John B. Wells

[VtaGeezer]

Its a damn shame when the quality of a show is based on how much ridicule it draws.

[West of the Rockies]

Its a damn shame when the quality of a show is based on how much ridicule it draws.

I think you're right, Geezer... perhaps we're collectively experiencing a Stockholm Syndrome response to the show; yes, it is torturous babble, but it is our torturous babble!

[FallenSeraph]

JBW played this song "Robots" as bumper music the other day and damn if it hasn't enriched my life: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/unshakable/id772223260

[attachimg=1]

Meanwhile, on tonight's show:

Increasing Brain Power
Date:   01-18-14
Host:   John B. Wells
Guests:   Dan Hurley
Award winning science journalist, Dan Hurley, will discuss how the dogma surrounding IQ scores was shattered in 2008 with the publication of a major study showing that the ability to learn, solve novel problems, and get to the heart of things can be significantly increased through training.

Website(s):
www.danhurley.com
Book(s):
Smarter: The New Science of Building Brain Power

Make it good, John!

[FallenSeraph]

tl;dr warning, but at least I threw in some music.

On the off chance that JBW checks out this thread for all the positive feedback and support he gets here (hey, I got your back, J.B.!), I would like to add that I hope he touches on nootropics tonight. That topic is my current obsession. (Tune in next week for news on my next current obsession.)

In fact, I've been reading nootropics forums for most of the day today instead of working on a deep and meaningful overview of the Memphis school system for someone else's book about Memphis. (Yeah, I'm gonna need drugs to finish that one. Oh the things I will write for a mere $100.) And meanwhile, some other freelance writer is out there writing the music and food introductions. Me, they looked at and thought, "schools and small businesses." Sigh. Maybe I should take it as a "she can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear" compliment.

Anyway, give us a sign John. Show your fans â€" I think there are three of us over here, but we are devoted â€" that you care.

Here's a bumper music suggestion.


http://youtu.be/MmZexg8sxyk

If he plays it, I'll get up and dance, I swear. I would even vow to record it but my room looks like Falkie's right now. (That wasn't a dig, Falkie, YOU KNOW I LOVE YOU, SERIOUSLY. I honestly think the most creative, colorful, brilliant people live in cluttered places. We're too busy thinking about wondrous things and great ideas to bother with cleaning. At least that's my excuse.)

Man, I'm talkative tonight. Sorry. Must be this phenibut I'm trying. They're trying to make it illegal here in TN. We also can't buy alcohol here on Sundays, so it wouldn't be a surprise.

[albrecht]

I always thought "Smart" drugs were things like Mushrooms, Aythausca, Mescaline, etc. At least that's what I recall the so-called "Smart Shops" in Amsterdam were selling. But I agree that it would be interesting show. Also the various drugs the military, apparently, is using to help people stay awake and even, possibly, 'erase' traumatic memories.

[fotd]

Tuned in, guest was talking about the Kelly Thomas verdict, JBW jumped to Adam Lanza, then mentioned Infowars.  Click, turned on the TV. 

[FallenSeraph]

Tuned in, guest was talking about the Kelly Thomas verdict, JBW jumped to Adam Lanza, then mentioned Infowars.  Click, turned on the TV.

The real guest is now on, although I fear he's another "read about it in my book" guy.

I don't know if it's because I listen to a lot of talk radio/podcasts or what, but I notice that a ton of people, particularly when they're being interviewed, are picking up this habit of starting sentences with "so" or "well." It starts to drive me insane.

Interesting that this guy is talking about the beneficial effects of first-person shooter games on the brain. Refreshing to hear something besides "VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES ARE BAD!"

[Heather Wade]

Poor dolphins.

[Ben Shockley]

... I notice that a ton of people, particularly when they're being interviewed, are picking up this habit of starting sentences with "so" or "well."  It starts to drive me insane.

Damn right.  I especially notice the "So" when it is so misplaced.  <--- see there, I used a "so" in an appropriate way.   I think I first noticed this, on radio, with old Ian Punnett.  Like a lot of stuff he said/did, I'm pretty sure it was an affectation.

[Ben Shockley]

Tuned in, guest was talking about the Kelly Thomas verdict, JBW jumped to Adam Lanza, then mentioned Infowars.  Click, turned on the TV.

