Sunday, November 15, 2009

“An epiphany, and an evolving philosophy of policing - Los Angeles Times” plus 4 more

“An epiphany, and an evolving philosophy of policing - Los Angeles Times” plus 4 more

An epiphany, and an evolving philosophy of policing - Los Angeles Times

Posted: 15 Nov 2009 02:28 PM PST

In 1974, Charlie Beck -- the man poised to become the next chief of the Los Angeles Police Department -- was 21 years old, unemployed, unfulfilled and adrift.

He had spent his teenage years training as a professional dirt motorbike racer but reluctantly walked away after failing to compete at the sport's elite levels. For the first time in his life, he gave serious consideration to the profession his father, a high-ranking officer in the LAPD, had chosen.

Beck took a job assisting detectives with their office work and, intrigued by what he saw, joined the force as a part-time reserve officer. His first days with a badge on the streets of the department's Rampart area were something approaching an epiphany.

"I knew it was what I wanted to do. I was sure of it," he said. "I wasn't going to be the richest guy in the neighborhood with this job, but I knew I would be the guy that had a job that was important, that made a difference. And you add with that the fact that it was challenging. I loved the thrill of it, I loved the adrenaline. I loved the hunt, I loved the capture. I loved the whole thing."

The raw enthusiasm of a young cop would grow into something far more complicated in the years that followed. As the city devolved into a period of chaos and violence amid a drug epidemic and soaring crime, the LAPD descended along with it. Trained to follow orders and think of themselves as an occupying force, cops fell back on an aggressive style of policing that sometimes slipped into the realm of abuse.

It was a strategy, Beck would come to realize, that held no hope.

Ups and downs

After a few years as a reserve officer, Beck returned to the LAPD's training academy and emerged as a full-fledged cop in 1977. It was a time of flux, as Chief Ed Davis stepped down and Daryl F. Gates, a hard-line LAPD veteran, took over. Davis had flirted with the idea that police should build close ties with the communities they serve, but under Gates the department shifted back to an entrenched, paramilitary mentality.

As a still-green patrol officer, Beck took assignments in Rampart, South L.A., Hollywood and the Westside.

By the mid-1980s, with the crack cocaine epidemic in full swing and the city suffering a homicide rate three times what it is today, Beck had been promoted and was supervising cops in narcotics and anti-gang units in the thick of the chaos in South L.A.

With far too small a force to adequately police the city, heavy-handed, one-dimensional strategies prevailed, leading often to claims of excessive force and racism.

It was a time filled with troubling scenes. Beck recalled responding to a house his gang officers had raided to find children handcuffed and splayed on the street.

"They weren't evil people . . . they were doing what they were taught," he said of the officers. "There was no room for independent thought."

And there were deployments such as "Operation Hammer," when "we brought in all the gang units in the city and all the extra patrol units and just tried to get as many arrests as possible. It was untargeted, it didn't matter what it was. It was a declaration of war. It was supposed to be a declaration of war on gangs, but people saw it as a declaration of war on the community."

The 'dark days'

In recent interviews and speeches, Beck has shied away from talking in detail about specific incidents he witnessed or took part in, but he has not tried to shun responsibility for being a part of the force during what he refers to as the "dark days."

"I saw it not working, but I didn't have the maturity yet as a person or professionally to recognize it and to understand why," he said in a recent interview.

The 1992 riots following the verdict in the Rodney King beating were a turning point for Beck, solidifying his feeling that the LAPD's harsh policing methods were not only failing to make streets safer, but also helping set the stage for the eruption.

"I started trying to look at the job differently. I figured there had to be a way to be an effective police officer without alienating the people you were policing."

It would be a decade, however, before Beck found himself in a position to try out some of the ideas that had been taking shape in his head.

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Brenau program to focus on universe's origins - Access North GA

Posted: 15 Nov 2009 02:00 PM PST

GAINESVILLE – Gerald L. Schroeder, an internationally renowned nuclear physicist who now focuses his studies on what he perceives to be an inherent relationship between science and spirituality, will anchor a discussion on the origins of the universe on the Brenau University campus on Wednesday.

Following a brief reception in the Trustee library at 6:30 p.m., the 7 p.m. presentation in Thurmond-McRae Lecture Hall, adjacent to the library at 625 Academy St. in Gainesville, will also feature two Brenau professors with expertise on the subject: James F. Sennett, an associate professor of philosophy who lectures and writes extensively on comparative religion issues, and S. Randolph May, the Richard and Phyllis Leet Distinguished Chair of Biological Science, a geneticist who is also a Baptist layman. The program is free and open to the public, students and Brenau faculty and staff.

Following the program Schroeder will also greet the public in a reception and sign copies of his latest book, "God According to God: A Physicist Proves We've Been Wrong about God All Along."

The program is sponsored by four Brenau student organizations, Brenau Spiritual Life Association, Servant Leadership Scholars Program, the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi and Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society.

