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Broncos head coach candidate: Jonathan Gannon, Philadelphia Eagles Defensive Coordinator
By AJ Schulte@AJDraftScout Updated Jan 10, 2022, 4:05pm MST
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Photo by Andy Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
A bit of an upstart name here, Jonathan Gannon first started coaching as a student assistant and graduate assistant at Louisville under Bobby Petrino from 2003-2006. Gannon assisted with game planning and scouting for Petrino's successful squads but he also excelled in coaching his teammates (while he was there, Louisville had three defensive backs drafted). Gannon impressed Petrino so much that he brought Gannon with him to Atlanta when he was hired to coach the Falcons.
Gannon served as an assistant defensive coach and quality control coach for Atlanta that season before Petrino's departure. Gannon worked under Mike Zimmer in Atlanta for that year, working primarily with the defensive backs. There, Atlanta ranked 22nd in DVOA versus the pass. From there, Gannon served as a scout for the St. Louis Rams from 2009-2011 under General Manager Billy Devaney. The Rams drafted a couple of notable defensive players in James Laurinaitis and Robert Quinn, but it's tough to really say how much input (if any) Gannon had.
After that stint into scouting, Gannon got another shot at coaching when he took a job as a Defensive Quality Control coach under Mike Munchak's Tennessee Titans in 2012. In Tennessee, Gannon worked with players like Jason McCourty, Akeem Ayers, Jurrell Casey, Derrick Morgan, and Alterraun Verner. The Titans' defense ranked 25th and 19th in Defensive DVOA while he was there. After working there for two years, Gannon reunited with Mike Zimmer in Minnesota as his Assistant Defensive Backs coach.
While with the Vikings, Gannon coached players like Harrison Smith, Xavier Rhodes, Captain Munnerlyn, Andrew Sendejo, Trae Waynes, Anthony Harris, Terence Newman, Jayron Kearse, and Mackensie Alexander. Minnesota rose from 21st in DVOA versus the pass to 11th, then 6th, then 2nd while Gannon was with the Vikings. Smith and Rhodes made the Pro Bowl each made several Pro Bowls while under Gannon.
Shortly after, Gannon relied on a connection through Mike Zimmer and Dallas and was hired by Frank Reich (and Matt Eberflus) to be their cornerbacks coach. After a year, Gannon became the co-Defensive Backs coach with Alan Williams. In Indianapolis, Gannon coached and helped develop some notable corners like Kenny Moore, Nate Hairston, and Rock Ya-Sin. He also helped players like Pierre Desir and Xavier Rhodes have career years while in Indianapolis. While he was with the Colts, their DVOA against the pass rose from 15th to 8th before he was hired to be the Defensive Coordinator of the Philadelphia Eagles under Nick Sirianni this past offseason.
Gannon's defense with the Eagles got off to a very rough start. Gannon's job was being called for quickly in Philadelphia, and he drew the ire of some very prominent defensive players like Fletcher Cox. Most notably, Gannon made the comment he "doesn't have a scheme" which certainly led to some snide comments from fans. After a midseason turnaround, the Eagles' defense under Gannon helped the team clinch a playoff berth. Darius Slay and Avonte Maddox have enjoyed great years under him this season, and they currently 16th in Defensive DVOA.
It all sounds like Gannon is an up-and-coming coach. However, I would be very, very wary of him as the next Head Coach of the Broncos. For starters, he is very closely tied to several members of the previous coaching staff. He and Tom McMahon worked together under Petrino. While Gannon was a scout with the Rams, Pat Shurmur was their Offensive Coordinator. He also worked with Shurmur again in Minnesota. Mike Munchak hired him in Tennessee. To drive it further in, he's childhood friends with Brandon Staley, Vic Fangio's most notable disciple. That would worry me, especially with Paton letting the next coach choose the fates of the rest of Fangio's staff.
I'm also not quite sold on Gannon's success with the Eagles just yet. Their defensive fix at the mid-point also came at a time when they played a very easy schedule. Since Week 7, the Eagles faced the quarterback gauntlet of Jared Goff, Justin Herbert (who gashed them), Teddy Bridgewater, Trevor Siemian, Daniel Jones, Zach Wilson, Garrett Gilbert, Mike Glennon, Jake Fromm, Taylor Heinecke, and then a Week 18 game against Dak where he threw for five touchdowns. Early on in the season, Dak, Mahomes, Brady, and Carr threw all over their defense.
There's something to be said about needing time to gel in a new scheme, but Gannon feels too unproven as of yet for me to buy him as a legit candidate. That, plus his rather close ties to the previous coaching staff gives me pause about him being the next Broncos' Head Coach.
Potential Offensive Coordinator hires: Brian Johnson, Philadelphia Eagles Quarterbacks Coach; Jemal Singleton, Philadelphia Eagles Running Backs Coach/Assistant Head Coach; Drew Petzing, Cleveland Browns Tight Ends Coach
Potential Defensive Coordinator hires: Jerry Gray, Green Bay Packers Defensive Backs Coach/Passing Game Coordinator; Jeff Howard, Cleveland Browns Defensive Backs Coach/Passing Game Coordinator; George Edwards, Dallas Cowboys Senior Defensive Assistant
Would you like it if the Broncos hired Jonathan Gannon as their next head coach?


Modern, first floor studio apartment ideally located in Southport Town Centre close to the popular Promenade and Kings Gardens with it's attractions, famous Lord Street shooping street and transport links including the Southport- Liverpool and Southport - Manchester lines and bus routes to Preston, Liverpool and Ormskirk. The property is located in a block of 7 high spec, luxury apartments and briefly comprises; entrance hall, open plan living area with kitchenette and integrated appliances, and separate shower room. Off road parking is available with the property and bills included. Ideal for single professionals or couples. Available Immediately. EPC: C. Additional Information: Fully furnished with double bed, bedside tables, wardrobe, wall mounted flat screen TV, sofa and breakfast bar. Bills Included at £750pcm additional £100) to include SKY, WIFI, electricity and gas. Short term lets available. Ideal for home movers, temp workers etc and an ideal 'lock up and go'.
Open plan living arrangement comprising karndead flooring, recessed spotlighting to ceiling, radiator to front, two windows to rear, fitted wardrobes to side, wall mounted breakfast bar to rear open plan onto: Kitchenette to one wall featuring a matching range of base and eye level units with integrated oven, microwave, four ring electric hob, extractor hoodmixer sink, dishwasher, washing machine and fridge/freezer.


This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 at 5:24 pm	and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.


The Queensland Government Disasters and alerts webpage https://www.qld.gov.au/alerts is a central location for assistance, information and emergency updates.
'Category B assistance' has also been activated for affected primary producers in the Gladstone, Rockhampton and Mackay Regional Council areas. Assistance available for primary producers affected by the bushfires includes direct damage concessional loans of up to $250,000, essential working capital loans of up to $100,000 and freight subsidies of up to $5,000 for primary producers.
Rockhampton Regional Council's Gracemere, Kabra, Stanwell, Alton Downs and Nine Mile.
Contact the Community Recovery Hotline on 1800 173 349 for assistance.
The Queensland National Parks Facebook channel has been used to repost relevant Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) messages.
GIVIT is coordinating all donations on behalf of the Queensland Government and affected Regional Councils.
to www.givit.org.au so all donations can be directed to where they are needed the most.


So, I finally did it, here I am….
Time to put on my red hat…. Yes, you read it right; you again have to bear the emotional me!!
But, the main thing is, there are many people who get people from the web to read and keep reading their blog…that's something I could never know.
And people who do revisit (minus the trusted ones from my real life, I very well know, do revisit every time, happily contributing to the increasingly fat number of Indian audience in my blogger stats)…why don't they comment?
But still people seem to be too lazy even to click!
Sometimes, I have shown perseverance to even write the same long comment thrice if I had a net problem….
It's not that people do not get comments, they do. That is exactly what troubles me, they do nothing….nothing at all…..they keep writing one post after another, and then they have so many comments in each..sometimes 18, ….even if we divide by 2,(for replies by the blogger herself)..there are still 9 people who took the pain to comment, right?
That's the most interesting part, isn't it? I should search up, and ask people to give me blogger awards?? Isn't that insane??
Well, the more interesting part was somebody actually liked my post so much that he posted a blog giving a link to my post!!!
I would have never known if I wouldn't have googled!! And I'd been wondering all this time, whether people actually liked the translation!!
Edit: He even tweeted about my blog!!!
"Impressed with the blogs of @ThoughtXpress.Read her thoughts at http://doveranalyst.blogspot.com/"
Then this site also had my site…and there others too…but check this out.
PS: Looking at the bigger picture I am happy, maybe there are people who come back but won't click on reactions or comment, but still thanks to everybody who ever liked my blog!
PPS: people are not so bad, guess what, viraf patel had actually replied to me on 11march,just when I'd lost all hope!!!!


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Lepthyphantes huberti este o specie de păianjeni din genul Lepthyphantes, familia Linyphiidae, descrisă de Wunderlich, 1980. Conform Catalogue of Life specia Lepthyphantes huberti nu are subspecii cunoscute.

