The Benefits of Acting Like Superman

Nobody will be able to soar through the air, deflect bullets, lift huge vehicles in order to rescue people trapped underneath or perform any of the other acts depicted in Superman, Batman or other super hero movies, but according to one researcher we can still benefit physically and emotionally by copying their examples.

At least that is the claim of Kent Gray a Canadian psychology student at Harvard University as reported in the editorial pages of the Vancouver Sun on May 15, 2010. Gray claims that his research has revealed that people stereotype heroes ( and villains) as having , "a mind less sensitive to pain and more capable of exerting willpower."

And he says that studies show that does happen. Persons who are engaged in thinking about or even better - doing good things for other persons do gain in both physical and emotional endurance while engaged in these activities.

As it turns out the same studies Gray speaks about also showed that persons engaged in evil thoughts or actions that resulted in harm to other also gained both physical and emotional strength and endurance while engaged in these -- but we won't go there because we know that such acts in the end are destructive not only for the victims but also for the perpetrators.

Our brains and consciences are just like that automatic pilot on an airplane. Good information loaded into that automatic pilot will help ensure a safe flight. Wrong will cause a disaster, like guiding that airliner into the side of a mountain and killing everybody. Wrong information or ideas that we load into our brains and conscious will also result in a disasters for ourselves and others.

What we want to focus on is doing good for other because the studies that Gray referred to showed that the real winners were people who were engaged in thinking about and carrying out acts that helped others.

You can get more information about this at either the Vancouver Sun Web site: vancouversun.com or the print journal - Psychological and Personality Science.

It sounds like it could be very interesting reading – and very logical. If you listen to the stories from people who have spent years working tirelessly to help people in Africa and other countries you realize that Superman was really onto something.

Be More Observant

 

I see it everywhere: I see it in pedestrians who cross intersections oblivious to what vehicles are bearing down on them. I see it in cyclists who really believe they are safe because of their flashing lights or brightly coloured jackets. I see it in drivers who pull out of inter- sections completely unaware of cars coming down the other way and just missing them by inches. I see it in people – men and women – walking along the sidewalk lost in another world – blind to who is sitting in a car they are approaching or just past or who is walking beside or behind them on the sidewalks or who is watching them from a doorway. And I see it in people who take strangers they have just met at face value – just because they have a beautiful smile or appearance or personality.

 

And then – I see it in news accounts of pedestrians killed as they attempted to cross the street -- of cyclists scattered along the roadside like rag dolls -- of drivers whose mangled bodies have to be cut out of their vehicles and of women and men who simply vanished after going for a bike ride or to a dance or for a drink at the local pub. With this last group sometimes their bodies turn up alongside a trail, in a lake or river. Sometimes they vanish forever.

All of these tragedies occur because people go about their activities without being tuned into their environment – until it is too late.

 

The need to continually access our environment and then take appropriate action to protect ourselves never goes away. Unfortunately very few of us remember this and practice that continuous assessment, planning and acting to protect ourselves – no matter what we are engaged in.

 

Don't Kill Your Pet with Vaccines!

 

Like many pet owners you are probably bombarded with reminders from your local veterinarian to protect your cat or dog by having its latest booster vaccine shot – but by following their advice you might be killing your pet rather than protecting it. At least that is the opinion of a Dr. Jean Hofve, a Dr. of Veternary Medicine

According to Dr. Hofve, writing in the April-May 2010 edition of The Pet Connection Paper giving your cat or do the annual booster vaccinations which many mainstream veterinarians promote is not only a waste of time and money but also create dangers for your pet.

He says, that, "Additional vaccine doses in an immunized animal do not increase or improve the immunity, but they do increase the risks."

According to this doctor you should think twice about subjecting your pet to any additional vaccination after the first one when they are young because of the risk that some of these vaccines might cause Vaccine Associated Sarcomas (VAS) in the connective tissues of the cats and can also have adverse affects on the connective tissues of dogs as well.

According to Dr. Hofve statistics show the vaccination can cause this cancer in up to 1 in 10,000 cats in some studies or as many as 1 case in 1,000 cats in other studies.