"We are very fortunate to have an individual of Dr. Schroeder's caliber on campus to engage and, indeed, to be engaged by, our students," said Dr. Jim Southerland, the university's top academic officer. "At the same time, the event provides an opportunity for the university to showcase its talented faculty with two individuals who will contribute significantly to what I am certain will be a stimulating discussion of this often-debated issue."

Schroeder is the author of four books which focus primarily on examining and explaining how the universe and earth were created. Among other things, Schroeder attempts to reconcile the Biblical account of a young earth that by best reckoning was created about 6,000 years ago with the scientific model of a world that is billions of years old. He expounds on the idea that the perceived flow of time for a given event in an expanding universe varies with the observer´s perspective of that event. He attempts to reconcile the two perspectives numerically, calculating the effect of the stretching of space-time, based on Einstein's theories.

A professed Orthodox Jew, Schroeder attracted attention of fundamentalist Christians and others with the 1990 publication of his first book, "Genesis and the Big Bang."

He received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in nuclear physics and earth and planetary sciences in 1965 and was employed as a researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Volcani Research Institute, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem after emigrating to Israel in 1971. He also has been applied theologian at The College of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem.

Sennett, who teaches world religions and philosophy courses at the university, has studied and lectured extensively on resolving the dichotomy between science and religion on the subject of creation of the universe and similar topics. He earned a Ph.D. in philosophy, University of Nebraska and a Master of Divinity in Old Testament studies from Lincoln Christian Seminary. He also has served as a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, University of California at Berkeley.

May earned a Ph.D. in human genetics from the University of Michigan and a Master of Business Administration from Johns Hopkins University. Prior to coming to Brenau, he was a professor of surgical research at Hahnemann University Medical School in Philadelphia, at The Medical College of Georgia, and at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, an executive with the American Red Cross, and chief science officer with two major biotech firms.

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Devils are more than at home on the road - NHL.com

Posted: 15 Nov 2009 12:48 PM PST

The almost bashful look on Zach Parise's face explained a lot about how the New Jersey Devils feel about their near record-setting road success.

Don't look at me for a reason.

"I don't know," a smiling Parise told NHL.com. "I can't help you there."

Well, there's gotta be a reason, because on Monday in Philadelphia (7 p.m. ET, VERSUS, TSN2) the Devils, winners of eight straight overall, will try to tie the NHL record for road victories to start a season with their 10th in a row.

The Buffalo Sabres reeled off 10 straight road victories to start the 2006-07 season and Toronto did the same in 1993-94. Detroit owns the NHL record for consecutive road victories, putting together a 12-game streak in 2006 from March 1-April 15.

The Devils have already won in Pittsburgh and in Tampa twice. They also own victories in Ottawa, Boston, Washington, Florida and in New York against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

They have outscored the opposition, 29-15, including a pair of goals added on for shootout wins in their nine road games. At home, where they have reeled off four-straight wins after a 1-4 start, the Devils are even with 22 goals for and 22 goals against.

"Every game is played in the same size rink," said Parise, who has scored six of his 10 goals on the road. "I mean, there is no difference. Maybe sometimes we get booed less on the road than we do at home, but really, there's no difference. I think it's just coincidence."

Actually, it's not. The Devils can point to a few reasons why they have been better on the road than at home as a whole this season.

First off, you can make a strong case that the Devils' organizational philosophy is actually tailor-made for road hockey.

They have always played a simple game and don't concern themselves with being overly entertaining, so they don't feel the need to cater to the home crowd by trying to be fancy. They instead entertain when they win, which they do on a regular basis.

Entering this season, they had won only 26 more home games than road games this decade. It's an average of only 3.25 more home wins per season. That number has obviously bled down to 22 with their four-game discrepancy so far this season.

In 1998-99, the Devils won 28 road games as opposed to 19 at home. In two of their three Stanley Cup runs (1995 and 2000), the Devils set and then matched an NHL postseason record with 10 road wins. They are still the only team in history to win as many as 10 road games en route to a championship.

They also won 10 straight on the road in 2001 from Feb. 27 to April 7.

"We are built for road-type victories whether we're at home or on the road," defenseman Mike Mottau told NHL.com. "The organizational philosophy is five-man units and playing three zones with five guys. I think more often than not that will win a lot of games. It has been proven."

For this season in particular, we could also point to their special teams. On the road, the Devils' penalty kill is 90 percent (27-for-30), which is the best in the NHL. They are 79.3 percent (23-for-29) at home. On the road, the Devils' power play is nearly 27 percent (8-for-30), which is third best in the League. They are 16.7 percent (7-for-42) at home.

New Jersey has also scored the first goal in six of their nine road games as opposed to four of their nine home games.

"I think on the road we pay attention to the details a little bit more closely and we're stronger in the areas we need to be in, either on the blue lines or getting pucks deep," Mottau said. "As they say, you're playing a road game and that means just being sharper in all of those areas."

