Month: August 2006

AOL released search records for 650,000 of its users. This has become a treasure-trove for search aficianados everywhere. Read about the seven types of searchers.

I want to sell T-shirts on cafepress which read “i hurt when i think too much i love roadtrips i hate my weight i fear being alone for the rest of my life.”

I received one of those emails today which looked like a propaganda piece, but I read it for some reason. It turned out to be interesting, and I thought I’d post it for comments:

The psychology behind suicide bombings. By – Pierre Rehov, documentary filmmaker On July 15, MSNBC’s “Connected” program discussed the July 7th,2005 London attacks.

One of the guests was Pierre Rehov, a French filmmaker who has filmed six documentaries on the intifada by going undercover in the Palestinian areas.Pierre ‘s upcoming film, “Suicide Killers,” is based on interviews that he conducted with the families of suicide bombers and would-be bombers in an attempt to find out why they do it. Pierre agreed to a request for a Q&A interview here about his work on the new film.

Q – What inspired you to produce “Suicide Killers,” your seventh film?

A – I started working with victims of suicide attacks to make a film on PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) when I became fascinated with the personalities of those who had committed those crimes, as they were described again and again by their victims. Especially the fact that suicide bombers are all smiling one second before they blow themselves up.

Q – Why is this film especially important?

A – People don’t understand the devastating culture behind this unbelievable phenomenon. My film is not politically correct because it addresses the real problem, showing the real face of Islam. It points the finger against a culture of hatred in which the uneducated are brainwashed to a level where their only solution in life becomes to kill themselves and kill others in the name of a God whose word, as transmitted by other men, has become their only certitude.

Q – What insights did you gain from making this film? What do you know that other experts do not know?

A – I came to the conclusion that we are facing a neurosis at the level of an entire civilization. Most neuroses have in common a dramatic event, generally linked to an unacceptable sexual behavior. In this case, we are talking of kids living all their lives in pure frustration, with no opportunity to experience sex, love, tenderness or even understanding from the opposite sex. The separation between men and women in Islam is absolute.

So is contempt toward women, who are totally dominated by men. This leads to a situation of pure anxiety, in which normal behavior is not possible. It is no coincidence that suicide killers are mostly young men dominated subconsciously by an overwhelming libido that they not only cannot satisfy but are afraid of, as if it is the work of the devil. Since Islam describes heaven as a place where everything on Earth will finally be allowed, and promises 72 virgins to those frustrated kids, killing others and killing themselves to reach this redemption becomes their only solution.

Q – What was it like to interview would-be suicide bombers, their families and survivors of suicide bombings?

A – It was a fascinating and a terrifying experience. You are dealing with seemingly normal people with very nice manners who have their own logic, which to a certain extent can make sense since they are so convinced that what they say is true. It is like dealing with pure craziness, like interviewing people in an asylum, since what they say, is for them, the absolute truth. I hear a mother saying “Thank God, my son is dead.” Her son had became a shaheed, a martyr, which for her was a greater source of pride than if he had became an engineer, a doctor or a winner of the Nobel Prize.

This system of values works completely backwards since their interpretation of Islam worships death much more than life. You are facing people whose only dream, only achievement goal is to fulfill what they believe to be their destiny, namely to be a Shaheed or the family of a shaheed. They don’t see the innocent being killed, they only see the impure that they have to destroy.

Q – You say suicide bombers experience a moment of absolute power, beyond punishment. Is death the ultimate power?

A – Not death as an end, but death as a door opener to the after life. They are seeking the reward that God has promised them. They work for God, the ultimate authority, above all human laws. They therefore experience this single delusional second of absolute power, where nothing bad can ever happen to them, since they become God’s sword.

Q – Is there a suicide bomber personality profile? Describe the psychopathology.

A – Generally kids between 15 and 25 bearing a lot of complexes, generally inferiority complexes. They must have been fed with religion. They usually have a lack of developed personality. Usually they are impressionable idealists. In the western world they would easily have become drug addicts, but not criminals. Interestingly, they are not criminals since they don’t see good and evil the same way that we do. If they had been raised in an Occidental culture, they would have hated violence. But they constantly battle against their own death anxiety. The only solution to this deep-seated pathology is to be willing to die and be rewarded in the afterlife in Paradise .

Q – Are suicide bombers principally motivated by religious conviction?

