RC Gooch

mattfisher: My Sister Paid Progressive Insurance to Defend Her...

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 10:10:02 -0600

My Sister Paid Progressive Insurance to Defend Her Killer In Court

I’ve been sending out some impertinent tweets about Progressive Insurance lately, but I haven’t explained how they pissed me off. So I will do that here as succinctly as possible. There’s a general understanding that says, “insurance companies— oh they’re awful,” but since Progressive turned their shit hose on my late sister and my parents, I’ve learned some things that really surprised me.

I’ll try to cleave to the facts. On June 19, 2010, my sister was driving in Baltimore when her car was struck by another car and she was killed. The other driver had run a red light and hit my sister as she crossed the intersection on the green light.

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Tue, 01 May 2012 20:09:02 -0600

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Tue, 01 May 2012 07:39:51 -0600

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Mon, 15 Aug 2011 21:30:29 -0600

The Many Faces of Ron Swanson (Fixed)

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 08:14:59 -0600

flyingscotsman:

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Wed, 11 May 2011 18:40:06 -0600

lostsplendor: Baby’s First Gas Mask, c. 1939. Click for...

Wed, 11 May 2011 16:00:06 -0600

lostsplendor:

Baby’s First Gas Mask, c. 1939. Click for Source.

musingsinfemininity: This amazing animation was made by BYU...

Wed, 11 May 2011 14:04:43 -0600

musingsinfemininity:

This amazing animation was made by BYU alum Ryan Woodward, the same guy that did the animations on Google’s main page today.

It’s beautiful.

musingsinfemininity: whiskeysoaked: This is incredible, I was...

Wed, 11 May 2011 14:01:01 -0600

musingsinfemininity:

whiskeysoaked:

This is incredible, I was hoping someone would put this up

I love this! It was made by a BYU alum. *cough* I’m a BYU alum too.

blankbook: (via Upcycled Cardboard Vase | Manolo for the Home)

Wed, 11 May 2011 13:59:28 -0600

blankbook:

(via Upcycled Cardboard Vase | Manolo for the Home)

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Thu, 17 Mar 2011 15:28:07 -0600

scipsy: [Biology: An Inquiry into the Nature of Life (via...

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 16:00:06 -0700

scipsy:

[Biology: An Inquiry into the Nature of Life (via Reanimation Library - Catalog)]

Love is a wondrous state, deep, tender, and rewarding. Because of its intimate and personal nature it is regarded by some as an improper topic for experimental research. But, whatever our personal feelings may be, our assigned mission as psychologists is to analyze all facets of human and animal behavior into their component variables. So far as love or affection is concerned, psychologists have failed in this mission. The little we know about love does not transcend simple observation, and the little we write about it has been written better by poets and novelists. But of greater concern is the fact that psychologists tend to give progressively less attention to a motive which pervades our entire lives. Psychologists, at least psychologists who write textbooks, not only show no interest in the origin and development of love or affection, but they seem to be unaware of its very existence.

These are the first lines of the classic paper by Harry F. Harlow: The Nature of Love (1958)

In that paper Harlow describe one of the most fundamental experiment of the history of psychology.

In Harlow’s classic experiment, two groups of baby rhesus monkeys were removed from their mothers. In the first group, a terrycloth mother provided no food, while a wire mother did, in the form of an attached baby bottle containing milk. In the second group, a terrycloth mother provided food; the wire mother did not. It was found that the young monkeys clung to the terrycloth mother whether or not it provided them with food, and that the young monkeys chose the wire surrogate only when it provided food.

Whenever a frightening stimulus was brought into the cage, the monkeys ran to the cloth mother for protection and comfort, no matter which mother provided them with food. This response decreased as the monkeys grew older.

When the monkeys were placed in an unfamiliar room with their cloth surrogate, they clung to it until they felt secure enough to explore. Once they began to explore, they occasionally returned to the cloth mother for comfort. Monkeys placed in an unfamiliar room without their cloth mothers acted very differently. They froze in fear and cried, crouched down, or sucked their thumbs. Some even ran from object to object, apparently searching for the cloth mother, as they cried and screamed. Monkeys placed in this situation with their wire mothers exhibited the same behavior as the monkeys with no mother.

Once the monkeys reached an age where they could eat solid foods, they were separated from their cloth mothers for three days. When they were reunited with their mothers, they clung to them and did not venture off to explore as they had in previous situations. Harlow concluded from this that the need for contact comfort was stronger than the need to explore.

The study found that monkeys who were raised with either a wire mother or a cloth mother gained weight at the same rate. However, the monkeys that had only a wire mother had trouble digesting the milk and suffered from diarrhea more frequently. Harlow’s interpretation of this behavior, which is still widely accepted, was that a lack of contact comfort is psychologically stressful to the monkeys. (via wikipedia)