Human Behavior

The Kindness of Strangers

by

Last year, a buddy and I were driving to the shooting range when we witnessed a terrible crash on the highway.

We stopped to help, of course. So did other people who were passing by. One man, confusing the steam billowing from the shattered radiator as evidence of fire, even managed to pull the door open from the twisted frame using brute strength alone. (We reached him in time, before he laid hands on the victim, and explained that it was a bad idea.)

Emergency services were called, and the cars passing by slowed down to gawk. Many people pulled over to the side of the road, asking if there was anything they could do. The response was so wide spread that there was a danger that the way would be blocked by the cars of amateur rescuers. I had to station myself next to the road, thanking everyone for their concern, but sending them on their way if they weren’t trained in rescue or medicine.

I was driving alone a few months later when another car accident occurred right in front of me, this time in a residential neighborhood. No injuries or deaths, although the damage to both vehicles was extensive.

I stopped to help, of course, and found the same situation. People driving by would ask if there was anything they could do. Those who lived near by not only phoned the authorities, but they came out of their homes and hustled down the street with first aid kits, bottled water, fire extinguishers and blankets. After determining that I didn’t need to administer first aid, my role became one of thanking the concerned and asking them to keep moving so the police and tow trucks could get through.

Are the people in Columbus, Ohio just more noble people than those living elsewhere? I find that to be impossible to believe.

Read more

Waking Up Sleepy Teenagers

by

Have a teenager that has trouble going to sleep at night and who can’t be gotten out of bed in the morning by any means short of explosives? They might have  “delayed sleep phase syndrome” and a simple therapy using special sun glasses and blue colored lights might be the key.  

My son has this pattern. He becomes very active around 9pm and then cannot sleep until 2am or so. Needless to say, he doesn’t want to get out of bed in the morning.  I did the same thing when I was his age.  

I wonder if this is related to artificial lighting? It has been long known that artificial lighting alters the human body in unexpected ways, e.g., causing puberty in girls to start sooner, and this might be another “lightbulb” related phenomenon.

I’m going to give this a whirl with my son using the sunglasses. I’ll let you know if it works.  

On the Persistence of Witches

by

In the pre-scientific western world, sudden outbreaks of disease were often attributed to witches or other human agents of the supernatural. In many parts of the non-western world today, witchcraft is still feared and blamed. The need to seek human scapegoats for disease and general ill fortune seems part of our psychological makeup. Even in the  contemporary  West, we still seem to have the same psychology although in a different  costume.  

The twin cases of the world-wide collapse of amphibian populations and the colony-collapse disorder which affected the world’s bees, show the modern world’s need to find human scapegoats for natural disasters. In both cases human actors were initially blamed for the dire effects of diseases caused by  microorganisms.

Read more

Cowardice is Eternal

by

Glenn posts about an interesting case.

Two subway workers in New York called the police when they witnessed a rape in progress, but didn’t do anything to physically stop the crime. A case brought against them was thrown out of court, the judge saying that calling the cops is all that is required of witnesses.

Glenn isn’t any too happy about the ruling. He says….

“In a previous day, in a different culture, such men would have been afraid of being called cowards for failing to help a woman under such circumstances.”

I don’t think Glenn remembers Kitty Genovese. That particular incident might not have occurred in another culture, but it certainly happened in a previous day.

Look at it this way. At least the New York residents who saw the crime called police this time around. That is certainly an improvement over past performance. Maybe, after another four or five decades, people who live in New York will even become as brave as those of us who hail from flyover country.

Those who follow the links above will no doubt note that two of the three examples are where people who were legally carrying concealed weapons confronted a crazed killer. Since New York effectively bans that sort of thing, we really can’t expect them to have the same level of civic concern. This is, I think, one of the points that Glenn was trying to make.

But also note that the last link leads to the story of two unarmed vacationers who tackled a rifle wielding gunman who was shooting at the White House. Neither of them were from New York.

Finding a Less Costly Alternative

by

I wrote last year about how I finally took the plunge and canceled my cable TV service.

The reason why I decided to let the television go dark was because advancing technology made paying for TV shows redundant. There are very few that I like anyway, and they are available for streaming free through a variety of websites. Add the fact that my charity work kept me extremely busy, so I would only have time to watch TV at some extremely odd hours, and you can see that online video-on-demand was the cost free way to go.

Things have loosened up a great deal since I shut down the charity self defense course in January. The course put such demands on me that going to an eight hour work day feels like an extended vacation, and I have a great deal more time on my hands. Even so, I still find that only a very few TV shows are at all interesting, and have no desire to start paying for cable service that I won’t watch anyway.

But that isn’t what I want to talk about. You see, now I’m thinking about canceling my phone service.

Read more