Strange News

[Fazor]

I think that the prisoners aren't the complete idiots you make them out to be. I'm pretty sure they're capable of discerning one situation from another.

Yes, yes, I know. Anyone in prison is probably a moron. Except, not really.

Who said prisoners are idiots? I was talking about behavior modification. My nieces are taught to eat healthy food for dinner by being rewarded with cookies or ice cream after they finish. I don't think they're idiots. In fact, I call it "learning".

[SolusLupus]

Who said prisoners are idiots? I was talking about behavior modification. My nieces are taught to eat healthy food for dinner by being rewarded with cookies or ice cream after they finish. I don't think they're idiots. In fact, I call it "learning".

Comparing children to adults doesn't help your case.

Seriously, what you argued seems to me to be similar to saying, "Should we reward people for finding property and turning it in lawfully? What if they decide to steal property, because they think that they're getting a reward for finding things that are not theirs?"

Yes, it does seem like you're suggesting they're idiots.

[Fazor]

If being rewarded for beating up one bad guy was in and of itself the thing that would make them say "Hey! Violence IS good!" then yes, that'd imply they're idiots.

However, you're looking at a life time of glamorizing physical violence. Beat up some kid on the corner, and the guys in your gang say you're tough. Beat the rival dealer, and you get your turf back. Now you're in jail, where you get all your 'cred' from being the toughest 'dude on the cell block. Now you beat up someone you view as a bad guy and you're seen as a hero. Only difference is, this time everyone else agrees that the guy you beat up was a bad guy.

I have no idea what these inmate's pasts are like. All I was saying was that I couldn't help but wondering if rewarding people who have a tendency towards violence for beating up someone might just reinforce their tendency towards violence.

And if you think reward/punishment behavioral modification ends at childhood, I can't help but wonder what you think about things like punishing behavior by jail, or then rewarding good behavior in jail with shortened sentences?

[SolusLupus]

However, you're looking at a life time of glamorizing physical violence. Beat up some kid on the corner, and the guys in your gang say you're tough. Beat the rival dealer, and you get your turf back. Now you're in jail, where you get all your 'cred' from being the toughest 'dude on the cell block.

Which is an attitude actually supported by the guards, because it keeps the prisoners too divided to unite for a single riot.

And if you think reward/punishment behavioral modification ends at childhood,

This is a gross simplification of my position, but if you wish to think that, I can't stop you.

I can't help but wonder what you think about things like punishing behavior by jail,

With a high recidivity rate? 65% in New York, around 67.5% nationwide within three years released from prison? Not much.

And even then, there's no stick and carrot for people sentenced to prison. Prison sentences are a big stick all around. You get the stick of losing a significant chunk of your life in a cell, and then another stick in having your crime on your criminal record, which keeps you out of good jobs.*

I think there's plenty to complain about the system.

or then rewarding good behavior in jail with shortened sentences?

I'm okay with that. But that's different. That's a direct A to B. You do the good behavior, you get a reduced sentence, cha-ching. It's a straight buy.

It's not, "If I reward you for protecting us, you're going to think violence is always okay" deal.






*I found this interesting, from wikipedia on recidivism:

The recidivism rate in the New York City jail system is as high as 65%. The jail at Rikers Island, in New York, is making efforts to reduce this statistic by teaching horticulture to its inmates. It is shown that the inmates that go through this type of rehabilitation have significantly lower rates of recidivism.[15]

[Fazor]

Eh, I'm not going to argue too much because I'm not saying it does. Just wondered if that would just make them a part of a long chain of a violence / reward pattern. (By the way: those posts seem like much longer than 2 months ago!)

[Trebuchet]

I'm not sure if the news itself is strange because we all know what happens with hacks, but the reaction to it is questionable.
Porn video on highway billboard shocks drivers

So, they were so shocked that they had to get out of there...

Oh; right, they slowed down to watch.

Those Russians have all the fun! All I ever see on the annoying video billboards near Tacoma (other than the adverts, of course) are Windows error messages. Sometimes those are up for two or three days!

[Atraveller]

Re OP

Haven't checked the whole thread to see if this has already been posted.

