The "News" thread.

[Buster's Uncle]

12 Million Americans Believe Lizard People Run Our Country
By Philip Bump | The Atlantic Wire – 19 hrs ago...


About 90 million Americans believe aliens exist. Some 66 million of us think aliens landed at Roswell in 1948. These are the things you learn when there's a lull in political news and pollsters get to ask whatever questions they want.

Public Policy Polling has raised weird polls to an art form. During last year's presidential campaign, the firm earned a bit of a reputation for its unorthodox questions; for example, "If God exists, do you approve of its handling of natural disasters?"

Today PPP released the results of a national survey looking at common conspiracy theories. Broken down by topic and cross-referenced by political preference, the results will not inspire a lot of patriotism. If you need to defend your fellow countrymen, be sure to note that the margin of error is 2.8 percent.

We took the findings and arranged them from most- to least-believed. And, just to inspire additional shame, figured out how many actual Americans that meant must believe in things like the danger of fluoride in water. (28 million, if you're wondering.)


Conspiracy  Percent believing  Number of Americans believing 
JFK was killed by conspiracy  51 percent 160,096,160
Bush intentionally misled on Iraq WMDs  44 percent 138,122,178
Global warming is a hoax  37 percent 116,148,195
Aliens exist  29 percent 91,035,072
New World Order  28 percent 87,895,931
Hussein was involved in 9/11  28 percent 87,895,931
A UFO crashed at Roswell  21 percent 65,921,948
Vaccines are linked to autism  20 percent 62,782,808
The government controls minds with TV  15 percent 47,087,106
Medical industry invents diseases  15 percent 47,087,106
CIA developed crack  14 percent 43,947,966
Bigfoot exists  14 percent 43,947,966
Obama is the Antichrist  13 percent 40,808,825
The government allowed 9/11  11 percent 34,530,544
Fluoride is dangerous  9 percent 28,252,264
The moon landing was faked  7 percent 21,973,983
Bin Laden is alive  6 percent 18,834,842
Airplane contrails are sinister chemicals  5 percent 15,695,702
McCartney died in 1966  5 percent 15,695,702
Lizard people control politics  4 percent 12,556,562

Just to further inspire conversation, PPP broke down belief in each theory by whom the respondent supported in the 2012 election. This yielded some genuinely interesting results.

For example, only two conspiracies were more commonly believed by Obama supporters: that Bush intentionally misled America about Iraq's WMDs (a massive 69 percent of his supporters believe that one) and that the moon landing was faked. There two theories with equal support among Obama and Romney supporters: that aliens exist and theone about fluoridation. Everything else, from lizard people to vaccines and autism to global warming being a hoax? Believed by more Romney supporters.

No conspiracy was less commonly believed than one suggesting that the government is populated by lizard people. But that's mostly because only 2 percent of Obama supporters believe the theory while 5 percent of Romney supporters do.

http://news.yahoo.com/12-million-americans-believe-lizard-people-run-country-184751427.html

[Rusty Edge]

Interesting.
There's a  lot in the wording.  For example, my wife believes Global warming science is flawed. She does not believe it's a conspiracy.

I don't believe Bigfoot has been proven to exist. I do believe that once you sort out the hoaxes, it's quite plausible.  Even likely.   I could elaborate.

Is it a conspiracy? I don't think so. Could there be ? Quite plausible. Why? My experience with mountain lions in PA, which officially don't exist. 

I am sure mountain lions actually pass through from time to time, if they don't live there.  My mother's cousin saw one. A guy I went to high school with saw one. My dad saw one. Different years, same general area. None of them went to the newspaper because they were shocked and were reluctant to bring it up for fear of being ridiculed.

People report mountain lion sightings to the game commission. The people from the agency  hint that having an endangered species discovered would be a problem in terms of federal regulations, restrictions on development, etc. Of course nobody trusts the game commission because they denied trying to re-introduce coyotes.

[Unorthodox]

Why would you WANT coyotes?  There's open bounty on them here. 

