519: Beg, Borrow, Steal

[levendus]

Originally Posted by Keith

Verizon came to our house with a new phone that somehow had all the old information on it and made us dinner.

Nice. Did they get there just as you got the post-nut munchies?

[Keith]

Have some class.

[germuhknee]

Originally Posted by bithead

I think the best part of show 519 was when they spontaneously began to describe - in some detail - their fury-fucking.

I believe this was the first time we've heard A-B Porn performed by The Girl and Keith on the show. Something for everyone?

[Saint Marcos]

Originally Posted by Michaelicious

Also what was the % of people who didn’t even bother to do anything with the wallet… or would that just be used to prove which group is more lazy. And what about the fact that it’s a lost wallet, yet they imply theft? It is an interesting study, and I would like to see it done on a much larger scale. But as it stands it does assume a lot.

Are you trying to say that black people are so lazy that they only steal by accident?? -- I'm not sure which I find more offensive, sir.

The real question is what would happen if a white person with a black prosthetic arm stole the wallet? (Please tell me someone gets that.)

[paul_r]

Originally Posted by germuhknee

I believe this was the first time we've heard A-B Porn performed by The Girl and Keith on the show. Something for everyone?

apart from what happened one Wednesday.

[ncfcyank19]

Originally Posted by Saint Marcos

The real question is what would happen if a white person with a black prosthetic arm stole the wallet? (Please tell me someone gets that.)

Well they'd lynch it and hang it of course. C'mon, let's not be silly now.

[Bebe]

Originally Posted by cretaceous

Re: the AA misinformation at the beginning of the show from a listener: nowhere in AA is there a policy of "only hang out with other AAs".

Thank you! I've been sober 12 years, and except for the first one, they have been the best years of my life. While it is true that in the first few months I had to change my routines, I have no trouble hanging out in bars now. No big deal. Drinking is just a symptom of alcoholism, and once I started to fix the problem (my fucked-up brain) I didn't feel the need to drink anymore.

I was thinking about that whole 'AA is a cult' thing. Sociologically speaking it can't possibly be. There is no charismatic leader (or leaders at all in fact - "our leaders are but trusted servants, they do not govern"), we are not told to do anything and no one makes us stay - "the door swings both ways", and we do nothing to get people to follow us, we work by "attraction rather than promotion" and you have to identify as an alcoholic if you want to attend the meetings I go to - "You're an AA member the minute you declare yourself one". We are more like a free private club than a cult.

One of the strengths of the 12-step approach is that you are free to do whatever you want, in fact it is founded on this principle. The early members recognised that alcoholics don't like to be told what to do, so our programme is "suggestive only" and everyone is meant to figure out what works best for them.

Our motto: "Take what you want and leave the rest behind"

[Bebe]

Originally Posted by OSLIN

I had concerns about his analysis as well and assume he has not come from a research background. I'll be curious to see what Bebe thinks about his statistical methods.

Well okay. I don't really think that what he gave was a statistical analysis. He uses statistics, but this is not really the same as multivariate analysis.

This test sounds like a really great idea, but there are a few sociological problems with it:

- Paul doesn't give any analysis of the difference between those who picked up the wallet and those who left it and walked past. This is an important variable.

- The concept of 'race' is highly contentious and not really used in most sociological research. Race is an outmoded categorisation based on prejudiced social assumptions rather than any biological reality. Using the term race implies some biological (rather than social) distinction between the subjects.

- It is a rather small sample for this kind of research. It is difficult to generalise to a whole population from a sample of 100 people.

- It would have been good to collect more demographic data about the subjects before making assumptions about their class or ethnic origin. Paul could set up a 'market researcher' just down the street from the wallet to catch those who picked it up. The researcher could offer a small incentive to each person to answer a short questionnaire about some random product, and then the researcher could collect some demographic information about the person at the same time. Most people are happy to give out this kind of info to someone with a badge and a clipboard, especially if they get a coffee voucher or something.

Anyway, great idea! This is not meant to be a criticism of Paul and his interesting test, just a comment on the sociological aspects of it.

And it is really good to be able to talk to my students about in terms of interesting social research, and social research methods.

[strafer_praha]

Originally Posted by Bebe

Well okay. I don't really think that what he gave was a statistical analysis. He uses statistics, but this is not really the same as multivariate analysis.

This sounds like a really great idea, but there are a few sociological problems with this research:

- Paul doesn't give any analysis of the difference between those who picked up the wallet and those who left it and walked past. This is also an important variable.

- The concept of 'race' is highly contentious and not really used in most sociological research. Race is an outmoded categorisation based on prejudiced social assumptions rather than any biological reality. Uses the term race implies some biological (rather than social) distinction between the subjects.

- It is a rather small sample for this kind of research. It is difficult to generalise to a whole population of people from a sample of 100 people.

- It would have been good to collect more demographic data about the subjects before making assumptions about their class or ethnic origin. Paul could set up a 'market researcher' just down the street from the wallet to catch those who picked it up. The researcher could offer a small incentive to each person to answer a short questionnaire about some random product, and then the researcher could collect some demographic information about the person at the same time. Most people are happy to give out this kind of info to someone with a badge and a clipboard, especially if they get a coffee voucher or something.

Anyway, great idea! This is not meant to be a criticism of Paul and his interesting experiment, just a comment on the sociological aspects of it.


And it is really good to be able to talk to my students about in terms of interesting social research, and social research methods.

You are so hot

[Bebe]

Originally Posted by strafer_praha

You are so hot

Thanks. I hope that's not what my students think when I give them lectures on this stuff