True Story of the Day

[promethean75]

"but once everyone got jobs again, and winter hit I barely rode it"

this is all wrong. first, one should have even more reason to keep their bike when/if they get a job because that means they can mod it all out with the money they'll be making. Second, spring always follows winter i think, so it's not like you'll never ride it again.

"plus very uncomfortable getting cramp etc..(old fart) so I ended up selling it.."

understandable, but if you had given it more time you would have acclimatized to the position and it wouldn't be as uncomfortable. Took me several months to get the cramps out of the hands and wrists. also believe it or not riding those bikes is like doing minor strength training. hugging the tank with your legs and being in that quasi-pushup position strengthens your core and triceps a bit.

but i know what you mean; if you wanna take hundred mile trips, sport bikes aren't it. but for commuting, how could u not want a sport bike?

"find wearing all the protective gear takes away from the feeling of being on the bike.."

u don't gotta wear the gear mate cuz you don't gotta crash the thing if you don't drive it like a knucklehead. and what difference would it make if you were on a touring bike? you'd wear the gear or not on either bike for the same reason, yeah?

[promethean75]

russian culture has made remarkable progress since being exposed to and influenced by the currents of the post-modern nihilism and capitalism of the west. Russians are no longer the degenerate Catholics and faux christian puritan protestants they were in the 20th century. There may be hope for mother Russia yet.

[promethean75]

Suspected Stockton serial killer in custody. Probably the missionary-thrill category of serial killer but I'd have to interview him to find out.

In any case the warning signs were there the whole time, the biggest one being that he had the eye of the whitaker....

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[promethean75]

how bout this Herschel Walker. some piece of work that guy is, huh?

one of those black people who's so embarrassed and ashamed of themselves and their own culture, they become a republican so they can pretend to be above it all and rub elbows with old wealthy white guys. [Redacted] they call em. lol read up on the guy and the abortion scandals he's involved in.

these are your politicians and leaders, Amnerika


[Edited by iMod]

[promethean75]

i wuz aware of the existence of feral children obviously but I hadn't ever looked into a particular case and just kinda knew in general what 'feral child' meant. I'd heard about kids being raised by animals, raised by humans but in savage conditions, or abandoned and alone.

i found the two big cases that i only knew vaguely about and nothing of the details. the thirteen year old 'genie' and the Danielle Crockett (no wiki page) case.

deeply saddening man. like down to the soul saddening. a paralyzing state of sadness in which you can't even cry it's so disturbing.

but what really cut to the bone was seeing old footage of her within a year of her rescue in which she's sitting at some table beside some people. as the camera films she notices and is looking at it, creating the effect that she is looking directly at you, the viewer. this makes it even more creepy. but it's the blank emptiness of her eyes and her dumb stare that seizes you.

what is so profoundly terrible about this is not that she is suffering and hurting either physically or mentally. Obviously she isn't. it's that her incompleteness as a neurologically developed human rudely reminds us of the brute facticity of the brain's role in producing what is human, human personality, human experiences.

you'd rather her be a machine or a robot or something so you wouldn't have to suffer the anguish of this knowledge and the stare of those piercing eyes as she gazes at the camera without a clue. but she's not... she's like u, a human. and that's all being human is. u have connections in your brain or u don't.

the father committed suicide before a child abuse hearing in court. the guy wuz one of those guy's who's afraid and suspicious of the world and keeps everybody locked in the house. one of those. he had come to believe that genie was 'slow' when she wuz a baby (but she wasn't, in fact) and ended up keeping her in a small room with a crib and a potty chair. at night she was locked in the crib cage and during the day she sat strapped to the potty chair. this went on for thirteen years.

thirteen years.

crib at night, strapped to toilet during day.

when they found her she wasn't able to walk as she never used her legs. the blinds were always drawn in the room, and because she never saw anything beyond nine or so feet, her eyes couldn't focus any further. wasn't able to talk obviously, either. at thirteen she had developed two sets of teeth, weighed and looked like a six year old and was incontinent.

https://youtu.be/6H2POnmvbPo

Profoundly moving, both tragic and beautiful. To see her smile and laugh on those rare occasions that her brain can pull it off, is really a joy. I watched all the footage and it tickled me to hear her grunting and laughing with excitement. Got me laughing with her. Felt like I wuz there with her and Curtis.

