Category Archives: Social

Attitudes & behaviors in society; looking at the past, present, and future characteristics among people.

tan(005) – Manually syncing iTunes in a protest to protect the State

May 15, 2009 d dot b Leave a comment

State of Man and Conflict, iTunery, protect the State

Not to go on a Tangent but …

Preamble: This is the most politco, socio, humano (humanist) rant yet; but I think I balance it from both sides, so take it in, let me know what you think.

Protests
In Toronto, the Tamil community of Sri Lanka descent have been very vocal about the 20+ year ongoing war going back home in the community; the war has claimed thousands of lives. I get that, and in Western democracies, we allow free protest on issues – as long as those issues don’t impede or jeopardize public safety. So, with that said, protesting on a busy downtown highway, threatening to march on the 401 (one of North America’s busiest highways), and strategically demonstrating during rush hours on busy downtown streets, do two things. First, it really does draw attention to your cause and concern – it definitely draws attention, kudos. However, and most importantly, secondly, it questions logic and foresight of your cause and realism. Take your cause to the Federal government; not the provincial government; if you are really serious about your cause, shut down a major transportation artery in Ottawa or rally on Parliament Hill, not the Gardner Expressway. And my next point, which is a sad state of our world society, well sad state of ‘nations’; the world community usually only intervenes in areas where there is a benefit to them. Meaning, that nations will only sacrifice the lives of their own soldiers if it will return a benefit for them – they will go into Iraq because of the vast resources of oil, but they won’t go into places like the Sudan where genocide is going on for years, because there is NO investment on their return. Put some natural gas or precious metals in Sri Lanka, and the International Community will be quick to intervene.

With that said, I am not saying don’t protest; speak your mind – but I hope the protesters understand the totality of the situation, and hopefully the totality that was expressed here is not the harsh truth.

iTunes manual sync
This is random, but I’m a go in anyway – on my iPod Touch, I download a lot of podcasts – just to explore the good and bad of the Internet. Now, when I download the podcasts through the iTunes store on my Touch through a wifi connection, its gravy, with biscuits. But, as soon as I do a MANUAL sync of my Touch with my computer, the downloaded podcasts are sometimes deleted (even though it is on MANUAL sync). Furthermore, the PC version of iTunes doesn’t even see the podcasts that I downloaded via wifi connection to my Touch! Come on iTunes team, test all possible conditions of your software please; as soon as you started locking these things down (remember with the old iPods, you could explore the folders on a PC/Mac) then you introduced a whole lot of problems.

Protecting the State
So the Obama administration in an attempt to make good on their campaign promises, somehow bring about the topic of prisoner abuse that occurred during the Bush Administration – I thought this was dealt with a few years ago, but that is besides the point. Now, they are attempting the block of releasing more pictures of the abuse that we all know happened; essentially trying to close Pandora’s box (that they themselves opened). In all this, Cheney has been very vocal in defending the tactics used; going on CNN, Fox, ABC, and a whole slew of news shows to reiterate the fact that the interrogation tactics work, and such tactics have prevented attacks. A side debate on all of this drama, is the argument that the Obama administration should not be releasing this information; as it will fuel further disdain for America across the world. Nothing good for the state can come about the further public exploration of this topic; it was already discussed a few years ago, and we know the ugly truth – we should learn from our mistakes and move on. For the Obama administration to berate the situation like beating a dead horse is asinine, and will not do anything to benefit the American people. Move on, and learn from the mistakes; but don’t further expose your state to public scrutiny that your enemies can use against you … Obama may need to read the book ‘The Art of War’ …

.:: LiBM::.

Popular Culture, Social, sports

2 is to 1 as

May 14, 2009 d dot b Leave a comment

Image by The Jader

Replacement inevitability

Analogies, comparing, knowing when to call it

2 is to 1 as one is to next inline to take over the ‘number one spot’; all of the analogies, with all things being equal in the universe, should over time, take over the number one spot from the current occupier in their respective field. So really it comes down to ‘how’ that change will happen; will it be a hostile takeover? Will the number one’s relevance diminish over time? Or will the number one bow out before they are still on top? When dealing with sports and entertainment; both are in the public eye, but the changes are very different – with sports figures usually going out on top to cement their legacy, and with entertainers they usually stay in the schoolyard too long; kinda like a College kid still hanging out around their High School – it just looks off.

