16
POPSTwo Questions Everyone Asks When They Meet You ~ Susan Fiske's research has looked at different cultures, times and types of social judgements, but these two concepts come up again and again in slightly different guises. Not only do we make these judgements about other people, but we frame their behaviour using these two questions; we ask ourselves whether it was friendly, moral, sincere, clever etc..
8
POPSEthnic Cleaning in Libya~After door to door Miserata virgins raped/killed by cutting off breasts~
Hillary Clintons henchmen do her dirty work~ A school friend worked on dry land farming and sub-terrain/artesian irrigation seems there.(Well treated nice people good experience)The new food bowl of Africa with development help from our more advanced expertise coming from driest state in driest continent.They had the best health and education treatment under Gadaffi of any African country.The UN once again has proved its self to be no longer relevant to this day and age.Picking and choosing no consistency about who it helped.Ignoring the Tamils mass rapes and murders, also 100,000 West Papuans rapes murdered but tortured with burnt genitals first then plastic bag over head so its easy on ears of Kissinger backed killers.Gaddafi`s dream of a united Africa dead in the water.The old Roman adage "Divide and Conquer" is still true and all the humanitarian intervention is bullshit from Clinton and NATO.Expel the criminals from Security Council .The Hague court of International justice joke
6
POPSAnimals Asia ambassador,visit the sanctuary in Chengdu until the cruelty ends Inspired by good hearted zizzy after her clip on the malnourished Tiger and Moon bears kept at some other compound ~This is a seperate privately funded project from rock concerts with various singers each week I think.. but Peter Northcote Band ,artists like Lorraine and Andy Sumners from Innervoice art and many caring artists and rock music fans down under ~(aussie spirit ) Shoars Canadian Spirit bear was originally included but was too much to clip~ ngm.nationalgeographic.com ~ ~Searching for Spirit Bear~Video: Searching for the Spirit Bear ~
8
POPSWhat meaning do you give to your life? Two words of warning. Firstly, it can be difficult to get all these things in the same place, although not impossible. We use family, work, hobbies and other things to fulfil our need for meaning. Secondly, a meaningful life is probably necessary to be happy, but it isn't sufficient. Perhaps you think I've set myself an impossible challenge here? Not so. The meaning of life is pretty straightforward to state. Your life has whatever meaning you give to it. So the question becomes: what do people say gives their lives meaning? That's easy enough to measure and psychologists have done exactly that.Baumeister and Vohs (2002) have synthesised four factors. When people are asked, the more they report each of these four factors being fulfilled, the more meaningful their lives feel:
9
POPSAustralia WWII heroine Nancy 'White Mouse' Wake dies
It was only after the liberation of France that she learned her husband, French businessman Henri Fiocca, had been tortured and killed by the Gestapo for refusing to give her up "I have only one thing to say: I killed a lot of Germans, and I am only sorry I didn't kill more," she once said She was Australia's most decorated servicewoman, and one of the most decorated Allied servicewomen of World War II.~<3 A White Mouse that ROARED~ <3 ~ France awarded her its highest honour, the Legion D'Honneur; she also received Britain's George Medal, and the US Medal of Freedom. In 2004, she was made Companion of the Order of Australia. She returned to Australia in 1949, where she failed several times to win a seat in parliament. In 1957 she went back to England, where she married RAF fighter pilot John Forward~Her story inspired Sebastian Faulks' 1999 novel Charlotte Gray and a 2001 film by the same title, with the lead role played by Australian actress Cate Blanchett
13
POPSUnheard Hank Williams Songs~Bob Dylan, Jack White and Norah Jones Record
Conceived by veteran A&R executive Mary Martin as a Dylan-centric project but eventually evolved into a multi-artist tribute to the late singer-songwriter. The songs featured in the set were rescued from notebooks left behind in a leather briefcase by Williams after he died in 1953 at the age of 29.The notes contained lyrics and song ideas that were finished by the 13 artists who contributed to the disc.The full story of Williams' notebooks will be told in the album's liner notes, which were penned by Michael McCall of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. He was perhaps the greatest singer of American folk music,born on a farm near Georgiana, Alabama.Grew up singing hymns he gained the knowledge and feeling that made him famous as a singer and writer.After his first record and hit his career and country-song history took off from his move to Nashvilles's "Grand Ol`Opry" making one smash record after another. His prolific career was cut short at 29 died driving in West Virginia
13
POPSFeeling Anxious? 5 Scientifically Proven Relaxation Techniques And there's no reason why you should stick to only one approach. When Manzoni et al. looked at studies which used multi-modal techniques, they found these were effective as well. If you need to relax—for whatever reason and at whatever time—then try one or more of these different methods. As you'll have noticed the effective techniques share a lot in common. Regular practice is the key and, if you give it a chance, the mind really will follow the body. Women are roughly twice as likely as men to suffer from an anxiety disorder. For the rest of us anxiety will come and go as part of the normal human condition. Whether it's a constant or occasional affliction, dealing with anxiety effectively is important. People are often prescribed drugs for anxiety but these are less effective in the long-term and have side-effects so relaxation training is often preferred.