Referințe

Lepthyphantes

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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UPDATE: Man convicted for murder wants new trial after court reversal
Adam Braseel was convicted for the 2006 murder of Malcolm Burrows, but his case was later overturned.
Monday, March 25th 2019, 6:21 PM EDT by Michelle Heron & Grace McKenna
Wednesday, June 26th 2019, 3:22 PM EDT
Defense Attorney Alex Little
UPDATE: After heated testimony Wednesday morning, a hearing determining whether Adam Braseel will get a new trial in the murder of Malcolm Burrows is set to continue July 31st.
Braseel was convicted for the crime in 2007. His conviction has already been overturned once and Braseel was supposed to get a new trial. That decision was reversed by the Circuit Court of Appeals.
Braseel's legal team, led by attorney Alex Little, brought a new petition Wednesday in an attempt to get a re-trial.
The team presented evidence today before Judge Justin Angel at the Grundy County courthouse.
The new evidence centers around the discovery of fingerprints at the scene that the defense says belong to a man named Kermit Bryson. Bryson died in 2008.
One witness, Elizabeth Rector, testified that Bryson told her shortly after Burrows' 2006 murder that he was the one who killed Burrows. She didn't tell anyone until 2018.
Another key witness was former Sergeant Michael Brown, who responded to the initial scene in January of 2006. Brown says he was never asked to testify in the original trial.
Wednesday morning, he testified that he wrote up a report stating he was the one who found Burrows' body and that he also found a wallet on the body. He said this conflicted with previous beliefs that the murder was motivated by robbery. Brown's original police report, which he says he wrote and submitted a few days after the murder, cannot be found.
The defense plans to bring in an expert witness to testify on the new fingerprint evidence in the case. The state will also bring forward their witnesses when the hearing continues on July 31st.
PREVIOUS STORY: A local sheriff said a murder case that happened more than a decade ago deserves a fair look.
Adam Braseel is behind bars for life after being convicted of killing Malcolm Burrows in 2007.
But Grundy County Sheriff Clint Shrum said new evidence makes him wonder if the wrong person is behind bars.
Sheriff Shrum recently sat down with Braseel at the Bledsoe County Correctional Complex. He said he wanted to hear directly from Braseel's mouth that he did not kill Burrows.
READ MORE | Attorney for Grundy Co. man convicted of murder says new evidence shows innocence
"I just asked him point blank, 'Are you the man?' And he adamantly said he was not the man. My second question to him was this, 'If you didn't do it, who did?' And he doesn't know," Shrum said.
Braseel has said those words for more than a decade despite the conviction that's sent him to prison for life.
Braseel's sister talked to us about the meeting last week.
"I think he came to get some clarity in him, because I can't imagine what he's heard. But once he's reading all the facts, and he knows it's not adding up," Christina Braseel said.
Shrum, who was not with the department at the time of the murder, believes the case wasn't investigated properly and said new evidence could mean the wrong person is behind bars.
"Why do we not want Mike Brown to testify in this case? Why did it take 12 years to get a fingerprint back from the TBI Crime Lab? Why? Let's answer some of those questions," Shrum added.
The case surrounding Braseel has been circumstantial, mainly centering around two witnesses identifying Braseel as the suspect. But last week, when Channel 3 learned that fingerprint belonged to Kermit Bryson, a man who killed a deputy and committed suicide a year after Burrows' murder.
The assistant district attorney said he shared the new evidence involving the fingerprint to simply provide the information.
He said sharing it does not mean his office considers the new person named to be a suspect.
"There was more indicators that Kermit was there, I believe, than Adam," Sheriff Shrum said.
Strong words coming from a sheriff, but Shrum said it's a case that deserves a fair look.
"If he's still guilty based on that evidence, he's guilty. But if he's not, then he needs to be let go," he added.
A judge will hear the new evidence and arguments from both sides during a hearing this summer.
Sheriff Shrum said he will be there.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


One advantage of the spluttering proliferation of punk rock and the continuing failure of the New Wave to do anything more than lap at the bottom of the American charts is that you can relax and enjoy a group as a band, not a brand. Since there's no longer a single standard to bear or conform to, no mushrooming movement to augment or betray, it's no skin off anyone's nose if Television, which virtually invented CBGB's, pays tribute to — you're not going to believe this — the Turtles.
Yes, the merry martial beat and blithe vocal harmonies of "Careful," on Television's second album, conjure up those folk-rock fatties of the Sixties. "I don't care" is the song's refrain, and the words are neither snarled with Johnny Rotten's defiance nor deadpanned with the Ramones' parodistic dumbness. It's just that the singer's in bed with his baby, and the rest of the world is out of sight (if not entirely out of mind) behind a drawn shade. What, me worry?
And Television is free enough to sound like the Byrds, whom the serene circularity of "Days" evokes with almost ethereal grace. "Turn! Turn! Turn!" enters the postpunk era.
By daring to be different, Adventure lives up to its title, but it also comes as something of a disappointment because it lacks the jagged tension and mysterious drama that imbued last year's Marquee Moon with such dark but lucid power. Marquee Moon celebrated friction, and Richard Lloyd's rhythm guitar fairly grated against Tom Verlaine's more lyrical lead playing. The music is dreamier and much more benign here, more apt to charm than to challenge. Instead of baying at the moon, Verlaine often yelps like a puppy. On "Carried Away," his vocal veers uncomfortably close to something you'd expect from Keith Carradine.
A line from "Carried Away" runs, "I felt the old ropes grow slack," and there is a certain slackness to much of Adventure. Coproducer/engineer Andy Johns gave Marquee Moon the hard, gleaming edge of an obsidian knife; the duller sound on Adventure, credited to John Jansen, whets but does not satisfy the aural appetite. Thus, "Ain't that Nothin'," a potentially devastating rocker that crosses the Rolling Stones with what sounds to me like Argent's "Hold Your Head Up," kicks harder in the memory than on the turntable. The songwriting could also be sharper. "Foxhole," for example, is commonplace both lyrically (an antiwar stance) and musically (heavy metal).
Tom Verlaine remains, however, a unique and masterful guitarist who doesn't play lines so much as shape them with a sculptor's deliberation. A connoisseur of timbres, he draws on everything from a Middle Eastern jangle to the blues to a crystalline tinkle to achieve — on a song like "The Dream's Dream" — an encyclopedic but unified grandeur.
As a whole, Adventure lacks such unity. Like the Jam on its recent second LP, Television seems to be in a state of transition, extending and then repeating itself. Some of the old ideas are exhausted, while some of the new ones aren't yet fully realized, and at times they jostle each other awkwardly. But the growing pains augur well.


Indiana's abortion law has changed substantially since the legalization of abortion on demand since 1973, thanks to the hard work of a lot of individuals and elected officials.
Abortion is legal for the full nine months of pregnancy in Indiana.
Freestanding abortion centers may only do abortions legally in the first trimester.
Indiana maintains a ban on partial-birth abortion.
Indiana law maintains key informed consent provisions for women considering abortion but is lacking in a requirement that the information be provided in writing.
Indiana law requires parental consent for girls under 18-years of age.
Abortion counselors must inform a woman considering abortion about the ability to see an ultrasound image of her baby and the ability to hear her baby's heartbeat.
In 2010, the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) gave Indiana the grade of "F" for being a state that it does not consider friendly to unrestricted abortion access.
Currently there are abortion centers operating in the Indiana communities of Merrillville, South Bend, Fort Wayne, Lafayette, Indianapolis, and Bloomington.


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District 4 elects Hanhams to MODG council in by-election
GUYSBOROUGH – The four-way race for the District 4 seat on MODG council was definitively decided on Saturday, April 13; the final voting day for the municipal by-election for the seat left vacant by the accidental death of Councillor Blair George in January. Dave Hanhams, owner / operator of the Hanhams Gas & Convenience in Half Island Cove, won a majority of the votes cast; almost more than all other candidates combined.
The unofficial returns were as follows: Dave Hanhams 167, Elaine Durling 78, Tino Winter 53 and Jenny MacDonald 42.
On Monday Hanhams said he was very pleased with the results and wanted to thank the other candidates for a well-run campaign. He added, "I'd like to assure the people that I've got their best interest at heart and that I'll do my best and hope to hear from them on a continual basis."
Hanhams will be sworn in to council on May 1 prior to a Committee of the Whole meeting scheduled for 4:30 p.m.
Speaking to his duties on council, Hanhams said he is particularly interested to sit on the board dealing with the proposed Black Point Quarry which is in his district.


So last Sunday I took Jake to his first Braves game. It was a big deal for both him and me.. We had to start our day off of course with the VARSITY. You have not been to a ball game unless you have eaten at the Varsity first. Then we sat on a ton of traffic because of all the road work inside the perimeter. BrUTAL. Then once we got to the game Jake's eyes lit up and the size of the field, the size of the BIG SCREEN and the excitement in the crowd. We both had our gloves waiting for a fly ball in right field. To bad Braves lost bad 14-5. So as the Braves were getting crushed Jake got to do some batting cages and just be a kid. It couldn't have been better (ok maybe a win would have been better).
Stanford going all the way.
Pac 10 all the way!


