Law school taught me lots of things unrelated to the law, but one of the best lessons was that just because you are educated does not mean you actually know what you are doing.

I always knew in the back of my mind this was true but as I am not a psychologist nor am I involved in the social sciences, I had no idea how to prove this other than through my anecdotal experiences, but apparently, these people were smart enough to figure out some method and publish in the Journal of Experimental Psychology – “Searching for Explanations: How the Internet Inflates Estimates of Internal Knowledge,” Matthew Fisher, Mariel K. Goddu, and Frank C. Keil from Yale University.  http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/xge-0000070.pdf

Now for those of you who prefer the layman’s version of the article I submit the following for your consideration…

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/01/how-the-internet-makes-you-think-youre-smarter-than-you-really-are/

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/04/02/396810355/searching-online-may-make-you-think-youre-smarter-than-you-are

I know that you are all tired of hearing from me that the internet is full of lots of ideas and crap because people often do not have the capacity to figure out fact from fiction.  Most people think because they can google things that they are smart believe all social media is real – which includes the videos, recordings, and pictures.  The problem with the assumption that social media is real relatively stupid as interviews of politicians are generally 45 minutes long but only 3 minutes makes the news and thanks to the applications available today, everyone is now a mix master, editor of the truth, etc.

I think that most people do not comprehend what they are reading or looking at because the internet has made things too easy for people to turn into the girl in the State Farm Commercial 😀 https://youtu.be/v_CgPsGY5Mw.

The other problem I have with lots of internet articles is that they mix fact with horse manure but people buy the crap because it “seems true” or it “seems reasonable.”  The problem is that the truth and facts do not have to be reasonable or seem like anything – sometimes the most screwed up and convoluted scenarios are the facts.  Unfortunately, for me and some of my friends – the legal standard is based on the ordinary or reasonable person.  Seriously, sometimes I do better polling random people on the streets about how I should resolve the situation because most people are impractical, illogical, and/or don’t know what the hell they are doing but because the average person thinks and behaves that way, I am screwed 🙁

What I do know is that educated people do not always equal the most rational or most intelligent or practical as depicted by the administrators from the University of South Wales who decided to build a campus in London to the tune of £319,000 and then have no students on campus to support it.  http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-33680352

So the water mafia in India is actually an old story but the interesting idea is if we charged as much as the water mafia in India does per household income then maybe people would conserve.  According to the BBC News Article, “Water Mafia: Why Delhi is buying water on the black market,” a family making $80 a month pays $10 for water from the black market.  http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-33671836.  Imagine if we did that in the US, gone would be the manicured lawns in California but maybe there would be more money for crops and people to drink – what a concept…

While I approve of switching to crops which rely on less water, I am sure going to start missing the almonds and citrus because the price point will continue to rise and I am not going to be willing to pay for them after awhile… But I do hope that the weather improves and the aquifers replenish soon so people can have plenty to drink and lots to eat.  http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/07/28/426886645/squeezed-by-drought-california-farmers-switch-to-less-thirsty-crops.  Seriously, do you really want to see the water mafia out in San Diego County?  I imagine them to be more vicious out there with the free flowing availability of guns in the US versus the kicking and scrambling in Delhi…

Despite the residential 35% cut backs in water usage and the 25% cut backs which the farmers agreed to earlier in the summer, we might have to all start investing in water resources elsewhere, and truck them into CA.  Having one of the wettest July’s on record does not help alleviate 4 years of drought…  Love the ReLEAF program name 😀

http://ca.gov/drought/

http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/californias-drought/

http://www.latimes.com/local/drought/

So a friend and I were catching up and sharing many incidents of people being idiots – basically anyone in the assumption, judgmental, or racist categories needs to have their human cards revoked from the lack of using their noggin.  Seriously, we share 97% of our DNA with Chimps and I am convinced that the 3% which makes us different is the way we use our brains to think things logically through.  It is unfortunate that most people do not bother to use the 3%.  Frankly, those who do not use the remaining 3% are no better than those Chimps we visit at the zoos and maybe they belong in an exhibit right next to those Chimps.

Most of you know how I feel about the racists, judgmental, and asses who assume.  Most of you also realize that these days, I have joined the bandwagon of fining or penalizing in some way those who exhibit horrible behaviors as a result of law school.  While I was already a fully thinking and analyzing being before law school, the legal education system did teach me that my beliefs that people are inherently good, empathetic, and well-meaning were false.

My brother and dad experienced racism at Denny’s as well but of course they never did anything about it because they don’t believe that expressing their complaints to the people who are actually irritating them matter.  They would rather come home and tell all their family and friends about the racist incident at Denny’s.  Logically this makes no sense and frustrates me as why should my ears bleed because of someone else’s bad behavior?

Frankly, they should have complained to someone as their incident in Baltimore happened after the initial slew of law suits against Denny’s in the mid-90s through early 2000s.  Sorry no access to Westlaw or Lexis Nexis right now but I can find and upload the actual complaints and cases later…

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/25/us/denny-s-restaurants-to-pay-54-million-in-race-bias-suits.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/dennys-hit-with-new-lawsuit/

http://lubbockonline.com/stories/040602/nat_0406020065.shtml

Many of you also know that I am a Macy’s shopaholic.  Thankfully, I have never experienced any of these horrible incidents at Macy’s.  However, my friend was telling me about his friend’s detention, false accusation, consequential arrest, and pleading of guilt to the false accusation to be finished with this situation.  The problem with not fighting for your rights is that you lose them and are saddled with the consequences of other people’s idiocy.  Why should I accept someone else’s screw up and the resulting consequences while they walk away scott free and without a care in the world?  In the old days, I would not fight for something unless it was more than $1 because the lost change is not worth the time and effort.  Thanks to law school, I now fight over a penny and would be willing to go broke to prove a point.

