Topic Idea or Suggestion?

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I am trying to find a good place and method for you guys to share story ideas with me. I’d like to have a page setup where you all can go, suggest stories, post links and then rate which topics suggested by others are the most interesting to you.

Last week, I had a volunteer, Shina Hart, offer to help me with this, and she discovered UserVoice. It looks like the perfect tool, though I am not sure it will work at the level we need it to work in the “free version”. To upgrade, it is quite pricey at $19/month, so if this doesn’t work, we may have to investigate other avenues.

But let’s give it a try! See what you think, share your topic suggestions, and vote now. I added the first topic suggestion as a test. I suggested Nayda Suleman. I think each topic can only get 10 votes, which might be too limiting, but let’s experiment with it because it is free.

I will post a link to UserVoice on my contact page, so in the future, if you want to find it, you will know where to go.

Let me know your thoughts! Many thanks to Shina, who continues to look for and explore other options for us!

Last Night’s 48 Hours: Traci Rhode

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Last night’s episode was a re-run which ran early last May, but for those of you who hadn’t seen it, here are my thoughts about Traci Rhode.

On another note, everyone must be out enjoying the spring weather. The traffic here, come Friday night, just halted. I presume it will pick up tomorrow, again. This is common for the summer months!

48 Hours Mystery: Point Blank

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Tonight 48 Hours Mystery is airing “Point Blank”. It’s the story of what happened to Scott Rhode. Was Traci, his wife, home when he committed suicide, or was there something more sinister going on?

You be the judge.

Here are my thoughts.

The Power of Eyewitness Testimony

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CBS 60 Minutes did a powerful story about two weeks ago now about eyewitness testimony. It is worth watching, if you can spare the time.

There have been 233 people exonerated by DNA in this country, and now a stunning pattern has emerged: more than three quarters of them were sent to prison at least in part because an eyewitness pointed a finger – an eyewitness we now know was wrong.

Part 1

Part 2

The Bunny Effect

I am a firm believer, from my understanding of human behavior, that memory should be instantaneous. If it takes you time to recall something, there is a high likelihood that your memory is not clear and may have become tainted.

“Learn To Read Faces”

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Here is an article that you might enjoy. Don’t forget to read page two!

I think O’Sullivan makes a fabulous point:

“It’s not merely seeing the behavior and recognizing it but in interpreting the situation”

In other words, while you’re scanning your date for the usual emotions someone might associate with lying — microexpressions of guilt or fear — you might be missing something bigger.

Your date might not feel guilty at all about lying to get you into bed. In fact, he might be concealing pride or cockiness at his ability to deceive you.”

I think her point is so important, because just seeing and identifying expressions and emotions isn’t enough to accurately understand a situation. So many people show emotional biases that skew their ability when they attempt to understand others, or they use their own past experiences to judge other people’s actions, which will not yield accurate results when reading others.

Read moreIt is critically important to be unbiased when you are trying to understand the actions of another, not jump to quick conclusions, and to explore every potential outcome possible that could explain a situation before formulating an opinion. Of course, doing this is much easier said then done.

How do you teach people to remove emotional and experiential biases? Biases and judgments cloud one’s ability to see the truth.