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Notebook Entries, June 2002

Notebook entry, June 25, 2002

This newswire report from The Associated Press by Shawn Pogatchnik as reported in The Denver Post, p. 8A., tells us about studies conducted with children in Northern Ireland and when they begin to learn to hate: The age of three. In a study conducted by the University of Ulster, and commissioned by the government-funded Community Relations Council, which tries to promote better relations between the two communities, the study  found that Roman Catholic and Protestant children start learning to fear and loathe each other's communities as early as age 3. A study in 1999 of the attitudes of Israeli and Palestinian children found similar results and leading to the conclusion: As with the Middle Eastern research, the Northern Ireland report concluded that youngsters in divided societies need specially designed educational packages to counteract the parochial prejudice of their immediate environment. You can read that to mean: to counteract the prejudice of the parents who keep close ties to the children due to the extreme violent environments. This "hatred" most likely evolved from "safety rules" imposed on children by parents to extend and control their children in more definitive ways than would be found in "safer" environments. 

Notebook entry, June 19

My wife saved this article for me while I was away at the conference; I found it amusing, and at the same time, interesting. A Washington Post article by Shankar Vedantam as reported in The Denver Post, June 19, 2002, p. 2A. Title: Television sex actually doesn't see, study indicates.  Watching a movie or TV program with strong sexual references interferes with people's ability to remember the commercials in such programs  The report, a study in the Journal of Applied Psychology and was conducted by psychology professor Brad Bushman and graduate student Angelica Bonacci at the Iowa State University found that people watching shows packed with sexual innuendo, performers with revealing clothes or sexual scenes were much less likely to remember the ads both immediately after the show and a day later. To quote Bushman: "The simplest explanation is that people who watch a sexual program are thinking about sex instead of about ads, and people who watch a violent program are thinking about violence, not laundry detergent or soda pop." Hopefully, the great America corporate giants will rethink their programming content before spending dollars on sex and violence. Heavens, what will happen to professional wrestling? Do you think Bill Moyers can be persuaded to leave Public TV?

Notebook entry, June 17 thru 23rd, 2002

I spend this time back East in my birth state of New Jersey by visiting my parents, sisters in-law, and attending the HBES 2002 conference. (Human Behavior and Evolution Society) from the 19th to the 23rd.  To read more about my journey, and for all of you who have never attended such a conference, then I suggest you read my HBES2002: A Personal View page.    It will give you a general outline of how most of these conferences are run, how, and also give some detail of the plenary talks given, talk schedules, and there also some photos of the Rutgers' campus where the conference was held.

Notebook entry, June 11, 2002

I have decided to abandon my work surrounding my work environment. It seems that the over 50 hours of sound recordings that I have accumulated and that I began to replay  was too difficult for me to bear.  It seems that I could not (at least at this early stage) detach myself emotionally from the recordings as I had hoped. In the sound recordings can be found the Alpha male repeatedly and deliberately denigrating women.  There are so many instances of this repeated act that one can not understand how a supervisor could possibly miss the behavior and allow it to continue.  The truth of the matter is that the supervisor is sitting less than 30 feet away and can clearly hear all instances.  The reason nothing is done, I have concluded, is that there is no penalty towards the supervisor for allowing the behavior to continue.  Secondly, and more importantly, none of the women are indignant enough to protest or take the matter to a higher level.

I plan to wait until I retire in five or six years before I start the project again.  I most likely will keep the sound recordings in the house to prevent any climate damage.

Notebook entry, June 2, 2002

Diana and I spent Friday night and Saturday morning gathered with over 1,300 fellow Democrats gathered for the general assembly to pick our candidates for the fall elections. Since Colorado is only one of two remaining states that use the caucus system, our candidate for the newly created 7th Congressional District, Mike Feeley was not on the ballot because he was not going through the caucus system..  He was using the petition method of gathering signatures of registered Democrats outside the caucus system (In Colorado, you must have at least 1,000 signatures to be able to place your name on the primary ballot. [the count as of yesterday was over 1,500]).  Former Governer Roy Romer showed up as a surprise speaker to endorse Tom Strickland who is running for the U.S. Senate. It was great to be amongst so many people who are as active and share your political views. Both Diana and I were energized by the process, and I think I may become hooked.