Games Prisoners Play

Posts have been a bit skinny lately because I have been reading two books.  One I do not have liberty to talk about.  The other I do.

Games Prisoners Play was written by Marek Kaminski based largely on what he learned during his 5 months in incarceration.

Kaminski presents his findings in the context of Game Theory.  Kaminski's original professional training was in Mathematics.

Primary goals of the games are:

1. Does the prisoner have the mental toughness to withstand a beating or other degrading acts
2. Is the prisoner passive/compliant or does the prisoner reject the lines-on-the-paper
3. Does the prisoner demonstrate that he understands that nobody can be trusted
4. How quickly does the prisoner adapt to changing rule-sets...moral relativism.

Mental toughness

Prison is an Us-vs-Them environment.  Rats, squealers etc are ruthlessly identified and exterminated.  Prisoners judged to be at-risk for turning into rats are never granted access to dangerous information.

Mental toughness is the primary characteristic of a prisoner who will not spill his guts during interrogation.

Willingness to endure physical pain in defense of one's honor is a testable proxy for mental toughness. A man who will take a beating rather than do something degrading is judged to be likely to take a beating from guards without spilling his guts.

Passivity

A prisoner who passively accepts a "game" as defined by the gamer is judged to be a risk.  The gamer will always win if they are allowed to establish the rules without challenge.

One example of how this is tested is to develop games which appear to be structured for A-and-B answers.  The correct answer is D.

For example, upon entering a Polish prison cell the other inhabitants of the cell will ask the newcomer, "Are you a  grypsman?"....sort of a journeyman prisoner.  This question is structured as a Yes/No question.  Neither answer is correct.  The correct answer is something along the lines of, "It does not matter what I think I am.  You are going to check me out and decide for yourselves."

(Added after original post was published:  This reply reminds me of Jesus during His passion.  He is given a similar question twice: Once by the Sanhedrin (Matt 26:64)and once by Pilate (Matt 27:11).  Both times he answers with something similar to "It is you who say it."  Either prisoners have not changed or prisoners are apt Bible students.)

The second best answer is, "Not yet but I want to be one."

No Trust

Many games are set up where somebody is blindfolded.  The winning move is to either ensure that you appear to be blindfolded or the other party really is effectively blindfolded.  The outcome of the game is decided before it starts.

Notice that the "correct" answer for "Are you a grypsman?" starts with "no trust" as the initial preposition.

Demonstrating that you trust no one makes you less likely to rat to a seemingly sympathetic outsider.

Changing rule set

Another game is where a veteran prisoner tells the rookie that one fist is Micky and the other is Donald.  The veteran hits the rookie and asks, "Who hit you?"  The veteran keeps beating the rookie until the rookie names the actual prisoner rather than the fist.

Another game is "What do you see outside?"  Typical (wrong) answers include "a car", "a bird", "a pretty girl".  Each wrong answer receives a beating.  The correct answer is "freedom".

The only unchanging rule-set is absolute loyalty to one's caste or prison group.  Everything else is subservient to that goal.

Adaptation to real life

People who thrive in prison are likely to prove too prickly and combative, too oppositional, and too lacking in trust to thrive in traditional employment.  His ability to adjust to changes in "mapping" or the moral relativism may or may not help him adapt to outside life.

Inner city culture is seasoned with a generous infusion of prison culture.  The cult of diversity and multiculturalism want us to believe that all cultures are equal....different but equally valuable.  One would have to be brain-dead to believe that modern business enterprises can thrive if they adopt and celebrate a culture of intransigence, physical aggression, opposition, absolute opacity and extreme Balkanization.

Belladonna is Job Shadowing Today

Belladonna is visiting her aunt in the southeast corner of Michigan.  She is job shadowing.

Three C-Sections are scheduled for today.

Hey Auntie, I am all EYES and ears.

Gun Porn

I am weak.  I could not resist.


This is not my cup of tea.  It is a bit over the top, like Chesty Morgan.  But I am in awe of the concept and execution.

I wonder how much it weighs.

What is a Minimum Level of Physical Fitness?

What is the minimum level of physical fitness and how well do Americans compare to this standard?

Dmitry Orlov, author of Reinventing Collapse makes this statement:

"If they (the typical shopper walking across the parking lot from their SUV to the shopping mall or Wallie-world) suddenly had to start living like Russians (after the collapse) they would blow out there knees.  Most of them would not even try, but simply wait (to die)"

Sidebar:  I admit to having much energy around this topic.  One summer my work group was assigned a "temp" worker so extra vacations could be allocated through the summer.  This temp was 5'8" tall and according to one of my formerly obese coworkers, "Weighs 450 pounds if he weighs an ounce."

The extremely generous allowance for learning a job is three days.  Most workers learn the job in four hours and then screw-the-pooch by working half-time (splitting the work with the trainer) for the remaining 20 hours.  This guy was not capable of learning any of three jobs in the course of 20 working days.  He simply could not move fast enough to keep up with the line.  He was "let go" on the 20th day.