11
POPSWhy We Love ~
The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love ~ a journey into the mind’s blend of neurochemistry and storytelling, the hormones and neurotransmitters that make us feel certain emotions, and the stories we choose to tell ourselves about those emotions. Fisher outlines the three key components of love, each involving different but connected brain systems — lust, driven by androgens and estrogens, the craving for sexual gratification; attraction, characterized by high dopamine and norepinephrine levels and low serotonin, euphoria when things are going well and terrible mood swings when they’re not, focused attention, obsessive thinking, and intense craving for the individual; and attachment, commandeered by the hormones oxytocin and vasopressin and associated with the sense of calm, peace, and stability one feels with a long-term partner — and a researcher’s lens to fundamental questions about passion and obsession, joy and jealousy, monogamy and divorce.Fantastic talk on the brain in love~
8
POPSThe CIA's fake vaccination program in Pakistan reveals the moral bankruptcy of American spooks
As atrocities go, delivering inadequate vaccines under false pretenses isn't obviously worse than, say, systematically kidnapping people and torturing them. But like the decision by Rupert Murdoch's reporters, in the course of illegally eavesdropping on everyone, to hack into one particular vanished child's voice mail, a single act is a metonym for the total moral collapse of the people and the system responsible for it The CIA has now signed off on the murder of Tom Little and Dan Terry and on any future killings of doctors in overt or covert war zones. Now, there is no such thing as a noncombatant Torture is old news ~who cares the Geneva Convention fools in the Hague,self-centered Europeans naval gazing? (The anonymous official told the Washington Post that this single-dose fake public-health effort "should not be construed as a 'fake public health effort.') Now genuine health workers in one of the world's poorest countries will be under suspicion. Thanks a lot, CIA bastards~
11
POPSGet ready for China's domination of science China has become the best education nation, or at least according to some experts and politicians. Chinese students (a sample from Shanghai) outscored 64 countries/education systems on the most recent PISA, OECD’s international academic assessment for 15 year olds in math, reading, and science. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan sees this as a “wake-up call” and Chester Finn, an influential education expert who served in the Reagan’s Department of Education, likens it to “sputnik,” the man-made satellite launched by the former Soviet Union in 1957 that startled America which become in at 23 or 24 country for most tests~ Interestingly, this has not become big news in China, a country that loves to celebrate its international achievement.
8
POPSChina: who will defend the law's defenders?
