cynicow.com

I don’t think that moral instruction adequately explains the extent to which children’s fiction promotes credulity, however. Perhaps religious and political leaders, among others, would like to see youth raised to believe without question.

Agoraphilia: “Just Believe!” Why?.

The study, made by a team from the Purdue University in Indiana, suggested artificial sweeteners, which have zero or very low calories, seem to have destroyed the physiological link between sweet tastes and calories, resulting to rats fed with sweeteners overeating.

Study: Artificial Sweetener Breaks Connection Between Sweet Taste, Calories | AHN

Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc., one of the first companies to label its ice cream as free of a synthetic hormone, is protesting a move by some states to restrict such labeling.
The ice cream maker has joined a national campaign to block what critics say is an effort driven by Monsanto Co., which markets recombinant bovine somatotropin, or rBST, also known as recombinant bovine growth hormone, or rBGH.

Ben & Jerry’s in a fight over labeling - Food Inc.- msnbc.com.

I’m of two minds on this particular issue. Anything the American Beverage Association supports immediately has my suspicion. But I do tend to side with the Center for Science in the Public Interest. I suspect the beverage folk will see smaller portions as a way to sell more portions (ka-ching!).

The oddest thing, in my view, is that school lunches fall under the purview of the Dept. of Agriculture. That’s letting the foxes determine henhouse security. Let the Surgeon General dictate school lunch policy, or at least the Dept. of Education.

What do you think? 

Effort to Limit Junk Food in Schools Faces Hurdles via NYT

When you are in a group, you may feel a shared responsibility and so less individual responsibility for your actions. In this way a morally questionable act may seem less personally wrong. You may also feel a strong need to conform to social norms.
A paradox of deindividuation is that when you let go of your self, returning to you self can be an exhilarating experience. This is one of the rewards of engrossing hobbies and meditation.
Significant external stimulation helps deindividuation as it distracts you from internal chatter and rumination. This is one reason that pop and rock music (and orchestral music, for that matter) is often played loudly along with dramatic visual lighting effects.

Deindividuation via changingminds.org