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1MATCH URL: https://assets.rappler.com/612F469A6EA84F6BAE882D2B94A4B421/img/0414C6FDE51C4D9A940A6645381680A0/sarangani-earthquake-20170429.jpg
NDRRMC activates response cluster for 7.2 magnitude earthquake
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council declares Red Alert status after a strong earthquake hits Davao Occidental
Voltaire Tupaz
Published 9:10 AM, April 29, 2017
Updated 11:29 AM, April 29, 2017
MANILA, Philippines – (NDRRMC) has activated its response cluster after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit Davao Occidental early Saturday morning, April 29.
NDRRMC clusters met at 9 am, Saturday, to assess the situation in affected areas.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), NDRRMC's lead agency for response efforts, is set to declare a Red Alert status, according to Director Ninoy Castro.
Castro, who heads DSWD's Disaster Response Assistance and Management Bureau (DReAMB), said that the agency has ordered the activation of its quick response teams (QRT) and Red Alert Status in its field office in Region 12.
The Disaster Response Operations Monitoring and Information Center (DROMIC) of the DSWD is also continuously coordinating with the DSWD-Field Office in regions 9, 10, 11, 12, and Caraga for updates on the extent of damage and the number of affected families and individuals.
The DSWD central office, its field offices in affected regions, and the National Resource Operations Center (NROC) have stockpiles and standby funds amounting to about P1.2 billion. – Rappler.com
Report damaged houses, buildings, roads, bridges, and the like via #QuakePH on Twitter. For relief needs, use the hashtag #ReliefPH. Reports can be posted directly on the Agos eBayanihan map.
Filed under:Davao Occidental•NDRRMC•disaster response•earthquake•magnitude 7.2 earthquake•Red Alert
Project Agos is supported by the Australian Government.


