Decommissioned

Brownian Motion

Brownian motion or pedesis (from Greek: πήδησις /pɛ̌ːdɛːsis/ “leaping”) is the random motion of particles suspended in a fluid (a liquid or a gas) resulting from their collision with the quick atoms or molecules in the gas or liquid.

Richard Ramirez describes his first experience with death:

The majority of killers will try to scupper the attempts of the authorities to find the bodies of their victims. Investigators use a wide variety of both high and low tech methods to determine the location of a missing corpse. These include:

Downhill: If a body is believed to be buried on a piece of land where terrain rises on one side, and falls on the other, investigators will search downhill - because it’s easier to move a body downhill than carry it uphill - it’s that simple. 

Terrain variations: Freshly turned dirt, trenches, elevation and depressions in the terrain indicate movement, and perhaps the presence of a body. Fresh graves tend to be elevated, and older ones depressed, because of the settling of the dirt. 

Tracking dogs: If a dog can be provided with a scent, they may be able to trace the body. 

Magnetic fields: Using metal detector can easily locate the presence of any watches or jewellery the victim has. 

Electricity: A measurement of the electrical conductivity in the soil can be helpful. A body usually adds moisture to the soil, which increased the electrical conductivity. Electrodes are used to test the current. 

Byproducts of decay: An area of land can be searched with special devices that can locate sources of heat and nitrogen, which are products of the decay process. Ground penetrating radar can also (virtually) see into the land to locate a body.

The land from above: Aerial reconnaissance and photography, as well as thermal imaging, can help detect changes in the land. 

LACERATIONS are mostly NOT blunt force trauma. lacerations tend to be when something splits into two by any kind of force. aka laceration to the liver can be caused by a knife or blunt force trauma that cause the liver to split into two.  mush caused by blunt force trauma is NOT a laceration. 

also penetration is anything that has been penetrated, including bullets, hence it does not need to be sharp.

Why We Often Forget Things We See Every Day

85 college students tried to draw the Apple logo from memory. Only 1 student got it right. 

“People had trouble picking out the correct logo even when it was right in front of them,” said Alan Castel, an associate professor of psychology at UCLA and senior author of the study.

How can this be, given that logos are designed to be simple, memorable and visually distinctive, and Apple’s logo is among the world’s most recognizable?

An explanation may be that our brains have learned it is not important to remember specific details. An efficient memory system does not need to store the details of a corporate logo, except perhaps to distinguish counterfeit products, the researchers concluded.

Earlier studies have shown that most people have a poor memory for other items they encounter daily or almost daily, including computer keyboards (even skilled typists have difficulty describing a standard keyboard), pennies and road signs.

In the new study, participants were asked how well they would be able to draw the Apple logo before being asked to draw it.

“There was a striking discrepancy between participants’ confidence prior to drawing the logo and how well they performed on the task,” Castel said. “People’s memory, even for extremely common objects, is much poorer than they believe it to be.”

Can you recognize the correct logo? See how you do.

Psychology seems like it should be a good place to start trying to figure out how to sift the truth from the lies. If you don’t have access to a polygraph, there may be some behavioral clues that can tip you off. Although the science isn’t completely there yet, a recently-published test seems to have potential. University of Texas at Tyler psychologist Jacqueline Evans and her colleagues (2013) developed the Psychologically Based Credibility Assessment Tool (PBCAT), an 11-item rating scale you can readily adapt for your own purposes. {Read more}

With this background, here are the 9 basic rating scales from the PBCAT that will allow you to detect when you’re being told a lie:

Leaves out sensory details. A liar skips many of the little flourishes that embellish stories told by honest people. These are harder to keep straight later, so he or she just leaves them out. Someone telling the truth might mention what music was playing in the background or what color the flowers on the table were. A liar will try to be as incomplete as possible on details, including time, because these are difficult to construct and then keep consistent to in later renditions of the story.

Admits frequently to faulty memory. People telling the truth don’t have that much trouble remembering a true event, situation, or occurrence. They lived it, so it comes pretty easily to them. Liars, however, will give themselves the “excuse” of having a poor memory when, in reality, it’s only the lies they’re having trouble recalling.

Makes spontaneous corrections. Because liars have to backtrack so much, they will edit heavily their stories: “Her name was Lily, no it was Lisa, wait, maybe it was Linda.” You don’t have to keep an exact count of how many of these occur in a person’s speech, but if they happen often enough for you to notice, the individual is probably covering something up.

Facts about Bonnie and Clyde

Bonnie Parker stood 4'11 and weighed 90 pounds. Clyde Barrow’s height is often debated but is usually said to be between 5'4 and was 5'6

 Bonnie and Clyde met one another at a mutual friends house in West Dallas.  It was said that they were instantly smitten with each other. 

Terms of endearment: Bonnie referred to Clyde as “Daddy”.  Clyde always called Bonnie “honey” or “little girl” and sometimes, “kid”.

