BRUCE LERRO—Standards for getting information in the mass media are lower than for professional publications. Programs about the paranormal are notorious for editing out disconfirming evidence. Paranormal topics are a thriving business. Mass media has a stake in keeping its businesses alive. They would lose money if they revealed the truth of scientific research. In drug studies, research supported by pharmaceutical companies reports more positive results than research supported by public funds. Once a study is submitted for publication, a journal has an incentive to publish positive results. There is a publication bias for positivity.
CULTURE & HISTORY
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JOSUE MICHELS—n age of relative freedom took a major setback on August 25, the day the European Union’s draconian Digital Services Act (dsa) went into force. In the future, this measure could be used to ban articles such as this one. But much more than banning “disinformation” and “hate speech,” the law is set to ban any illegal content, services or activities. While the dsa is combating some filth and corruption American companies allow and promote, it is also setting the scene for a system of absolute state control over the Internet.
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JOTI BRAR – ON – NAVIGATING THE CRASH OF WESTERN IMPERIALISM
6 minutes readJOTI BRAR explains the origins and evil evolution of European colonialism and its successor, imperialism, around the world, especially in Africa, where it continues in its more brutal forms to this day. Joti notes that African nations have been energised and encouraged in their struggles by first the Soviet Union and later Russia, a posture that continues to this day, giving them hope that they will triumph.
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CHIMA OKEZUE—As I have already explained before, ECOWAS stopped being a purely economic organization in 1990 when it created a Nigerian-dominated military force to intervene in the First Liberian Civil War (1989-1997). Since then, that standby military force have intervened multiple times in various conflicts across West Africa. Since 6 August 2023, the Nigerian Air Force has been patrolling skies just outside Niger airspace and troops of the Nigerian Army are at the border. Those are the “ECOWAS standby force” that Mr. Omar Touray was obliquely referring to.
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GARY LEUPP—(After the failure of the pearl industry in Hawai’i—in part due to the construction around what became “Pearl Harbor,” and before sugar became the mono-crop curse of the islands, whaling and the provision of R&R for whaling ships was the kingdom’s leading economic activity. By 1824 about 100 foreign whaling vessels were using Hawai’i as a reprovisioning center.