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Vivian Lawry
What's in a Birthday?
Different Drummer
Read Chapter One of Different Drummer
Tiger Heart — A Chesapeake Bay Mystery
Read Chapter One of Tiger Heart
Tiger Heart Settings
Dark Harbor — A Chesapeake Bay Mystery
Read Chapter One of Dark Harbor
Chesapeake Bay Mysteries Authors
Chesapeake Bay Mysteries Settings
Nora's Sailboat
West College
AFTER THE FAIR
GIRL CHORES
BUDDHA REMOTE
The Pig Sticker
The Naked Truth
Meet Vivian
Pleasures and Passions
Learn with Vivian
DUOMAIEUSIOPHOBIA – DOUBLE TROUBLE
Posted on October 29, 2019 November 1, 2019 by vlaw759
A suspected publicity stunt for Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children terrified London commuters.
Today's blog entry was written by Kathleen Corcoran, a local harpist, teacher, writer, editor, favorite auntie, and reluctant sister, niece, and granddaughter of twins.
Even they cannot tell who is who in this photo.
Duomaieusiophobia (literally the fear of double childbirth) is the scientific name for the fear of twins, though it can refer to the fear of any multiple birth. Twins are a very common element in movies and TV, whether identical, fraternal, or imaginary.
I bet they share absolutely everything!
In the horror genre, twins often serve to add an extra element of creepiness even if their relationship is not the primary driver of the plot. Consider the twin girls in The Shining or the Merovingian's twin assasins in The Matrix: Reloaded. Though they are minor characters, their appearance on screen is chilling.
And this is before they turned into glowing electric ghosts
A big factor for this (beyond saving money by only paying one actor for two roles) comes down to our own subconscious: twins pose a threat to our understanding of self-identity and to the way the world works. In some cultures, twins are seen as lucky or even venerated as having a direct link to the divine.
The Yoruba people have one of the highest concentrations of twins in the world, and they celebrate all of them.
In other cultures, twins are seen as the result of or the bringers of evil and are ritually killed. At either end, twins are outside of the norm.
The Twins Days Twins Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio. Just being there was very unsettling.
Anthropologists have theorized that twins were originally seen as personifying the duality of nature – day and night, summer and winter, birth and death, etc. This carried over into mythology, in which twins often played opposite roles, such as Apollo and Artemis controlling the sun and the moon. Opposite moralities are also a common element in mythology; one twin is good and the other is evil: Cain and Abel, Romulus and Remus, etc.
Jonah and Seth Trimble in Seconds Apart. Can you spot the evil twin?
Many horror movies play on this trope. Twins are identical in every way except for the body count. This idea is so common that an entire page of TVTropes is dedicated to good and evil twins or clones. My sisters like to claim that they are both the evil twin.
Bette Davis played both good and evil twins in Dead Ringer.
Margot Kidder played a twin who was so possessive of her sister that she murdered any potential rivals in Sisters.
Twins of Evil starred actual twin sisters Mary and Madeleine Collinson, one of whom is turned into a vampire.
Closely linked to the idea of one twin being good and the other evil, there is a common theme of one twin taking the other's place. In comedies, this generally results in zany hijinks, as when the Marx brothers all put on Groucho Marx's iconic mustache and glasses and caused mayhem all over the mansion in Duck Soup.
They weren't actually twins, but Groucho, Chico, and Harpo could certainly pass!
In horror movies, the evil twin generally steps into the life of the good twin for personal gain or allows the good twin to take the fall for nefarious deeds.
Good twin Holland is punished for evil twin Niles… or so it would seem in the 1972 film The Other.
Blood Rage features a psychotically evil twin who frames his brother for several murders.
The Devil's Double (2011) features both the good/ evil twin trope and the impostor/ scapegoat trope as well as being based on a true story. Dominic Cooper plays Saddam Hussein's son Uday as well as the soldier called up to be Uday's fedai (a political decoy and body double).
Letif Yahia is rumored to be living in Ireland or Germany now.
Both Twins Are Evil
In many areas of the world, particularly West Africa, twins (or triplets or quadruplets) are viewed as harbingers of doom or even inherently evil. Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart mentions the village custom of abandoning twins in the forest to die. Some even blame the devastating 2016 earthquake in Tanzania as the work of angry twins.
June and Jennifer Gibbons are a real-life pair of twins, born in 1963, who spoke only to each other and committed several acts of theft and violence.
Despite a concerted effort by government and foreign aid groups, twins in Nigeria and Madagascar are frequently buried alive with their mother or sealed in a room to starve to death. Though for different reasons, Hollywood shares many of these ideas of twins being unnaturally synchronized, lacking empathy for all others, possessing some form of supernatural ability, or even providing a gateway for evil spirits or ghosts.
The twin boys in American Horror Story: Murder House are condemned to spend eternity trapped in the house where they tormented others.
Jeremy Irons played both psychotic doctors in the film Dead Ringers, horrifyingly based on a true story.
Legend was also based on a true story, of the London gangster twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray, though Ronnie was arguably a little more evil.
The German film Goodnigt Mommy features a pair of twin boys who torture and kill their mother when they think she is an impostor.
Twins Separated or Left Alone
Because twins are so close, strange things tend to happen when they are raised separately or when one dies. This is often called the Twinless Twin effect, and it touches the parents of twins and other siblings as well as the twins themselves. Both Elvis Presley and Liberace lost a twin very early in life, and they both cited their missing twin as having a major influence on their creative work.
Both performers felt that they were living for their twin as well as themselves.
This particular grief felt by twinless twins, coupled with the assumption of twins' psychic link, creates perfect fodder for horror movies. Several of the films listed above have a surprise ending in which it is revealed that one twin has already died and is a hallucination or delusion of the remaining twin. No spoilers!
A stillborn twin comes back to haunt his sister and serve as a bridge for the ghosts of other twinless twins in The Unborn.
Alone is a Thai horror movie about a conjoined twin who dies during separation surgery and comes back to possess her sister. It also features the trope of the good/evil twin pair.
Calling upon her supposed twin bond, the heroine of The Forest enters Aokigahara (the "Suicide Forest") in Japan to search for her sister, whom she believes is planning to commit suicide.
The film Jonathon is an interesting twist on the idea of the twinless twin: both brothers inhabit one body, switching off every twelve hours, so they can never meet or interact.
Every year, at the Twins Days Twins Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio, an entire section of the festival grounds is set aside for researchers looking for volunteers. Twins throw balls into cups, test their memories, fill out questionnaires about mental health, and let themselves be weighed, measured, observed, and questioned to shed light on all those pesky questions people can't answer by experimenting on babies.
Most researchers offer gifts or money in exchange for participation. My sisters won so much cash in prizes that I made them pay for the hotel.
Scientists are fascinated by twins because of what they can reveal about genetics and the role of environment in supposedly hereditary traits. Anthropologists are fascinated by twins because of what they can illustrate about a culture's understanding of self-identity. Doctors are fascinated by twins because of what they can demonstrate about the contraction or treatment of illness.
Is the ability to play the harp standing up and backwards hereditary? You'd have to ask Camille and Kennerly Kitt, the Harp Twins.
Artists, filmmakers, writers of any sort are fascinated by twins because of what they can show us about human nature, because of the opportunity for wacky confusion, because they have a bond that is very rarely found in any other grouping of characters. Twins are a source of comedy, drama, terror, tenderness, and every other aspect of writing… doubled!
This is by far the most terrifying image I found online. Can you tell which one is Bruce Willis?
Posted on October 25, 2019 October 28, 2019 by vlaw759
Fear of being buried alive is called taphephobia. Also known as live burial, premature burial, and vivisepulture, it's been around forever—and is with us still! Those buried alive often die of asphyxiation, dehydration, starvation, or hypothermia. If fresh air is available, the buried person can last days.
This guy seems pretty happy about the situation.
Fear of being buried alive reached a peak in 19th century England. More than 120 books in at least five languages were written about it, as well as methods to distinguish life from death. (See below.)
Harry Clarke's illustration for Premature Burial by Edgar Allen Poe
A Fine Literary Tradition
Consider Edgar Allan Poe's "The Premature Burial," The Fall of the House of Usher, and Berenice. More recently, Stephen King's 1987 novel Misery includes Paul Sheldon's Misery's Return, a book within a book.
Farinata and Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti in Level 6 of the Inferno, painted by Suloni Robertson
Dante's Inferno references several classes of sinners punished with some form of eternal burial:
The Sullen in Level 5 are kept just below the waters of the River Styx, forever near drowning.
The Heretics in Level 6 are trapped in flaming tombs.
Murderers in Level 7 are covered by a river of boiling blood.
In Level 8 (where all types of fraud are punished)
Flatterers are encased in human excrement.
Simonists are buried head-first while flames burn their feet.
Fraudulent Counselors are encased in flames.
The Treacherous in Level 9 are buried in ice of varying levels depending on their sin.
Accidental or Unintentional Burial
It's easier to handle if you bring a buddy along.
Reports of being buried alive date back to the fourteenth century. In spite of hype and hysteria, as late as the 1890s patients have been documented as being declared dead and accidentally sent to a morgue or encased in a steel box, only to "come back to life" when the coffin is dropped, the grave is opened by grave robbers, or embalming or dissection has begun.
"Life preserving coffin in doubtful cases of actual dead," a safety-coffin model by Christian Eisenbrandt
During centuries when embalming wasn't common practice, coffins were mostly for the rich, and rapid burial was the norm especially during major pestilences such as cholera, bubonic plague, and smallpox. In these cases, rapid burial was an attempt to curb the spread of the disease.
The Great Plague by Rita Greer
Several medical conditions can contribute to the presumption of death: catalepsy, coma, and hypothermia.
How to Know When Someone Is Really Dead
Snoring is a pretty good sign. (This is actually the Fourpence Coffin flophouse, the first homeless shelter in London.)
Jan Bondeson, author of Buried Alive, identified methods of verifying death used by 18th and 19th century physicians. (Personal reaction: shudder!) The methods were any acts the physician thought would rouse the unconscious patient, virtually all imaginatively painful.
Soles of the feet sliced with razors
Needles jammed under toenails
Bugle fanfares and "hideous Shrieks and excessive Noises"
Red hot poke up the rectum
Application of nipple pincers
A bagpipe type invention to administer tobacco enemas
Boiling Spanish wax poured on patients' foreheads and warm urine poured into the mouth
A crawling insect inserted into patient's ear
A sharp pencil up the presumed cadaver's nose
Tongue pulling (manual or mechanical) for at least three hours
The traditional Irish wake was (and is) an occasion for family and friends to celebrate the life of the deceased while watching the body for signs of movement.
Most agreed that the most reliable way to be sure someone was dead was to keep an eye on the body for a while. To that end, waiting at least 72 hours from apparent death to burial was mandated. In the mid-1800s, Munich had ten "waiting mortuaries" where bodies were stored awaiting putrefaction. Each body was rigged to bells to summon an attendant should the corpse come back to life.
Waiting morgues, like this one in Paris, were often left open to the public for macabre entertainment
We presume that modern science has surpassed this sort of mistake, defining death as brain death. Even so, earthquakes and other natural disasters often result in people being accidentally buried alive.
In 2010, 33 miners in Chile were rescued after being buried alive for 69 days by a collapse in the mine.
Victims of the 2018 tsunami in Nepal were not so fortunate.
But Wait: Sometimes People Are Buried Alive on Purpose!
From the Museum of Torture in Venice
Sometimes live burial is a method of execution. Documented cases exist for China, German tribes, Persia, Rome, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Russia, Netherlands, Ukraine, and Brazil.
Confucian scholars were buried alive while their books were burned in 3rd century BCE
Interestingly, most of the laws demanding live burial as a form of execution were for crimes committed by women. Men convicted of comparable crimes were more likely to be beheaded.
Vestal Virgins were sealed in caves for breaking their vow of chastity, as shown in this painting by Pietro Saja
When death was not enough, often a spike was driven through the body of the person executed by live burial, perhaps as a way to prevent the person from becoming an avenging, undead Wiedergänger.
In some parts of the world, live burial is still practiced as a means of execution. Often, the victim is buried upright with only their head above ground. In these cases, death is very slow and painful, often the result of dehydration or wounds caused by animal scavengers.
And sometimes live burials are another horrific act of war.
Serbian officials buried Bosnian and Bulgarian civilians alive during the Balkan Wars.
During World War II, Japanese soldiers buried Chinese civilians alive. (See Nanking Massacre.)
Also during World War II, live burials were used by the Germans against Jews in Ukraine and Belarus.
During the Vietnam War, live burials were documented in the Massacre at Huê in 1968.
During the Gulf War, American soldiers in tanks knowingly buried Iraqi soldiers alive.
In 2014, ISIS buried Yazidi women and children alive, attempting to annihilate the entire minority group.
There are accounts of Khmer Rouge using live burials in the Killing Fields.
Live burial was a form of execution during Mao Zedong's regime, particularly during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution..
Codice Casanatense, a Portugese artist, recorded this scene of a Hindu widow being sent alive to her husband's grave.
Very rarely people willingly arrange to be buried alive, for any number of reasons. Sometimes it is to demonstrate their ability to survive it. The Indian government has made voluntary live burials illegal because the people who try it so often die. In 2010, a Russian man was buried to try to overcome his fear of death, but was crushed to death by the weight of the earth over him.
Four "lucky" contest winners
There are even performances in which people have an opportunity to be buried alive for fifteen or twenty minutes. As a publicity stunt for the opening of the 2010 film Buried, a lottery was held for a few fans to have a very unique viewing experience. Four winners were blindfolded, driven to the middle of nowhere, and buried alive in special coffins equips with screens on which they could watch the film. (A 2003 episode of "Mythbusters" demonstrated that, even if a person buried alive was able to break out of a coffin, they would be crushed or asphyxiated by the resulting dirt fall.)
There is now a monument to Mick Meaney on Kilburne Street.
Irish barman Mick Meaney remained buried under Kilburne Street in London for 61 days in 1968, mostly to win a bet. Tubes to the surface allowed air and food to reach him in his temporary, underground prison.
Parents are often unwillingly volunteered for vivisepulture on the beach.
Bottom line for writers: consider a character being buried alive—or being threatened with it—as a way to up the tension.
Live burial isn't the only attention-worthy aspect of dead bodies. For more, check out books such as these.
SATANISM: IT'S A REAL THING
Posted on October 22, 2019 by vlaw759
Engraving by Gustave Dore. from Milton's Paradise Lost
Satan, also known as the Devil, is an entity in the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehood. In Christianity and Islam, he is usually seen as either a fallen angel or a jinn who used to possess great piety and beauty but rebelled against God.
Shaitan or Sheyatin, an evil jinn
In Judaism, Satan is typically regarded as a metaphor for the yetzer hara, the evil inclination (or as an agent subservient to God).
The Christian figure of Satan is viewed as a horned, red, demonic human figure with a pointy tail and sometimes hooves. Sinners are sent to the domain of Satan after death—to hell, an underground world of fire and sadistic demons under Satan's command.
Engraving by Gustav Doro of the Ninth Circle of Hell in Dante's Inferno
Other versions of Satan appear as a Zoroastrian Devil and Jewish Kabbalism, but the name "Satan" first appeared in the Book of Numbers in the Bible, used as a term describing defiance. In the Book of Job, Satan is an accusing angel. In the apocryphal Book of Enoch (written in the first century B.C.) Satan is a member of the Watchers, a group of fallen angels.
The Watchers, as described in the Book of Revelations
Early on, satan was simply a word meaning adversary. In the Book of Samuel, David is depicted as the satan of the Philistines. In the Book of Numbers, it is used as a verb, when God sent an angel to satan (oppose) Balaam.
King David With His Harp at the entrance of his tomb in Jerusalem