So here are some examples of number 2’s hovering/vying for that number one spot:

2 is to 1 as …

Keri Hilson is to Beyonce

Lady Gaga is to Britney Spears

Lebron James is to Kobe Bryant

Soulja Boy is to Bow Wow
Designed by: cheli0890
Designed by: niecee06

Regardless if it is an R&B singer trying to overstep her boundaries, a manufactured pop tart trying to overtake an established pop tart, a great ball player challenging an olympic and multi NBA championship-winning player, or teeny rappers fighting over who gets the most adoration … eventually we all have to learn when to bow out and move on to another chapter in our lives. Unfortunately with these examples, they probably will stick around High School well past until they are finished College, lol.

.:: LiBM ::.

Cre8ive Abstract, Logic, Social

Hypervigilant creative people

May 12, 2009 d dot b Leave a comment

Hypervigilance

a hinderance or an accelerant?

To all blend DJ’s, abstract artists, digital designers, application program developers, fiction writers, and like-minded individuals; hypervigilance, which you may interpret as paranoia, needs to be realized, channeled, and understood appropriately for your forward momentum. Growing up, I am sure we can all recall those kids that were weird, dressed funny, socially were out of place, but they excelled in the arts; paintings, drawings, molding, et cetera. A possible reason for this is having hypervigilance, which can be described as “an enhanced state of sensory sensitivity accompanied by an exaggerated intensity of behaviors whose purpose is to detect threats. Hypervigilance is also accompanied by a state of increased anxiety which can cause exhaustion. Other symptoms include: abnormally increased arousal, a high responsiveness to stimuli and a constant scanning of the environment for threats”. So in the structural definition, a hypervigilant person can be likened to one who is very paranoid about themselves, their surroundings, and exaggerate subtle environment cues as threats to their own safety.

Causality to the Creative

So if this sounds like you, don’t worry, its even better if you are somewhat creative as researchers have correlated links between hypervigilant people and creativity, a study in the September 2003 issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that the brains of creative people appear to be more open to incoming stimuli from the surrounding environment. A University of Toronto press release noted, “Other people’s brains might shut out this same information through a process called ‘latent inhibition’ – defined as an animal’s unconscious capacity to ignore stimuli that experience has shown are irrelevant to its needs. “Through psychological testing, the researchers showed that creative individuals are much more likely to have low levels of latent inhibition. “This means that creative individuals remain in contact with the extra information constantly streaming in from the environment,” says co-author and University of Toronto psychology professor Jordan Peterson.

Benefit for you

It appears that reduced latent inhibition can be beneficial for creativity as decreased latent inhibition may make an individual more likely to see connections that others may not notice. This may explain why so many creative individuals partake in solitary acts; it fosters inspiration and creativity by absorbing environmental stimuli. Or how you may have some friends that will comment and be able to talk about the strangest and peculiar details of life. However, with all this sensory stimulation, one can be overwhelmed – which in some cases, can lead one to madness. But interestingly enough, Einstein, Newton, and other creative individuals that have enhanced mankind were labeled as ‘genius’, but many said that they bordered on the line of madness and insanity. Many times, I always thought I was a genius or maybe I was just crazy … I am sure many of the hypervigilant folk can relate.

And now, onto the creative art

Sources:
http://highlysensitive.org/highly-sensitive-people-latent-inhibition-and-creativity/
http://your-austin-dwi.com

Economics, Logic, politics, Social

Get your Sue on

May 5, 2009 d dot b Leave a comment

Getting our sue on

Some funny legal cases from http://www.re-quest.net/g2g/humor/cases/

We have, and will probably always be in a litigious era where lawyers run rampant trying to sue over every little thing. This leads to a tie up of our judicial system, which in turns causes taxpayers more money; and now, more than ever, we need to find ways to save money. Anyhow, enjoy:

United States ex rel. Gerald Mayo v. Satan and His Staff
54 F.R.D. 282 (W.D. Penn. 1971)
A Real Devil of a Litigant. Plaintiff filed suit against Satan and his staff for violation of his civil rights. Among the allegations were: (1) that Satan had on numerous occasions caused him misery and unwarranted threats, all against his will; (2) that Satan had placed deliberate obstacles in his path that caused Plaintiff’s downfall; and (3) that by reason of the foregoing acts, Satan had deprived him of his constitutional rights.
The court noted that, “Even if plaintiff’s complaint reveals a prima facie recital of the infringement of the civil rights of a citizen of the United States, the Court has serious doubts that the complaint reveals a cause of action upon which relief can be granted by the court.”
The court went on about its concerns and further noted, “We question whether plaintiff may obtain personal jurisdiction over the defendant in this judicial district …. the plaintiff has failed to include with his complaint the required form of instructions for the United States Marshal for directions as to service of process.”
Case dismissed as frivolous.

