Stumbling on sociopaths

This post is to justify my interest in the Casey Anthony case. I've always been amazed by sociopaths. I'm sure you've known at least one or two in your lifetime. They say its more of an anti-social sliding scale than a simple and singular diagnosis. In fact, it's not a diagnosis at all. But I digress: they fascinate me. When I first heard the story of this 22 year old who claimed someone kidnapped her daughter, but she didn't bother to report it for a month, I thought "Either this person knows exactly where her daughter is and just doesn't want to say anything or she is by far one of the biggest sociopaths I've ever seen." I said that because she was clearly not even a little bit concerned about her kid, so I figured she had to know where she was. Because even a sociopath would be upset that they got caught ... she didn't seem like she had a care in the world.

Well, we know the truth now. She's very far on the anti-social scale, but I don't think as much as Bundy or Ramirez. Especially Ramirez, who actively hates humanity. What I think makes her case so fascinating is the complete lack of forethought that went into her crimes (remember the check-forging, stealing, etc). All the other sociopaths that I am aware of (and obviously I am no expert) had a strong sense of self-preservation. Casey seems completely incapable of worrying about anything except what is happening to her at that very moment in time.

I read a book recently called Stumbling on Happiness. In it, the author talks about how happy lobotomized mental patients are. They found that the reason for this was that the prefrontal cortex controls planning and forethought. In the early days of lobotomies they had assumed the prefrontal cortex was not useful at all, but removing it had the pleasant side-effect of making their most anxiety-ridden patients as calm and happy as clams. The reason being that much of anxiety has to do with what you're thinking might or is going to happen. Take away that part of the brain and poof - no more worries. Literally.

So I got to wondering if Sociopaths have something wrong with their prefrontal cortex. I looked it up and guess what? They do have some strange wiring in the prefrontal cortex after all. Evidently it's well known, but hey, it was news to me.

Here's an interesting article about it: http://indioheathen.blogspot.com/2007/01/sociopathy-and-sado-authoritarianism.html If you're interested, google sociopaths & Prefrontal cortex. You'll get a ton of info about the biological roots of clinical sociopathy.

So who else among you has been following this case? What are your thoughts on Casey's motivations, her psychology, and anything else that would bring a person to the point of murdering their own child and not even bothering to do a half-way decent job of covering it up?

Fuel Alternatives

I'm wondering what the most viable energy alternatives are. Ultimately what's needed is to find a chemical reaction that results in a high yield of energy and a truly harmless waste product. Better still, a useful waste product. Oxidizing (or whatever the right word is) hydrocarbons results in CO2 and H2O. I guess that's where the idea of Hydrogen power comes from: H + O2 and we get an exothermic reaction with a byproduct of ... H2O. And who can't use what amounts to distilled water? They could even put it in a collection tank and you could empty it into a reservoir at your house that is specifically used for waste water. Right now we use the same water source for drinking and flushing the toilet. Why not use our cars' waste for our personal waste? Or... we could make the collection container so that the owner removes it and places it on a water cooler. Obviously you would have at least two of these.

I guess this idea hasn't taken off yet because of the whole "I don't want to be immolated by my car"/Hindenburg thing... Plus, where are we going to get all of that pure O2 and H? And the cost of shipping it ...

Maybe the answer to global warming is reducing hydrocarbon consumption as much as possible while working on figuring out what to do with our bumper crop of CO2 that's just floating around. Surely someone wants a lot of CO2... Maybe there's an interstellar CO2 market that we need to tap into.

I don't know. I'm going back to work now. If there is one thing that we've learned in this monologue its that we need the help of CO2-deprived aliens. And that means we're that much closer to solving the world's energy crisis. You know, having figured out the alien component and all.

Who could have seen this coming?