In the New Testament, Satan is established as a nemesis of Jesus Christ and the final book of the Bible, Revelations, he is the ultimate evil.
The Devourer of Worlds (and bones)
The words "Satanism" and "Satanist" appeared in English and French during the 1500s, when the words were used by Christian groups to attack other, rival Christian groups. For example, a Roman Catholic tract in 1565 condemned the "heresies, blasphemies, and sathanismes [sic]" of Protestants. Anyone who didn't follow one's own "pure" Christian views was condemned.
St Augustine shown here being offered the Book of Vice by Satan, as painted by Michael Pacher in 1471
Gradually, it morphed into meaning anyone leading an immoral lifestyle. It wasn't until the late 1800s that it was applied to those suspected of consciously and deliberately venerating Satan.
Eugene Vintras, inspiration for the Golden Dawn, levitating in Tilly-sur-Seulles
According to online sources, during the early modern period, fear of Satanists took the form of witch trials (1400s to 1700s, which doesn't seem all that modern to me, but hey, witch hysterias, and the inquisition). Across both Protestant and Catholic regions, witch trials emerged. Between 30,000 and 50,000 people were executed as Satanic witches.
Members of the Knights Templar being burned as witches
Skipping lightly past offshoots and variations, prior to the 20th Century, Satanism did not exist as a real, organized religion. Satanism is a modern, largely non-theistic religion based on literary, artistic, and philosophical interpretations of the central figure of evil. It wasn't until April 30, 1966 that the Church of Satan was formalized.
From the official Church of Satan website
Anton LaVey's Satanic Bible was published in 1969. His teachings promoted indulgence, vital existence, undefiled wisdom, kindness to those who deserve it, responsibility to the responsible, and an eye for an eye code of ethics. In his view, a Satanist is carnal, physical and pragmatic, enjoying a physical existence, propagating a naturalistic worldview that seems human as animals dieting in an amoral universe. The ideal Satanist should be individualistic and noon-conformist. He encouraged an individual's pride, self-respect, and self-realization by satisfying the ego's desires. Self-indulgence is a good thing. He said hate and aggression are necessary and advantageous for survival. Bottom line: he praised the seven deadly sins as virtues.
Satanists working for religious freedom
By the 1970s, groups were splintering off to form alternative churches. In 1978, the U.S. Army included the faith in its manual for chaplains, "Religious Requirements and Practices."
The most successful of the church divisions is The Satanic Temple, opened in Houston in 2015. The Temple calls itself a non-theistic religion embracing the Devil as a symbolic form of rebellion in the tradition of Milton. It devotes itself to political action focused on the separation of church and state, religious equality, and reproductive rights.
The Satanic Temple sponsors after-school clubs to teach students scientific methods and rational thinking in areas where the only activities for kids are involve religion
It was recognized as a religion of the U.S. government in 2016, receiving tax-exempt status.
Statue of Baphomet erected by the Satanic Temple to protest Ten Commandments statues on public grounds
Note: Practitioners of LeVey's version of Satanism do not believe that Satan literally exists and do not worship him. For them, Satan is an archetype for adversary, who represents pride, carnality, and enlightenment. The Devil is a symbol of defiance against the Abrahamic faiths that "suppress humanity's natural instincts."
However, Theistic Satanism (Spiritual Satanism or Devi worship) holds the primary belief that Satan is an actual deity to revere and worship. They believe in magic and ritual, often focusing solely on devotion.
Cathedral of the Black Goat ritual
Bottom line for writers: Satanism isn't a unitary thing. If Satanism figures into your plot or character characteristics, do your homework, particularly for any historical setting.
Truly terrifying
OCTOBER IS FOR HORROR: VAMPIRES
Drawn by shamad
A friend recently told me that the horror villains we fear are subconscious stand-ins for things we're afraid of in real life. Vampires stand for a fear of change; zombies for a fear of crowds or strangers. Fear of clowns is a sign you're a normal, well-adjusted, perfectly rational person.
The anthropomorphic personification of EVIL!
Inquiring minds want to know! I started with vampires—and I never got past vampires!
Adze, a soul-sucking creature from Ewe folklore in Togo and Ghana
When I went online to learn what it means if we fear vampires, what popped up was an article by Ralph Blumenthal, "A Fear of Vampires Can Mask a Fear of Something Much Worse." He was writing in 2002 about villagers in Malawi believing that the government was colluding with vampires to collect human blood in exchange for food.
Mobs of vampire hunters killed dozens in Malawi
At the time, Malawi was in the grip of starvation, a severe AIDS epidemic, and political upheaval. He cited Nina Auerbach, author of Our Vampires, Ourselves, to the effect that stories of the undead embody power "and our fears of power."
David J. Skal, author of The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror claims that a fixation on demons often accompanies periods of national stress. "In times of social upheaval, the vampire asserts itself."
In nearly every culture in the world, there is a legend of some variation of vampire-like creatures—the dead who reanimate and come back to feed on the living. And there is general agreement that the roots of vampire legends are in the misunderstanding of how bodies decompose and of how certain diseases spread.
The Chinese Jiangshi hunts by "hopping" because of rigor mortis.
In an October 26, 2016 article in National Geographic titled The Bloody Truth About Vampires, Becky Little wrote, "As a corpse's skin shrinks, its teeth and fingernails can appear to have grown longer. And as internal organs break down, a dark 'purge fluid' can leak out of the nose and mouth. People unfamiliar with this process would interpret this fluid to be blood and suspect that the corpse had been drinking it from the living."
I'm glad someone else gets paid to take these photos.
Paul Barber, author of Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality, made several telling points in the introduction to his book. One is that there is little similarity between the vampires of folklore and the vampires of fiction.
Modern images of vampires are pretty stereotyped: fangs that bite the necks of victims; drinking human blood; can't see themselves in mirrors; can be warded off with garlic, killed with a stake (or silver nail) through the heart; are aristocrats who live in castles and may be sexy. This image was popularized by Bela Lugosi's portrayal of Count Dracula in the 1931 film adaptation of the Broadway show of the same name. Unlike Bram Stoker's description of the monster in the 1897 novel Dracula as a repulsive old man with huge eyebrows and bat-like ears, Lugosi showed audiences a mysteriously elegant gentleman in evening dress.
The 1922 film Nosferatu (on left), though an unlicensed adaptation, portrayed the vampire as described in Stoker's novel.
In European folklore, vampires typically wore shrouds, and were often described as bloated, with a ruddy or dark countenance. Specific descriptions varied among regions: sometimes male, sometimes female, might have long fingernails, a stubby beard, the mouth and left eye open, a permanently hateful stare, red eyes, no eyes, etc. Fangs were not always a prominent feature, and blood was generally sucked from bites on the chest near the heart rather than the throat.
Polish strzyga
But perhaps the most important theme of Barber's book is that, lacking a scientific background in physiology, pathology, or immunization, the common response of ancient societies was to blame death and disease on the dead. To that end, the interpretations they came up with—while wrong from today's perspective—nevertheless were usually coherent, covered all the data, and provided the rationale for some common practices that seemed to be otherwise inexplicable.
A manananggal from the Philippines will send its detached head and torso to hunt.
Should you ever be pursued by a vampire, fling a handful of rice, millet, or other small grain in its path. The vampire will be compelled to stop to count every grain, giving you time to escape. I found no information on how vampires came to be associated with arithmomania, but it endures: remember The Count von Count on Sesame Street?
He's the color of a rotting corpse, but cloth fangs are pretty harmless.
At this point, I realize that getting into methods of identifying vampires, protecting against vampires, ways to destroy vampires, and cross-cultural variations on vampirism is way beyond the scope of this blog. Instead, I refer you to books such as this:
And should vampires show up in your dreams, according to DreamBible: the answers to all your dreams, pay attention. Their appearance could mean many things.
Seeing a vampire in your dream symbolizes an aspect of your personality that is parasitic or selfishly feeds off others.
Alternatively, a vampire may reflect feelings about people you believe want to pull you down to their level or convert you to thinking negatively in a way similar to theirs.
To dream of being a vampire represents a selfish need to feed off others.
To dream of being bitten by a vampire represents feelings about other people using you or feeding off you and being unable to stop it.
Vampires may be a sign of dependence, problems with addiction, social pressure, or ambivalence.
A dream vampire might be telling you that you need to start being more independent and relying less on others resources or accomplishments.
To dream of killing vampires represents overcoming dependence on others.
Repeated dreams of vampires hovering over your shoulder and correcting your spelling or suggesting topics for research and expansion is almost certainly a sign that you are writing a blog entry about vampires.
The yara-ma-yha-who in Australia drains a victim of almost all blood before swallowing and regurgitating the body, which then becomes a copy of its killer.
Bottom line for writers: consider whether a vampire is a fit metaphor for your character.
The soucouyant appears in the Caribbean by day as a harmless old woman, but she sheds her skin at night to hunt as a ball of fire.
SEE SOMETHING, DO SOMETHING—MAYBE
Kitty Genovese
The March 13, 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese led to an entirely new field of research in psychology. Genovese was attacked while walking home from work at 3:20 a.m. in Queens, New York. She was stabbed, sexually assaulted, and murdered over a period of 30 minutes. Subsequent reports said 38 witnesses watched the attack from nearby apartments but neither intervened nor even called the police until the attacker fled. Kitty Genovese died on the way to a hospital.
Two psychologists, Bibb Latané and John Darley, conducted extensive research to examine and try to explain such apparently callous indifference to the suffering of another human being. Over time, these and other researchers teased out several factors that will affect the likelihood of bystander intervention.
Diffusion of responsibility is one of the earliest and most powerful variables identified: the more people who are bystanding, the less likely it is that anyone will intervene. Responsibility is diffused among all.
Contrarily, Philpot et al. just this year published the results examining real-life video recordings from three countries and found that someone intervened in over 90% of cases. Even if the likelihood of any one person responding was infrequent, someone in the crowd intervened.
Note the lack of assistance offered by the bystander
Emergency vs. non-emergency situations. The following conditions are relevant.
Notice that something is going on.
interpret the situation as an emergency. Others not reacting provides social influence against acting,
Feel responsible: does the victim deserve help, is the bystander competent, what is the bystander's relationship to victim.
The form of assistance needed (e.g., medical emergency, harassment protection, etc.).
Implement the action choice.
CPR? Thermal blankets? Take away the vodka?
Ambiguity and consequences: ambiguous situations take up to five times as long to respond to, and even then bystanders will often not intervene until after assessing their own safety.
No one will slip or fall. There is no room to land.
Cohesiveness and group membership: the more cohesive a group, the more likely it is that the norm of social responsibility will lead to helping. Bigger cohesive groups are quickest to react.
When punching a small child is perfectly acceptable
Cultural differences affect intervention—both broad/national culture and subculture.
Taking a photo is far more important than looking for survivors.
Digital interference is a relatively new phenomenon. With the spread of cell phones and social media, bystanders at a scene are becoming more likely to try to film the incident (whether as "armchair activism" or simply to attract online attention) than they are to intervene or call for help. This has the doubled impact of overloading nearby cell towers so that actual phone calls to emergency services are not connected.
Plus, it makes you look like a total jerk!
Bystander apathy can be counteracted by raising awareness of bystander effects ad consciously taking steps to overcome it and help; and victims can overcome the diffusion of responsibility in groups by singling out a single member and asking for help from that one person.
In 2011, Muslims and Christians in Tahrir Square took turns forming protective circles to allow the others a safe place to pray.
Bottom line for writers: make your readers understand why your character does or does not intervene!
Any kind of intervention was clearly doomed.
ALTRUISM? REALLY?
Altruism: an individual performing an action that is at a cost to him/herself (e.g., time, effort, pleasure, quality of life, probability of survival or reproduction) that benefits – either directly or indirectly – another individual or group, without the expectation of reciprocity or compensation for that action.
Helping behavior may or may not be altruistic. There are many factors affecting the urge to help, including the following.
1) Kin selection: both animals and humans are more helpful toward close kin that to distant kin or non-kin. Perception of kinship is affected by whether the other looks like the giver, shares a family name (especially if it's an unusual name), has a familiar scent (in animal groups), etc. Think of kin as the in-group.
2) Vested interests: helping friends, allies, and similar social in-groups (besides avoiding vicarious suffering to the individual) may eventually benefit the altruist. Extreme self-sacrifice may be adaptive if a hostile outgroup threatens to kill the entire group. During the Allied campaign in Italy in the World War II, First Lieutenant John Robert Fox ordered an artillery strike on his position in Sommocolinia, sacrificing his own life to take out invading German forces and allow US troops to retreat safely. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
First Lieutenant John Robert Fox
3) Reciprocal altruism: helping others is more likely if there is a chance that they can and will reciprocate. Therefore, people are more helpful it is likely that they will interact again in the future. If a person sees others being non-cooperative, they are less likely to be helpful. If someone helps first, the recipient of the help is more likely to help in return. Think charities that give small gifts of stickers, notepads, or holiday cards when asking for a contribution.
Cleaner wrasse servicing a big-eye squirrelfish
4) People are more likely to cooperate on a task if they can communicate first.
Technology assisting Rohingya in getting aid
5) Groups of people cooperate more if they perceive a threat from another group. In the insect world, this frequently happens when a colony or hive finds safety in numbers while moving larvae, a queen, or the entire group. Ants, bees, termites, etc., form large masses and structures to complete the move.
Moving a beehive
6) People will help more when they know that their helping will be communicated to people they will interact with later, is publicly announced, is discussed, or is simply observed by someone else.
Peace Corps volunteers swearing in
7) Selective investment theory proposes that close social bonds, and associated emotional, cognitive, and neurohormonal mechanisms evolved in order to facilitate long-term, high-cost altruism benefiting those depending on another for group survival and reproductive success. Humans, like many other animals, care for members of the species who cannot care for themselves, ultimately benefiting the species as a whole.
Very young and very old humans often require assistance and care
8) Microbiologists are studying whether some strains of microbes might influence the hosts to perform altruistic behaviors that are not immediately obvious as beneficial to the host. There is a possibility, currently being researched, that the bacteria in a person's gut could affect their behavior and that changes in the bacterial makeup (such as from taking antibiotics) might result in a change in personality.
At first glance, this monkey grooming a sleeping wild dog must be suicidal
Psychology has defined psychological altruism as "a motivational state with the goal of increasing another's welfare. Some definitions specify a lack of external rewards for altruistic behaviors. Even when not immediately obvious, altruism is often rewarded in various ways (see above). When there is no tangible reward, feeling good about oneself can be rewarding. Regardless of whether an act is "true" altruism, there are many psychological studies that document the conditions under which people are more likely to help.
Helping is more likely when the recipient is clearly in need.
Helping is more likely when the giver feels personal responsibility for reducing the other person's distress.
A person with a high level of empathic concern is likely to help regardless of how many bystanders are around.
The Good Samaritan mosaic by Fr Marko Rupnik
The up-side of helping: volunteerism is strongly related to current and future health and well-being.