Obviously more research needs to be done but regardless of the severity of the risk, as he points out in his article, you could be subjecting your pet to this risk for nothing and your pet could be one of the ones to develop cancer from a vaccine – especially if they have a genetic susceptibility to cancer already.

Here is a case were you need to assess the facts carefully before giving in to any pressure from your pet's veterinarian to continue a series of booster vaccinations throughout their lives.

You could be cutting their lives short rather than protecting them from disease.

 

 

 

 

 

Two Ways to Help Catch Criminals

Police -- generally --do not like members of the public or even business owners to get directly involved in arresting criminals. And for good reason.

There are too many stories of people being injured or killed by persons trying to resist muggers or robbers – but there are two things that you can do to help police prevent crimes or find and arrest much easier without endangering yourself or other persons – both part of a security professionals repertoire of tactics.

The first one is to keep in mind and use the "Rule of Three" – whether you are a private citizen or security professional. It is quite simple: If you see a person (or persons) or a suspicious vehicle showing up three times around your property, within a few minutes, few hours or even a few days -- without good reason -- call the -- non-emergency -- number of your local police department and tell them about your suspicions.

Generally the police dispatcher will send a patrol by as soon as possible to check out the situation. Depending on how busy the police department is the police could be on the scene Other times it could take longer. In the meantime keep yourself in a safe position. Do not attempt to intercept such persons yourself.

In many cases you will find out that the subjects are harmless and it is just a coincidence that they keep circling your neighbourhood – but in other cases you will find out they are either scouting out the neighbourhood prior to a break-in or they are stalking you or somebody else.

The second thing, and it is critical that you do this accurately – is to give the police an accurate description of the person or persons when the police do arrive and talk to you and the suspect has disappeared. And this not always that easy to do. I remember one account I read of how a bank manager's description of the robber was found to be the opposite of reality when the robber was finally

 

You can get good at this however. One bank security guard made an extra effort to get good at this by creating mental pictures of persons who had just passed him whenever he had a chance. Doing this, he eventually developed the skill to capture a person's image in his mind very quickly as they passed by and this helped him to pass on much more valuable information to the police as well as right more accurate and descriptive reports.

Everyone can do this and this is one of the safest and best ways you as a private citizen or security professional can work with and assist the police.

Imitate Professional Body Guards When Walking

 

One of the common faults of security guards doing a patrol – or for that matter -- anybody -- walking through a potentially dangerous area is to stay aware only of things immediately in front of you.

All too often you security officers start out on a patrol – so intent on just covering the ground they have to cover that they see practically nothing around them. They are just like those wind up or battery powered toys that you wind up or turn on then watch them buzz around the floor. They fail to monitor the area around them and have little or no warning of somebody preparing to attack them or sneak by them into or out of the site they are trying to protect.

Speaking about the failures of some VIP protection officers or bodyguards in the Eye Spy magazine, issue 30, 2004/2005 talking about pseudo VIP escorts, "Almost invariably ...everyone is looking in the direction they are walking." He adds, "If you are not looking, [360 degrees around you] it follows that you will not see – and if you don't see a threat then you cannot respond to it."

And this is true of other security people like guards out patrolling through the interior of buildings, or the outside building and property perimeters. All to often they do cover the area they are supposed to be protecting but see very little around them – either because they are focussing only on things directly in front of them or if they are looking around a bit while they might see things they do not really notice -- often because they are wearing headphones --potential threats to themselves or their property and people they are trying to protect. And that can be a very dangerous or at the very least counter-productive habit.

As Shortt continues: "Observation is not just about looking, it is about seeing and noticing. That means recognising the opportunities afforded to a would be attacker, and about negating or reducing those opportunities."

As he says, the next time you see truly professionals bodyguards escorting some prominent government or business person on television notice how his or her security escorts are looking around 360 degrees, often focussing their attention for a few minutes on possible security threats.

Another ways for security professionals patrolling property or a building ( or people just out for a walk in a quiet or deserted area) is to find a slightly secluded area where they can stand and look back at where they just came from as well as around them and where they intend to go next, using not only their visual but also other senses to detect possible threats as well.

