Mach IV

Machiavellianism

Machiavellianism is primarily the term some social and personality psychologists use to describe a person's tendency to deceive and manipulate others for personal gain. The concept is named after Renaissance diplomat and writer Niccolò Machiavelli, who wrote Il Principe (The Prince). (Machiavellianism can also refer to the order Machiavelli established, although that is not the subject of this article.) In the 1960s Richard Christie and Florence L. Geis developed a test for measuring a person's level of Machiavellianism. This eventually became the MACH-IV test, a twenty-statement personality survey that is now the standard self-assessment tool of Machiavellianism. People scoring above 60 out of 100 on the MACH-IV are considered high Machs; that is, they endorsed statements such as, "Never tell anyone the real reason you did something unless it is useful to do so," but not ones like, "Most people are basically good and kind". People scoring below 60 out of 100 on the MACH-IV are considered low Machs; they tend to believe, "There is no excuse for lying to someone else," and, "Most people who get ahead in the world lead clean, moral lives". In a series of studies undertaken by Christie and Geis and Geis's graduate assistant David Berger, the notion of machiavellianism was experimentally verified.

Gifts for the Elite

Things that we would like to forget about 2007...like this Bilderbergers Delight

Reclaiming the dumps

An interesting view of the Staten Island dump circa 911

Link

Evening in the foothills of the Cascade mountain range with the sun shining under the cloud layer onto freshly plowed red soil.

Are bees disappearing because of genetic crops?

Buzz off
Apr 26th 2007
From The Economist print edition

Investigating colony collapse disorder


IT IS a mystery that would tax the minds of the world's greatest detectives. Across America beekeepers are finding hives abandoned. What appear to be normal, healthy adults suddenly disappear within two days, leaving their queen, their food stores and the young. In the past, a mass exodus would leave the hive to be ransacked by honeybees from neighbouring colonies. This time, not only is the retreat more common, but nearby bees seem strangely reluctant to enter the abandoned hives. There are no dead bodies, but scientists who have studied the corpses of the occasional remaining live adult report that they are ravaged by disease.

What could be going on? The Department of Agriculture in America this week convened a workshop of apiarists and federal and university scientists to suggest some answers.

Colony collapse disorder, as the phenomenon has become known as, was first reported in America in mid-November 2006. It spread rapidly, with beekeepers reporting heavy losses of between 30% and 90% of bees. Some 24 American states have now reported cases of colony collapse disorder. It has also been seen in Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.


Because the living bees that the scientists were able to study carried almost every virus and parasite known to infect honeybees, researchers are working on the idea that the insects' immune systems have failed. Reducing the body's ability to fight disease allows infection by a host of pathogens. But exactly why this should happen is unclear. It could be that one disease, perhaps a new type of lurgy, invites the others to infect the bee, or that a pesticide performs this role.

MORE


Daves Garden has an interesting blog where many people are reporting conditions in their yard throughout the country.

davesgarden.com

I like this one...G:

garden_mermaid
Sunnyvale, CA
(Zone 9b)

Jun 7, 2007
10:46 AM

Post #3586411

We have had honey bees as well as wild mason bees, bumble bees, burrowing bees, and beneficial pollinating flies that resemble bees, at our community garden since the weather warmed up. There are cells phones en mass around here, and they don't seem to be bothering the bees. Our community garden is organic, and many of the surrounding homes do not use toxic sprays. So the mystery continues.


And you'll need to put on your tinfoil hat for this site:

The Bees' Needs

INTRODUCTION: NEW SCIENCE REVEALS THE SOLUTION

It's the Physics, Stupid!

By Richard C. Hoagland and David Wilcock

2007 The Enterprise Mission