How Jonah Lehrer Was Able to Perpetrate Fraud in the Current Intellectual Climate | Stanton's Blog

We know Lehrer lies. But how does this excuse the editors of Nature and Wired from permitting this completely implausible tale (a man instantly memorized 700 pages of a foreign language on first reading) to be perpetuated? Can’t they tell bullshit from fact? Have they no idea what the human mind is capable of (or at least enough of an intimation to check a claim like this one out)? Instead, they pass the prevaricator — and his favors — around from one to another like a drunken whore at a sleazy bar.

This blogger (a neuroscientist writing for Psychology Today blogs) notes error after errorabout how the brain operates in yet another Lehrer best-seller, How We Decide. Jonathon Keats performed a similar exercise on Lehrer’s Proust for Salon, while Isaac Chotiner did the same for his Imagine in The New Republic. It’s like Mary McCarthy’s old line about Lillian Hellman: “every word she writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the.’” Isn’t this all reminiscent of a criminal conviction when it has been revealed that an unscrupulous forensic laboratory has made up evidence in the case, and then all the convictions in which it played a role must be reversed?

Belo Monte Dam Suspended by High Brazilian Court | International Rivers

Federal Judge Souza Prudente of the Federal Tribunal of Brazil's Amazon region suspended all work today on the Belo Monte Dam, invalidating the project's environmental and installation licenses.

RIGZONE - API: Poll Shows US Voters Link Energy Development, Economic Recovery

A recent poll by the American Petroleum Institute (API) found that U.S. voters favor increased access to domestic oil and gas resources, and see oil and gas development as a way to create jobs.

Seventy-one percent of the 1,016 registered voters polled by Harris Interactive in telephone interviews throughout the United States from August 9-12 said they supported opening more U.S. oil and natural gas resources for development.

Kentucky coal headed to India under new deal | Grist

Kentucky coal producers have reached an agreement to export 9 million tons of coal annually to India for the next 25 years in a $7 billion deal.