Ideas, Musings, and Things That Are

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5 – Rising From Darkness

4 – Rusted Creaking

3 – Slime Coated

2 – SwampBot

1 – Lives

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Video ==> Life, Lives, Live -vs- Live

NEW POSTS START BELOW

My New Friend Flickr

I just joined up for a  account, a fancy photo sharing thing. If I like it I may replace my current page with a link to my Flickr Photostream.

"Broken Windows" Theory or the ‘Monkey See Monkey Do’ Theory?

Technorati Tags: broken window theory,monkey see monkey do theory,Kees Keizer,Bernard Harcourt,violence,littering,graffiti,behavior,criminology,law

These ideas are based on page A11 in The Oregonian * Friday, November 21, 2008 – Study bolsters ‘broken windows’ theory (of policing) – Crime | Litter-, graffiti- laden areas invite more violations, Dutch researchers say – …by Karen Kaplan, reporting for LA Times -The Washington Post.

I’ll begin at the end. Hope you don’t mind reading backwards!

My theory is a bit more simplistic. People get “sloppy” when their “world” gets sloppy. Rather than calling it the broken window theory why not call it the Monkey See Monkey Do theory?

The idea that seeing more littering (when surroundings are messy) is significant is disputed by Bernard Harcourt , professor of law and criminology at University of Chicago. He believes the idea of looking at littering behavior is too quaint and that studying violence is a more academic endeavor. I disagree. Monkeys will mimic anything they are exposed to and that “interests” them. I believe Keizer is on to something here. His studies are related to providing information to law enforcement agencies. I can see that.

The results of Keez Keizer’s research is what this debate is all about. As a graduate student at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, he did some interesting studies and recently published his results in the journal Science. i.e. He left fake flyers on peoples cars in a grocery store parking lot. The store had a wall without graffiti and a sign saying NO GRAFFITI! People littered with the flyers at a rate of 33%. When the wall was graffiti covered, the rate increased to 69%. The other scenarios he invented and tested were also significant.

So, is Keizer’s study simply quaint as Harcourt contends or do these more innocuous behaviors really reflect the tendencies seen in more egregious crimes?

Hmmmm…

I See You Smiling, Amy Goodman

How are you, Amy? I have noticed something about you lately. Every since you announced Barrack’s win a little smile shows in the corners of your mouth when you talk about it. I know you’re happy – it’s a good thing It’s so cute when you get that look. I never saw it until after the election. You really are hopeful now aren’t you? I am.

I have been reading the November, 16 2008 Oregonian. The threat of violence presented by S. Cannon on page A3, Climate change could spark more wars, caused me to think. Particularly about Barrack Obama, you (Amy Goodman), assassination and the reality of the sixties. Hell of a combo, eh?

If anyone has seen the latest DemocracyNow.org show or any other worthy news program, they will know about the case of Bill Ayers. “Ayers is a respected Chicago professor who was a member of the 1960s militant antiwar group the Weather Underground.” Lately he is known as the terrorist in Obama’s closet? Right.

My point? Well, this turned into a note to Amy. I’ll write on the point in a new post.

Right now I have to say one more thing. If this Ayers thing is all the GOP could find on Barrack, well I never!

Technorati Tags: amy goodman,democracy now,president barrack obama,bill ayers,terrorist,happy

Entering the Gaming World

I recently had a disastrous digital infection. It took my PC to its knees. Why? Two reasons:

1. I went where no geek should ever go.
2. Windows Live OneCare (WLO) is impotent.

I was looking for some software and my machine began to deviate from the norm, which I am quite familiar with. No WLO scans produced results. It’s status bar was as green as a gourd! So I trashed it.

I installed the Internet Security version of AVG’s software (with firewall) and the work began. It went nuts over the crap the WLO called just fine. After a few blinking screens and a reboot, AVG had me pretty cleaned up. However…

1. I had abysmal benchmark scores (Passmarks of <=700ish – LOUSY!)
2. New XP installs were still not “popping.”
3. Several “uninstallable” device drivers.

Now comes the good part. Once I had things pretty laced up, I lost (destroyed) my terabyte archive drive. 700+GB of all my stuff…

MORAL OF THE STORY – Never rebuild a RAID after a six-pack of Bud

Here’s what I did – DUH! (DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!)