Plus, Wells asserted that "Leftists" are only interested in police abuses or violent news when it has to do with gun rights or race.  He's the same guy who disingenuously claims "it's not about left or right" -- except that for him it always is.  Then the guest started harping on "ObamaCare" and tying that somehow to police abuses.
Thanks, guys.  I was about to care about the Kelly Thomas case.  Thanks for saving me the effort through your inevitably-directional politics and reflexive Obama-bashing.

[FallenSeraph]

Poor dolphins.

DID SOMEBODY SAY DOLPHINS? 

I had this really bad problem with depression a few years ago where I was barely even getting out of bed for a year. Looking back on it now, I realize I probably needed to be hospitalized. But it's hard to see straight when you're in the middle of it. So anyway, I felt like I needed to do something drastic or I would never snap out of it. So I took my last $5K and enrolled in this weeklong dolphin training class at this place called Half Moon Bay in Jamaica. It wasn't one of those cheesy "pose in the water and get your picture taken" things. They were really diehard about only letting a maximum of three people take this course a month and they were hardcore about limiting the dolphins' interaction with people, etc.

So it was days of working with these scientists and messing around with spreadsheets and cleaning dolphin pens and calculating the calories in their food and all that stuff. On the last couple of days, I finally got to get IN the water with the dolphins. It was then that I realized that DOLPHINS SCARE THE BEJEEZUS OUT OF ME. They're these GIANT HEAVY things in the water bumping into you and stuff and if they feel like it, they can body-slam you or drag you down into the water and DROWN YOU.

I ended up having a panic attack and blowing off the last day of the class. Sat on the beach in front of the little house I was renting and drank beer all day instead. It was kind of the best day ever. And I got to cross "Swim with dolphins" off my bucket list with a big black marker.

Then I flew back home and got my sh*t together. At least temporarily.

That's my dolphin story. 

John B. Wells sounds a little tired or lost or something. He needs a hug.

[FallenSeraph]

Thanks, guys.  I was about to care about the Kelly Thomas case.  Thanks for saving me the effort through your inevitably-directional politics and reflexive Obama-bashing.

Hey Ben, your AV is adorable!

[zeebo]

Interesting that this guy is talking about the beneficial effects of first-person shooter games on the brain. Refreshing to hear something besides "VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES ARE BAD!"

See I knew all those endless hours I spent playing Doom in the mid-90's would pay off someday.

Guest is pretty interesting.  Will have to give the n-back game a try, sounds irritating as hell.  Btw I have to admit this exchange was pretty funny (paraphrasing):

Guest:  "Working memory is involved when during a conversation you go off on a quick tangent then come back to your orignal topic - but sometimes people forget what they were talking about."

JBW: "Yeah I do that all the time, and often into an open microphone."

[Ben Shockley]

Hey Ben, your AV is adorable!

Thanks-- newly changed tonight.  That little girl lived on my street in 동두천 Korea, in 1987.  If she told me her name, I've forgot it by now.  She just appeared in the street one day as I was walking out of the apartment square, and I grabbed my camera and did a little photo session with her.  She was oddly adult in her expressions toward me, including a "knowing" sigh as I talked to her as we parted.

[Ben Shockley]

Music at bottom of hour #4 -- "Soul Kitchen" by The Doors.   I hate Wells; I really like "his" music.

[Heather Wade]

Soul Kitchen was a nice selection, but that caller John...  :

[valdez]

     The main guest was Dan Hurley on "increasing brain power."  Interesting, for the most part.  A lot of talk about learning to play an instrument, and how it helps the brain.  It does more than that.  One of my jobs is managing a restaurant (then I go deliver newspapers and listen to the show) and this girl use to come in and I could tell she had a tattoo on her neck but I couldn't make out what it was because she always had it covered up and one day I asked her to let me see it.  She did.  It said "fuck the world."  She was embarrassed by it, and I thought that if she knew how to play guitar she could've formed a band and wrote a hundred songs expressing that same thought and got it out of her system and had fun and not have to walk around with such a thing on her neck.  I just got done watching the Kelly Thomas beating video that Brian Engelman was talking about.  I normally have no sympathy for fools deciding to fight the cops and are then surprised when they find themselves dead.  This is different.  The pace of it.  Slow.  A kid being a wise ass at times.  A cop's impatience.  The kid not realizing the cop is getting serious.  A few wrong words.  Some miscommunication.  Then it turns.  An ugly beating.  The kid crying out for his dad.  More cops arriving.  More crying out.  Then no more crying.  No more pleading.  The clean up.  The silence.  Sadness.

