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You know you're in deep
Sep. 18th, 2007 04:52 pmWhen you're pricing Gas Chromatograph/Mass Spectrometer benchtop systems--yet another bit of trivia that may never make it into the WiP, but who knows?
In class last night we watched a one-minute videotape of a bank robbery in progress. I (and most of my fellow students) completely sucked at physical descriptions--for one thing about half the class thought both robbers were the same age, when in reality there was a twenty-year age gap. On the other hand, I had excellent recall of their voices and what they'd said, showing that I'm aural dominant and would make a better earwitness than eyewitness.
A couple of the students bucked the trend and were very good at describing what we'd seen. Interestingly enough, the rest of us also demonstrated typical witness behavior where those of us who couldn't clearly recall what we'd seen conformed to majority opinion--a majority that turned out to be wrong on key details. This is why procedure requires that witnesses be separated as soon as possible after the event until they can be interviewed--even witnesses who are trying to be honest and cooperate with police can be influenced into providing information that is false.
Not to mention the issues involved in asking the right questions--given the exact same circumstances, people will respond differently if asked:
Did you see a weapon?
Did you see a gun?
Did you see the gun?
As you can see, I'm having a lot of fun.
In today's writing related link Science Fiction Writer Admits Unstoppable Killing Machine Based On His Mother.
And in other writing news, I was thrilled to hear that DEVLIN'S LUCK has gone back to the presses again (THANKS GUYS!) Pretty cool for a book that was first published in 2002.
In class last night we watched a one-minute videotape of a bank robbery in progress. I (and most of my fellow students) completely sucked at physical descriptions--for one thing about half the class thought both robbers were the same age, when in reality there was a twenty-year age gap. On the other hand, I had excellent recall of their voices and what they'd said, showing that I'm aural dominant and would make a better earwitness than eyewitness.
A couple of the students bucked the trend and were very good at describing what we'd seen. Interestingly enough, the rest of us also demonstrated typical witness behavior where those of us who couldn't clearly recall what we'd seen conformed to majority opinion--a majority that turned out to be wrong on key details. This is why procedure requires that witnesses be separated as soon as possible after the event until they can be interviewed--even witnesses who are trying to be honest and cooperate with police can be influenced into providing information that is false.
Not to mention the issues involved in asking the right questions--given the exact same circumstances, people will respond differently if asked:
Did you see a weapon?
Did you see a gun?
Did you see the gun?
As you can see, I'm having a lot of fun.
In today's writing related link Science Fiction Writer Admits Unstoppable Killing Machine Based On His Mother.
And in other writing news, I was thrilled to hear that DEVLIN'S LUCK has gone back to the presses again (THANKS GUYS!) Pretty cool for a book that was first published in 2002.