Randy Cassingham scours the news for weird, strange - but true news stories. Worth a look - and there is a weekly sub service

This is True

[NEOWatcher]

Here's one that just has to be for the publicity.
Cold sheets? Hire a human ‘bed-warmer’

If requested, a willing staff-member at two of the chain's London hotels and one in the northern English city of Manchester will dress in an all-in-one fleece sleeper suit before slipping between the sheets.

[they]said the warmer would be fully dressed and leave the bed before the guest occupied it. They could not confirm if the warmer would shower first, but said hair would be covered.

She could not explain why the beds were not being warmed by hot water bottles or electric-blankets, but admitted the human method was quirky.

Now the un-answered $64000 question.

Can you request they stay if they are cute?

[Fazor]

Can you request they stay if they are cute?

Heh, I saw that earlier. To me it sounds like (other than the obvious PR stunt as you mentioned) a horrible, tragic, life-altering incident for some young "bed warmer" waiting to happen.

[NEOWatcher]

Heh, I saw that earlier. To me it sounds like (other than the obvious PR stunt as you mentioned) a horrible, tragic, life-altering incident for some young "bed warmer" waiting to happen.

Along with that, for some reason, I keep hearing the echo "bed wetter" when I see "bed warmer".

[rommel543]

Here's one that just has to be for the publicity.
Cold sheets? Hire a human ‘bed-warmer’



Now the un-answered $64000 question.

Can you request they stay if they are cute?

They have those already all over the world, all you have to do is look under "Escorts" in the phone book....

[NEOWatcher]

Another take on the "rude New Yorkers".

Carried by 155 strangers (video)
Mark Maddoff (filmmaker) proves New Yorkers aren't rude by asking them to carry him across New York.

All this story proves is that New Yorker's vanity is stronger than thier rudeness.
Now; how many people turned him down, and how many would have turned him down if he didn't have cameras and microphones?

[NEOWatcher]

Devotees of Fla. man drank snail mucus in ritual

Devotees of a Miami man who claims to practice a traditional African religion say they were sickened when they had to ingest the mucus of a giant African snail.
[...]
Followers said they got violently ill, losing weight and developing strange lumps in their stomachs.

Who said they "had to"?

[closetgeek]

Another take on the "rude New Yorkers".

Carried by 155 strangers (video)
Mark Maddoff (filmmaker) proves New Yorkers aren't rude by asking them to carry him across New York.

All this story proves is that New Yorker's vanity is stronger than thier rudeness.
Now; how many people turned him down, and how many would have turned him down if he didn't have cameras and microphones?

I understand what you are saying, Maddoff proved nothing in that stunt. I can't help it, though, I get so annoyed by people insisting that NYers are rude (not directed at you, but to a general audience). NYers are not overly friendly, this is true. We don't want to sit and chat with the clerk at 7-11, no offense to them but we are using a convenience store because our time is pressed. There is a bit of a fast paced feel to the lower part of the state but that does not equate to rude. The rude people you encounter in NY are not NYers, those are (to use Fazor's term) self-entitled tourists. Go to any major melting pot-type tourist city and you will encounter the same people but for some reason, NY gets a bad rap. <rant off>

[Gillianren]

We don't want to sit and chat with the clerk at 7-11, no offense to them but we are using a convenience store because our time is pressed.

In some places, though, that actually is considered rude. You may have a reason for it, but a few words are generally considered polite--more or less depending on where you're living. Heck, where I lived for a while, we used a convenience store because it was three blocks away as opposed to three miles.

[NEOWatcher]

Prostitutes sign confuses motorists

"Does it mean I have to look out for prostitutes crossing or that they are available around here?"

Why can't it mean both?

[Fazor]

Why can't it mean both?

I think it would have been better to have one of those brown signs that typically signify some sort of historic or noteworthy sight. "On your left, you'll see the natural habitat of the Prostitutus Enminiskirtus. Typically nocturnal in nature." Of course, at the bottom they'd need to say "Warning! Please do not feed the prostitutes."

[tdvance]

ah, had thought it was one of those "Prostitution Zone" grafittis put up with a picture of an acorn under it, that have been popping up on concrete walls around the country. But it's a real sign....but, but, how do the prostitutes know to cross there?

[swampyankee]

ah, had thought it was one of those "Prostitution Zone" grafittis put up with a picture of an acorn under it, that have been popping up on concrete walls around the country. But it's a real sign....but, but, how do the prostitutes know to cross there?