Older adults who volunteered were higher in life satisfaction and will to live, and lower on measures of depression, anxiety, somatization.
A 30-year study of the physical health of mothers found that 52% of those who did not volunteer experienced a major illness, compared to 36% of those who did.
A 4-year study of people 55 and older found that those who volunteered for two or more organizations had a 63% lower likelihood of dying. Controlling for prior health status indicated that volunteerism accounted for a 44%reduction in mortality.
Research supports the idea that altruistic acts bring out happiness but it also works in the opposite direction: happier people are also kinder.
Philemon and Baucis offered complete hospitality to Zeus and Hermes in disguise, despite being paupers
When too much of a good thing is no longer a good thing:
Although positive effects of helping were still significant, one study of volunteers found that feeling overwhelmed by others' demands had an even stronger negative effect on mental health.
While generous acts make people feel good about themselves, it is also important for recipients of assistance to appreciate—and show that their appreciation—for kindness and help.
Research indicates that a conscious focus on gratitude led to reductions in negative affect and increases in optimistic appraisals, positive affect, offering emotional support, sleep quality, and well-being for the grateful person.
Volunteer burn-out is especially common in high-stress positions, such as volunteer firefighters and medical providers at refugee camps.
Altruism is an important moral value for virtually all of the world's religions:
Jews practice tzedakah, righteous behavior, providing support to make the world a more just place
Daya (compassion) and Daan (chairty) are two of the fundamental teachings of Hinduism
As part of aparigraha (non-attachment), Jains give away possessions and harm no living creature
Many Christian churches still practice tithing, donating 10% of all earnings
One of the five primary tenets of Islam is zakat, giving to charity
Sikhs practice seva, which is unselfish and unbiased aid to all
Buddhism teaches kindness toward all beings
Bottom line for writers: helpful characters are a good option, but be clear in your own head who, why, and under what circumstances the person helps.
Belisairius Begging for Alms by Jacques Louis David
PREJUDICE: WHAT IT IS, WHAT IT ISN'T
Posted on October 8, 2019 by vlaw759
Is fear of grey people racism or able-ism?
Prejudice is generally defined in one of two ways:
1) A preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. This is the broadest definition and allows for being biased in a positive direction (such as assuming that harpists are poised and elegant). Wikipedia goes a step further, saying an affective feeling towards a person based on that person's perceived group membership.
Deborah Henson-Conant
2) An unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reasons; unreasonable feelings, opinions, or attitudes, especially of a hostile nature (like thinking all wrestlers are vulgar and uncouth), regarding an ethnic, racial, social, or religious group.
Santino Marella and Vladimir Koslav with Sheamus
Prejudice is one of the root causes of human conflict. Conflict, in turn, can result in crime, war, systemic repression, and mass murder. Writers note: anything that creates conflict between characters or between a character and society can be used in your writing.
Where prejudice comes from:
1) We tend to take on the attitudes—including prejudices—of the social groups to which we belong. Social groups include gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, social class, religion, sexual orientation, profession, etc., etc., etc. Adopting the attitudes of one's social groups, including family, is often a means of fitting in and being liked. Thus, prejudice may serve a social adjustive function.
Zebras always vote the same way in local elections.
2) Sometimes assuming a host of characteristics based on knowing one is cognitively efficient. We don't have to spend time gathering information or even stopping to think.
Cartoon by Dan Allison
3) And sometimes, prejudice serves an ego-defensive function. If simply by being who we are we can feel superior to whole groups of people—e.g., all women, all blacks, all immigrants, all yellow ducklings—it helps counterbalance negative information about oneself (such as being chronically unemployed, ugly, or unpopular).
Like other attitudes, prejudice has cognitive, affective, and behavioral components.
Cognitive: overgeneralized beliefs or stereotypes. E.g., Yankees fans are arrogant and obnoxious.
Affective: prejudice, feelings about people that could be positive but are more often negative. For example, I hate Yankee fans. They make me angry.
(Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
Behavioral: the treatment of others. When negative, it is discrimination, and may lead to excluding, avoiding, or biased treatment of group members. Example: I would never hire or become friends with a person if I knew he or she were a Yankees fan.
Although people can hold positive stereotypes, prejudices, and discriminatory actions based on group membership—for example, giving preferential treatment to people who are like themselves—it behooves us to focus on the negative because that is what is most problematic.
"How It Works" by xkcd
First impressions: When meeting new people, we automatically note race, gender, and age because these social categories provide a wealth of information about the individual—albeit, based on stereotypes.
Categories of bias: Racism, sexism, ageism, sexual orientation, nationalism, class-ism, religious discrimination, linguistic discrimination, and more.
Self-fulfilling Prophecy: An expectation held by a person about how another person will behave, which leads to treating the person according to our expectations. The treatment can influence the person to act according to our stereotypic expectations, thus confirming the original stereotypic beliefs. (Think teacher expectations, employer expectations, etc.)
Confirmation Bias: Paying more attention to information that is consistent with our stereotypic expectations than to information that is inconsistent with our expectations..
In-groups and Out-groups: An in-group is a group we see ourselves as belonging to, involving a strong sense of belonging and emotional connection that leads to in-group bias and preferences. Out-groups are seen as different in fundamental ways, less likable, often resulting in discrimination. When an in-group's goals are delayed or thwarted, an out-group is often blamed. This is scape-goating.
The English National Ballet
Bottom line for writers: stereotypes, prejudices, and discrimination can define characters and situations. Think thoughts, affects, and actions and how each can work with POV and plot.
Species-ism?
CHARACTERS' ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR
Posted on October 4, 2019 October 4, 2019 by vlaw759
Attitude is a favorable or unfavorable reaction toward something or someone (often rooted in one's beliefs and exhibited in one's feelings and intended behavior). It is tempting to assume that there is a direct line between these favorable or unfavorable reactions and behavior. Good news for writers: people's expressed attitudes seldom predict their actual behavior. This is because an attitude includes both feeling and thinking, and both affect behavior.
I don't FEEL wet. I THINK I'm walking on water. I must have an uplifting ATTITUDE!
Attitudes predict behavior when these conditions are present:
Social influences on what we say are minimal (little social pressure, fear of criticism). For attitudes formed early in life (e.g., attitudes toward authority and fairness) explicit and implicit attitudes often diverge, with implicit being a stronger predictor.
I'm a good boy. I'm a good boy. I'm a… that treat is mine!
Other influences our behavior are minimal: situational constraints, health, weather, etc.
I'm supposed to stay in my cage, but that open window is right there…
Attitudes specific to the behavior are examined: e.g., expressed attitudes toward poetry don't predict enjoying a particular poem, but attitudes toward the costs and benefits of jogging predict jogging behavior.
You're getting up early tomorrow to go running. Sure. I totally believe you.
Attitudes are potent: stating an attitude and an intention to do something makes the attitude more potent and the behavior is more likely (recycling); asking people to think about their attitudes toward an issue also increases potency.
Someday, I WILL be taller than you.
Attitudes that are developed through direct experience are more accessible to memory, more enduring, and have a stronger effect on behavior.
Once a diva, always a diva.
Behavior affects attitudes when these conditions are present:
Actions prescribed by social roles mold the attitudes of the role players. (Think prisoners and guards.)
What we say or write can strongly affect subsequent attitudes. (Think being assigned a side in a debate.)
Doing a small act increases the likelihood of doing a larger one later. (Think foot-in-the-door technique.)
Actions affect our moral attitudes. We tend to justify whatever we do, even if it is evil.
We not only stand up for what we believe in, we believe in what we have stood up for. (Think adopting a rescue animal or donating to a food drive.)
I adopted this pet hippo. You should adopt one too. All turtles should have a hippo companion.
The question of whether government should legislate behaviors to change attitudes on a massive scale is compounded by the question of whether it is even possible.
Every day, I come a little closer to my dream of being a balloon.
Why does our behavior affect our attitudes?
Self-Presentation Theory says people (especially those who self-monitor their behavior hoping to make a good impression) will adapt their attitude reports to appear consistent with their actions. Some genuine attitude change usually accompanies efforts to make a good impression.
I meant to do that; I really wanted a lettuce hat.
Dissonance Theory explains attitude change by assuming we feel tension after acting contrary to our attitude or after making difficult decisions. To reduce that arousal, we internally justify our behavior. The less external justification we have for undesirable actions, the more we feel responsible for them, thus creating more dissonance and more attitude change. (Think threat or reward.)
This color looks spectacular on me, and blue is a perfectly normal color for a sheep.
Self-Perception Theory assumes that when our attitudes are weak, we simply observe our behavior and its circumstances and infer our attitudes (correctly or incorrectly) rather than the other way around. "How do I know what I think till I hear what I say?" And conversely, rewarding people for doing something they like anyway can turn their pleasure into drudgery—the reward leading them to attribute their behavior to the reward rather than the enjoyment of the behavior itself.
I like grass because I have a lot of it.
Bottom line for writers: to present a character's attitudes to the reader, write what they are doing, thinking, and/or feeling. And note that each of these affects the other two and is affected in turn. Dissonance among the these creates lots of opportunity for tension, conflict, and misunderstanding!
LIKING AND LOVING (PART 2)
In Friday's blog, I outlined the factors that influence/promote liking:
Repeated exposure
Similarity (the more similar two people are on a number of dimensions, the more their liking endures)
Reciprocal attraction
Relationships that offer more rewards than costs
Oshun, the Yoruba goddess of love
Surprise, surprise: these are the underpinnings of love as well! And although liking and loving share roots, people seldom confuse the two. The difference is largely a matter of degree: love is more intense than like. It's more personal and more important to one's well-being.
Love comes in many guises.
Love for dearest friends
Love for family, one's children in particular
We use the word loosely and often. We love chocolate, theater, gardening—whatever we feel strongly about. But no one seriously confuses these feelings with love.
Sometimes chocolate is the foundation of love!
Although beloved friends and family are direct extensions of liking, romantic love is in a category largely by itself.
Eros, the embodiment of romantic love
A key ingredient of romantic love is arousal. According to Psychologist Elaine Hatfield (1988, and not contradicted since), emotions have two ingredients: physical arousal plus cognitive appraisal. Arousal from any source can enhance any emotion, depending on how we interpret the cause of the arousal.
Note for writers: at least part of the arousal from any source (fright, heavy duty workout, viewing erotica, listening to humorous or repulsive readings) will be attributed to a suitable object of affection.
Aztec goddess of love and beauty Xochiquetzal
Intense romantic love per se doesn't last. Romantic love reaches a fever pitch of obsession—infatuation, if you will—early on. This is the period of constant calls, texts, letters (whatever fits the time period), exchanging love poems, giving personally meaningful gifts, etc.. For one thing, it gets exhausting! But a case can be made that continued total focus on one's partner/mate bodes ill for the well-being of any children they might have.
So, according to Professor Robert J Sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love, there are seven types of love, defined by the underlying factors of intimacy, passion, and commitment.
Gender effects in liking and loving.
Men focus more on physical attractiveness. Although interested in appearance, women generally value their potential mate's status/ financial security over physical beauty. These findings hold cross-culturally and even when someone is seeking a same-sex partner.
Age also matters: men value youth more than women do.
Men are much more willing to engage in casual sex than women are, and their standards for sex partners are lower.
Gender differences in mate preferences may be accounted for by social norms and expectations. The different socio-economic status of women and the level of gender equality within a society is also a factor in what attributes are prioritized when seeking a mate.
Margaret Mead, center
I'll start with the Mating Gradient. As long ago as the mid-1950s, Margaret Mead wrote about the propensity for couples in which the men were older, taller, smarter, better educated, higher earning, and of higher socio-economic status than the women. Decades later, I conducted an experiment in which I had men and women respond to a hypothetical love relationship with either the traditional pattern (as outlined) or the opposite.
As expected, people in the traditional hypothetical relationships were comfortable and positive.
When men responded to a loved one who was two years older, two inches taller, better educated, higher earning, more intelligent, and higher socio-economic status, they were surprisingly okay with it! A typical response was, "If a babe like that loves me, I must be pretty hot stuff!"
When women responded to a loved one who was lesser on all these dimensions, they were generally negative. A typical response was, "I couldn't respect a man like that. How could I love him?"
One interpretation of all this is that, traditionally, women are supposed to be taken care of by their mates and men are (perhaps) threatened when of an inferior status. But the upshot of men marrying down and women marrying up is that, overall, the least marriageable men are at the bottom of the heap while the most capable, successful women remain unmarried at the top.
The Sumerians were all equally shorter than the king.
Consider the implications of the traditional relationship. Feeling constantly inferior leads to depression and feelings of inadequacy. Feeling constantly superior leads to lack of respect and perhaps a power grab.
True friendship is built on equality of hat ridiculousness at Ascot.
There is research evidence that enduring relationships are based on equality. So how can these things be reconciled? One way would be for the man to be "superior" on at least one dimension while the woman is "superior" in one or more of the other areas.
And speaking of the relationship of respect to liking and loving: Zick Rubin introduced the concept back in the 1970s, published as Measurement of Romantic Love in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Rubin created scales to measure liking, loving, and lusting. Each item was rated on a 5-point scale from "not at all true" to "very much true." Examples of these statements are below:
Liking scale items: I have great confidence in X's judgment. X is one of the most likable people I know. I think that X and I are quite similar. I think that X is unusually well-adjusted.
Mitra, an Indo-Iranian god of friendship
Loving Scale items: I would do almost anything for X. If I could never be with X, I would feel miserable. I feel responsible for X's well-being. When I am with X, I spend a good deal of time just looking at him/her.
Frigg, a Germanic goddess of marriage
Lust Scale items: I can't stop thinking about having sex with X. The best thing about X and my relationship is that we let our bodies do all the talking. X's attitudes and opinions don't really matter in our relationship. The best part of my relationship with X is the sexual chemistry.
Nanaya, a Mesopotamian goddess of sensual love
A fascinating finding (for me) in a study of engaged couples, was that women both liked and loved their partners. Men loved their partners, but like—not so much.
We tend to like people more when we are in a good mood, and we like them less when we are in bad moods. As partners stay together over time, cognition becomes relatively more important than passion. Over time, close relationships are more likely to be based on companionate love than passionate love.
Bottom line for writers: if you're writing a love relationship, be clear on what kind of love it is!
by Chris Riggs in London
1920: THE YEAR THAT SHAPED A CENTURY
INVENTING KIDS
VERY MARRIED – OR NOT SO MUCH
CASE STUDIES IN ADOPTION
GOOD FEET, BAD FEET
Doctor Ken Smith on Wanted, Dead or Alive! Body Parts on the Black Market
Mukalazi on Wanted, Dead or Alive! Body Parts on the Black Market
Brenda Scherk on This Gun for Hire
And That Would Be Me on WHOSE BODY?
Chasity Falco on When Books Make It to The Small Screen: Call The Midwife
Research Suggestions
Writing Suggestion
Copyright © 2020 Vivian Lawry.


