To Hell With Arguing

Because heart Attacks will always be quicker than cancerous Cells...

Because mortal Words cannot hurt as much as immature Thoughts...

Because being wonderful means Following others' wishes despite not believing in them Yourself...

... because what's the point of losing what you can't have anyway?

Pretend-She-Is... Free-Dumb

When did using the Internets become such a pretentious hobby?

Seems like you've gotta be wired up and plugged in to about a billion different user accounts these days because Hey, you gotta catch up with everyone in your growing infosphere, right?

"Thank you, Internets, for connecting my life for me."

So, 'essential' these days are accounts with MySpace, FaceBook, Flickr and possibly Blogger. You may be part of interest groups like RateBeer, your local library, or your friend's online book club or blasting forum. Add to this the glee of email like Hotmail, which always leads you to fun news stories on MSN, and Gmail, which saves all the emails you've ever received and will never read again.

Then don't forget to check all your fav comics, your best friend's blog, your horoscope (and your bf's horoscope), your other five email accounts, login to GoogleReader (to check out your 20 news feeds and jokes and blogs you've tagged on del.icio.us), check for smiles on LavaLife, Digg something funny up, and go watch at least three videos on YouTube during the course of the morning, all while browsing on your supa Flock browsa. rowr.

Then you have to forward alllll the funny bits to alllll your friends, just in case someone missed it.

... And all this fun can be yours for free! yaaaaay! :)

Project: Voice-Stress Analyzer

Now is the perfect time for me to gather materials to build a portable lie-detector.

A device that is non-contact, time-independent, and works for male or female voices, this gadget sounds much too good to be true -- and it just may be at that.

I found an article in my files that I had copied a long time ago from the March 1996 issue of Popular Electronics. It is still amazing to me: well-written, concise as necessary, and very inspiring for any electronics enthusiast.

What's also amazing (but not so surprising) is the enormous brouhaha brewing over this contentious issue. The technology of analyzing voices for lies is subjective at best -- and wrongfully incriminating at worst.

Why did the U.S. military and police departments buy hundreds of these machines, each one worth well over $10,000? Why do officials swear by these machines, citing 100% effectiveness? (Oh come on, is ANYTHING 100% effective??)

Who are we more likely to believe, the media or the government??

I'm on a mission to find out what's what.

My little project will cost less than $30, runs on a battery, fits in my pocket, and I get the fun of learning what all the components do, putting it all together and testing it out!

Anticipation is the key to fun in any DIY project.

As for other methods of lie detection, and I suggest reading about them because they are quite interesting, I found this article index citing a dozen articles from 1969 to 1997 specifically telling you how to build your own lie detector. Many involve contacting skin to monitor moisture levels and such. Why are there no DIY projects written after the year 2000?


Well, perhaps these may shed some light on the issue... I found a smattering of articles, papers, and websites on the Internet that particularly stress the untrustworthy qualities of this hoaky technology:

Article, "Innocent Until Proved Guilty?"
30-MAR-2006

Article, "Arguments rage over voice-stress lie detector"
(10-OCT-2005)

Article, "Research casts doubt on voice-stress lie detection technology"
(10-FEB-2004)

Study, "Psychophysiological and vocal measures in the detection of guilty knowledge"
(28-DEC-2004)

Website "The Truth About Voice Stress Technologies"

Website "The Anti-Conspiracy Symbol"

You would think that with all of these resources available to me that perhaps I'd be swayed to think poorly overall of lie detection devices. I don't know what I think at this point, but I do know that my regard quality information from Popular Electronics far outweighs the same fr omthe Internet, so I shall continue in my quest to find out for myself what the heck is going on with this technology.

My new project shall be dubbed "Operation: Ana-LIES" and I will commence construction shortly. If I find anything interesting, I will let you know...

You know what the best part is, though? Reading the schematic and explanation will improve my knowledge of how circuits and electronics work. Win win!