I honestly believe in Bigfoot. 

Then, he was living in my backyard back in 1980. 

http://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_article.asp?id=192

That was just the beginning.  The sightings and sounds went on for weeks.  It stole food, and killed livestock (something most your reports don't have is the thing eating).  A posse was eventually formed, but some local teenagers nearly got shot and they called that off.  Nothing was ever conclusive on any of the hair found. 

[Rusty Edge]

Coyotes- well, let's back up.

Because there's a million hunters or more in PA, the game comission makes mega-bucks. They successfully re-introduced elk. Last I heard there were two seperate herds. They brought back river otters.

So I guess they thought to try something else. Like I said, they denied it, but apparently they traded a truckload of wild turkeys to MO for a truckload of coyotes. If they had said outright they were trying to introduce a challenging new species of game, I would have believed it.

 Instead there was something about naturally controlling the deer population. The deer are a hazard on the many rural roads, although why they couldn't manage the population with extra tags and seasons is beyond me.

Well, coyotes  do track and pursue the deer. They also find sheep in pens and paddocks, few though they may be in PA. So they had to legislate re-embursement to farmers from dog liscense money.

[Unorthodox]

Coyotes aren't really challenging game, though.  Like I said, there's open bounty here, so you're free to trap and get paid per coyote killed. 

I've even waded through a pack that was feeding on a kill in the dark.  Not intentionally, but you DON'T turn around and act like prey when you stumble on something like that. 

They're not afraid of you in general (this is WAY back in the woods, not a result of getting used to people) unless you get a loner. 

Even with all the coyotes, AND wolves being reintroduced, we still have a healthy deer population, but probably stricter hunting regulations. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Interesting.
There's a  lot in the wording.

There's a link at the Yahoo! posting to the questions asked.

But it's hardly news that there are a lot of stupid people CoughTeaPartyCough out there who will believe anything - not least in political matters.

[gwillybj]

Do we really have less than 320 million people in the US? I thought it was closer to half a bil by now.

[Geo]

Half the numbers in illegals? 
That would be a bit too much...

[Rusty Edge]

Okay. I'll take your word for it.
I never tried to hunt a coyote. In PA hunting would be daylight without bait.
I only imagined that would be hard, because they seem particularly stealthy. Glimpsed only at a distance, and when they were it was only to get a better look at the human. A quick shot at long range.

I never saw them or their tracks in pairs or packs.

*************************************
Now, here in the Milwaukee suburbs, they're different. They'll trot past my picture window within spitting distance ( a game trail of sorts ), but the entire town is a no shooting zone. A great place to hunt rabbits, squirrels , housecats and racoons if you're a coyote. Possums, and fawns too. They'll hunt the interstate corridor in broad daylight.

[Unorthodox]

They adapt to different situations differently.  Sometimes more nocturnal, sometimes not.  They can form larger mobs (and do here in Utah especially at the higher elevations), but are most often in smaller family groups, and usually hunt in pairs. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Faked Moon Landing? Conspiracy Beliefs Fall Along Party Lines
By Benjamin Radford, LiveScience Bad Science Columnist  | LiveScience.com – Thu, Apr 4, 2013...


Updated at 12:26 p.m. ET

A new national poll reveals that Americans differ along political party lines even in their endorsement of conspiracy theories, including the belief that President Obama is the Anti-Christ and the idea that global warming is a hoax.

The poll found, for instance, just 15 percent of Democrats believe a secretive power elite with a globalist agenda is conspiring to eventually rule the world through an authoritarian world government, or New World Order; compare that with 34 percent of Republicans and 35 percent of Independents who believe the same.

As one might expect, the more far-out the conspiracy theory, the fewer people endorse it. Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling, which conducted the research, noted, "Most Americans reject the wackier ideas out there about fake moon landings and shape-shifting lizards."

Even so, 20 percent of Republicans believe that President Obama is the Anti-Christ, compared with 13 percent of Independents and 6 percent of Democrats who agree.