Yesterday's bombing at the Taj Hotel comes as no surprise. For some historical perspective, check out this bit from the Wikipedia on the Barbary Pirates:

In 1786, Thomas Jefferson, then the ambassador to France, and John Adams, then the ambassador to Britain, met in London with Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, the ambassador to Britain from Tripoli. The Americans asked Adja why his government was hostile to American ships, even though there had been no provocation. The ambassador's response was reported to the Continental Congress:

It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise. He said, also, that the man who was the first to board a vessel had one slave over and above his share, and that when they sprang to the deck of an enemy's ship, every sailor held a dagger in each hand and a third in his mouth; which usually struck such terror into the foe that they cried out for quarter at once. [13]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_pirates

Up Andrew's world

When Andrew was much younger than he is now, he used to sing Twinkle Star's refrain "Up above the world so high ..." as "Up your world so high ...". Tina and I say that to each other to this day. I tell you because it is now up your world. So high.

Tollerance fails the T-Shirt test

Great article, but in no way surprising.

Funtown Auto

Are you looking for a new or used vehicle? Actually, I don't care. Check out this commercial for Funtown Auto.

My buddy Timothy works in finance. Check out the commercial dedicated to the finance department. He'll hook you up with some excellent finance options: 6.54% APR, or a Nun-Chuck across the clavicle.

WTF is wrong with this state?

A guy asks a boy at a school bus stop in Sanford (a town not-too far away from Orlando) to help him find his puppy. http://www.wftv.com/news/17772669/detail.html OK, first of all, how unoriginal? OK, but aside from that - what is the deal with this state and pedophiles? What draws them to Florida? Specifically, central florida? Disney? It's got to be.

OK, inspiration just struck me. To alleviate the added pedophile burden, any child who wishes to audition for a Disney role, like a "That's so Raven" or Hanna Montana - first you have to assist in 10 successful pedophile sting operations with Chris Hansen from Dateline - To Catch a Predator.

Another idea: Chris Hansen's "To Catch A Predator - Universal Studios Orlando" ride. I don't know how this one would work, exactly.

JailB8: My parents are out this weekend, wanna come over?
Hot4Kids: Sure - where do you live?
JailB8: Universal Studios, at the Catch a Predator house.
Hot4Kids: Whoa, you're not like a cop or something are you?
JailB8: No.
Hot4Kids: Cool, I'll be right over.

On second thought, maybe this would work...

This kind of works ...

It's titled "YouTube LSD Trip" - which is just silly. But it creates a pretty neat optical illusion. The idea is to just watch it full screen (I didn't bother and it still worked) then at the end, look away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9uYEM2osYQ&NR=1

Blogspot.com is Eeeeeeevil!!!!

Not really, but our security people believe so. Evidently, blogspot is about as bad as myspace when it comes to open vulnerabilities, exploits, etc. Well, I just did a search on google - probably spent 10 minutes or more looking for these "pervasive" articles, and I can't find a thing. It's certainly not a 10th as bad as myspace, that much is certain.

Anyhow, I can't blog at work now, so that really stinks. I was just starting to be good about blogging again.

Something different

I just need to get that last (ridiculous) post bumped down a notch. I have nothing to say, but the bump has to happen. It's 1:00am and I got done working on a side job just a few minutes ago. This place has two servers that Black Box installed, and they managed to screw them up royally. Ironic that they are called "Black Box" in this instance. Black Box is supposed to mean a turn-key solution. Instead, I find myself delving too deep into the murky depths of Windows SBS03 version of LDAP/AD. Oh well - their mistakes are my gain, I suppose :-) Time to turn in.

Oh, and don't think any of you are getting away with not watching Maraka (two posts down). Not watching it is truly a loss. You'll soon find yourself at social gatherings and people will be joking about how funny it was, but you'll just have to fake an awkward smile, and then won't you be sorry?

We love BJ's

I know what you're thinking - lots of people like BJ's, so what? Well, Tina's mom and a friend of hers had advised her against BJ's, saying it just didn't taste all that great. Fortunately for us, we decided to investigate ourselves and found the food to be delicious and the service was perfectly adequate. For those not in there area, a new one opened up in the west end of "the loop" in Hunter's Creek. We went there last night, and really enjoyed ourselves. The restaurant was well laid out, comfortable, if a little cold, and had a short wait. I expect the wait to change as word of their delicious deep dish pies spreads. That's what I got - the vegetarian. If you decide to get one, I might recommend the small instead of the mini. The mini was only 6": adequate, but the 8" was more than enough to satisfy. You'll probably bring home leftovers. Tina got a big Turkey sandwich with wedge-cut fries. She said it was really good. I tried one of the fries and I can attest to that. As wonderful as the entres were, the appetizer was really the highlight. Avocado wonton rolls. Wow, were they good! Amazing, even. The only problem was that they were very filling. Which is to be expected - avocados are like 98% fat. Good fat, but fat nonetheless.