It usually means playing freer and looser, too, because you're not concerned about matching lines as you would be at home. The Devils, though, insist that's not the case this season because they haven't been overly concerned about matching in any of their games.

"There are certain lines (coach Jacques Lemaire) wants against certain lines, but it's not like in years past where we had to have (John) Madden's line out against (Alex) Ovechkin or we couldn't play hockey anymore," Parise said. "We've gotten away from that, which I think is great. Now we all play against Ovechkin and (Sidney) Crosby whereas in past years we had to sprint off the ice when they got on and you were terrified."

Perhaps, then, the best explanation comes from defenseman Colin White, who somehow, with the use of many clichés, adequately explained the Devils' approach.

"You know what, we're playing each and every game just one game at a time," White told NHL.com. "We haven't spoken about home or away or any of that. It's just been get ready for this game, tonight, and then worry about what comes tomorrow tomorrow-type of deal. It's obviously been good."

Contact Dan Rosen at drosen@nhl.com

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Beauty of a computer program can tell who's attractive - Regina Leader-Post

Posted: 15 Nov 2009 01:45 PM PST

WINDSOR, Ont. -- The computer analyzes every pore, pimple and wrinkle. It notices your slightly asymmetrical ears, the distance between your eyes and that chickenpox scar on your forehead. Then, it rates your attractiveness on a scale of one to 10.

Sound like a nightmare?

It's actually the handiwork of a Canadian student who has trained a computer system to recognize the characteristics of human attractiveness and rate people's appearance using photographs.

Josh Chauvin, a philosophy and psychology student at the University of Windsor in Ontario, said his study shows it may be possible to create a computer or "artificial neural network" capable of producing human-like evaluations.

"At first, I just started the project out of interest," he said. "It wasn't until later that I saw there could be other implications."

Thirty-three University of Windsor students actually volunteered for the potentially self-esteem-crushing, scientific version of Am I Hot or Not? during a research project conducted by the third-year undergraduate student.

Photos were first rated by humans, and those ratings were fed to the computer. Then, the system was asked to rate the attractiveness of 33 new images. Chauvin said the computer's ratings fell within one point of the human participants' ratings 86 per cent of the time.

Chauvin said the research, conducted under the direction of Marcello Guarini from University of Windsor's philosophy department and Chris Abeare from the department of psychology, goes beyond narcissistic curiosity.

The computer system could be used to diagnose congenital illnesses that are known to correlate with certain facial features. For example, while Down syndrome is normally easily identifiable by facial features, other illnesses are manifested more subtly. Chauvin said the pattern-recognition program could help diagnose those illnesses using facial features.

The system could also be useful for marketers and advertisers to gauge the popularity of a product without having to poll human subjects, Chauvin said.

The study found that both males and females rated females as more attractive.

On a scale of one to 10, with one described as "very unattractive" and 10 as "very attractive," mean attractiveness ratings by humans for each face ranged from 2.27 to 7.83 with a mean of 4.97 - what the study would deem "somewhat unattractive."

Chauvin's research has earned him a spot on the roster at the International Conference on Neural Computation, a conference to be held in Portugal in October.

Chauvin said he's considering expanding the study to analyze personality traits using facial features.

"There's an idea that personality gets written on our faces after time - that it's possible to make personality judgments based on facial features. We do that all the time. Before we meet someone, we gauge their personality on zero acquaintance, without having met them."

Other studies have shown that personality characteristics are assessed within a tenth of a second of meeting someone new.

But Chauvin said he can't think of any practical applications for a computer-driven personality assessment - "other than an interesting little novelty, a little gadget or a BlackBerry application."

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Christian university with strong Indian roots - Daily News and Analysis

Posted: 15 Nov 2009 11:01 AM PST

Mumbai: Several Indian rituals have found a place in the prayers and the overall set up of the 100-year-old Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth (JDV), better known as Papal Seminary on
Pune-Ahmednagar Road.

The institution mainly trains Catholic priests and religious leaders. It has two faculties of philosophy and theology (religion), conferring bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees. JDV was started as the Papal Seminary in 1893 in Kandy (Sri Lanka), and later transferred to Pune in 1955 and given an Indian name, Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth (The Light of Wisdom University). The government issued a special first day cover and commemorative stamp to mark the centenary.

The institute is a centre for study of various branches of Christian philosophy and theology, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Jainism, Islam and Sikhism.
"Since we train the students in so many religions we made it a point to adopt the good teachings in these religions. The theme of our centenary year celebration was Sarva Jiva Sukham -- Sarva Dharma Sakhyam (the happiness of all living being and friendships among all religions). We have depicted this theme in the form of a mandala. The mandala illustrates symbols of various religions," said Father Noel, SJ, who is the professor of Indian philosophy and religions.

JDV is the only national institute of ecclesiastical studies for diocesan priests in India. Besides Indian students, youths from many other countries are studying here.

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