Some other highlights include:

— 58 percent of Republicans think global warming is a hoax, whereas just 24 percent of Democrats said the same. [The Reality of Global Warming: 10 Myths Busted]

— 15 percent of the respondents believe the pharmaceutical industry conspires with the medical industry to fabricate new diseases for profit, and the same number believe that secret mind-controlling technology is added to TV broadcast signals.

Democrats, Republicans and conspiracy theorists

The difference in endorsement between self-identified Democrats and Republicans is less surprising than it may seem at first glance; many events producing conspiracy theories have important political implications that make them more or less likely to be believed depending on your worldview.

For example, the recent Sandy Hook conspiracy theories were framed by believers not as merely a tragic school shooting but instead as a hoax perpetrated or coordinated by the Obama administration (or gun control groups or other powerful, unknown organizations) to scare the public into supporting gun control legislation. Similarly, conspiracies involving the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the killing of Osama bin Laden, and whether or not President Obama is a legal U.S. citizen clearly have political implications.

Other common conspiracies — such as whether a UFO crashed in Roswell, New Mexico (21 percent said yes), or the moon landings were faked (7 percent said yes), or that Paul McCartney died in a car crash in 1966 (5 percent said yes) — have little implications for people's everyday lives. [The 10 Craziest Conspiracy Theories Explained]



The Conspiracy Mentality

The image of the bug-eyed, tinfoil-hat-wearing conspiracy believer is largely a stereotype. There is no single profile fitting all conspiracy theorists, but generally what the conspiratorial mind sees as misinformation and lies, others see as merely perfectly ordinary incomplete and inaccurate information or misunderstandings. Conspiracy believers tend to be skeptical of coincidences, instead seeing a reason or hidden purpose behind seemingly random events.

Sometimes evidence showing that a conspiracy theory is false has a measurable effect on public belief; for example, soon after Obama released his long-form birth certificate proving that he'd been born in Hawai'i, the number of people believing he'd been born outside the United States dropped by half, according to a 2011 Washington Post poll.

Often, however, no amount of evidence can deter true believers from conspiracy thinking. There is no shortage of documentation about the 9/11 terrorist attacks, for example, and questions from so-called "9/11 Truthers" have been repeatedly answered but to little effect.

In many cases, in fact, conspiracy believers endorse contradictory theories. Recent studies by researcher Karen Douglas at the University of Kent suggest a reason why. She and colleagues asked 137 students to rate how much they agreed with five conspiracy theories about the 1997 death of Princess Diana. The results were surprising — and contradictory. As Douglas explained to LiveScience, "The more people were likely to endorse the idea Princess Diana was murdered, the more they were likely to believe that Princess Diana is alive." To many conspiracy theorists settling on one definitive theory (for example whether bin Laden or Princess Diana is alive or not — and if they aren't, how or when they died) is far less important than knowing that something has been covered up and is being kept secret.

Research suggests that in some cases belief in conspiracy theories can actually be psychologically adaptive and beneficial, as the very premise of conspiracies implies a powerful, hidden force at work with some overarching grand design. Conspiracy theorists see a hidden hand behind the world's major events, including social and political changes. Even though conspiracy theorists claim to want to expose the conspiracy and thwart its goals (such as establishing a New World Order), some take comfort that the world is not merely random — that things happen for a reason. Though conspiracy believers don't feel in control of the events, they feel that at least someone is (or a small cabal of powerful "someones" are).

The survey, conducted by the Public Policy Polling group, sampled 1,247 registered American voters by telephone from March 27?30 and was not paid for by any political organization.

Benjamin Radford is deputy editor of "Skeptical Inquirer" science magazine and author of six books including "Media Mythmakers: How Journalists, Activists, and Advertisers Mislead Us." His website is www.BenjaminRadford.com.

http://news.yahoo.com/faked-moon-landing-conspiracy-beliefs-fall-along-party-155031640.html

[Rusty Edge]

Well, it's to be expected, I guess.

