if NATO is indeed dedicated to the protection of civilians, then it cannot simply “brush aside the deaths of scores of civilians with some vague statement of regret.”
The Libyan Health Minister of the National Transitional Council estimated that about 30,000 were killed during the conflict.
Amnesty International appealed to NATO on March 5, urging them to undertake a thorough investigation into the civilian deaths documented by the NGO. Furthermore, they asked for the findings of any subsequent investigation to be publicly disclosed and compensation to be given to the victims’ families.
Amnesty said that NATO had not even tried to contact the bereaved families of the victims killed in the strikes.
NATO’s response on March 15 did not account for any of the cases of civilian causalities raised by Amnesty International, but instead offered this statement:
“While NATO did everything possible to minimize the risk to civilians, in a complex military operation that risk cannot be reduced to zero. NATO deeply regrets any harm that may have been caused by those air strikes.”
Amnesty International published its findings in a report entitled “Libya: The forgotten victims of NATO Strikes” on Monday.
Cameron meets New York financiers
David Cameron concluded a three-day trip to the US on Thursday by meeting leading New York financiers, including an encounter with Lloyd Blankfein, the boss of Goldman Sachs, the bank whose business practices have been under fire this week.
After two days enjoying the undivided attention of Barack Obama, the US president, in Washington – an event exposed to the full public spotlight – the New York leg of the trip was more problematic.
A meeting with leading bankers at the New York Stock Exchange was held off camera. Talks focused on the need to remove regulatory barriers for transatlantic financial flows.
Downing Street seemed initially reluctant to say whether Mr Blankfein had attended the meeting, even though he was on the guest list. A spokesman for Goldman Sachs confirmed he was present.
Mr Cameron spent the first few weeks of 2012 embroiled in a row over banking excess and promising to foster more responsible capitalism. This week, Mr Blankfein’s bank has been fighting to defend its reputation after Greg Smith, a former Goldman Sachs employee, launched a scathing public attack.
Greece on the breadline: HIV and malaria make a comeback
The savage cuts to Greece‘s health service budget have led to a sharp rise in HIV/Aids and malaria in the beleaguered nation, said a leading aid organisation on Thursday.
The incidence of HIV/Aids among intravenous drug users in central Athens soared by 1,250% in the first 10 months of 2011 compared with the same period the previous year, according to the head of Médecins sans Frontières Greece, while malaria is becoming endemic in the south for the first time since the rule of the colonels, which ended in the 1970s.
Reveka Papadopoulos said that following health service cuts, including heavy job losses and a 40% reduction in funding for hospitals, Greek social services were “under very severe strain, if not in a state of breakdown. What we are seeing are very clear indicators of a system that cannot cope”. The heavy, horizontal and “blind” budget cuts coincided last year with a 24% increase in demand for hospital services, she said, “largely because people could simply no longer afford private healthcare. The entire system is deteriorating”.
Chicken nugget resembling George Washington sold on eBay for £5,000
Rebekah Speights and her husband placed the frozen chicken piece online last month – sparking a bidding war between patriotic Americans.
Within an hour, the deep-fried snack had attracted several bids from virtual shoppers looking for their very own chunk of American history.
Following a frantic auction involving over 70 different bids, the presidential poultry was eventually sold to an unknown buyer for a whopping £5,000.
