Watching the news some days, you'd think a lot of companies were run by psychopaths. And, according to a recent study, some might well be. One of the authors of the study was hired by companies to evaluate managers - mostly middle-aged, college-educated, white males - for a management development program. It turns out that these managers scored higher on measures of psychopathy than the overall population, and some who had very high scores were candidates for, or held, senior positions. In general, managers with higher scores were seen as better communicators, better strategic thinkers, and more creative. However, they were also seen as having poor management style, not being team players, and delivering poor performance. But, apparently, this didn't prevent some of them from being seen as having leadership potential. The authors conclude that "the very skills that make the psychopath so unpleasant (and sometimes abusive) in society can facilitate a career in business even in the face of negative performance ratings."
Babiak, P. et al., "Corporate Psychopathy: Talking the Walk," Behavioral Sciences & the Law (March/April 2010).
Health & Wellness
© The New York Times
Detroit police inspecting a clandestine underground brewery during Prohibition
Detroit police inspecting a clandestine underground brewery during Prohibition
It was Christmas Eve 1926, the streets aglitter with snow and lights, when the man afraid of Santa Claus stumbled into the emergency room at New York City's Bellevue Hospital. He was flushed, gasping with fear: Santa Claus, he kept telling the nurses, was just behind him, wielding a baseball bat.
Before hospital staff realized how sick he was - the alcohol-induced hallucination was just a symptom - the man died. So did another holiday partygoer. And another. As dusk fell on Christmas, the hospital staff tallied up more than 60 people made desperately ill by alcohol and eight dead from it. Within the next two days, yet another 23 people died in the city from celebrating the season.
© zbyszek80/stock/xchng
The researchers show that insulin-secreting islet cells in the pancreas, called beta-cells, have their own dedicated clock. The clock governs the rhythmic behavior of proteins and genes involved in insulin secretion, with oscillations over a 24-hour cycle.
The findings, which will be published June 18 by the journal Nature, shine a light on a system that hasn't been recognized as having a strong effect on the process of glucose homeostasis.
"This is the first evidence of how the circadian clock may affect the development of diabetes," said Joe Bass, M.D., associate professor of medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine and of neurobiology and physiology at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. "The biological programs in animals for harvesting energy -- much like the photosynthesis of plants -- are under control of the clock. Our findings will help us figure out the causes of glucose abnormalities, but we still have a lot to learn."
© BP
At this point nobody knows. What is becoming clear is that a whole lot of people are becoming ill.
Several days ago, the state of Louisiana announced that 71 cases of oil spill-related illnesses had been reported to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals up to that point. A significant number of those had not even been involved in any of the clean up efforts.
Health conscious? Food giants are spending millions in a bid to kill off 'traffic light' warning labels
Doctors and consumer groups say the labeling is vital to helping families choose a healthy diet and avoid products high in fat, sugar and salt.
Shoppers support the red, amber and green color coding on the front of packs, according to research by the Food Standards Agency and consumer group Which?.
© Godnik/Getty
According to the Environmental Law Foundation, 85 percent of kids' drinks contain so much lead they may exceed federal limits for young children.
According to the Environmental Law Foundation, 85 percent of kids' drinks contain so much lead they may exceed federal limits for young children.
Both organic and conventional juices were among the lead-tainted products, according to the Environmental Law Foundation, a Bay Area-based environmental nonprofit that used a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency certified lab to test 400 samples of 150 products marketed to kids.
Just as Pfizer (PFE) appeared to have successfully discredited the notion that Viagra causes vision loss, the FDA has accused the company of covering up eye problems associated with the erectile dysfunction drug. In an audit of Pfizer's drug side-effect reporting systems, the FDA found the company failed to submit reports of vision loss associated with Viagra in a timely fashion or downgraded the seriousness of those reports even though they involved "blindness" and "visual acuity loss/reduction"
The lesson for managers here is, if you're going to go around discrediting your critics, you'd better make sure there aren't any skeletons in your closet while doing so. This skeleton is sizeable: The FDA's warning letter to Pfizer is 12 pages long and covers multiple record-keeping issues on different drugs; normally they're only a couple of pages long and focused on a single product.
The lesson for managers here is, if you're going to go around discrediting your critics, you'd better make sure there aren't any skeletons in your closet while doing so. This skeleton is sizeable: The FDA's warning letter to Pfizer is 12 pages long and covers multiple record-keeping issues on different drugs; normally they're only a couple of pages long and focused on a single product.
© Natural News
Aerotoxic Syndrome, the unofficial name now being used to identify the laundry list of both acute and chronic symptoms caused by breathing contaminated jet cabin air, include things like chronic fatigue, respiratory difficulties, vision problems and cognitive disorder.
For some, the symptoms may be short-lived, but for others, persistent neurological damage may occur as a result of exposure, and many don't even realize it's happening until it's too late.
Four years ago, just after giving birth to her second child, the stay-at-home mom heard about BPA, a chemical inside some plastics that can leach into water or food slowly over time, potentially causing serious health problems like cancer. Unwilling to take any risks, she ran to Babies "R" Us, which had a program to exchange baby bottles containing BPA, and walked out with $100 in rebates.
If only life were so easy.
What Sprague didn't realize is that BPA, or bisphenol A, is ubiquitous. Simply put, just about anything you eat that comes out of a can - from Campbell's Chicken Soup and SpaghettiOs to Diet Coke and BumbleBee Tuna - contains the same exact chemical.
Comment: As a result of the inability of the FDA to regulate BPA:
More States Move to Ban BPA Even While FDA Does Nothing
California is New Front Line of BPA Fight
California Senate Approves Ban on BPA in Plastics
BPA Gets the Boot from Chicago and Minnesota
Wisconsin Protects Kids from Toxic BPA
Minnesota bans BPA chemical in baby bottles
New York county ban on baby bottle chemical is official
Comment: For more information about the serious negative health effects of lead read the following articles:
Why Lead Poisoning May Be Causing Your Health Problems
Studies Show Danger of Even Small Amounts of Lead in Children's Blood
No Wonder People in D.C. Are Brain Dead: Congressional Report Prompts Fear and Anger Over Lead in D.C. Water