A – Yes, it is their only conviction. They don’t act to gain a territory or to find freedom or even dignity. They only follow Allah, the supreme judge, and what He tells them to do.

Q – Do all Muslims interpret jihad and martyrdom in the same way?

A – All Muslim believers believe that, ultimately, Islam will prevail on earth. They believe this is the only true religion and there is no room, in their mind, for interpretation. The main difference between moderate Muslims and extremists is that moderate Muslims don’t think they will see the absolute victory of Islam during their lifetime, therefore they respect other beliefs. The extremists believe that the fulfillment of the Prophecy of Islam and ruling the entire world as described in the Koran, is for today. Each victory of Bin Laden convinces 20 million moderate Muslims to become extremists.

Q – Describe the culture that manufactures suicide bombers.

A – Oppression, lack of freedom, brain washing, organized poverty, placing God in charge of daily life, total separation between men and women, forbidding sex, giving women no power whatsoever, and placing men in charge of family honor, which is mainly connected to their women’s behavior.

Q – What socio-economic forces support the perpetuation of suicide bombings?

A – Muslim charity is usually a cover for supporting terrorist organizations. But one has also to look at countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran, which are also supporting the same organizations through different networks. The ironic thing in the case of Palestinian suicide bombers is that most of the money comes through financial support from the Occidental world, donated to a culture that utterly hates and rejects the West (mainly symbolized by Israel).

Q – Is there a financial support network for the families of the suicide bombers? If so, who is paying them and how does that affect the decision?

A – There used to be a financial incentive in the days of Saddam Hussein ($25,000 per family) and Yasser Arafat (smaller amounts), but these days are gone. It is a mistake to believe that these families would sacrifice their children for money. Although, the children themselves who are very attached to their families, might find in this financial support another reason to become suicide bombers. It is like buying a life insurance policy and then committing suicide.

Q – Why are so many suicide bombers young men?

A – As discussed above, libido is paramount. Also ego, because this is a sure way to become a hero. The shaheed are the cowboys or the firemen of Islam. Shaheed is a positively reinforced value in this culture. And what kid has never dreamed of becoming a cowboy or a fireman?

Q – What role does the U.N. play in the terrorist equation?

A – The U.N. is in the hands of Arab countries and third world or ex-communist countries. Their hands are tied. The U.N. has condemned Israel more than any other country in the world, including the regime of Castro, Idi Amin or Kaddahfi. By behaving this way, the U.N. leaves a door open by not openly condemning terrorist organizations. In addition, through UNRWA, the U.N. is directly tied to terror organizations such as Hamas, representing 65 percent of their apparatus in the so-called Palestinian refugee camps. As a support to Arab countries, the U.N. has maintained Palestinians in camps with the hope to “return” into Israel for more than 50 years, therefore making it impossible to settle those populations, which still live in deplorable conditions. Four hundred million dollars are spent every year, mainly financed by U.S. taxes, to support 23,000 employees of UNRWA, many of whom belong to terrorist organizations (see Congressman Eric Cantor on this subject, and in my film “Hostages of Hatred”).

Q – You say that a suicide bomber is a ‘stupid bomb and a smart bomb’

simultaneously. Explain what you mean.

A – Unlike an electronic device, a suicide killer has until the last second the capacity to change his mind. In reality, he is nothing but a platform representing interests which are not his, but he doesn’t know it.

Q – How can we put an end to the madness of suicide bombings and terrorism in general?

A – Stop being politically correct and stop believing that this culture is a victim of ours. Radical Islamism today is nothing but a new form of Nazism.

Nobody was trying to justify or excuse Hitler in the 1930s. We had to defeat him in order to make peace one day with the German people.

Q – Are these men traveling outside their native areas in large numbers?

Based on your research, would you predict that we are beginning to see a new wave of suicide bombings outside the Middle East ?

A – Every successful terror attack is considered a victory by the radical Islamists. Everywhere Islam expands there is regional conflict. Right now, there are thousands of candidates for martyrdom lining up in training camps in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Inside Europe, hundreds of illegal mosques are preparing the next step of brain washing to lost young men who cannot find a satisfying identity in the Occidental world. Israel is much more prepared for this than the rest of the world will ever be. Yes, there will be more suicide killings in Europe and the U.S.

Sadly, this is only the beginning.