 

http://youtu.be/A6IntxCA3sA

[FallenSeraph]

     I normally have no sympathy for fools deciding to fight the cops and are then surprised when they find themselves dead.  This is different.  The pace of it.  Slow.  A kid being a wise ass at times.  A cop's impatience.  The kid not realizing the cop is getting serious.  A few wrong words.  Some miscommunication.  Then it turns.  An ugly beating.  The kid crying out for his dad.  More cops arriving.  More crying out.  Then no more crying.  No more pleading.  The clean up.  The silence.  Sadness.

Horrible. I can't watch it. 

ETA: I normally think most cops are widely unsung and underpaid heroes, particularly speaking as someone living in one of the most crime-ridden cities of America, but I wouldn't get in the way if someone decided to eff these particular cops up. (I like the word "particular" today.)

Look at the autopsy report. Sheezus. 

[attachimg=1]

What sucks is this kind of thing is happening out there all the time. If Wells wants to rant about it, I won't bitch about it.

http://youtu.be/D7jVqok1bqw

[Ben Shockley]

Horrible. I can't watch it. 

I won't even try.
More proof of what I have been saying for 20+ years:  "wanting to be a cop" should be automatic disqualification from ever being one.
All cops should be elected positions subject to exactly the same laws regarding "deadly force" as any other citizen, with the first use of deadly force by any cop meaning automatic removal from his department.
I invite people to debate that.

[MikeJ]

I was actually surprised by the show last night.  I would not have expected a nut like Wells to have someone on criticizing the police.  I think most cops are the bullies from high school who found a socially acceptable outlet for their sociopathic behavior.  Like many things in this world, they are a necessary evil.

[MikeJ]

While I am at it, one thing that always annoyed me about Art was the deference he showed to law enforcement callers.  Just because someone is a cop, shouldn't/doesn't mean their account of events is any more credible than mine.

[FallenSeraph]

Sh*t man, I don't know. You gotta be incredibly brave or incredibly corrupt to deal with some of the evil that's out there on the streets. I've met some awesome cops and I've met some real jackasses. I'm sure there are plenty of both. Kinda like priests. Sometime superhero standards tend to attract the people who despise and want to violate them the most.

But then again I'm Irish-Catholic. You're gonna find a lot of cops and priests in my family tree. Maybe I feel a familial obligation to defend them.

In other news, whenever I play this new Aloe Blacc album, my cat rolls around on the bed and purrs. I've never seen anything like it. He must have some soul in him. It'd be a YouTube sensation if I felt motivated enough to record it.

[PB the Deplorable]

I won't even try.
More proof of what I have been saying for 20+ years:  "wanting to be a cop" should be automatic disqualification from ever being one.
All cops should be elected positions subject to exactly the same laws regarding "deadly force" as any other citizen, with the first use of deadly force by any cop meaning automatic removal from his department.
I invite people to debate that.

My dad was a cop.  The current crop as a whole are nothing like how cops used to be.  Many forces have become militarized or are becoming militarized, and too many of their attitudes and actions are indefensible.

We've gotten a lot closer to being a police state than people realize

[Ben Shockley]

While I am at it, one thing that always annoyed me about Art was the deference he showed to law enforcement callers.  Just because someone is a cop, shouldn't/doesn't mean their account of events is any more credible than mine.

WORD. 

a/k/a  damn right.

[Ben Shockley]

My dad was a cop.  The current crop as a whole are nothing like how cops used to be.  Many forces have become militarized or are becoming militarized, and too many of their attitudes and actions are indefensible.
We've gotten a lot closer to being a police state than people realize

You won't catch me agreeing with Paper*Boy on much, but he's right on this.
And I say:  We need more elected cops -- like Sheriffs-- than appointed bureaucratic cops.  I would make it absolutely "life or death" --literally -- on cops who use deadly force.  You kill somebody as a cop -- okay, and if clean as you always will be, right?,  you are still off the force, because, after all -- it was "life or death" when you and your buddies unloaded 75 rounds into that unarmed 12-year-old Black kid's back, right?  Okay, you have your life-- get off the force, but you also have a corresponding criminal charge.  So go sell guns in Georgia.  Et cetera -- dispute it if you want.

[Juan]

So (ha) once again the problem is the war on drugs.  The local police are provided military weapons by the feds to fight it - forfeiture laws give them more money to buy even more weapons.

