Various Observations

With cameras on nearly every street corner, both those set up by the government and those by private companies for security and the ones in almost every cell phone, we are seeing both on the news and on line more and more pictures of natural disasters, car crashes, embarrassing moments, and just about everything else.  The only subject that there doesn’t seem to be a rash of pictures is UFOs.  A number of years ago reports were much more common, and several books promoted evidence that we are not alone.  Now there seems to be very little serious reference to ETs.  Maybe everyone knows they would be expected to back up their stories with a few fairly high-resolution pictures.

A recent radio ad told me that I should buy gold, because the price had come down to levels not seen since 2007 and before that 2000.  These may not be the exact dates, but the gist of it was to buy gold while it was again very affordable.  I was expected to react quickly because the last two times the price went up from here.  Another interpretation, though, could be that the last two times after going up, it also came back down to where it is now.  Was this ad telling me that it was a good time to buy gold or just the best time to climb on board “the gold roller coaster” as it continues to go up and down?

Would smearing black stuff under my eyes make me a better driver by cutting down the glare?  This thought struck me as I saw a close-up on TV of a football player coming off the field.  Is this eye black effective or just superstition?  A few sources tell me of limited studies that show “the eye grease made of beeswax, paraffin, and carbon does in fact reduce glare and improve contrast sensitivity,” but “anti-glare stickers and petroleum jelly have no impact.”  Does that minimal improvement in contrast sensitivity improve performance?  No evidence is available.  Tennis players must react to fast-moving balls in sunlight or under bright, artificial lighting, but they don’t paint their faces.  Even so, as superstitious as many professional athletes (and their fans) are, there is little chance of the practice changing soon.

Is everyone a hater?  There is another one of those simple internet posters going around on Facebook and other sites with a long list of all the people the Republicans are accused of hating:  the poor, Muslims, women, blacks, etc.  On the other side the left is accused of hating and trying to destroy America and the Constitution.  The behavioral model as presented here asks, even requires, everyone to rise above this, drop the name-calling and general accusations by dealing exclusively with behavior.  But the name-calling won’t stop until the general public, the voters, you and I, adopt and start living out the behavioral model and demand that it does.  That’s why I present a couple examples every week, to try to teach Americans that there is a better way, a real solution.