Lawyers daring to take up "sensitive",rights-oriented, cases are threatened with failure of assessment, which could lead to their licence being revoked~ With enforced disappearance or arbitrary detention on the increase, lawyers are also at greater risk of torture and ill-treatment~Amnesty International is calling on the Chinese government to restore licences to practise to lawyers suspended or disbarred for defending human rights cases, and for the governance of lawyers to be left to genuinely independent lawyers' associations. Officials have carte blanche to act with impunity~ Lawyers must be protected. Only then will they be able to exercise their full role in the protection of human rights and the rule of law – necessary not just for good governance, but also for the stability and predictability crucial for maintaining China's extraordinary economic growth. Crippling human rights lawyers and bending the law to the whim of the government makes a mockery of the entire legal system
6
POPSLady GaGa accused of copying divas' styles They say imitation is the best form of flattery.I owed this find also to a rock n roll guru shared by friend Michael he wont mind me sharing on with you .Lady Ga Ga and all the "little monsters" were just wild over her Aussie private concert for fans in Sydney (dressing up for her long awaited packed out show) ~ much loved in this neck of the woods. "~wild thing ,you make my heart sing, but I want to know for sure", come on back soon..we loved you.......even if your naughty~
10
POPSJoint Exercises Down Under The Few The Proud~
“Constantly being in the field and working with the weapon system creates good muscle memory that makes you that much more efficient with it,” said Cpl. Michael Hanna, a squad leader and Mortarmen with a combat deployment to both Iraq and Afghanistan. “So when we are in a combat environment and a fire mission gets called in we can respond quickly and get our rounds out accurately.”“The U.S. Marines benefited greatly from training alongside the Australians,” said 1st Lt. Rory H. Smith, the 81mm mortars platoon commander. “The training event was a positive and worthwhile venture that strengthened the bond between the U.S. and our Australian allies.” This exercise is a major undertaking which reflects the closeness of the Australian and U.S. alliance and the strength of the military-military relationship. 280 Paratroops floated out of the sky after a nonstop flight from Alaska to little fanfare last week in ongoing exercises before flying back after no sleep~allies train hard die hard~
3
POPSTop Best Spy Novels In need of a dose of espionage for your beach reading? From Bond to Bourne and beyond, we reveal our secret file of classics and the latest thrillers. Lessons from Sherlock Holmes Pt.I: Paying Attention to What Isn't There | Artful Choice | Big Think List does not contain W. Somerset Maugham's "Ashenden" stories or anything by Alan Furst "Dark Star" "Night Soldiers" or "Dark Voyage"or Len Deighton. Nor does it mention "The Untouchable" by John Banville or Graham Greene's "The Human Factor"Adam Hochschild's "To End All Wars" about social conflict during WW1. I missed clipping as too fast a < 8/10 > Autoplay scroll past,live with it..THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY BY G.K. CHESTERTON Who's a secret policeman and who's an anarchist?
5
POPSPsychological Keys to Job Satisfaction
Why can't we all be satisfied? When you look at this list of what makes for a satisfying job, you might wonder why everyone can't have one. With a little thought, most of the predictors of satisfaction can be provided.One generalisation we can make, is that people get more satisfied with their jobs as they get older. Perhaps this is because the older people are, the more likely they are to have found the right work for them. There's little evidence for this but I'd certainly like to think it was true. On my darker days, though, I tend to think it's because young people have sky-high expectations (which are soon dashed) and older people have learned to live with their lot, however uninspiring it is. The answer is probably quite simple. Organisations pay lip-service to keeping their employees satisfied, but many don't really believe it makes a difference~research shows is that it can make a huge difference. To improve satisfaction find out about people's little hassles and address th
9
POPSThings Not To Do When Asking People For Help
Self-Interest Is the Lever that Moves People.Bringing up the past, will not help you in your cause. The justice and nobility of your cause will not prevail. Not only is a man not obliged to be grateful. Do not start from the assumption that the people you are appealing to have a selfless interest in helping you. Don’t talk as if your needs matter to people—they probably could care less, especially to larger issues: a great cause, or emotions such as love and gratitude when simple, everyday realities would have much more appeal~make people see how you can in some way meet their needs or advance their cause, their resistance to your requests for help will magically fall away~if you ask this person for help, you emphasize their power and position. The only requirement from you is that all of this is done in public, the more pubic, the better. It is truly their pleasure to give and to be seen giving~you must train yourself to think your way inside the other person's mind, to see their
8
POPSMemory and the Brain Watch this free video lecture and delve into the fascinating science behind how your brain works to create and use memories.Discover even more insights into the fascinating ways our minds and bodies work~Nationally recognized for her innovative approach of integrating humanity into basic science courses, Professor Norden has been honored with numerous teaching awards by Vanderbilt University, including the Teaching Excellence Award, the University Chair of Teaching Excellence, and the Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award~
11
POPSRebel first emperor of the Ming Dynasty of China
In the middle of the 14th century, with famine, plagues and peasant revolts sweeping across China, Zhu became a leader of an army that conquered China, ending the Yuan Dynasty and forcing the Mongols to retreat to the Mongolian steppes. With his seizure of the Yuan capital 'Biejing" Seldom has the course of Chinese history been influenced by a single personality as much as it was by the founder of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang.His rise to power was fast despite him having from a poor and humble origin. In 11 years he went from being a penniless monk to the most powerful warlord in China. Five years later he became emperor~Parallels between numerous Chinese-rebels-become-Emperors-and- ferocious- despots and the Mao revolution of 1949 Mao would very likely have followed in the footsteps. Communism had a 'modernising' aspect to it which enabled it to some extent to escape the orbit of Chinese tradition, despite Mao's best efforts to impose his personal rule via the Cultural Revolution
12
POPSFirst Pictures: Wild Fish Uses Tool Clever fish you can feel them "mouth" a bait on a line then let go fishing, they can tell some of them if some thing is "fishy" ~Learned ? Genetic instructions? ~ "When Scott showed me his photos, I said 'Wow, this is quite amazing,'" said study co-author Alison Jones, a coral ecologist at Central Queensland University in Rockhampton, Australia.