So anyhow, we enjoyed BJ's, and if you have one in the area, we think you'll them too. Here is their website: Click here for BJ's.

Maraka

If any of you have ever watched a single episode of Dora the Explorer, you'll get a few good laughs out of this video.

Voluntary Suicide

While conch shells are victims of involuntary suicide, some species of goldfish are afforded the luxury of voluntary suicide, as depicted here:

Shark Repellent

We got to talking about sharks at work and we ended up with Batman. Why Batman? Because he came prepared to fend off the marine nuisance using his patented Shark Repellent. Well, I did some research and thought I'd share my findings.

First, there is this 16' frozen great white in Australia:


and from the side ...



Naturally, one wants to protect one's family from such a menace, so I YouTube'd Batman's shark repellent. LOVED this show as a kid. Admittedly I was a bit disenchanted when I came across a clip of the original movie. Here are some highlights:

First, they drop the bat ladder from the bat copter. Not just any ladder. A bat ladder. What distinguishes it from regular ladders? The label.



While descending the bat ladder, Adam West is accosted by a rubber shark:



Wiggling in frustration, Adam West wonders where he went wrong in his acting career. Fortunately for him, he has a lovely assortment of marine animal repellents in the fragrance section of the helicopter. While this won't help with his career, he can at least end his humiliation using this convenient plot device.



(West's obsession with aerosol-based solutions, and a dating dry-spell would eventually lead him to invent Axe body spray, but I digress...)

Here we see Robin finding an inventive way to avoid tea-bagging the Batman:




I am happy to report that the shark repellent worked, and the rubberized animal exploded into the ocean. Yes it did, it exploded. Watch the video. It's at the very end:

Cracking Knuckles

Quick survey: Have any of you ever been addicted to cracking your knuckles, but somehow, after years of doing so, trained yourself to stop? If so, why did you it?

Another question: Do you have any weird joints that you crack? I just cracked my jaw. I don't know anyone else who does this, but I've been doing that since the 4th grade.

7-10-08 Update

I updated some of the political links and added a new Misc. Link. Yes, Buchanan is on there. He's brought up some very interesting points about war lately and I have to say, I've become much more dovish having ceded some of his points. Some of his other stuff I don't agree with, but hey, that's true of anyone with an independent mind.

I've also added a really helpful link on self-defense. I came across this site when I did a Google on keyword Burglary. It had a LOT of helpful information on how to mitigate burglary risks to your home and family. If you've never clicked on any of my links, you should really do yourself a favor and at least bookmark that one.

Revisiting the origins of WWII

Was WWII necessary? I have always presumed that it was. And that the source of the problem was, in part, Chamberlain's appeasement in Munich. Buchanan takes this notion to task in this article.

Personally, I find this kind of thing fascinating for a couple of reasons:
1) Chamberlain's pre-WWII actions are held up as the gold standard of what NOT to do to avoid war. But where, exactly did he go wrong? That's not a small point and it deserves careful analysis.
2) Anything that can help us to understand history and how certain wars could have been prevented is a good thing, IMO.

So here's the article:

http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/PatrickJBuchanan/2008/06/03/munich,_1938

Accelerated Hair Growth

I'm listening to the audio book version of this book:

Thanks to this book, it has deepened my appreciation of this very amusing comic strip (click on it for a larger image):

Anything with Gary Busey is made better by his presence, and this comic is no exception. Actually, Gary Busey really is a client of Giuseppe. I once had a lizard named Giuseppe. He died because annoles don't belong in Hyde Park, NY. If he could have just held on for another year, I would have taken him down to florida. A week and a half was all he could give me. Selfish little jerk.