My immediate thoughts: 1) How does a filmmaker get into psychological motivations like libido and repressed personalities? Does he have training? 2) I hope this is just the radical side of Islam, and there’s a more moderate sect, above what he claims is the more moderate sect. 3) Could Islam be classified as Christianity 1000 years later? Christianity doesn’t allow for other religions as well, if you want to get to heaven, but as the Western world has become more civilized, we’re not killing other people for that belief. 4) Islam = Nazism? Interesting statement… 5) The UN as a terrorist organization. I think the UN has outlived its usefulness, and I guess it’s not surprising it’s as corrupted as any other organization.

My $.02 Weed

Yep, you too can create your own motivational posters! For your consideration, I submit these Star Trek Inspirational Posters. My favorite is “I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over the sound of how awesome I am.”

Matthew,

Totally random question, and I’m sure that I’ll be providing nowhere near enough info for troubleshooting this, but here goes.

I’ve got a civicspace installation on a virtual server that’s been running smoothly since last November.

One of the members of the civicspace site today mentioned that when they go to the site, all they get is a blank page. No error, no unauthorized login screen, nothing. Upon further testing, I’ve discovered that going to anything in the civicspace directory on this site, including non-existant URLs, returns just a blank page.

Any idea in general what might be the problem? None of the .php files indicate that they’ve been changed since November. In fact, the most recent changes to the civicspace site are just some files uploaded about two weeks ago.

I know the virtual server host has been making some changes recently to the physical server as a whole. Is there a php or MySQL setting elsewhere on the server (like the root directory instead of the civicspace directory) that might be the cause?

Thanks.

Yes, you too can build your own fighting hamster!

So wrong… so very wrong…

I had a conversation with a particularly obtuse apologist over email today. The conversation ended when I directed him to consider his opinion in light of this image:

(August 12, 2006)

Credit: David Horsey/Seattle Post-Intelligencer http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/photos/photo.asp?PhotoID=97019

This one of the coolest things i’ve seen in a while with common every day objects. When adding Mentos to Diet Coke, the soda shoot out of the bottle over 3 feet. I saw this on Mythbusters last night and had to check out the site.

http://www.eepybird.com/dcm1.html

Now I must go shopping… }:)

That is correct. I’m sure it’s no secret that amongst all geeks who know each other, there is an unending, unspoken struggle for domination, to see who can claim the title of “Lord of the Geeks.”

It is an elusive title, and one that constantly changes hands, much like the coveted WWE Champion’s belt.

Battles for status are fought in many ways: attending conventions, getting such-and-such’s autograph, successfully correcting someone else on some obscure bit of role-playing lore or mechanics (“I’m sorry, but you are incorrect in your assertion that the Saving Throw Table for AD&D 2nd Edition can be found on page 97 of the Player’s Handbook. You are mistaking it with the ThacO by Level Advancement table. The Saving Throw table is found on page 101”), etc.

(BTW, those stats aren’t made up.)

But I believe this week the crown must go to me. For last Friday evening, I had the privilege of hearing the National Symphony Orchestra performing Nobuo Uematsu’s Liberi Fatali (better known as the opening to Final Fantasy VIII) AND One-Winged Angel (Sephiroth’s Theme) LIVE with a full chorus behind them. Also included in the program was the music to World of Warcraft, Sonic the Hedgehog, and of course the two original classics Super Mario and Zelda.

Again, full orchestral arrangements, performed by one of the premier orchestras in the country.

It was, in a word, glorious.

Not to worry, though. I’m sure I will be toppled from my throne by the end of this week. And thus the neverending cycle shall continue…

When SIMS meets BUFFY. ONCE MORE WITH FEELING

Ran across this article which really resonated with me today. Emphasis mine. I realize it’s a bit old, but it emphasizes something I’ve come to believe over the years: it’s much less important what you say, or what you believe, than how you say it.

http://www.webmd.com/content/Article/82/97196.htm

Math May Tell Which Marriages Last

Calculus, More Than Chemistry, Predicts Future Divorce Rates

By Sid Kirchheimer : WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario, MD on Friday, February 13, 2004

“Chemistry” may get the credit as the foundation for a good relationship, but new research suggests that calculus may better predict whether it stays intact. Researchers say that a mathematical formula they devised can predict with at least 94% accuracy which couples will eventually divorce.