Genie should be given the world for having to go through that.

https://youtu.be/Lai1c9dOq6Q

She's no champion at kickball but the kid shows promise.

[promethean75]

"Susan Curtiss argued that, even if humans possess the innate ability to acquire language, Genie demonstrated the necessity of early language stimulation in the left hemisphere of the brain to start. Since Genie never fully acquired grammar, Curtiss submitted that Genie provided evidence for a weaker variation of the critical period hypothesis. Genie's nonverbal skills were exceptionally good, which demonstrated that even nonverbal communication was fundamentally different from language. Because Genie's language acquisition occurred in the right hemisphere of her brain, its course also aided linguists in refining existing hypotheses on the capacity for right-hemisphere language acquisition in people after the critical period."

an outstanding opportunity for science. Genie is like the sacrificed experimental space monkey. this research couldn't be done unless we had a subject that was beyond critical learning stages and unable to acquire complex grammar skills... but one that nonetheless experienced an accelerated rate of nonverbal communication development after coming into human contact, beyond the critical learning stage.

you could never do a study like that on a normal person becuz normal folks talk at thirteen years old (excepting mute people).

Genie is so important to the field of linguistics she's like a regular Chomsky.

[promethean75]

Here's a pic of her from that video footage i wuz talking about.

Now of the following three options, which one would you never want to have to fight:

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That's what I thought. That's the thousand yard stare right there, folks.

[promethean75]

the more the politician participates in social discourse with the people and gains both their admiration and trust by the display of intelligence and reason of his character, the more plausible his opinion in all things becomes to the people.

incidentally, when a political enemy is doing well in this way, it necessarily means that you are not doing well. by necessity then too it is in the interests of the party to not wish its opponent well. hence there can be no scruples in politics de facto and goodwill is impossible... or as i once coined the principle politicio-de factonius; goodwill cannot exist among men who not only hope, but depend as well for their own success, their fellows being wrong.

compare a competitive sport which is more benign. you want your opponent to lose, but you don't want them to be wrong, to be received with contempt by the people, to be distrusted, to be scandalous, etc.

in fact, your success depends on it. there can be no goodwill here. in summa summara politicio-de factonius. magnifico.

[promethean75]

after more genie research I've discovered that i spoke too soon about her fate. in the first four years after her rescue she was able to live and interact with people in actual home environments. i read a couple doctors let her live with them and their familes. it was during this time that she progressed most rapidly and really came alive and expressive. there was also still funding being provided for her care at this time so expenses weren't a problem.

then suddenly the mom freaks out and demands that no more doctors have contact with her, and she begins a tour of fosters homes where her living conditions drastically change. no more intensive one-on-one interaction with compassionate therapists and adopted family members. now she was just a number again, ignored and even abused. the extent of her neglect isn't fully documented but a particular incident is reported to have triggered a major regression in her progress. she was ridiculed and punished for vomiting, after which she completely withdrew back into her self.

this qualifies as a kind of emotional torment so i gotta revise the statement that she suffered no more, etc. i mean she wasn't physically suffering confinement or the beatings anymore, no, but her caregiver's and the state's incompetence created a terribly frustrating and confusing life for genie when we were hoping that things would keep getting better for her.

the state of her frustration, I'd wager, is augmented more by her inability to articulate with grammar how and what she feels. that's got to be a living hell.

also found out she was a chronic masturbator and often got down to business in inappropriate public settings. i read as well that she acted inappropriately in this way around adult men, suggesting that she may have been sexually abused... either by the dad or the brother. brother looked shady as hell in a video i saw and dad was a whacko so I wouldn't doubt it.