On a dark and desolate world are the remains of an ancient and long-vanished civilization. Strange castles dot the cold landscape, dark sentinels bearing silent witness to bygone days of glory, a time when their builders ruled the destinies of a thousand races.
Map Description: On a dark and desolate world are the remains of an ancient and long-vanished civilization. Strange castles dot the cold landscape, dark sentinels bearing silent witness to bygone days of glory, a time when their builders ruled the destinies of a thousand races. As the silence is shattered by the noise of weapon fire and of dying fighters, shadows watch and scowl at those insolent newcomers who dare disturb their eternal slumber.
This map is all about detail. It's so detailed and beautiful that it's almost too much to take in. If this is a hint of the rest of the map, then we're in for a treat.
There are two pits on either side of the map. What's at the bottom? Let's just say it would not be wise to jump over the railing.
Did I say detail? A lot of effort went into this map, and this is only the beginning.
That's right, I have your flag! Now if you care to follow, I left you a few of my little buddies to slow you down.
One of Orion's trademark 'Wall Art'. It's not just something hung on the wall. As in other maps that he has made, the pictures blend into the mood of the maps to highlight and enhance them to the fullest. They not only give you good gameplay, but something to stop for a second to admire too.
Yet another room to frag in.
A shot of one of the rooms with many stairs. Find your goodies and get the drop on the other team as they try to make their way to your flag.
Almost home! It's just through the tall arched door to your base and another point.
Bottom line: As you have noticed, the map is made up of lots of blacks and grays. That in itself was a risky gambit, but (as always) with Orion, his style pays off. He's the master of detail, and if you think you were going to see a map from him that contains flaws, well, you will have a long wait. I have heard that he will redo a section over and over until the one mesh/texture/shade whatever fits perfectly.
As I have said before, when I review maps, the first run through is without any bots so I can just walk around and look. The stone work with the shadows is beautiful. The way he presented the tattered flags running around the outside of the citadel is inspired. The art hung on the wall, the detail in each room puts you into the map and a part of that time.
My PC ran it very well, even after I cranked up the settings to enjoy the map in all its glory. Bot play was good and the layout gave me places to duck for a split second to get the jump on them. By the way, I love the mines. Every detail helps when you're being chased and to have to stop and dodge mines makes the return trip with the flag all the more exciting. Also remember: looking at the layout, you can find hiding places just about anywhere for a neat ambush.
Well I think ive said enough. Time for you to download and find out for yourself.
This map can be found at NaliCity.


