2019 Bits and Pieces

Friday, September 19, 2008

Judging Age

There are video clips of the next set of Survivor contestants. One of the men is listed as 58 years old. I'd put him as at least 68. At least!

On the news, a teenager arrived home and found a strange man in the house. He left when she asked who he was. She described him as 35 years old.

Also on the news, they showed mug shots of some guys accused of breakins. They were both 19. I'd have sworn the one on the left was at least 37.

Once into their middle teens, I can't judge anyone's age just by looking at them. Never could, and I don't see how anyone else can, either. I might be mostly right about over or under 50, but only if it's at least a decade over or under 50.

I can do a bit better with the younger ones if I can talk to them for a while. I can see age or lack thereof in a brain better than a face.

I'd make a very bad crime eyewitness.

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Eyewitness Accounts

In one of my criminal law classes, the instructor, a criminal defense lawyer, walked into class a bit late one day. As he walked to the front of the room, he muttered an excuse. He had a briefcase in one hand, and something dark in the other. When he got to the front of the room, he looked briefly at the dark thing, and then put it behind the lectern. He took his tie off and put it into the briefcase. He asked if anyone had a copy of the previous day's outline, and as we shuffled papers he took something else out of the briefcase (a gun!), looked at it briefly, and put it behind the lectern. A few minutes into his lecture, which was about the reliability of eyewitnesses, he reached under his belt, pulled his underwear up above the belt, and then tucked it back in. At one point when a student asked a tricky question, he whipped around and said "For that, you die! Bang bang! Bang! Bang bang bang! Anyone else (blowing on his finger) have any smart-ass questions?"

At the end of the afternoon, he gave a snap quiz.
What was his excuse for being late?
What time did he come in?
What did he carry in besides the briefcase?
What color is his tie?
What did he take out of the briefcase?
What color is his underwear?
Who did he "shoot"?
How many shots did he get off?
What did he do with the gun?
...and a few other questions.

We were to mark our answers as to how sure we were. Not one person in the class got more than 1/4 of the answers right, and the ones they got wrong, they were most likely to be sure were correct.

So much for eyewitness accounts.

I think he cheated, though. I am 100% positive his underpants were red, and the reason I'm so sure is that I was also wearing red, but when he pulled them out again to prove the color, they were blue. I think he was wearing two pair - one red, one blue - and pulled up the inner or outer as needed.

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Exported Democracy

Have you noticed that in almost every country where a long history of monarchy or dictatorship has been supplanted by a democratically elected government, that government is soon frankly and openly corrupt? (Quick, think of five!) ((Start with Russia.))

Ever since we invaded Iraq, I've been muttering that democracy just won't work there. Under centuries of a monarchy or dictatorship (actual or virtual), tribal, ethnic, social class, and family ties strengthen. When the old powers are overthrown and supplanted by an elected government, the winners think they've WON! That's WON in capital letters. Their SIDE has WON over the others, and there's a natural tendency, when there have been tribal, ethnic, class, and family divisions and frictions, to distribute the spoils among their tribe, ethnic group, social class, or family.

Does this sound familiar?

Maybe we need to elect some middle class people.

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Vibrating Mice

Researchers have demonstrated that brief daily periods of low level vibrations can prevent the development of fat cells and encourage the growth of bone mass in mice.

That explains why Californians tend to be thinner than the rest of us. Ha! And they wanted us to think they were doing right things! It's just their ground imperceptibly trembling all the time.
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