A foreign accent undermines a person's credibility in ways that the speaker and the listener don't consciously realize, new research at the University of Chicago shows.
Because an accent makes a person harder to understand, listeners are less likely to find what the person says as truthful, researchers found. The problem of credibility increases with the severity of the accent.
"The results have important implications for how people perceive non-native speakers of a language, particularly as mobility increases in the modern world, leading millions of people to be non-native speakers of the language they use daily," said Boaz Keysar, a Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago and an expert on communication.
"Accent might reduce the credibility of non-native job seekers, eyewitnesses, reporters or people taking calls in foreign call centers," said Shiri Lev-Ari, lead author of "Why Don't We Believe Non-native Speakers? The Influence of Accent on Credibility," written with Keysar and published in the current issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Levi-Ari is a post-doctoral researcher at the University whose work focuses on the interactions between native and non-native speakers.
Health & Wellness
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The prevalence of chronic tinnitus is increasing, and is currently around 10 to 15% in the developed world, say the authors. There are currently few treatment options.
And while there are some obvious triggers, such as ear disorders and head trauma, there are few known risk factors or clear explanations for this trend. The high microwave energy produced by mobile phones during use has been suggested as a possible culprit, but there has been no hard evidence to date.
Comment: No hard evidence?! The following articles carried on SOTT suggest otherwise:
The BioInitiative Report - The Dangerous Health Impacts of Microwave Radiation
Electromagnetic radiation and its effect on the brain: an insider speaks out
Is 'Electrosmog' Harming Our Health?
This interview was done for the residents and BP workers in the Gulf; what chemicals you're most likely being exposed to and what you can do to protect your children and yourself from the toxins in the air, water and beaches.
© Image via Wikipedia
Veterans Day 2007 poster from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs: "HONORING ALL WHO SERVED - VETERANS DAY"
Veterans Day 2007 poster from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs: "HONORING ALL WHO SERVED - VETERANS DAY"
The Veterans Health Administration systematically delays and denies sick veterans medical care and masks it with bogus documentation. That's what the VA Inspector General and a number of veterans' advocates have been claiming since the early days of the Iraq War, when soldiers returning from Operation Enduring Freedom began flooding VA facilities. Now an internal department memo, posted Wednesday on a watchdog Web site, confirms these charges.
The April 26 memo from William Schoenhard, Deputy Undersecretary for Health Operations and Management, alerts supervisors overseeing scheduling in the nation's largest health care system that he has learned of unacceptable practices. VA facilities have adopted what he calls "gaming strategies" in order to "improve scores on various access measures" by diminishing patient access to treatment.
© SeeMidTN.com (aka Brent)/flickr
Antibiotics in animal agriculture
USA Today does great editorial point/counterpoints and here is one from July 12 on use of antibiotics as growth promoters or as prophylactics in farm animals and poultry. This selects for antibiotic-resistant bacteria. If we get infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, too bad for us.
Concerned about drug-resistant pathogens, medical professionals push to limit antibiotic use in animal farming
The evening's menu featured grass-fed, antibiotic-free beef over pasta, fresh seasonal vegetables and fresh organic peaches - items right at home in the city's finest restaurants.
Instead, the dishes were prepared for visitors, staff and bed-bound patients at Swedish Covenant Hospital.
The Northwest Side hospital is one of 300 across the nation that have pledged to improve the quality and sustainability of the food they serve, not just for the health of their patients but, they say, the health of the environment and the U.S. population.
For many of these institutions, the initiative includes buying antibiotic-free meats. Administrators say they hope increased demand for those products will reduce the use of antibiotics to treat cattle and other animals, which scientists believe helps pathogens become more resistant to drugs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that antibiotic-resistant infections kill 60,000 Americans a year.
The evening's menu featured grass-fed, antibiotic-free beef over pasta, fresh seasonal vegetables and fresh organic peaches - items right at home in the city's finest restaurants.
Instead, the dishes were prepared for visitors, staff and bed-bound patients at Swedish Covenant Hospital.
The Northwest Side hospital is one of 300 across the nation that have pledged to improve the quality and sustainability of the food they serve, not just for the health of their patients but, they say, the health of the environment and the U.S. population.
For many of these institutions, the initiative includes buying antibiotic-free meats. Administrators say they hope increased demand for those products will reduce the use of antibiotics to treat cattle and other animals, which scientists believe helps pathogens become more resistant to drugs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that antibiotic-resistant infections kill 60,000 Americans a year.
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The patch consists of microneedles coated in flu vaccine which then dissolve
The patch consists of microneedles coated in flu vaccine which then dissolve
Scientists unveil an innovative and cheap method of delivering vaccines without the need for needles or medical experts
A revolutionary way of vaccinating against infectious diseases has been invented by scientists who have developed a skin patch containing an influenza vaccine.
The patch does away with needles and syringes and could transform the battle against future pandemics by painlessly inoculating patients with vaccines that could be sent out in the post and self-administered in the home by somebody with no medical experience.
In the developing world, the skin patches could eliminate the need for the costly medical infrastructure of mass-vaccination campaigns, which require trained medical personnel to inject vaccines, and expensive storage equipment. Skin patches also bypass the hazards of dirty needles.
The skin patch is "armed" with an array of microscopic needles made of biodegradable plastic that painlessly scratch the surface of the skin and dissolve harmlessly without trace after delivering the vaccine safely inside the body.
Tests have shown that the patch works just as well and possibly even better than conventional vaccines injected into the body with needles and syringes. The skin patches are biodegradable and, unlike dirty needles, there is no risk of accidental skin pricks and cross-contamination.
© Mait
A few days ago I was standing in line at the post office, just behind a young mother and her daughter. The little girl looked to be about 2 years old - she was still speaking that language that only a mom can understand. She was a chubby little blonde child, wearing a tee shirt that promoted Coca Cola. As I watched her, she was happily smearing a chocolate bar all over her face.
It was 9 o'clock in the morning, by the way. So, I'm not sure whether this little girl was eating her breakfast or a mid-morning snack. As she alternately licked her candy bar and babbled at her mother, I realized that this was a child who already knows how to plan ahead to her next meal; the one word coming out of her chocolate-coated mouth that I could understand clearly was 'McDonald's.'
The food industry spends billions of dollars each year on child seduction, with carefully-conceived advertising directed specifically at children. Just like drug dealers, fast food and snack food purveyors understand the importance of hooking them young and building life-long, loyal customers for their products. Eric Schlosser writes in his eye-opening book Fast Food Nation "...market research has found that children often recognize a brand logo before they can recognize their own name."
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Every year, manufactures pour about 15 million pounds of eight common synthetic dyes into American's food. Yet, tests have shown that a number of these compounds have health risks ranging from powerful allergic reactions and hyperactivity in children to cancer.
Comment: For more information on the topic of artificial food dye and it's effects on human health read the following article:
Ban Urged On Artificial Food Dyes
The group's findings were published yesterday in the journal Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis. They used scanning techniques that assessed both brain growth and brain function in the same animals over time. The research team was able to see differences in the way the brains of vaccinated and unvaccinated animals developed. Scans were performed before and after the administration of primary MMR and DTaP/Hib boosters that were given at the human equivalent of 12 months of age.
Comment: More about pandemics here.