The crossing guards will stop traffic for them 8-). It's also probably not terribly unrealistic to assume that at least some of the prostitutes can read.

[closetgeek]

In some places, though, that actually is considered rude. You may have a reason for it, but a few words are generally considered polite--more or less depending on where you're living. Heck, where I lived for a while, we used a convenience store because it was three blocks away as opposed to three miles.

Most people, even in NY, will do a limited greeting and response "Hello/How are you?/Fine thanks". There are people, in any state, that do not even acknowledge the cashier as a human being; that behavior is not strictly limited to NY. I am talking about down here in Florida, it happens quite often that people will chat with the clerk to the point of it being rude (move along please!) to the people behind them. Long Island is a rather fast paced area but there are slow paced behaviors that I find rude; waiting till your up at the cashier to contemplate what you want, strolling along with five of your friends and window shopping without giving faster paced people any room to pass you, driving in the left lane at the same speed as the car next to you in the right. It has just been my experience that it's not NYers that are rude, it's the self-entitled out of towners.

[Gillianren]

What is rude in some places is not rude in others, is the issue. It is rude to block the whole sidewalk, but up here, during rush hour at least, everyone is driving at the same speed on the entire freeway, and it's the idiot zipping from lane to lane who's being rude. (Or, as I've seen at least once, dangerously reckless.) Anyway, how long is chatting with the clerk long enough to be rude? It's probably longer for me than for you.

[closetgeek]

I guess it's just based on what the individual would do. I do not feel it is polite to take any longer than I have to, at the check out of a convenience store. If the clerk asks me how I am doing, I assume he is being polite in asking and doesn't really want to know exactly how I am doing. If the person in front of be is a bit more friendly, so be it, offer up what ever you want to share, publicly, but step aside so the cashier can ring up the next person. I am not talking about zipping in and out of traffic, I am talking about the rolling road block when there is little traffic.

[tdvance]

In Maryland, if a convenience store clerk says, "how are you doing?", it's a formality. Back home in Moorefield, WV, it's a real question!

[Gillianren]

I have made friends with quite a few of the cashiers around town. Now, I usually shop at odd hours, so there's seldom an issue of blocking the person behind me, but I'm quite sure I take longer than the average person. And Saturday, I did move aside after my purchase was completed to talk to the cashier--but I had also purposely gotten into a longer line so I could say hi.

[Fazor]

Hmm. Well I'll say 'hi' or whatever, and I'm genuinely friendly with the greetings, but I have no desire to actually talk to the people. Not because they're cashiers, but because I have no desire to hold conversations with any strangers. I prefer to keep to myself. Which is probably ironic, considering how much I talk on BAUT.

[closetgeek]

I don't know what to say when I ask someone how they are doing and they actually tell me, in great detail but that's because I don't know how to politely end a conversation without some dramatic excuse, "I am sorry, I would love to stay and chat but my kids just text me that the house is on fire. I would love to stay, I really would."
I live in an area that has a high retiree population (you may have heard of it, it's called Florida). I see, quite often, elderly people (not only elderly but that's the most common) coming in to a store and you can tell, just by their eagerness to make eye contact, that the cashier and anyone in the store is probably the only conversation they will have, through out the day. Not only do I know that feeling and empathize, I can't help but have a soft spot. I am not all business and can't really tell what makes the think I can decipher between the rude person and the lonely person, maybe signals/body language, but some people I tolerate, only because I am non-confrontational while others I make excuses for.

[Nowhere Man]

Oddly, at work, people will greet me with, "How you doing?" and I'll answer "Hi." Others I will greet with "Hi there" and they will respond, "Fine thanks."

Fred

[tdvance]

This does remind me of that one...Budweiser I think? commercial that began during a Super Bowl: how ya doin', how ya doin', how ya doin', ... till it gets to this guy who actually answers: well, I was delayed at the airport and then and then...

[Gillianren]

Yeah, my high school physics class declared me most likely to actually answer the question, "How are you?"

[NEOWatcher]

Probably not "strange news", but more of a who cares? Or maybe something missing from the story.

Scrabble fans can relax, rules aren't changing

Scrabble Trickster, due out in July in the U.K. only, not the U.S., will allow proper names such as city or celebrity names.

So, what's the difference between this and the normal game? Can't I just play regular scrabble with a "house rule" that allows proper nouns?