The net result was that my work group was denied one extra vacation slot through the prime vacation season.  I never had a chance to chat with Human Resources, but I am sure that the reason we received the large temp is because A.) we live in a litigious society and B.) He was representative (extreme, but representative) of the candidates who were applying for the job.

I am still at a loss to explain my reaction.  I was deeply offended that they put this guy on the factory floor, on MY factory floor.  He could be hurt.  Other people could have been hurt.  How can Human Resources not know that factory work is physical work.

So what is the minimum level?

I am going to throw a stake in the ground and explain my rational.

The ERJ minimum level of physical fitness is the ability to walk 12 miles in less than five hours.  Flat ground, unlimited electrolytes and food, porta-potties, no adverse weather.

Reasoning

Minimum is not to be confused with optimum.

The majority of calorie burn during a work-day at typical factory job is a combination of basal metabolism (35%) and walking (60%).  The calorie burn of the actual "value added" work is incidental to most factory jobs.

A walk-time of approximately 50% of the job-cycle is not good by modern standards but it is certainly not unusual.  That is, it is pretty common to walk 12 miles (four hours) during an eight hour shift or 18 miles on a 12 hour shift.

Factory jobs are tuned in to ergonomics.  That is not true of baling hay, cutting firewood, picking strawberries, digging potatoes, carrying water, hand milking cows or goats, hoeing weeds or a host of other subsistence level tasks.

Hypothesis testing

Testing Orlov's hypothesis that most (i.e., more than 50% of Americans are unfit) proves to be surprisingly difficult.  The main difficulty is "How does one collect a representative sample?" and then, "How does one test them?"

One method would be to rely on self assessment.  For example, send letters to a random sample that asks the participant the maximum distance they would be willing to walk for some non-trivial amount of money like $60 or $100.

The problems with self assessment is that it is hopelessly optimistic and the return rate for the mailing would be abysmal.

Another method is to place trained observers at a "gate" and have them categorize pedestrians into bins of 0.5 miles, 1.0 miles, 2.0 miles, 4.0 miles, 8.0 miles and more than 8.0 miles.  Two "gates" are frequently mentioned:  The Secretary of State where people must renew their driver's license and Walmart.

One issue specific to monitoring stores like Walmart is that their customer base is stratified by prime shopping time.  People working physical jobs are typically paid on Friday so most of their shopping is done Friday afternoon/evening.  Making observations during this time period would be efficient because there are many shoppers-per-hour but it would skew the results because a disproportionate share of the shoppers are already performing physical work.  In a similar way, the 24 hours after food-stamp EBT cards are refreshed would be disproportionately weighted toward those people who are either not in the work force or are part time workers.

So, what is my gut feel?

I went to my dentist today.  He is an awesome dentist and he has a waiting list of people who want to be his patients.  I assume he sees relatively few uninsured and he has a low tolerance for people who choose to be unhealthy so I believe his patient base is healthier than the general population.  He is 70 years old and is an avid tennis player.

I asked him: "What percentage of your patients do you think could walk 12 miles?"

He thought about 20 seconds.  Then he said, "40%"

That may be high for the general population because of the self-selection inherent in people who seek good oral health but it is one, defensible stake in the ground.  And yes, my dentist agrees with Orlov.

Buds and Grafting

One esoteric piece of information that helps a fledgeling grafter become more capable is to understand that buds have a robust communication process that can be used to your advantage.

When a bud "pushes" or breaks dormancy the very tip of the extending shoot produces growth regulators, plant hormones, that command neighboring buds to NOT break dormancy.  Pinching out the growing point stops the production of that growth regulator.  One of the most important (and, unfortunately tedious) grafting after-care tasks is to keep stripping off the shoots that grow below the graft.  If left on, those shoots will supress the buds on the graft and it will fail.

Cecil Farris was one of the most proficient grafters I know.  He had unbelievably high percentage of takes on species not generally considered graftable.  He advised me to remove EVERY shoot on the plant except for those pushing from your graft.  I commented, "But that will kill the plant if the graft does not take."  His reply was two-fold:  "The plant knows that.  It will not commit suicide....There is nothing wrong with the craftsmanship of that graft.  There is nothing wrong with that scion.  If every molecule of sugar and protein in that rootstock cannot make that graft work...then I have no use for that rootstock.  It should die."

Nurse buds

Another tip from Cecil was to leave a nurse bud.

Have you ever plunged a knife into your finger and had a dangling flap of skin?  Sometimes the flap of skin bonds back to the meat of the finger and heals.  More often it withers and falls off.  What was the difference?

Many grafts, like whip-and-tongue grafts involve long, tapering cuts.  What keeps the long, thin end of the taper from sloughing off like the flap of skin?