Our brains organize things by identifying patterns. We cross reference patterns with our existing experience, and make judgements and decisions. An older person may be better at it. A smart person may be better at it. A creative person with a good imagination may be better at it.

If we can see the hand of God in our world, it's not so hard to see the work of the devil, or evil dooers, too.

If we are taught that things tend towards a state of low energy and high  randomness, when we see a pattern we suspect an organizing force.

My general conspiracy theory is rooted in incompetence. It's hard to get more than half a dozen people cooperating without one of them screwing up. Then the others naturally try to fix it and cover it up for the sake of the cause, or their own part in the reputation of the organization. It's natural. It's not co-ordinated .

What's not natural is to believe that an organization as incompetent as the US gov, which can't even pass a budget, can do the things it accused of doing secretly.


EXCEPT where crows are concerned....   I wonder if the crows know where I live now.. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Uno will tell them.

Or Bakrama will, as part of the conspiracy against you.

[Buster's Uncle]

Feral Pigs Going Hog-Wild in US
By Douglas Main, Staff Writer  | LiveScience.com – 20 hrs ago...

Feral pigs are becoming a wild problem in the United States.

The wild hogs can now be found in three-fourths of U.S. states — and their populations are growing in many areas — and are estimated to cause $1.5 billion in damages each year, the Associated Press reports.  There are currently more than 5 million wild hogs in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 

By all accounts, the animals are quite intelligent. They also sport razor-sharp tusks and can be aggressive toward people and pets. They have a remarkable knack for causing trouble, ranging from eating threatened species like dune lizards and spreading invasive weeds to carrying and transmitting more than 30 different kinds of diseases to humans, livestock and other wildlife, according to the AP. Feral pigs’ habit of digging and rooting around in the ground also tears up gardens and crop fields, and creates holes in roads that serve as hazards for cars and tractors. 

$1 million hunt

But the state of New Mexico isn't letting the pigs get away with those antics. The state recently partnered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture on a $1 million project to hunt, trap and kill the animals. The plan is to hit the animals in a single coordinated effort, because the pigs are so smart that they can learn from failed efforts to trap them and avoid the snares in the future.

"They're much brighter than I am," Ray Powell, a veterinarian and New Mexico's land commissioner, told the AP. "If they had the dexterity, they'd be driving vehicles around. I mean these guys are really smart."

Hunters will also employ a "Judas pig." After finding and killing a hog family, officials will intentionally leave one pig alive — usually, an adult female. This "Judas pig" will then be outfitted with a tracking collar in order to lead state officials to a new set of pigs, which the surviving hog will seek out, the AP reports. [Image Gallery: The Most Destructive Invasive Species]

Multiplying hogs

Texas may have the most wild hogs of any U.S. state, and the situation is expected to worsen, despite the $7 million per year that Texans spends to keep the animals' numbers down, the AP reports.  A recent study by Texas A&M University found that the number of feral pigs is likely to triple in five years in the state of Texas if serious efforts aren't made to reduce feral-pig populations, according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

"If a feral-hog sow produces a dozen piglets, 13 survive," goes an old joke, according to the Avalanche-Journal. But feral-pig reproduction is no laughing matter. The animals may start reproducing when they’re just 6 months old, and their litters average about six sows, reports Mississippi State University. They produce an average of 1.5 litters per year.

Feral pigs were introduced to North America in the 1500s by Spanish explorers and were used for hunting. In the wild, they can grow to be up to 300 pounds (136 kilograms) or more, according to U.S. government figures. Not one to shy away from controversy (or porcine genocide), the rock musician Ted Nugent killed 455 wild hogs in a recent hunting expedition in Texas. "I did it for Bill Maher and all those other animal-rights freaks out there," Nugent said, according to Mlive.com. He allegedly donated the meat to the homeless.

http://news.yahoo.com/feral-pigs-going-hog-wild-us-170222887.html

[gwillybj]

I wonder what caliber bullet it takes to drop one of these bad boys? It might even be fun to have an archery seaon.