this behavior then would probably have been a natural response to older males. maybe she was rewarded or fed after sexual encounters, I dunno.

the cause of the masturbating is obvious tho. it's the most accessible kind of pleasure one had while strapped to a chair or locked in a crib. the child explores him/her self in this total isolation and eventually acquires this habit.

but homegirl had absolutely no shame and hey... i know exactly how you feel, kiddo. sometimes when the feelin comes over ya you just gotta do it man. find a bathroom real quick or just hike the skirt up and getcha one right there while sitting in the lobby or on the park bench.

you guys don't understand any of this because you're normal. but G and me are sofa king we todd it, we can't help it.

in any event you see how our case took a tragic turn when funding stopped and she was put into state foster care. four outstanding years of exponential progress and then they blew it. Curtiss should have been given full custody of G.

[promethean75]

might as well call her the bionic woman she's so badass. Listen the right hemisphere of her brain went into a hyperdrive never before observed in a human being while she lived in a Wittgensteinian world of simple grammarless language. a social life constructed and lived entirely through nonverbal communication... only a very basic, single word vocabulary... but an absolute inability to think inductively, ask questions, make plans, command, etc. she had no concept or interest in causation, never aksed 'why' about anything. the centers and processes in her brain that we have and that give us this intellectual ability simply atrophied, and no amount of neuroplasticity could reverse it.

y'all wanna aks Nagel what it's like to be a bat when you should be aksing him what it's like to be a genie, cuz that's where it's at, philosophically.

do we need language to think? what is a 'thought' if not as W called it 'a proposition with a sense'? but you need a language to form an intelligeable proposition. do u realize how extraordinary this question is?

i shall forward this question before we advance our thesis; has genie kicked down Wittgenstein's ladder?

discuss.  

[promethean75]

read in an italian accent.

"if'a complex grammar waz'a money, Genie would be'a Broca!"

(thank you, it's original material)

Edit: removed apostrophe in 'Broca' for disambiguation.

[promethean75]

the big deal was that Chomsky's grammar theory and the contender, the 'critical stage theory' (forget guy's name) were about to be brought to bear in an as real as possible scientific experiment. Chomsky says language is hardwired such that rules of grammar could in theory be learned and comprehended at any age, and the other guy says you get a small window of time between five and ten years old to learn a first language. if you don't catch that window, you sound sofa king we todd it when you try to talk.

now here are some things to consider that thickened the plot. as of this day, we do not know whether or not G was mentally we todd it. problem is, we can't go back in time, raise her normally for thirteen years, and then check to see how she is and is behaving at thirteen years old. if we could, we'd know if she were we todd it or not.

twice she was called we todd it. once by a doctor who was addressing her hip condition and the splint situation when she was a toddler and again by a dude who saw characteristic 'spindles' in her brain patterns... a common kind of brain activity for we todd it kids.

but wait - and here is where Curtiss steps in. if G wuz mentally we todd it, she wouldn't have been able to progress as much as she did in that first five year period with the Riglers. a truly we todd it person wouldn't have been able to do that much, at that age, in that period of time. that's what Curtiss is saying.

and you've got to also consider this, which should drive the nail in the coffin of the we todd it theory; if you have a we todd it baby and you lock it in a room in a chair for thirteen years, you'd have a kid that wuz sofa king we todd it, he/she wouldn't be a quarter of what G ended up becoming... at least until they blew it, traumatized her again and destroyed nearly all progress that was previously made during her adolescence. 

i believe the language acquisition critical period theory is correct and rather than interpreting her behavior as we todd it, it has to be understood reductively as a kind of behavior of a person who's missing a critically important component needed to coordinate the efforts of their otherwise normally functioning brain in the act of communicating. but there is no indication of structural abnormality or disease. as Curtiss put it, 'the lights were on'.

here's the best docu you'll find on 'er: https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/genie-s ... ild-child/

it includes material on Victor, that french feral kid from a century ago or whenever.

lemme tell you something else. i find absolutely no excuse for the care home keeping G right now preventing Curtiss from visting her. I'm not even sure Curtiss knows where she is, but she last said she never stopped trying to gain contact to her during the decade following the law suit.