One way is to plan the cuts so that a bud of the rootstock is almost at the very tip of the taper.  That bud will release growth regulators that will scream to the mother plant, "Hey, there is important stuff out here.  Do not abort.  Do not abort."  The mother plant will push nutrients to the very tip of the cut...and thus increase the amount of living, growing tissue pressing against the freshly cut surface of the scion.

Lucky Pittman of Hopkinsville, Ky is something of a legend among his fellow North American Fruit Explorers.  He is very fond of approach grafts.  In an approach graft one cuts about one-third through the branch of the rootstock and binds the scion into the wound.  Much of the rootstock projects beyond the graft and the net result is that the rootstock attempts to heal the wound from both the top and the bottom. The mother plant cannot abort the graft without killing off a substantial portion of itself.

It is necessary to cut off the portion of the rootstock that projects beyond the graft after the wound has s substantially healed or the buds will not push.  But by then, the mother plant will have accepted the scion as part of her own.

Never give up

When you look at  bud you see a simple bump on the stick.  You think it is a (one) bud.  You are wrong. Most of what you see is the primary bud.  That is the bud that is the most differentiated and will push first.  It is also the bud that will make the most demands on the union that might still be early in the healing process.  Most buds also have a secondary bud.  It is usually buried deeply within the primary bud.  In fact, it is buried so deeply that you can rub off the primary bud and the secondary is likely still intact. 

On walnuts, Cecil would would rub off the "big boogers" and leave just the secondaries.  In the case of walnuts there are two distinctly different buds with the secondary the size of the point on a ball-point pen and below the primary.  "Those big bastards will push too soon and dry that scion right out.  You cannot have that.  Just leave the secondarys."

This graft teased me when it pushed a primary bud early on.  The bud grew two inches an then shriveled.  A month went by.  Then these buds on the scion simply exploded.

But that is not all folks.  There are also tertiary buds.  In my mind's eye these are very tiny specks of undifferentiated tissue (the plant equivalent of stem-cell tissue).  They take quite a while to differentiate and become structured tissue that develop into shoots. But they are there.

Do not give up.  Do not give up.  Do not give up.  Plants do not commit suicide.  Do not give up.

Church Services

The 11:00 AM service at my church is getting longer and longer.

I broached a sensitive topic with the family.  Keep in mind that two of the family are teenagers and one of the adults is a night-owl.  I suggested that we go to an earlier service.

Our priest serves two separate congregations.  He has an early Mass in Charlotte, then zooms over to Bellevue for another Mass, then back to Charlotte for the 11:00 AM service.  He has to scoot right along during the two earlier services if he is to start the next one on time.  I think he relaxes a bit for the last service and it is longer.

So I suggested that we go to the 8:30 AM Mass in Charlotte.  I told them it was MUCH shorter than the 11:00 AM service.

I was making major headway until Mrs ERJ remembered that the service started at 8:00 AM.  I got voted down 3-to-1. 

On a slightly different note, have you ever wondered how many commandments Moses would have come down the mountain with if he had been carrying an 8 Gb thumbdrive rather than stone tablets?

Happy Fathers day.

Fishing Tackle

I bought Kubota some fishing tackle today.

Kubota, historically, has not taken good care of things.  Generally, it has been my things that he has not taken good care of.

Kubota lives in the here-and-now.  Planning ahead and finishing things after the pay-off ends is a skill he is still acquiring.

What cool kids do

A new shop opened in town.  It is Big Daddies Bait N Tackle. Big Daddie has kid charisma.  All of a sudden, fishing is what all of the cool middle school kids are doing.

Kubota did not have the hardware to run with the big dogs.  And it really bothered him.

I must admit, with all honesty and humility, that I am an awesome river fisherman.  I spent several, girlfriendless summers distracting myself via the pursuit of various piscine species. So being a great fisherman is not so much a gift as a consolation prize.

Let me re-phrase that, at the time it did not seem like a gift because I had not met Mrs ERJ.  Little does she know that we would never have met were it not for smallmouth bass.  Obviously, this is not bragging, it is merely explaining how I became a gifted river fisherman.

Back to Kubota

Kubota grumbled all of the way to Charlotte.  He wanted to know what errand I was dragging him along on.

He warmed up a bit when he found out that at least one of the items I was shopping for was for him.

He ended up with his very own 5'6" medium action spinning rod loaded with 12 lb-test line, a see-through tackle box (what the cool kids had), a collection of hooks, sinkers, bobbers, Beetle-spins, grub bodies, jelly worms and Little Cleos.  We also picked up about a pound of 1/2" nuts to use as sinkers and a new collar for Zeus.

I dropped about $90 on the trip but it was well worth it.

On the way home I shared one of the little tidbits of information I picked up during those girlfriendless summers:  Girls and fish share certain characteristics...where you fish and what you use for bait goes a long way toward determining the species you catch.

I have done almost no fishing since I "hooked up" with Mrs ERJ but that might be changing if Kubota is actually serious about catching fish.