7
POPSReasons For The War In Libya Theres a lot of speculation as to why we are in Libya. Let me show you a few things I have recently learned about. Once you begin to find more pieces to the puzzle things begin to make a little more sense. This is a well informed journalist who knows~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fUxVgxj0vc&feature=related Susan Lindauer, a journalist and author specializing on American interventions, has never believed the allied forces intervened in Libya out of humanitarian reasons. It is a war for oil which was prepared long ago, Lindauer argues - anyone who cared about the Libyan people would stop immediately. Who gave coalition forces in Libya the right to eliminate Gaddafi? That's the question Vladimir Putin's been asking, during an official visit to Denmark. The Russian Premier also said NATO's effectively joined one of the warring sides in the conflict. And more responsible action should be taken instead.
9
POPS'In my day, MI6 – which I called the Circus in the books – stank of wartime nostalgia': John le Carr
You didn’t tell your girlfriends, your boyfriends or whatever you had. So you were thrown upon one another and then you didn’t trust one another; a secret world within a secret world. The excitement of life was about who you worked with and who you shared your secrets with, and that’s a very short step to the bed. How clean you were and your access to intelligence created a pecking order. In Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the ultra-secret product from a Russian source called Merlin – dubbed Witchcraft – becomes a currency that advances the group that possesses it. They tend it jealously, keeping it from others and creating their own little aristocracy. And through that, new people of power come to the top of the service. Philby ,George Blake had already been unmasked. ‘You’re leaky,’ the Americans would say to us. ‘You’ve got traitors in your midst.’ That whispering, that tension, went on working through me after I left and I tried to express it in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
9
POPSAmerica's creditor identifies its budget problem
As is always true, the ones who bear the brunt of American political "sacrifice" and posturing are the ones who can least afford to do so~ China’s military budget of $95 billion this year is the world’s second-highest after Washington’s planned $650 billion in defense spending. As the GOP and a Democratic President plot to cut the safety net for Americans based on an alleged debt crisis, it's extraordinary how little attention this problem receives: The United States is spending too much on its military in light of its recent economic troubles, China's top general said Monday while playing down his country’s own military capabilities. "If the U.S. could reduce its military spending a bit and spend more on improving the livelihood of the American people .. wouldn’t that be a better scenario?" he said . . Heed the wisdom of the Chinese sage! When a horse comes to the edge of the cliff, it is too late to draw rein; when a boat reaches midstream, it is too late to stop the leak
13
POPSWhy People Avoid the Truth About Themselves
The trick is to know which information to avoid and which to seek out. But we can't know this without knowing what the information is. But once you've learnt the information you can't unlearn it. It's a problem. Point out that avoiding information is a much more rational strategy for dealing with the complexities of a frightening world than it might at first seem. There's a good reason we value the innocence of youth: when you don't know, you've got less to worry about. When we laugh at the hypocrisies of a sitcom character, it's also a laugh of uncomfortable recognition. As much as we'd prefer to avoid the information, in our heart of hearts we know we're all hypocrites.A simple fact about human psychology to make us laugh. The set-up will go something like this: main character tells their partner: "I would never compromise my ethical principles for money!" Then that very same character is offered an opportunity to compromise their ethical principles for money...and they take
8
POPSChina Wants to Own Big Chunk of Facebook China wants to buy "a huge chunk" of the Facebook social networking site, and is working discreetly with Citibank on plans to snap up company stock, Business Insider reports. "There's little need for such concern," Business Insider reports. Who is comfortable with this not me~ the big Russian investor was a suspected Mafia guy who is thought to have had murdered a former partner that refused to sell out another Media company to him,well only his blood was found on veranda on his holiday in Riga ,Latvia ~no body no real investigation because he,s a Putin cronie~
10
POPSGenghis Khan the GREEN