[NowhereInTime]

You won't catch me agreeing with Paper*Boy on much, but he's right on this.
And I say:  We need more elected cops -- like Sheriffs-- than appointed bureaucratic cops.  I would make it absolutely "life or death" --literally -- on cops who use deadly force.  You kill somebody as a cop -- okay, and if clean as you always will be, right?,  you are still off the force, because, after all -- it was "life or death" when you and your buddies unloaded 75 rounds into that unarmed 12-year-old Black kid's back, right?  Okay, you have your life-- get off the force, but you also have a corresponding criminal charge.  So go sell guns in Georgia.  Et cetera -- dispute it if you want.

Ben, usually with you but have to disagree on this one.  Elected law enforcement is far more dangerous to civil liberties than professional police forces with strong civilian oversight.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/16/us/sheriffs-refuse-to-enforce-laws-on-gun-control.html

I am very uncomfortable with the idea that a local politician will have the power to incarcerate me for political expedience whereas a pro cop (like NYPD or even my own city) is answerable to civilian (and court) authority.

Of course, the key is a civilian oversight committee and strong mayor/city council government to insist on standards; absent that its ineffective, too.

We did away with Sheriffs and County government in CT and haven't looked back.

[WOTR]

     ...This is different.  The pace of it.  Slow.  A kid being a wise ass at times.  A cop's impatience.  The kid not realizing the cop is getting serious.  A few wrong words.  Some miscommunication.  Then it turns.  An ugly beating.  The kid crying out for his dad.  More cops arriving.  More crying out.  Then no more crying.  No more pleading.  The clean up.  The silence.  Sadness.

That is what you get for going against authority.  Good to get yet another criminal transient out of this world and there will be nobody to miss him too much... (yes, dark humour. and not my real thoughts.)

I worked for a number of years as a doorman in a rough mining town and a rough bar.  Once you have three or four full grown men subduing one smaller guy there is no longer any excuse for tazers, punching, or major violence... I can guarantee he is under control.  In that situation (as in this) you can often tell that one person does not know what the others are doing and the lack of communication in this case was beyond obvious (nobody knowing that he was cuffed, that he was cuffed in the front, if he was still resisting... Too many people pulling, pushing and hyper focusing on their small part while ignoring the effects of their cumulative actions (which lead to a death.)

There was no need for the outcome and watching it just confirms our pack mentality and is a good show of anger and near the end of the video is a good show of the start of justifications we all make to ourselves.  I once thought that I had been a little too rough choking a patron out (when I got him out the side door and put him down he was convulsing, breathing a a strained manner and had pissed himself.)  Immediately I found myself replaying the events in my mind from the point he took a swing at me and began thinking of the reasons I was right in my actions.  In ten seconds I was positive that I was perfectly in the right and then he got up and started to try to fight the other doormen... I went back inside (somewhat happy that he was alright.)  The point is that at the end of the video you their nervous laughter and joking about taking him in their car, starting the narrative that "he was on something- it took all of us and he was still figithing" (despite the fact that none seemed to have more than a scratch) and the short recap of the events through a very biased lens.  It is quite interesting.  I think the officers are probably good people and they probably honestly believe that they had no options.  It really is too bad that a court reinforced their opinion of that night rather than convicting them.

I did not listen to JBW... but I am glad he brought this one up and brought some awareness to it.

[MikeJ]

You won't catch me agreeing with Paper*Boy on much, but he's right on this.
And I say:  We need more elected cops -- like Sheriffs-- than appointed bureaucratic cops.  I would make it absolutely "life or death" --literally -- on cops who use deadly force.  You kill somebody as a cop -- okay, and if clean as you always will be, right?,  you are still off the force, because, after all -- it was "life or death" when you and your buddies unloaded 75 rounds into that unarmed 12-year-old Black kid's back, right?  Okay, you have your life-- get off the force, but you also have a corresponding criminal charge.  So go sell guns in Georgia.  Et cetera -- dispute it if you want.

In an ideal world, I might agree about elections, but we live in a post Citizens United world, so we no longer have elections as envisioned by the founding fathers.

[b_dubb]

My dad was a cop.  The current crop as a whole are nothing like how cops used to be.  Many forces have become militarized or are becoming militarized, and too many of their attitudes and actions are indefensible.

We've gotten a lot closer to being a police state than people realize

Truth