Manufacturing consent, by Noam Chomsky

I have wanted to read this book for quite a while, and just by luck I saw a new copy on a bookstore in San Jose. I grabbed it immediately. This is a heavy book, with 60 pages of notes, which was typical of his books when he was in his prime. It was written in 1988, but it is still applicable to the media of today. To give you a feel for it, I have quoted from the summary below.

In contrast to the standard conception of the media as cantankerous, obstinate, and ubiquitous in their search for truth, we have spelled out and applied a propaganda model that indeed sees the media as serving a societal purpose, but not that of enabling the public to assert meaningful control over the political process by providing them with the information needed for the intelligent discharge of their political responsibilities. On the contrary, a propaganda model suggest that the societal purpose of the media is to inculcate and defend the economic, social, and political agenda of the privileged groups that dominate the domestic society and the state.

In other words, the media does what it is supposed to do, and what it is supposed to do is determined by the power structure. This is not surprising, it is only surprising when it is brought to our attention. The media are large businesses, and their customers are large businesses. And large businesses dominate the government, and have for over 100 years.

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[QuoXspoxsom]

Two new studies show why some people are more attractive for members of the opposite sex than others.

The University of Florida, Florida State University found that physically attractive people almost instantly attract the attention of the interlocutor, sobesednitsy with them, literally, it is difficult to make eye. This conclusion was reached by a series of psychological experiments, which were determined by the people who believe in sending the first seconds after the acquaintance. Here, a curious feature: single, unmarried experimental preferred to look at the guys, beauty opposite sex, and family, people most often by representatives of their sex.

The authors believe that this feature developed a behavior as a result of the evolution: a man trying to find a decent pair to acquire offspring. If this is resolved, he wondered potential rivals. Detailed information about this magazine will be published Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

In turn, a joint study of the Rockefeller University, Rockefeller University and Duke University, Duke University in North Carolina revealed that women are perceived differently by men smell. During experiments studied the perception of women one of the ingredients of male pheromone-androstenona smell, which is contained in urine or sweat.

The results were startling: women are part of this repugnant odor, and the other part is very attractive, resembling the smell of vanilla, and the third group have not felt any smell. The authors argue that the reason is that the differences in the receptor responsible for the olfactory system, from different people are different.

It has long been proven that mammals (including human) odor is one way of attracting the attention of representatives of the opposite sex. A detailed article about the journal Nature will publish.