Only 19.95

Tina told me a funny story about Andrew yesterday. He had seen a commercial on TV that was advertising for the Topsy Turvy Tomato grower and, I swear, this kid has the most remarkable memory sometimes. Andrew was at his grandmother's house and, out of nowhere he says "You know grandma, you can increase your yield of tomatoes. And it only costs 99.99."

A couple days later, Tina and Andrew are looking at their garden, speaking about all of the different things that are growing: squash, corn, zucchini, tomatoes ... and she is then interrupted with this: "You know, there's a better way to grow tomatoes, and it's only 19.99." This was stated in the most matter-of-fact, infomercial way. Keep in mind that Tina hadn't heard about the first conversation with Andrew's maternal grandmother. It was only later that when they were relaying their stories to each other did they find out that they'd been marketed to by Topsy Turvy's youngest spokesperson: Andrew Sullivan.

BTW, we watched the commercial online: http://www.hangingtomato.com.
Now we want one. Or more than one.

Ode to a Comment

Jimmy Wrote:

Oh, finally a new post. I check everyday and typically find nothing. OK, maybe not every day, but fairly often. Anywho, I appreciate you posting to your blog, even if I rarely read your links. Hmmm, I kinda like bumble barf. It's really only good as an additive, not so much on its own.
Now on to some non-bee related crap. This Democratic race thing is getting really boring. I practically don't even care anymore. I mean, I would be hard pressed to vote for "Four More Years" McCain, but it almost seems like we are in such a mess right now, it's gonna take more than a decade to get back on the right track. I have an idea of how to make it a good idea to get out of Iraq, though. All we have to do is actually start paying for it...not max out our national credit card. We are very cheap here in America. If each American had to start paying for the war (increase taxes and stop the corporate welfare), we'd be gittin' out damn quick. We just don't like to pay for stuff today. That is so last century. OMG, I am rambling. I'm done.

More like the century before. Since FDR, government's been going down hill. Well, actually government's got it really good, its the rest of us that are suffering. I like your idea a LOT though. I think that was basically what they meant by a "balanced budget" amendment. As I recall, and I could be wrong, it was the "True Believers" of the 1994 GOP congressional overthrow that offered it as part of their contract to or for America. Let me look it up ...

OK, here it is. For those too lazy or disinterested to read, the GOP contract with America did in fact contain a bill called "The Fiscal Responsibility Act" - ie, the budget amendment that insisted we have a balanced budget. BUT - I should note that it stipulated an exception for war spending so ... Yeah, Neo-Con inc. would have gotten around that anyhow. But I still like the idea. Or maybe we could put the matter of real-time funding to a referendum vote every other year. IE, a popular war would likely allow for debt-spending, but an unpopular would be killed off or at least re-thought due to the requirement of immediate funding.

Now, as for "four more years" McCain, keep in mind that McCain and Bush have been at odds since Bush first threw his cowboy hat into the presidential candidate ring back in 1998. McCain has to his "credit" a variety of non-constitutional bi-partisan legislation. Just think of McCain-Feingold! I love that McCain is now strapped for cash thanks to ... yep - McCain-Feingold. Karnation Instant Karma, Vanilla flavored. Anyhow, it is interesting to see how McCain was the darling of the press for YEARS because he criticized the GOP. But now that he's running for president he's suddenly "Bush-Lite" according to the press. It's all very funny in my not-so-humble opinion. He's reaping what he has sown.

You know what I want in a president? A guy who doesn't really want to be president. Reagan didn't want to get in politics back in the 60's when his buds asked him to run for governor. And he didn't, at least not at first. So they built up a fund called something like "Friends of Reagan" just in case he changed his mind. Reagan did it not because he was power-hungry, or because of his ego, or because his Dad expected him to. No. He did it because he hated poor people and the homeless and wanted to hurt them as best he could. Funny tangent thought - no matter how much the left berates Reagan, the Right just keeps on trying to emulate him. Don't they know that the jury is in on this one? The media has spoken - Reagan was a meany!!! Why does the right keep acting like he was some great guy? Don't they know when to cede defeat?