1. I deleted all boot partitions and created a new one using my RAID config interface during startup.
2. When I rebuild the boot RAID (supposed to be stripped) I accidentally picked the wrong format.
3. Well, my error DID NOT pull up a partion allocator and I was a dumbas%#$# for not realizing it.
4. I said Y to all and promply lost my archive – no pun intended.
5. Darn – Oh Shoot – and as the lady said – AWE Heck!

I am good now and running Need for Speed + Microsoft’s Flight Simulator X.

1. For the first time X is running SMOOTH – YES!
2. NFS is heating my GPU to where I had to increse high temp to 60 deg C!

Nice to know it cooks eggs too!

Latest PassMArk score => 950!!!!!

 

I’ll be back to report on the pros and cons of linking my PC to EA Sports and all that jazz…

hmmm….

Back Online!

After much chagrin, my PC and I are friends again.

note: Windows Live Onecare allowed my PC to be destroyed by viruses, etc.

DONT USE IT!

Love and time….

Love and time…. Once upon a time, there was an island where all the feelings lived: Happiness, Sadness, Knowledge, and all of the others, including Love. One day it was announced to the feelings that the island would sink, so all constructed boats and left. Except for Love. Love was the only one who stayed. Love wanted to hold out until the last possible moment. When the island had almost sunk, Love decided to ask for help. Richness was passing by Love in a grand boat. Love said, “Richness, can you take me with you?” Richness answered, “No, I can’t. There is a lot of gold and silver in my boat. There is no place here for you.” Love decided to ask Vanity who was also passing by in a beautiful vessel. “Vanity, please help me!” “I can’t help you, Love. You are all wet and might damage my boat,” Vanity answered. Sadness was close by so Love asked, “Sadness, let me go with you.” “Oh . . . Love, I am so sad that I need to be by myself!” Happiness passed by Love, too, but she was so happy that she did not even hear when Love called her. Suddenly, there was a voice, “Come, Love, I will take you.” It was an elder. So blessed and overjoyed, Love even forgot to ask the elder where they were going. When they arrived at dry land, the elder went her own way. Realizing how much was owed the elder, Love asked Knowledge, another elder, “Who Helped me?” “It was Time,” Knowledge answered. “Time?” asked Love. “But why did Time help me?” Knowledge smiled with deep wisdom and answered, “Because only Time is capable of understanding how valuable Love is.”

Author Unknown

Bubble? Crash? ==> Questions on the Economy Abound

A newspaper article on page A9 in The Oregonian’s Sunday, Oct. 12, 2008 issue was called Bubble? Crash? In terms of the economy, it defined a crash as a sudden reduction of 20% or greater in the value of anything. What does that mean?

Questions:

1. A value decline in anything confuses me. I see prices going up on Main Street. Does this mean we are paying more, a lot more, for items that are actually worth less than before the price hikes?
2. What about the exceptions? Gas has gone down a bit. Like oil-based products are ever valued at their actual worth anyway. Take the housing market as an example. Now I think I understand that. Less value on Wall Street, less value on Main Street?
3. Why can it cost more to purchase less?
4. Where will interest rates go?

Blogged with the Flock Browser

New Link Leads to Anti-Smoking Ads

Creative Anti-Smoking Ads

You should visit eBaum’s WORLD if you like crazy stuff like…

1. Yachan The Karate Monkey
2. The Retro Encabulator – This video reminds me of listening to George Bush. note: Wikipedia defines this contraption this way: The Turboencabulator or turbo-encabulator is a fictional machine whose alleged existence became an in-joke and subject of professional humor among electrical engineers.

 

Prescription for Barack to Quit Smoking

I am a smoker. Now I don’t feel so bad. Barack’s advice is good regarding the difficulties of stopping old habits and associations from triggering the urge to smoke, etc. I am going to try to try a new drug that is said to make it so pretty soon smokes just aren’t that enjoyable anymore. I learned about Chantix from my Doc. The website for Chantix is http://www.chantix.com/. I was told it was maybe $120/30 days but also that it was equivalent to the cost of smoking. That cost is too variable so forget that. We’ll see. I’ll post if and when I try it.

A drug for quitting smoking.