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The most widespread and enduring conspiracy theories—British intelligence killed Princess Diana, the U.S. government orchestrated 9/11—are completely absurd. But that doesn’t stop them from drawing a vast and vehement audience. David Aaronovitch picks apart 12 grand conspiracy theories to conclude that they are concocted and promoted, in large part, by educated losers. (Yes, he actually calls them losers.)
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The island used to be connected to the rest of the Earth, but was detached during electromagnetism experiments conducted by the Dharma Initiative. It is capable of traveling anywhere with the only parameter being gravity
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Now that they've had two days to think about it, what can the Internet's brainiest 'Lost' theorists tell us about the show's final season?
Inflation theory, which posits that the universe ballooned from subatomic scale to the size of a soccer ball during its first 10-33 seconds, has had great ...
There are a million different ingenious theories out there that explain this or that certain phenomenon and many are very complicated. See which one are surfacing on the interwebs today.
Nick Jonas (and the Administration) has just released a new song and it's called "Conspiracy Theory."
Listen to the newest single from his upcoming album "Who I Am" below:
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Amateur historian Rick Rogers has spent decades developing a theory that either Dutch or Spanish traders visited Hawaii before Captain Cook's 1778 arrival. Maps from 1589 showing an approximation of Hawaii's shape and location; remains of a 1664 women indicating she had syphilis and the disappearance of 5 Spanish ships plying the Manila to Acapulco trade in the 1500 and 1600s make his case.
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Scholars at the global warming skeptics thinktank, "The Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI)" say ocean acidification theory is a scare tactic ignores Cambrian data, the chemistry of CO2 and the alkaline affect of ocean rocks.
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Man-created (anthropogenic) carbon emissions are changing the PH in earth’s oceans, causing acidification which will rapidly destroy coral reefs and anything in the ocean that contains calcium carbonate. Scientists conclude that unabated CO2 emissions over the coming centuries may produce changes in ocean pH that are greater than any experienced in the past 300 million years.
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Diffusion of innovations theory focuses on the stages an individual takes when adopting a new technology and the types of adopters. E.M. Rogers argued that diffusion has four stages; knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation. Rogers divided technology adopters into 5 groups: innovator, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards.
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A theory of delinquency and delinquent subcultures developed by Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin in Delinquency and Opportunity (1960). Simply put, lack of material opportunity leads to increased crime. Cloward and Ohlin suggest that the social structure of a community determines access to both the learning and performance structures that underwrite career delinquency and criminal subcultures.
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Heather MacDonald says recession of 2008-09 has undercut one of the most common social theories that came out of the 1960s: the idea that the root cause of crime lies in income inequality and social injustice. As the economy started shedding jobs in 2008, criminologists and pundits predicted that crime would shoot up. Instead, the opposite happened. Over seven million lost jobs later, crime has plummeted to its lowest level since the early 1960s.
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The expected retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens and subsequent supreme court nomination fight will cast a bright light on judicial theories of interpretation. Get them here.
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Grant Lawrence has a theory about the failed attempt to attack Northwest Flight 253, it was conveniently overlooked by US intelligence to provide justification to bomb Yemen (as home of Al Queda) and to insure key provisions of the Patriot Act are *not* allowed to expire.
Feminist film theory is anchored on feminist politics and feminist theory.
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Named after American circus impresario P.T. Barnum, the Barnum effect posits that people will tend to believe ambiguous or vague statements about themselves and accept them as accurate.
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Altercasting is a theory of emotional persuasion where an actor/agent forces an individual into a social role to generate a desired set of actions or beliefs. It has two forms: manded and tact-based.
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We all know at least one person with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD -- aka the 'winter blues.' Check out 3 of the top theories behind the physiology of the SAD.
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Research now suggests that SAD has a genetic component. Simply put, low-sunlight is not an equal opportunity depressant. Some genetic groups are more affected by SAD than others. Specifically, the 5-HTTLPR gene has been found to be expressed differently in SAD patients.
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The serotonergic dysfunction theory of SAD states, based on research findings, that the receptors on brain cells that are stimulated by serotonin are not functioning correctly, resulting in abnormal neuroendocrine responses and the symptoms experienced in SAD.
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One major theory for explaining SAD involves the circadian rhythms of the body. In effect, reduced daylight causes a 'phase shift' of the body's circadian rhythms which affects when and how much melatonin is produced. During sleep, melatonin acts affects the amount of hormones secreted by the body's 'master gland' -- the pituitary gland. The result is a cascade of symptoms common to SAD.
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