Monitor your miracle with love! Parents always want to know that their baby is safe. A baby monitor is the perfect way to keep tabs on your child from another part of the house. You can choose from audio, video, and movement monitors—or a combination of some or all of them—and select the various features that are important to you. Some monitors can even be used for years to come to monitor your children, your home, and your property.
Baby monitors have entered the space age, with many different monitors available to track a number of different signs: noises, motion, and movement. The style you choose may depend on how far away from your baby you are during the day or night or simply how closely you want to monitor your baby.
These monitors broadcast your baby's gurgles, sighs, and cries so you can hear what's going on even if you're in another room or outside watering plants. Make sure the audio monitor you select can be turned off in case you don't want others to hear a conversation.
Monitors that allow you to see your baby are attractive to parents who need a little extra reassurance of their baby's welfare. Look for a wireless baby monitor that includes a high-resolution camera, and infrared technology so you can see in the dark. If you plan to use it outside, you'll need a wall mount option and a weather-resistant camera. The great thing about baby video monitors is that you can use them even after your baby has grown. They can be used to monitor your pool, your children playing in another room, and even to see who's at the door before you answer it.
These monitors are reassuring to parents whose babies have battled an illness or who simply want to know that their child is healthy—even from four rooms away. BeBe Sounds, the company known for its prenatal baby heartbeat monitors, is a leader in this technology. A sensor pad, typically placed under the mattress, tracks baby's movements and alerts parents if no movement has occurred for a specified period of time, usually 20 seconds. Look for a model with a sensitivity adjuster so you can minimize false alarms. If it's important to know that your baby is being monitored at all times, select a product that automatically switches to battery power in case of a power outage and that emits a "tic" sound intermittently to let you know it's still working.
Most parents want to have the option of portability with their baby monitor—at least with the receivers. This means that if mom or dad is working in the garden during baby's nap, the receiver can be clipped to a pants pocket and run on battery power. One that operates solely on battery power, however, means that you'll go through a lot of batteries. For the best of both worlds, choose a product that can operate with a battery and that also can be plugged into an outlet.
Some monitors are available with two or three receivers, which is convenient if both parents want to be able to hear baby. Multiple receivers also come in handy so that you always have a fresh receiver when the other is being recharged.
Your lifestyle and how you'll use the monitor will determine the range you choose, but a good rule of thumb is a range of at least 200 feet. You'll usually pay more for a greater range, and if you'll use it, it's worth the investment. But if you intend to stick pretty close to baby even when he's sleeping, 200 feet should be fine.
If you have a cordless phone in your home, pay close attention to the frequency of the baby monitor you choose. If your phone and the monitor operate on the same frequency, you'll run into performance problems. Digital monitors prevent this problem and also protect against interference from close neighbors who use a baby monitor too.
The usefulness of a model that lights up when your baby cries—the harder he cries, the more it lights up—depends on your lifestyle. If you work at home, for example, and don't want a baby's shriek to interrupt a business call, it might work well for you. Likewise, if a grandparent who's a little hard of hearing will be watching the baby, he or she might feel more secure with the light-up model. A monitor with a vibrate setting can accomplish the same thing.
Some baby monitors come equipped with an intercom that parents can use to transmit the sound of their voice to baby, calming her until they can get to her room, or allowing mom and dad to sing her back to sleep from the comfort of their bed.
Look for models with a volume control so you can adjust the sound based on what you want to hear—and what you don't.
A monitor with multiple channels allows you to search for the channel with the least interference for your particular environment.
Baby monitors help parents know that their baby is safe even when they're not in the same room. Choose the type of monitor that provides the security level you need, and make sure your selection includes features that make it convenient and practical for your everyday use.


Romance on the Go Sarah doesn't have much in common with the other girls in town. She's never even kissed a boy… until the evening Anderson walks her home. Over time, Anderson presses her for more than just kisses, and on the one-year anniversary of their first kiss Sarah might just give in to his whims. But the woods are dark at night, and there are creatures about, howling in the distance. When Anderson is accosted by a wolf under the light of a full moon, will Sarah save her beau? Or will she be caught in the crossfire? And if she survives the attack, will life ever be the same?