The researchers said it is a common misconception that the human impact on climate began with the large-scale burning of coal and oil in the industrial era The Carnegie study measured the carbon impact of a number of historical events that involved a large number of deaths. Time periods also looked at included the Black Death in Europe, the fall of China's Ming Dynasty and the conquest of the Americas. All of these events share a widespread return of forests after a period of massive depopulation. But the bloody Mongol invasion, which lasted a century and a half and led to an empire 22 Earth’s surface, immediately stood out for its longevity. ‘Actually, humans started to influence the environment thousands of years ago by changing the vegetation cover of the Earths landscapes when we cleared forests for agriculture,’ she told Mongabay.com. The 700million tons of carbon absorbed as a result of the Mongol empire is about the same produced in a year from the global use of p
9
POPSDeep sea treasure Heavily armed, she was designed to protect other ships within a fleet from attack. On her doomed voyage of 1622, the Atocha was loaded with an extraordinary cargo. She carried 24 tons of silver bullion in 1038 ingots, 180,00 pesos of silver coins, 582 copper ingots, 125 gold bars and discs, 350 chests of indigo, 525 bales of tobacco, 20 bronze cannon and 1,200 pounds of worked silverware. Smuggled items to avoid taxation and unregistered and personal jewellery would also have been onboard. On September 6 the Atocha was cast onto the coral reefs near the Dry Tortugas - around 35 miles West of Key West - by a severe hurricane. With her hull badly damaged she quickly sunk with 265 people on board. Only five - three sailors and two slaves - survived by clinging on to the stump of her mast. Rescuers tried to get onto the ship but found her hatches tightly battened. At 55 foot the water depth was too great for them to work on opening her. They marked the site and m
6
POPSThe plight of domestic workers abroad 
The military government in Indonesia has been doing the same thing in WEST PAPUA for the last 50 years to the native population there. Why has there been no interest by the media about the invasion and treatment by Indonesia. MONEY? There are numerous heinous and shocking cases, for example, recently a Saudi Arabian couple tortured their Sri Lankan maid after she complained of too heavy workload by hammering 24 nails into her hands, legs and forehead. Keeping in view, the recurrence of cases of ill-treatment meted out to poor creatures, To the governments of Sri Lanka, Philippines, India, Bangladesh and other poor countries not to send unskilled labourers or maidservants to Arab countries~Islam is a barbaric medieval religion used to justify'legitimise many terrible acts of violence~ ~If you want scripture justification consider the phrase 'an eye for an eye' - which in its various guise crops up in Islam, Judeism, Christianity clerics who will tell you whatever you want to hear~
6
POPSColombia's gold rush Thousands have fled their homes where land is violently contested and others live in fear that they will be removed from their land, arrested or killed. Colombia's pro-business mentality has seen arbitrary concessions by the state sold to multinational companies, often on indigenous land. Fault Lines travelled to Colombia to speak to the people caught in the middle - the rural workers and artisan miners who have mined for generations, and some whose ancestors were enslaved during the first gold rush centuries ago. Others are former coca farmers, put out of work by the US-led Plan Colombia~Common rights on top of private rights for foreigners to take 96%+ Video explains at source top~
6
POPSTrue love acts as a painkiller Looking further at the women and the relationships they were in, they found that the longer the women had been in the relationship and the more overall support they received from their partner, the greater the level of activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, or VMPFC, was demonstrated. An implication of these findings is that, in the same way that stimuli that historically have threatened survival (e.g., snakes, spiders) are considered to be prepared fear stimuli, attachment figures, who have historically benefited survival, may serve as prepared safety stimuli, reducing threat- or distress-related responding in their presence~ ~"The very thought of you ... the mere idea of you" -- from the song "The Very Thought of You" by Ray Noble~ ~http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qFpvlBYQy0&feature=related ~ http://ckuik.com/The_Very_Thought_Of_You_Jazz
15
POPSWhy Concrete Language Communicates Truth So, speak and write solidly and unambiguously and people will think it's more true. Verbs as well as nouns can be more or less abstract. Verbs like 'count' and 'write' are solid, concrete and unambiguous, while verbs like 'help' and 'insult' are open to some interpretation. Right at the far abstract end of the spectrum are verbs like 'love' and 'hate'; they leave a lot of room for interpretation~ What if we want to bump up the believability without adding to the fact-count? Just going more concrete can be enough~ Even a verb's tense can affect its perceived concreteness. The passive tense is usually thought more abstract~active tense is more believable for the reader. ~Dont beat around the bush I can't say it any clearer than that.