Tattoos: Clyde had a heart & dagger with the initials “EBW”-outer arm (the initials of his ex-girlfriend Eleanor B. Williams), a rose & leaves-left shoulder, a shield & anchor with the initials “USN”-left arm, (although he was never in the Navy), a girl’s face, bearing the name “Grace”-right arm. the name “Anne”-left arm. Bonnie had a tattoo above her right knee on her thigh, of double hearts and arrow which contained the names “Bonnie & Roy” (Roy Thornton was Bonnie’s husband before she met Clyde, but whom she never divorced)

While on the run, Clyde once stole a tricycle out of someone’s yard to give to Bonnie’s nephew as a gift.  Bonnie stated to Clyde that the boy who it belonged to will probably be pretty sad.  Clyde commented that he would probably cry, ended up turning around and taking the the tricycle back to the house where they stole it.

At one point, Bonnie, Clyde, Clyde’s brother Buck and Buck’s wife Blanche were all hiding out in a house and the police showed up.  They ended up on the run again, but had to leave all of their belongings behind.  Blanche had photos of the group in her purse, which the police seized.  Most of the pictures show all of them showing off a gun they had stolen from an officer and one of them showed Bonnie with a cigar in her mouth (shown above).  This picture was then shown in many newspapers and it was then always stated that Bonnie smoked big cigars.  She never smoked cigars though, it was merely a prop for a photo. She did chain smoke Camel cigarettes. 

Before meeting Clyde, Bonnie used to work at a restaurant called Marco’s Cafe in Dallas, Texas (photo above shows her behind the counter at Marco’s).  Bonnie began feeding the homeless people and paid for it out of her own paycheck.  Eventually, it got to where the homeless people were taking advantage of Bonnie and they would all show up to get fed.  Most weeks, she wasn’t given a paycheck at all because it all went to pay off meals for the homeless.  She couldn’t stand the thought of anyone going without food. 

Bonnie & Clyde rarely robbed banks & Bonnie was usually not with Clyde for the robberies.  In the four years they were on the run, they were linked to robbing a total of 15 banks, but most of the time, they just stuck with robbing grocery stores and gas stations for the most part, as they were just looking for money to survive on, not get rich.  Clyde usually did these robberies with his friend Raymond Hamilton and Bonnie was usually waiting at a hideout for them and on rare occasions, driving a getaway car. 

When Bonnie was married and living with her husband Roy, she would make Roy take her to see her mom every day and would often cry for her mom.  It got to the point where Mrs. Parker just asked Bonnie and Roy to move in with her and they did so.  When Bonnie got with Clyde, she was still as close as ever to her mom and often when they were on the road, sometimes thousands of miles away, she would cry for her mom and no matter how bad the heat was at their parents homes, Clyde would always immediately start driving to go see their families, which would ultimately lead to their demise. 

Clyde’s first jail escape was with the help of Bonnie and that was also the first crime Bonnie ever committed. In 1930, Clyde was arrested for a burglary and sent to jail.  Bonnie went to visit him and smuggled in a gun which he used to escape with.  He was eventually recaptured and sent to prison.  He paroled in 1932 and rejoined Bonnie.

While serving a 14 year prison sentence (which he eventually got reduced to two years), Clyde chopped off his left big toe and a portion of a second toe with an axe in hopes of getting a transfer out of the Eastham Prison Farm, a prison known for their brutal conditions working in the farm and being notoriously tough.  The severing of his toes proved unnecessary, as Clyde was released from prison six days later. 

In 1933, Clyde got into a bad car accident and Bonnie was pinned in the car while it caught on fire.  Some farmers came out and helped Clyde get the car off of Bonnie, but by that time she had severe burns and wasn’t able to go to a hospital because they would be arrested.  They bandaged her up as best as they could, but for the rest of her life, she hopped on one leg because the other was useless and Clyde would carry her wherever they went more often than not. 

Bonnie and Clyde would often kidnap cops who were chasing after them instead of killing them.  They would take the cops with them for hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles at gunpoint and eventually drop them off. 

Bonnie’s family, especially her mother, begged her to stop dating Clyde and to stay at home because he was always getting in trouble.  Eventually they stopped trying to get them apart because they realized no matter what Clyde did and no matter what kind of danger was brought to Bonnie because of him, she would never leave him.  She knew she would end up dead sooner rather than later, but it was all worth it to her, as long as Clyde was at her side. 

On May 10, 1934, Texas Rangers and police ambushed Bonnie and Clyde, pumping more than 130 rounds of bullets into the stolen car they were in.  Gawkers arrived at the crime scene and attempted to take all that they could for souvenirs.  One man even tried to cut off Clyde’s ear with a knife while another attempted to cut his finger off before police stopped them.  One person did manage to take a lock of Bonnie’s hair and pieces of her blood soaked dress she was wearing.

Bonnie and Clyde were buried separately.  Although they had asked to be buried side by side, Bonnie’s mother had her daughter buried in a different cemetery.  Clyde was buried next to Marvin, his brother, with the epitaph he chose for himself, “Gone but not forgotten”.   Bonnie’s epitaph reads, “As the flowers are all made sweeter by the sunshine and the dew, so this old world is made brighter by the lives of folks like you”. 

Blackhead Coloured scanning electron micrograph by Steve Gschmeissner

Hairs emerging from a blockage in the skin. The material which caused the obstruction, the dead cells and debris associated with a pimple or blackhead, is attached to the emerging hair.

Magnification x180 when printed 10 centimetres wide.