Carter v. United States
530 U.S. 255, 185 F.3d 863 (2000)
Playboy Mystery Writer Unveiled? In a dissenting opinion, Justice Ruth Ginsberg wrote, “The Court’s woodenly literal construction gives rise to practical abnomalies and effectively shrinks the jury’s choices while enlarging the prosecutor’s options.”

Ruth v. Congress of the United States
71 F.R.D. 676 (D. N.J. 1976)
Right to a Speedy Trial? Plaintiff, while a guest in the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, filed suit, in pro per, against the U.S. Congress. Among his allegations were the constitutionality of a number of statutes dealing with the salaries, retirement pay, survivors’ benefits, etc., of Judges, U.S. Attorneys, Clerks, Marshals, and others; and that he was unjustly tried and convicted in both Federal and State courts because the charges against him were processed and tried by the court and staff in an extremely rapid manner, failing to consider all issues, due to the fact that the court “was overworked and under paid.”
Case dismissed as frivolous.

Koutsouradis v. Delta Airlines
___ F.4d ___ (11th Cir. 2005)
Batteries Included. A 36 year old married woman filed a lawsuit against Delta Airlines for being publicly humiliated after she boarded a Delta Airlines flight with her husband in Dallas, Texas on a stop over from Las Vegas, Nevada to her home in Clearwater, Florida. After boarding, the woman surprising heard her name being called on the plane’s P.A. system asking her to identfy herself and to please come forward. Alarmed, the woman complied, and was greeted by a Delta security agent who informed her that something in her luggage was vibrating. The woman was escorted off of the plane by the security agent and lead to the tarmack next to the plane where her luggage had been placed. The woman explained to the security agent that the vibrating must be from an adult toy she purchased while in Las Vegas. The security agent, not being satisfied with this representation, made the woman remove the toy from the luggage and hold it up for inspection, in full view of curious passengers looking out the windows of the plane as well as in front of a few Delta ground personnel who, as the complaint alleges, “began laughing hysterically.” The woman was allowed to repack her luggage and return to her seat on the plane. Albeit, a little red faced we’re sure.

Check out http://www.re-quest.net/g2g/humor/cases/ for more funny and dumb cases!

.:: LiBM ::.

Economics, Logic, Love, Social

tan(003) – Hypocritical Banking Hours during Family Time

May 5, 2009 d dot b Leave a comment

The Broken Black Family, Open the banks late, and girly Hypocrisy

Banking Hours
On a trip to NYC in early ’09, I noticed something so amazing and logical – Banking Hours should be complimentary to our working hours. The normal working hours are 9-5 Monday thru Fridays; most banks close at like 4 or 5, or they may open late on a Thursday or Friday to 6 or 8. I have to give TD Canada Trust some credit for having most of their banks open until 8 Monday thru Fridays, and Saturday open till like 3 or 4. But back to the point of this rant, in NYC, they have banks open 7 days a week; apparently and coincidentally, TD Waterhouse is holding it down out there with banks open until late and open on both days of the weekend. And it makes sense, get customers in when they have the most time; if there is a specific transaction that has to be done on a weekday, process as much as you can on the weekend, then finalize it on Monday morning. BMO, RBC, CIBC – get with the program!

Family Time
Sitting in a City Park over the weekend with the girlfriend, and something good and sad at the same time became apparent. The good: there is still a strong sense that when the weather is nice families like to go to the park and bond with each other; whether it is a BBQ, volleyball, or just a walk in the park. The bad: we didn’t see much black families partaking in this; there was an abundance of white, Asian, and Indian families all spending time with each other in an urban city park. Now maybe, I am reading a bit too much into it; and I have a tendency to find correlations between unseemingly unrelated things, but I think that the lack of representation can be likened to the bigger problem of the state of the Black Family. It is known that the Black Family is in a state of repair; trying to mend the cloth that was ripped by slavery as slave masters deliberately broke up members of Black family to demoralize their spirit. And ever since then, the black family, in comparison to other races, do not have the same strong bond as others. The one good thing about Tyler Perry films is that it emphasizes the importance of family – guess they are good for something, lol.

