Delicious LiveJournal Links for 11-23-2009

[andrewducker]

• Mystery Google - You get what the person before you searched for.
  So go leave surprises for people!
  (tags: google search funny social)
• What percentage of men are rapists, and what is their MO?
  violent stranger rape seems to be almost unknown - it's mostly drugging of strangers or violence against acquaintances.
  (tags: rape statistics violence women crime sex)
• New Indian brides abandoned by British Asian husbands
  (tags: marriage society uk india)
• Russia 'is now a criminal state'
  (tags: russia crime corruption)
• Would you keep 3 pounds from a broken machine?
  (tags: ethics morals)
• A GTA coder discusses violence and computer games. With a crazy person.
  (tags: computer_games violence funny)
• In case you were wondering what Obama's been up to...
  Not that I'm _completely_ fed up with people complaining that he's done nothing since being elected...
  (tags: obama politics usa)

Comments

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

The rape one is interesting, since the % roughly equates to estimates of the % of sociopaths in society in general.

I think it's also right to ask people to pay more attention to accusations of rape in their social circles, and ostracise the predators who've been hiding behind the Geek Social fallacies. However, I'm a little concerned with how the small % of female sociopaths might exploit this.

[andrewducker]

I think that any system/situation will be taken advantage of by psychopaths if they see merit in doing so. I'd be careful of believing people without any evidence, but I know of people that would not have been attacked if previous victims had been believed.

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

Horrible, isn't it?

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Not really, the % of sociopaths in the general population is more like 2%. I'd not be in the least bit surprised to see that 2% among the rapists, but there are still a 6-10% of men who are not sociopaths, but who are rapists.

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

I just Mystery Googled, and I got a message asking me to text a phone number to tell them that "God loves them and I'm praying for their soul."

I'm debating whether or not to do this. On the one hand, I'm an atheist; on the other hand, the idea amuses me. On the third hand, the number is local to me; on the fourth hand, texting isn't free with my plan and it'll cost me 20 cents to do it.

What do you think? Should I do it?

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

If you are absolutely certain it's an actual phone number and not one of those premium rate numbers then how can the answer possibly be "no". Curiosity alone would be enough. If you decide not to do so, please post the number and I will be only too glad to do it on your behalf.

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

I think I'm going to alter the message a bit* and text in a few moments. I'm positive it's a cell phone number, but you prolly wouldn't want to do it; it's local to me, but I'm in Central Texas.

* "Great Cthulhu loves us and is preying on your soul." Ironically that message is a little less creepy than the original iteration.

[drjon.livejournal.com]

You would probably be better off with "The Great Prophet Zarquon loves us and is praying for your soul"...

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

Eep! Too late. It's already done. I got a response, though, which indicates a sense of humor. *Whew*

[drjon.livejournal.com]

Excellent! For your Faithful Service, you will be eaten last!

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

For your Faithful Service, you will be eaten last!

I FINALLY GOT THAT PROMISE IN WRITING! WHOOOO!

[cdave]

Shouldn't that be first?

[andrewducker]

Matthew 19:27-30

[drjon.livejournal.com]

For your Faithful Service, you will be eaten first. Nom nom nom.

[missedith01.livejournal.com]

I think I'd post "There is no god and your soul is just excited electrons. I'm thinking about your electrons, though. Does that help?"

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

. . .

. . .

. . .

I'm running off to find my phone right the fuck now.

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

Turns out the recipient is disappointed in me and will now pray for my soul. And yet they had no problem with Cthulhu. *amused*

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

I suspect people are using mystery google just for laughs:

'dangerhighvoltage1212@yahoo.com tell him hes pretty he was dumped last night'

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

And ah.... middle class low-level fraud. My great-great grandmother apparently had a false compartment in her shopping trolley and used it to never pay for butter. There was a war on you know.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

The rape data looks like a combination of better identification and better education of teens (to help women feel safer about reporting rape, and more importantly, to help men who are not rapists to be more willing to both notice comments and report problems) could definitely help.

What would be very useful to know (if difficult to determine) is if teenage education will convinced some of these rapists that either doing this is wrong, or at least too risky, before they get started.

As with sociopaths, I am again struck by the idea of wondering what we should do if we could identify these men as teens, before they started raping. This doesn't sound impossible, but the answer of what to do next is complex. Soiopathy is likely either genetic or due to some sort of serious social problems in the person's environment when they were quite young. I'm betting that the rapists are more likely to simply come from home environments that were fairly scary in some (possibly far from obvious) fashion. In both cases, if education and training of some sort as teens can help, then all is well. OTOH, if that doesn't work on a moderate percentage of these people, then you are left with a population that any reasonable society would wish to either isolate or watch very carefully, but who may have done nothing wrong yet. Answers about what to do at this point are drastically unclear.

As for the 3 pounds from the broken machine. I'm deeply puzzled that someone wouldn't regard this as free money.

[andrewducker]

I've seen a few things showing that severe abuse (mental and physical, probably sexual as well) disassociated people sufficiently to bring psychopathic tendencies to the fore. I'm sure I saw something saying that the main predictor of psychopathic tendencies as an adult is "lack of play" as a child.

On the other hand, there are the oxytocin lacking non-reciprocators - which may or may not have a genetic component (I could certainly envisage people ending up in that state from either direction).

I'm also torn on what to do with people who may, or may not, be dangerous, but are more likely to be. I like The Culture's method of dealing with it (a robot follows you around at all times, leading you to be invited to less parties)- but we don't quite have the tech yet...

[meico.livejournal.com]

Heh! I got stuck in your delicious glue!*

*Ew, that didn't sound the way I meant....

[andrewducker]

Like hell you didn't!

[d-c-m.livejournal.com]

What percentage of men are rapists, and what is their MO?
violent stranger rape seems to be almost unknown - it's mostly drugging of strangers or violence against acquaintances.

*raspberry of frustration*

I remember one time calling a rape crisis hotline and saying that I was afraid. The counselor at the other end said "Well are you dating anyone?" I said no. She said "Oh then you have nothing to worry about!!"

So much fun to hear when you are a heterosexual woman.

*headdesk*