So next time, if someone falsely accuses you, turn around and fight.  You might be in good company…

http://www.ibtimes.com/macys-agrees-pay-650000-settle-cases-racial-discrimination-against-it-1663640

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/black-shopper-files-lawsuit-macy-article-1.1554702

http://nypost.com/2013/11/19/cop-sues-macys-claiming-bogus-racist-theft-charge-got-her-fired/

http://www.wlwt.com/news/macys-pays-650k-to-settle-racial-discrimination-probe/27637928

I think it is wonderful and ironic that my Chinese relatives know more about actual American news than some of my American counterparts. I also think it is stupid that many of us Americans know nothing about China since they only own most of our debts, produce most of the products that we use on a daily basis, and are a significant chunk of many people’s retirement funds.

So decided to just highlight the amount of times China was in the news on a single day. So here is my NYTimes subscription going to work for you all from July 12, 2015.

On the negative end of the spectrum which many of my Chinese friends see as China bashing from western news media. Seriously the title does have significant negative connotations, “China Fences in Its Nomads, and Ancient Life Withers,” I wonder why some people think that way… Essentially the Three Gorges resettlement plan revisited.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/world/asia/china-fences-in-its-nomads-and-an-ancient-life-withers.html?_r=0

If you are blase about international news, at least care about the Chinese stock market because your mutual funds, retirement plans, and/or the companies you work for are invested in the Chinese market.  Really scary these days that the Shanghai Composite has lost 1/3 of its value in the last few months.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/16/business/international/cooling-of-chinas-stock-market-dents-major-driver-of-economic-growth.html

The one thing that Americans “generally know” is that China has human rights violations.  Normally, American news articles are filled with human rights violations.  While I do not agree with the arrest of public interest lawyers in China, I hope people realize that not everyone has the same definition of human rights.   Even all those countries at the UN who have signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights periodically violate “human rights” just because they do not agree with the definition.  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/world/asia/china-arrests-human-rights-lawyers-zhou-shifeng.html

Human Rights as most of the world knows it is actually an American construction thanks to Eleanor Roosevelt – one of my personal heroes, drafter of the Universal Human Rights Convention, and first American Ambassador to the UN.  History of the document and actual document can be found here – http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/history.shtml. 

If anything, thanks to all the free speech on the internet of late, you should all realize that expressing your opinion may be fine but you also cause incidents like an idiot teenager shooting people in a church because he was too stupid to know right/wrong and fact/fiction from white supremacist websites or the ISIS recruitment videos which are trying to convince women to join their cause as suicide bombers and sex slaves.  Oh, for those of you who think that education matters, it does not – educated people can be brain washed too, if nothing else think WWII or you can just watch real news, not internet commentaries…

ISIS Luring Americans – http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/22/politics/isis-recruits-american-arrests/.

ISIS $2B Budget to Recruit Americans – http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/27/opinions/aamer-isis-recruiting-western-teenagers/

For those of you who think that only British School Girls are the only ones who are susceptible – US boys are especially so… Our Detroit case happened way before those girls in London disappeared and the 3 wives took all their children with them to Syria.  http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/07/world/isis-western-draw/

Most of my friends are angry that I often lose my phone and/or leave it uncharged.  Frankly with computers everywhere, I see no reason to also need a phone.  Bad enough that people can email me constantly asking me for things but then to give them the convenience of a phone and it leads to total disaster – constant questions hen you can just google and significant requests in which I do not have time to think about.  Phones can be useful in reading news and playing games that you are addicted to but not sure that the addiction is a good thing…

The world might be a better place without the constant phone calls and access to the internet.  Yes, this is ironic that I am posting on my blog and complaining about technology but there are some days where I miss just having a real conversation with someone without the constant beeping of alerts and interruptions.

On the other hand people who are addicted to cell phones are hysterical and they need to start a Cell/Mobile Phones Anonymous (CMPA) group for the extreme offenders.  If you need to jump onto a Broadway set minutes before the show will start to plug your cell phone into a set, you certainly qualify.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33295211

So a banking woman gave up her job, divorced her husband, and opened a Rabbit Bed and Breakfast. She admits that her ex-husband had a valid argument claiming that she spent more time with the rabbits than him. Would love to see the divorce papers on this one. I agree with her decision but feel bad for the husband. However, she is still putting her banking industry knowledge to good use. There is money to be made on a rabbit safe environment as most rabbits are stressed at normal animal room and board areas. Besides, other than the U.S., the Brits are the next biggest rabbit owning country 😀

http://www.reveal.co.uk/real-life-stories/news/a545536/woman-picks-her-pet-rabbits-over-husband-opens-bunny-hotel.html

So I took a really long break from blogging and such but I figure that I should start again since I am going to be in China for a year and since the internet is filled with so much misinformation and opinions which are based on nothing but shear emotion, I might as well join if nothing else to sweep away the crap 😀

So in a few days you all are going to be seeing lots of my favorite photos from China, Arcadia National Park, Alaska, Thomas Edison National Historic Site, Paterson Great Falls, Sagamore Hill, Cape Cod, Fredrick Law Olmstead, Narsh-Billings-Rockefeller, Longfellow House, and John Fitzgerald Kennedy House 😀