“We actually were at 100% accuracy for most of our study, but a few couples we didn’t think would get a divorce based on our formula did, which lowered our accuracy,” says mathematician James D. Murray, PhD, DSc, FRS, of the University of Washington and Oxford University. “Still, after testing it on 700 couples, it’s incredibly accurate.”

The formula, which will be officially presented Saturday at the annual of meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, predicts future divorce rates based on positive or negative numerical scores given for specific expressions or comments made as couples discussed a point of contention while being interviewed by a marriage counselor.

“It could be about money, sex, in-laws, housing — whatever,” Murray tells WebMD. “We videotaped couples during a 15-minute conversation and then tracked scores based on their actions and reactions onto a graph, so it wound up looking like a jagged-lined, cumulative Dow Jones average stock report.”

For instance, a roll of the eyes by one mate scored a negative 4 score; a nod indicting interest or well-placed use of humor when discussions got heated warranted a positive 4.

Add the scores and it comes to this bottom line: It’s not whether a couple frequently argues that predicts their success. It’s how they argue.

Masters and Disasters of Marriage

“When couples whose marriages are stable over time talk about an area of contention or disagreement, their discussions have five times as many positive comments or expressions as negative. In couples who eventually headed to divorce, ratio of positive-to-negative was 0.8 to 1,” says psychologist John Gottman, PhD, a noted marriage expert who conceived the mathematical formula and enlisted Murray’s mathematical skills to help develop it some 13 years ago.

The scores for these ratios are based on two coding systems that Gottman developed — a checklist of 13 behaviors scored for the speaker, and nine behaviors that are scored for the listener on each turn at speech, in both contentious discussions as well as any type of conversation.

“When the masters of marriage are talking about something important, they may be arguing, but they are also laughing and teasing and there are signs of affection because they have made emotional connections,” Gottman says. “But a lot of people don’t know how to connect or how to build a sense of humor, and this means a lot of fighting that couples engage in is a failure to make emotional connections. We wouldn’t have known this without the mathematical model.”

Make or Break Factors

Some of the most significant factors were the nonverbal cues. “For example, there’s a facial expression of contempt in which the left lip corner moves to the side and creates a dimple. We see it all the time in couples who are going to break up – and it’s huge in our mathematical formula,” Gottman tells WebMD. “Eye rolling and sighing in response to a partner’s comment are also very big negative behaviors.”

Scoring high on the positive end: Words or actions that show empathy, support, or just interest in what the mate expresses about contentious topics — for instance, supporting words or gestures such as an “I-hear-you-sweetie” nod.

“On the positive side, humor and affection are probably the two most important,” says Gottman, who directs the Relationship Research Institute in Seattle and is professor emeritus of psychology at UW. “But you even get some, but not many, positive points for just bringing up a problem in neutral terms, without emotion.”

In addition to predicting divorce with the 5-to-1 ratio of positive-to-negative interactions, Murray says the model can actually predict when it’s likely to occur: Couples with a steep drop from a neutral point on their “stock chart” typically divorced within five years; a more gentle downward spiral suggested a breakup after 16 years of marriage.

The 700 couples were drawn from six separate studies conducted by Gottman over the past 32 years. “They include the entire spectrum of married people — young newlyweds, couples with small children, those with teenaged kids, seniors, even same-sex relationships.” The actual mathematical formula has been tested on them for 13 years, and many couples are still being tracked.

So how do you stack the numbers in your favor?

“If I have to give one piece of advice based on this for heterosexual relationships, I’d say it’s the importance of a man honoring his wife’s life dreams, and showing his support,” Gottman tells WebMD. “For women, it’s having a gentle approach to raising issues. For instance, rather than saying, ‘You don’t pay enough attention to me’, you say, ‘Honey, I’m getting that lonely feeling because I really miss you and need more of you in my day.’

“Basically, in good relationships people pussy-foot around each other. They think about how their partner is going to react before they act or speak.”

Susan Heitler, PhD, a marriage therapist in Denver and author of The Power of Two, a book on improving relationships, tells WebMD that the mathematical formula for predicting divorce indeed adds up.

“What this does is put into mathematical form what clinicians, relatives, and neighbors see for years before people they know get a divorce,” she says. “The more negativity there is in a relationship, the less happiness. And at some point, the couple says, ‘this isn’t worth it.'”

— Matthew P. Barnson – – – – Thought for the moment: Too much is not enough.