Chevelle’s got a new album. As always, if your fan of Chevell you won’t be disappointed.
I love putting this song on when I ride the metro and transfer at China Town. Listened to it everyday for about 3 weeks.
So here’s how the Bob Hare Psychopath Test works. There is a list of 20 traits. For each trait you score the person from 0-2, based on that persons behavior. This is taken from the Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders
When properly completed by a qualified professional, the PCL-R provides a total score that indicates how closely the test subject matches the “perfect” score that a classic or prototypical psychopath would rate. Each of the twenty items is given a score of 0, 1, or 2 based on how well it applies to the subject being tested. A prototypical psychopath would receive a maximum score of 40, while someone with absolutely no psychopathic traits or tendencies would receive a score of zero. A score of 30 or above qualifies a person for a diagnosis of psychopathy. People with no criminal backgrounds normally score around 5. Many non-psychopathic criminal offenders score around 22.
Twenty traits assessed by the PCL-R score are:
Factor 1: Personality “Aggressive narcissism”
- Glibness/superficial charm
- Grandiose sense of self-worth
- Pathological lying
- Cunning/manipulative
- Lack of remorse or guilt
- Shallow affect (genuine emotion is short-lived and egocentric)
- Callous/lack of empathy
- Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
Factor 2: Case history “Socially deviant lifestyle”.
- Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom
- Parasitic lifestyle
- Poor behavioral control
- Lack of realistic long-term goals
- Impulsivity
- Irresponsibility
- Juvenile delinquency
- Early behavior problems
- Revocation of conditional release
Traits not correlated with either factor
- Promiscuous sexual behavior
- Many short-term marital relationships
- Criminal versatility
So you just go through each item and score the person and then add the score up. If it’s over 30 they are psychopathic.
So there you have it. Now your dangerously equipped to evaluate your friends & family and really do some damage in your personal life by diagnosing everyone you know.
The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson
A wildly entertaining book. Jon Ronson has developed quite a knack for writing quirky books about under the table subjects. His most popular “The Men Who Stare At Goats” was turned into a George Clooney movie, but “THEM” was also a great book about the different sides of extremist.
Personally, “The Psychopath Test” is my favorite of Ronson’s work. It’s a deep look into the world of psychiatry, and the underpinnings of what makes a person a clinical psychopath. Complete with the Bob Hare Psychopath test, which helps one categorize the character traits of a psychopath. I have to say after reading the book and reviewing the Hare Checklist, I have known a few psychopaths in my life.
I love the self diagnosis by Ronson as he tells his story, he is the first to point out his own flaws and weakness on the Hare list. It makes for a very entertaining read, as the author seems very uncomfortable internally confronting his own level of psychopathy. After all what makes each of us tick? Why do we do the things we do?. How close are each of us to being a psychopath?
I had talk a couple of weeks ago with a friend about the idea of building a permaculture database, running it on a SQL server and providing some type of user interface. The idea being, it would provide what ever information you’d like about a planet. It’s as simply or complex as you liked. For example, want to know what grows well with tomatoes, a simply search will tell you. Or for something a bit more complex, want to know what kind of planet would fit well into your apple tree guild, needs only partial shade, fixes nitrogen and is hardy up to zone 6?
Well it looks like someone has the same idea, except they are actually doing theirs. The Permaculture Plant Database. Admittedly it’s not a sexy website per say, but then again for true nerds nothing is sexier than raw information. The upside is, it’s very simple to understand what they are providing, you go to the site, you make some selections from drop down boxes, you search, and then you can browser through all the entries.
My original idea was to not only build a searchable database, but it was to use that data base to help gardeners and permaculturalist build plant communities, guilds, and sustainable environments. I think it would be brilliant to attached some kind of GUI to this type of database and have a drag and drop function onto an empty “garden”. So when I drag an apple tree to my garden, my side panels are populated with choices of other plants, herbs, and trees that would all be beneficial, depending on whether you wanted to simply companion plant, interplant, or build a guild.
Overland Handcraft is a great place to get yourself an affordable handmade spinning wheel and fiber tools. You’ll notice right away the beauty and design of these wheels are not traditional like so many of the antique wheels that have spiral spokes. Just do a google search for spinning wheels and you’ll see what I mean.
Each set of wheels are made in small batches and must meet the standards of a quality wheel before they are listed for sale. I happen to be good friends with the creator of these wheels and have watched first hand over the last two years as he has sketched, planned, and built them. He’s not only one of the smartest guys I know and deeply loves making these wheels, but he treats each customer right, with the kind of customer service that people use to expect.
I would encourage anyone, even if you’re not a spinner, to at least browser through the photo gallery. You can find out more about Overland Handcraft below.
Website: http://www.overlandhandcraft.com/
Esty: http://www.etsy.com/shop/OverlandHandcraft
I use to think I knew what a raised bed was, then I read Sepp Holzer’s Permaculture. He talks about making 5 ft raised beds that have a 45 degree angle slope. The book is great, Sepp has a very unique view on how to interact with natural.
I would classify his approach almost as the lazy man’s garden. He doesn’t go out of his way to prevent animals and weeds and things he doesn’t want in his garden. Instead he focuses on making sure every inch is working with nature and not against it.
It’s really a complete book on permaculture, including livestock and growing mushrooms.
Below is an image I found on another website with a detailed description of how Sepp use’s permaculture.Or download a pdf article from Permaculture magazine about how to make a Hugelkultur Raised Bed
Original Source: Guardian.co.uk, Sunday 15 May 2011
In the interview, Hawking rejected the notion of life beyond death and emphasised the need to fulfil our potential on Earth by making good use of our lives. In answer to a question on how we should live, he said, simply:
“We should seek the greatest value of our action.”
Hawking said he regards the brain as a computer which will simply stop working when it’s done.
“There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark,” he added.
One of the truly great inspiration figures in American Politics, Ron Paul will take another shot at a presidential campaign for the 2012 election. For anyone not familiar with why Ron Paul is so addictive simply Google his name and watch some youtube videos.
Or check him out here
not mythical forces but reason and ideas determine the course of human affairs, what is needed to stop the trend towards socialism and despotism is common sense and moral courage
- Ludwig Von Mises
I read Steinbeck “Of Mice and Men” last week. I saw a nice copy of it at Half Price Books so I picked it up. I read it once it high school, but vaguely remember it, but something a couple of weeks ago sparked an interest in my to read it again.
It’s a fast easy read that anyone can get through in less then a week. I love the fact that it’s only 100 pages, it like Steinbeck reminds me that great stories don’t have to be time consuming, especially after reading Atlas Shrugged last year.
As far as the story it’s self, I think it would be easy to read and forget other then the few main points. The idea that really struck me was how George has this dream, of owing his own land. So no one can ever fire him again, no one can ever tell him what to do, and no one else will ever profit off his labor. It’s the dream of every man. But then the reality sets in when the other characters bring George back down. They point out every man who’s been through this farm has had the same dream and ain’t none of them ever get it. It’s a sobering message for those that aspire to catch their dream.
Certainly the end of the book is heavy. There is a pull in George to want to protect Lennie, and in his mind what he did to Lennie was much better then what the other guys would have done to him. Lennie went out believe someday they would capture their dream.
After I finished the book, I watched the movie on Hulu. John Malkovich is brilliant at Lennie.