Hypocrisy
Its always a satisfying moment when you catch your girlfriend in her own hypocritical ish. Ahh, its refreshing and invigorating. And when they get caught in it, they get quite like a mouse, and try to make up some rubbish excuse that is unique to their current situation. However, you should be subtle and not take it overboard in your tangent/rip into their hypocrisy, rather take the ‘You-know-that-I-know-that-you-have-just-been-caught-in-your-own-ish’ approach, and save the card for a rainy to day to credit when you trip up!

.:: LiBM ::.

Health, Social

Phases of the Migraine

April 21, 2009 d dot b Leave a comment

Phases of the Migraine

Different phases of pulsating pain
Phases of the Migraine

The Yuppy, Nerban, bum, herb, dude, trick may differ in their values and characteristics, but they all are exposed to mental strains – the stress of the world, mixed with a lack of sleep, with a sprinkle of annoying mofo’s, can be the recipe for concurrent migraines. You know what a migraine is; the heavy feeling in your head, the throbbing, occurs when you really don’t need it – when you have to focus on an important task, when you are in the company of loved ones, or when you are at work. Migraines have the ability to affect our mood, and subsequently our behavior. Upon reading, I found out that there are different phases of migraines that can attack us:

Prodrome phase
Prodromal symptoms occur in 40–60% of migraineurs (migraine sufferers). This phase may consist of altered mood, irritability, depression or euphoria, fatigue, yawning, excessive sleepiness, craving for certain food (e.g. chocolate), stiff muscles (especially in the neck), constipation or diarrhea, increased urination, and other visceral symptoms. These symptoms usually precede the headache phase of the migraine attack by several hours or days, and experience teaches the patient or observant family how to detect that a migraine attack is near.

Aura phase
For the 20–30% of individuals who suffer migraine with aura, this aura comprises focal neurological phenomena that precede or accompany the attack. They appear gradually over 5 to 20 minutes and generally last fewer than 60 minutes. The headache phase of the migraine attack usually begins within 60 minutes of the end of the aura phase, but it is sometimes delayed up to several hours, and it can be missing entirely. Symptoms of migraine aura can be visual, sensory, or motor in nature.

Pain phase
The typical migraine headache is unilateral, throbbing, moderate to severe and can be aggravated by physical activity. Not all of these features are necessary. The pain may be bilateral at the onset or start on one side and become generalized, and usually alternates sides from one attack to the next. The onset is usually gradual. The pain peaks and then subsides, and usually lasts between 4 and 72 hours in adults and 1 and 48 hours in children. The frequency of attacks is extremely variable, from a few in a lifetime to several times a week, and the average migraineur experiences from one to three headaches a month. The head pain varies greatly in intensity.

Postdrome phase
The patient may feel tired, have head pain, cognitive difficulties, “hungover”, gastrointestinal symptoms, mood changes and weakness. Some people feel unusually refreshed or euphoric after an attack, whereas others note depression and malaise. Often, some of the minor headache phase symptoms may continue, such as loss of appetite, photophobia, and lightheadedness. For some patients, a 5 to 6 hour nap may reduce the pain, but slight headaches may still occur when standing or sitting quickly. Normally these symptoms go away after a good night’s rest.

Now the remedy part to ‘alieve’ migraines, I usually go with the common-sense theorem; don’t do the things that are taxing to your body (i.e. not sleeping well, not eating properly, etc.), but that is better said than done – especially with the ambitious and simple-minded alike. There are the over the counter drugs like Aspirin and Tylenol, but I am not really a proponent for drugs because though they may help, one may develop a dependency on it that may be detrimental. And further, one is not solving the precipitating problem, but just allowing a mechanism to cope. Thus, the experts suggest that one way to significantly lower the frequency of migraines is to do physical activity for at least 15 minutes a day – its funny, it seems that excursive/vitality is the remedy to most ailments, yet we never find time to do so, and that is why a good 2/3+ of the U.S. population is obese – go figure. Sexual activity is also another viable way to decrease migraines – I am sure the fellas will subscribe to that … and it may even lead to an increase in men reporting migraines.