G is in her 60s now and would probably love to see Curtiss. i see no reason why she couldn't be allowed visits or even be taken out on the town by Curtiss.

UCLA's database has contact information for Curtiss as well as the entire archive of the work done with G. we need to find out from her who we need to contact to solicit permission for Curtiss to see G. i feel like i could write up a pretty reasonable email in defense of C being able to do so and how that would in no way endanger G or create a liability for the home. 

U just think about how delighted G would be if Curtiss came to see her. Yeah you see it. Like one of those movie scenes that makes you fuckin ball. U can't even walk out when the movie ends cuz everybody would see you crying like a bitch so u stay in there and pretend to be reading the credits.

G would go full we todd if Curtiss walked through the door. U know she would.

little trivia: one week after G's rescue, the movie 'Wild Child' (think it's called) came out in theaters. what are the chances.

[promethean75]

a possible explanation for the abnormally high sleep spindle activity could be this. these diagnostics took place very shortly after G had been removed from a literal sense deprivation chamber and thrown into a world exploding with activity. it's possible these sleep spindle abnormalities could have been symptomatic of an over stimulated thalamus responding as fast as it could to the bombardment of new sensory information. 

that test should have been done before she was rescued. course it couldn't have but point taken.

i dunno tho it seems too simplistic an idea for the docs to have missed it. maybe i just misunderstand what I'm reading about sleep spindles and the thalamus.

[promethean75]

that dumb bitch Butler who wuz tryna exploit G and made that measles story up to keep her. what a total kunt. what really irks me is that fuckin patronizing tone of her voice when she talks to G like she's a two year old we todd. Curtiss didn't talk to G like that for a reason. it's overdone, inauthentic speech interaction that doesn't model real, casual contact and conversation. the contrived childishness that dominates Butler's tone when talking to G is empty of very important nuance and idiosyncrasy in human speech that makes it meaningful. for example it's the manner and inflection of the way Curtiss tells G to hurry. Curtiss's speech itself is hurried, excited, an expression of being-in-a-hurry. neither is she using a baby voice and coddling her. Curtiss talks to her with subtle but more aggressive expection in her tone... and this, being more challenging for G to process and keep up with, invites her to concentrate harder. She also knows when to talk as an equal or peer rather than an instructor or authority figure all the time, and this prolly both relaxes G and makes her feel more confident. And the distinction between these two modes of speech (call em) is important for G in learning and developing a social identity. She needs to experience a variety of unique speech 'personas' and where they are appropriate.

that stupid patronizing baby voice of Butler's encourages G almost subliminally to remain a helpless child because that's how she's being talked to. I'm tellin you G picks up on that shit bro.

[promethean75]

the docu reported - maybe wrongfully i dunno - that psychologists have no explanation for the hording behavior of children once in extreme isolation... especially pertaining to glasses/cups of water. you see footage of G carrying two cups from the kitchen to her room to be added to her stash. 

i mean c'mon this isn't rocket science. isolated children aren't totally abandoned, so they're being fed somehow... most likely out of cups, jars or cans of food and fluids. plates maybe too but it's the container-nature of the object that the child is fixated on. especially in G's case because she wuz fed manually out of jars and cans.

theory: G associates the hording of cups of water with storing food and out of instinct, does so.

later when she stops doing that it's because of the abundence of food available any time she expressed hunger.

the other theory would be that water is just interesting to we todds, and taking possession of water in a container as a piece of property satisfies that other instinct to collect and keep material things.

but siriusly how could psychologists still be speculating over the cup of water thing with isolated kids? i mean why else would they do that?