Then they will be able to take effective action – a critical part of professional as well as personal protection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Always Get A Second Opinion

 

Marketing superstar, publisher, and editor Clayton Makepeace indirectly reminded me of an important precaution you should take your physician or surgeon or other health care practitioner warns you of the need to submit to some cancer therapy or other treatment.

In one of his e-books he describes how in a health promotion he once wrote that, "Some surgeons are so greedy, they'll cut a hole right through you -- just to get at your wallet."

While he admitted that this was a little bit of hyperbole on his part he did warn that some operations such as and mastectomies are later found to out to have been unnecessary. And this type of thing, as well as other blunders by surgeons, physicians, and other allopathic and complementary care health care practitioners happens far too often.

Some of these things have included these misdiagnoses of the causes of symptoms, as well as making surgical mistakes, or leaving part of their surgical equipment or other debris in the body of patient after sewing them back up – or making errors in prescribing medication, or providing therapy for health problems.

Sometimes these things happen because the health care practitioners has severed time restrictions on the time he or she can devote to any one patient by government or private health care plans which prevents them from tasking enough time with patients make an accurate diagnoses and treatment plans. Sometimes it happens because of greed on the part of the health care practitioner. Sometimes it happens because of incompetence or negligence on the part of the practitioner

You can do much to protect yourself from this type of thing by building good communication between yourself and your health care practitioner. This of course will mean taking the time to learn more about your health so you can have intelligent discussions about possible treatment options with your health care provider.

You should also seek second or even third opinions from both allopathic and complementary health care providers before plunging ahead into operations or treatment programs blindly.

 

Good surgeons and physicians, truly concerned about your health and your rights – and that includes the majority of them – as well as other health care providers from the allopathic or complementary health care worlds shouldn't mind you doing this.

 

 

 

 

 

The Only Free Cheese You Get Is In A Rat Trap

That was the advice I got when checking up recently on a wonderful sounding message from a Mr. Mark Taylor who claimed to be the Microsoft Fiduciary agent in the United Kingdom. His news was very tempting in these days of economic chaos and seemed to be risk free.



He told me that my e-mail address had been selected as the second winner of a free lottery and that I had won over $500,000.00 in Canadian dollars. (That would be roughly the Canadian equivalent of the English Pound.) Needless to say that would fill a lot of financial holes.



But the reality is that it would burn a hole in my pocket and leave me not richer but poorer by anywhere from some $400 to $1000 depending on how I wanted my winning cheque shipped.

Although I was suspicious about how I could be winning such an amount of money from a lottery I had never entered I did not Mr. Taylor's instructions to contact AirFer Couriers Limited in England to make arrangements for delivery of my winnings.

They responded with an e-mail telling me that yes they did have my cheque, but that I would have to pay for them to send it to me. I was to send them a payment to them by Western Union

This would range from $265. USD to $825. USD – depending on how I wanted the cheque shipped. They assured me that my winning cheque had been picked up from Microsoft Headquarters in England and was ready for dispatch to me – but I would have to remit the money to them by Western Union – first. All of this was beginning to sound more and more like a fraud to me.



And a fraud I found. To somebody easily captivated by the possibility of finding a $10,000 cash poke by "rolling up the rim of a Tim Horton's coffee cup here in Canada it was all very tempting and at first I was scratching my head to try and figure out how I might be able to raise that type of money – before I received some heartbreaking message from this Mr. Taylor that I had waited too long and they had cancelled my winning cheque. But in the end common sense prevailed and I decided to check it out.



I found the title for this post, " The only free cheese you find is in a rat trap" --and that certainly is true.

And in the end Microsoft confirmed my suspicious. They warned that all was an example of phishing – enticing victims to pay large sums of money up front in the hope of getting that promised "pot of gold".



In the security world security officers are warned to always assess, plan, and then act with stress on the assessing part of it when they run into unexpected situations. Obviously that is something we should all be doing in all areas of our lives in order to protect ourselves from very persuasive con artists like I ran into. And there are a number of very good web sites in England where particular scam originated as well as other countries. Check them out.

Protect yourself!