.:: LiBM ::.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migraines#Abdominal_migraine

Relationships, Social

Increments in Time

April 2, 2009 d dot b Leave a comment

Increments in Time

Another one of my rants on ‘time’

I am sure if we all could better manage our time, we would be more productive individuals in all facets in our lives. But this fine art is hard to grasp by many; even I have trouble sometimes (shocking). I can’t tell the many of times were I had a schedule with someone and they were late – not by like 5 minutes, but by like 15 minutes to an hour. At first thought, I thought that the type of people that I am dealing with (i.e. Music artists, entertainers) they did this to be ‘fashionably late’ – yes there are some people like that, and to those, I would like to give them a ‘fashionable kick’ in the head, but violence is frowned upon, generally. But then, I noticed that many people that I encounter that were not in the entertainment field, were just as tardy; poor punctuation. So rather than classifying such people as narcissistic pricks, maybe they just interpret the perception of time differently than I. Perfect segue to how we ‘perceive time’.

Time can be defined as a component of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify the motions of objects. Different individuals may judge an identical length of time to be passing at different rates. Commonly, this is referred to as time seeming to “fly” (a period of time seeming to pass faster than possible) or time seeming to “drag” (a period of time seeming to pass slower than possible). The psychologist Jean Piaget called this form of time perception “lived time”.

I would go a step further and suggest that time feels like its ‘dragging’ when the mind is not stimulated; i.e., your at a boring job at work, and the day just seems to drag on – you keep wishing that it would end as fast as possible, or a fire alarm would be pulled. When the mind goes into ‘routine mode’, the area of the brain that handles processing and thinking shuts off, and one becomes dormant. However in contrast, in a highly stimulating job that forces one to always process different trains of thoughts, time would ‘fly by’. As I always try to compare things to the Yuppy, when the Yuppy essentially finds it hard to turn off the ‘switch’; even in relaxed modes, the Yuppy gets agitated; as he/she conjures up ways to increase and improve their efficiency in their projects – that is why, with most Yuppy’s, life seems to fly by. Yuppy’s always complain that they can’t get things done; wishing they could add more hours in the day, or they try to extend the day by using energy supplements. Either way, time is a universal standard of measurement, but the perception of the value of time (and how we use time) is susceptible to individual interpretation … which explains why people are so out of sync with each other.

And sadly, until we all perceive time similarly, I will continue to wait for clients …

Relationships, Social

Classic Introverts

March 27, 2009 d dot b Leave a comment

Classic Introverts

Bliss in solitary?

Does this sound like you? According to WikiP, this is a definition of an ‘Introvert’:

Introversion is “the state of or tendency toward being wholly or predominantly concerned with and interested in one’s own mental life”. Introverts tend to be more reserved and less assertive in social situations. They often take pleasure in solitary activities such as reading, writing, drawing, and using computers. The archetypal artist, writer, sculptor, composer, and inventor are all highly introverted. An introvert is likely to enjoy time spent alone and find less reward in time spent with large groups of people, though they tend to enjoy interactions with close friends. They prefer to concentrate on a single activity at a time and like to observe situations before they participate. Introverts are easily overwhelmed by too much stimulation from social gatherings and engagement. They are more analytical before speaking.

Introversion is not the same as shyness. Introverts choose solitary over social activities by preference, whereas shy people avoid social encounters out of fear.

Here is a list of some popular Introverts that you wouldn’t think were such:

Non-Entertainment
Thomas Edison, inventor
Sir Alfred Hitchcock, film director
Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president
Bill Gates, software pioneer

Entertainment
Michael Jordan, basketball player and celebrity
Jim Carrey, actor
Angelina Jolie, actress
Julia Roberts, actress
Gwyneth Paltrow, actress
Clint Eastwood, actor/director
Charles Schulz, Peanuts cartoonist

I think I would classify myself as a classic introvert, but that doesn’t mean that myself and others are ‘anti-social’; we value our own solidarity more than our willingness to associate with others. And its not that introverts have nothing to say, we only speak when we have something to say; just like Obama schooled the White House Reporter in late March ’09 when responding to a question about why he didn’t react fast enough to the AIG execs bonus outrage, he responded “I like to know what I’m talking about first before I give a comment”.

Now I must get back to writing, reading, and using computers and such …
Lol

.:: LiBM ::.

Sources: Wikipedia.com/introversion