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POPSPoverty Hurts Been waiting for science to confirm what I always knew & felt growing up in poverty. It's not just about the money, it's the pain that makes it traumatic. This article was life-validating.
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POPSA feeling of being alive A new psychology study suggests that buying life experiences rather than material possessions leads to greater happiness for both the consumer and those around them
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POPSWhy the Brain Follows the Rules
Not surprisingly, the threat of punishment made people act more fairly. In the “punishment threat condition” people split the money close to equally. However, when Person B had no recourse, the people given the money acted very differently and gave away, on average, less than 10 percent of the money. When the researchers looked at the brain activity of people playing this simple game, they found a consistent pattern. One region in the frontal lobes, the orbitofrontal cortex, seemed to be responsible for evaluating the potential for punishment. In other words, it figured out whether or not violating the social norm would get us in trouble. A second brain region, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, was responsible for inhibiting the natural tendency to keep most of the money (this would be the greedy thing to do) if this action might lead to future punishment. Interestingly, these brain areas only were activated when the threat of punishment came from a real person, and not a compute
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POPSGeorge Carlin on God In the Bullshit Department, a businessman can't hold a candle to a clergyman. 'Cause I gotta tell you the truth, folks. When it comes to bullshit, big-time, major league bullshit, you have to stand in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims: religion. No contest. No contest. Religion. Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told.
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POPSMany in US Military: Bush & Cheney Out of Control CENTCOM Admiral William Fallon reportedly thwarted Cheney's wish to sent a third additional aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf. One paper wrote that he "vowed privately there would be no war against Iran as long as he was chief of CENTCOM." The whole article is worth a read.
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POPSThe Three Secrets to Happiness While I suppose every person has their own definition of happiness, I wholeheartedly agree with these. You can read more about three secrets at the corresponding page, interesting stuff.
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POPSYOU CAN SURVIVE RECESSION...EVEN IF YOU ARE JOBLESS! So, if you are looking for a business opportunity and if a strong foundation is what you need and you are really looking for ways to be successful as an affiliate then i would highly recommend Secret Affiliate Weapon. And for $9.97 you can’t go wrong!
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POPSIsraeli/French BANKS Money Laundering on Grand Scale "Embattled French bank Societe Generale faces fresh troubles Monday when a trial opens in Paris involving a vast money laundering scam between France and Israel. Four banks, including Societe Generale, and 138 people, including the bank's chairman Daniel Bouton, are on trial over the multi-million dollar scam that allegedly began in the late 1990s. The other banks include Societe Marseillaise de Credit, Barclays France and the National Bank of Pakistan. Societe Generale revealed late last month it had lost a staggering 4.8 billion euros (7.1 billion dollars) in the biggest rogue trading scandal in history. Takeover talk is now swirling around France's third largest bank, with two French banks eyeing a possible bid on Societe Generale. " ...AFP
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POPS How Republics Die ~ Plato's Cautionary Tale and makes war against the wealthy class, seizing their money by force. This politician emerges as a tyrant, and the old republic has died. Republic is a complex and profound morality tale in which we can see, if darkly, the reflection of our own republic. Its story is not exactly ours, but we have a lot in common with this once-beautiful city. We have been blessedly spared from the final stage of the societal destruction portrayed in Republic, wherein a redistribution of wealth proceeds by way of a violent coup to tyranny. The American republic is stable enough that for the foreseeable future we need not fear such madness.