OK, back on track. Washington didn't want to prez either, at least according to my 5th grade teacher. One of these days I'll look that up to see if it's true. Back to McCain:
This was McCain's reaction to winning the California primary. We understand by his triumphant fist pump that this is a sober moment, indeed. Here we see John's face darken with the understanding and appreciation of this solemn task that he may eventually have to undertake. This is McCain's hour in the garden of Gethesemane.

Seriously though, wouldn't it be nice to have politicians who really looked at elected office as service, something they feel the obligation to do?

William F. Buckley can now watch everything you do

Because he's dead. And now he knows that you haven't been looking at my links. Those links were hand-crafted HTML; not some cookie-cutter blog template. Sure, they are now. But that's because blogger twisted my arm. Back in my day (2006) there were no templates. You had to sweat your way through lines and lines of tags, tables, cascading style sheets ... but I digress.

By now you all know who Bill Buckley was. I can call him Bill because I knew him before it was cool to know him. OK, it was never cool to know him. Nor did I "know" him so much as read his stuff on Townhall.com. Oh, did you know he dropped dead while writing a column. He was so cool. He even spoke with a British Accent, even though he's from America. Normally that would be pretentious (think Madonna), but with Buckley it was because ... well, I'm not sure come to think of it. Whatever, it was cool.

RIP Bill. If I'm ever up your way I'll swing by and pour a 40 over your grave.

Bumble Barf

Time for my monthly posting. Sheesh, I am really bad at keeping up with this. A couple things on this blog need to change. For one thing, I need to post more. Another thing is, you need to read more. Read as hard as you can so that I can feel it all the way over here. hmmm... that didn't sound right.

Anyhow, I was thinking the other day as I poured honey into my tea that honey is really just bee vomit. Isn't that what bees do to make honey? They eat the pollen, swirl it around in their little bee bellies, then ralph it back up. Sweet nectar, indeed. Tasting the honey - straight this time, no tea - and it tastes a little ... like ... yeah, I must be just imagining it. But it tastes a little like throw-up. But could this bee right - oh yeah. How do you like that for a pun?? Anyhow, according to this dusty old 1992 article, I was right. Bee puke and honey are one and the same. Bees truly are the Mary Kate Olsen of the insect world. Oh, that reminds me - I have to link to "The Sneeze" - Half Blog, Half Zine, Half not good with fractions. Steve, Don't Eat It!! Great stuff. Bee vomit is downright tempting after you see what he eats.

2-23-08

Guess what I saw yesterday? Well, yeah, but besides that. I saw a bald eagle, and in the wild at that. He or she was flying majestically over a cow pasture. As if I needed any further evidence that beef is the food of patriots. Duh - we all know that. The eagle doesn't need to shill for "Big Beef".

I don't know about you, but I had no idea eagles lived in Florida. It was in Montana that I figured they all lived - or really anywhere there are mountains, lakes, streams, and other photo-op backgrounds. It wasn't until I moved to Orlando that I learned that bald eagles in the country's appendix.

Emperor of Ice Cream

I had the best ice cream last night. And I don't mean only in taste, but in humor as well. Dove has a flavor called "Unconditional Chocolate". There is no pretending who their target audience is, or isn't. Unconditional like the emotion chocolate emulates: love. There should be a reference to it in the area of the drug store for PMS medication. "For fast, effective emotional pain relief nothing is proven more effective than Unconditional Chocolate." On the carton it reads "I won't judge you." Well, it doesn't but it should.


Speaking of ice cream, I just got done reading 'Salem's Lot. In it, King references this poem that's been stuck in my mind all week:

 Call the roller of big cigars,
       The muscular one, and bid him whip
       In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
       Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
       As they are used to wear, and let the boys
       Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.
       Let be be finale of seem.
       The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

       Take from the dresser of deal
       Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet
       On which she embroidered fantails once
       And spread it so as to cover her face.
       If her horny feet protrude, they come
       To show how cold she is, and dumb.
       Let the lamp affix its beam.
 The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

It's about a funeral, or at least takes place at one.  It's not so much
about chocolate ice cream: unconditional or otherwise.  Here's a link that
does a nice job dissecting the poem:
http://unix.cc.wmich.edu/~cooneys/tchg/640/Mark.Emperor.html