10
POPSChinese minister was caught in a 'Honeytrap" A year later,after Britians Prime Minister was compronised a leaked MI5 report distributed to hundreds of UK companies warned of the dangers posed by charming young Chinese women in search of commercial secrets who approach British businessmen travelling in China.
10
POPSTop 10 Missing Links Evolution of human life on earth~For H. erectus, it may have paid to be dense. According to one theory, males rammed each other with their thick skulls in order to win females. Australopithecus africanus~The most famous member of this species is Lucy, an adult female skeleton discovered in 1974 and nicknamed after a Beatles song.
7
POPSU.S. Lags World in Grasp of Genetics The number of American adults unsure about the validity of evolution has increased in recent years, from 7 to 21 percent, but growth in this demographic comes at the expense of the other two groups. The percentage of Americans accepting evolution has declined, but so has the percentage of those who overtly reject it. "I was very surprised to see that. To me that means the glass is half full,” Scott said. “That 21 percent we can educate."(director of the National Center for Science Education in California.) The current study also analyzed the results from a 10-country survey in which adults were tested with 10 true or false statements about basic concepts from genetics. One of the statements was "All plants and animals have DNA." Americans had a median score of 4. (The correct answer is "yes.")
9
POPSNorth Korea’s Comic Book Propaganda But despite the heavy-handed North-Korea-as-global-savior theme, the comics do seem to be genuinely popular. "Certainly when I've bought them, my interpreter, driver, and everyone else likes to borrow and read them," says Glyn Ford, author of North Korea on the Brink: Struggle for Survival. Some are even pretty entertaining. "They are comics, not the Works of Kim Il Sung, after all." (It will come as no surprise that the "American Empire" came in dead last on North Korea's most recent global happiness index.)
4
POPSBill Clinton’s Legacy of Denial “modernizing”blather US leadership~....and 10 years from now, the people who currently defend Obama will be saying how dreadful he was & defending another backstabbing Death Row Democrat with the same cultist mindlessness, all justified on the 'lesser evil' principle.
8
POPSMyanmar's Suu Kyi celebrates birthday in freedom Since her release last year, Suu Kyi has continued to be outspoken, but little has changed in the repressive nation, which still holds more than 2,000 political prisoners and deploys security agents to monitor Suu Kyi closely. She was expected to offer a meal to Buddhist monks, attend a celebration at her political party headquarters and enjoy a private garden party with friends and relatives. She was last arrested in May 2003 after her motorcade was attacked in northwestern Myanmar by a pro-junta mob while she was on a political tour. This month, she plans her first trip across the countryside since that ill-fated tour.
11
POPSTerror Incognito~Early Images
The illustrations range from those made for Cook’s Third Voyage and for the First Fleet Journals of Governors Phillip and Hunter through the illustrations in the explorers journals, travel accounts, and emigrants manuals, to the late nineteenth century works of ethnography and anthropology. The catalogue attempts to place the works in their contemporary context, the intention being to encourage students and academics to refer to these primary documents for their research. The books in which these illustrations occur are valuable sources of first-hand information on the Aborigines. The accounts were often written by men who had the aim of Christianizing and assimilating them, but they were also observers influenced by the nineteenth century ideal of scientific accuracy. In most cases they were describing, as exactly as they could, the customs and habits of the natives from close personal observation. The details they provide are usually the only surviving fragments of cultures which