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Nuptial Gifts and Other Romantic Gestures of the Bug World – Entomology Today

Female Laupala cerasina crickets (also known as Hawaiian swordtail crickets) often consume several protein-packed nuptial gifts from males before mating. The final protein capsule containing reproductive material is visible on the male on the left. Both crickets are marked with paint for identification by researchers. (Photo by Biz Turnell)

Adrienne Antonsen

By Adrienne Antonsen

On Valentines Day across the globe, people often offer presents to their loved ones. Many insects are also gift-givers. Known as nuptial gifts, these treats can help attract a partner and improve reproductive success.

In honor of this day of romance, heres a look at recent entomological research on how some insects and other arthropods woo one another with gifts.

Male nursery web spiders of the species Pisaura mirabilis prefer giving larger nuptial gifts to potential partners, but they may feed on the gift before giving it away if they are particularly hungry. (Video via YouTube/Team Candiru)

Nursery web spiders (family Pisauridae) are well known for their mating ritual in which males often present females with a silk-wrapped prey item before beginning copulation. These nuptial gifts lower the likelihood that females will eat the males, increase the length of time females permit copulation, and improve fertilization success.

A recent study investigated what size of gift Pisaura mirabilis males prefer to present to females and whether or not they feed on the prey item before giving it away. To test this, male spiders of variable body condition were presented with either a large or small cricket nymph in an environment with or without female pheromones. The researchers found that, regardless of body condition, males preferred to produce large nuptial gifts over small ones, indicating an energetically costly gift ultimately pays off better than cutting corners with a smaller gift. However, if the males were in poor bodily condition, they were more likely to feed on the gift before offering it to a female. But hey, its the thought that counts, right?

Female Rhamphomyia longicauda flies, known as long-tailed dance flies, inflate their abdomens during courtship to appear more fecund than they may actually be (uninflated at rest at left, inflated in flight at right). Their leg scales also serve as a sexual ornament to attract males. (Photo by Dave Funk)

When it comes to romance, Rhamphomyia longicauda, often known as the long-tailed dance fly, switches things up. Most often in the animal world its the females who do the choosing and the males who do the wooing, but those roles are reversed for dance flies. Females dont hunt, so they rely completely on nuptial gifts provided by males for nutrition. The females fly in groups at dusk and dawn waiting for males to bring food to them. To make themselves appear more desirable, females fill their abdomens with air to advertise their eggs as being more mature than they may truly be, a characteristic that males seek out.

Mating takes place in flight, and males bear the weight of both the nuptial gift and the female while she feeds upon it. So, just how large can a female get without becoming too heavy to hold onto in flight? To test this question, researchers studied a wild population to see whether the wing loading of males (i.e, wing area relative to body mass) was related to the mass of the female dance flies they ultimately mated with. Contrary to their hypothesis that males with higher wing loading would select smaller females, the researchers found the opposite. This indicates that male long-tailed dance flies dont experience the same load-lifting constraints that other dance flies do. When it comes to long-tailed dance flies finding a date, being bigger is better.

Female imported cabbageworm butterflies (Pieris rapae), also known as cabbage white butterflies, depend less on nuptial gifts from males in agricultural environments where nitrogen is abundant. When a female is unreceptive to courtship she will spread her wings and raise her abdomen, as shown here, to prevent the male from attaching and mating with her. (Photo by Wikipedia user Alpsdake, CC BY-SA 3.0)

In imported cabbageworm butterflies (Pieris rapae), also known as cabbage white butterflies, nitrogen plays an important role in mate selection. The nutrient makes up a significant amount of the nuptial gift passed from males to females during copulation, an important source of energy for female butterflies. Nitrogen is also used in wing pigmentation, a cue the butterflies can use to visually assess mate quality. Researchers wondered how variable nitrogen availability, specifically due to anthropogenic influences, might affect cabbage white mating behavior and physiology. To test this, they compared cabbage white butterflies from a non-agricultural population with a population from an agricultural setting where fertilizer has significantly increased nitrogen availability.

Several differences became apparent between the two populations. First, while females from the non-agricultural site typically mated with more than one male, agricultural females tended to mate only once, thus receiving fewer nuptial gifts. The agricultural females were also less choosy when selecting a mate. Second, the toothed structures used to break down nuptial gifts were reduced in agricultural females reproductive tracts, indicating a reduced need for the nutrients. Third, both males and females from the agricultural population had increased wing pigmentation. Altogether these results suggest that changes in nitrogen availability can affect cabbage white reproductive behavior and physiology in a multitude of ways. As the world changes, so do the rules of romance for these butterflies.

To reproduce, male insects will often transfer their genetic material to females via a protein capsule known as a spermatophore. Sometimes, however, these capsules may contain only nutrients and no genetic material. These are called microspermatophores and serve as nuptial gifts. Males of the cricket species Laupala cerasina, also known as the Hawaiian swordtail cricket, typically present females with anywhere from one to nine of these nuptial gifts before transferring the final capsule that contains their genetic material. (See a male and female L. cerasina pair in the image at the top of this article.) This process can take several hours. Why do these crickets go to all this effort of producing capsules without any reproductive material inside? As it turns out, the nuptial gifts improve the amount of genetic material successfully transferred from the final spermatophore to the female.

Researchers wanted to find out if the number of nuptial gifts a male Hawaiian swordtail cricket presents to a female affects the number of future offspring that are sired. To test this, the researchers paired a female cricket with two males: one that mated earlier in the day with a different female and one that did not. Males that had mated earlier transferred fewer microspermatophores to the female during the second mating. Using DNA sequencing, it was then possible to directly compare both the number and paternity of the offspring produced. As it turned out, females had a higher number and higher proportion of offspring with the males that offered a greater number of nuptial gifts. So, these crickets better not be stingy with their gifts when its time for love!

Take a cue from these creatures and get your gifts in order for the love bugs in your life this Valentines Day.

Adrienne Antonsen is a graduate student in entomology at North Dakota State University. Email: adrienne.antonsen@ndsu.edu

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Nuptial Gifts and Other Romantic Gestures of the Bug World - Entomology Today

Here’s why we should hope self-driving tech is ready soon – Axios

This week during several automated driving demonstrations in Arizona I was reminded why we should all hope self-driving technology is ready soon.

Why it matters: Self-driving cars don't get drunk, tired, distracted or do things that are just plain stupid behaviors I saw in spades on the roads in and around Phoenix and Tuscon.

Details: Not five minutes into a Waymo One ride (with a backup safety driver) in Chandler, a driver blasted through a red light and T-boned another car just ahead of me.

Road rage is a different problem, for which there might not be a solution until all cars are driven by robots.

Driving the news: A disgruntled former Waymo safety driver was arrested this week and charged with aggravated assault and reckless driving for allegedly trying to cause a crash with Waymo vehicles.

One reassuring incident: A bicyclist told me in a Tweet message about a near-miss he had with an unoccupied driverless Waymo vehicle. He thought the vehicle making a left turn was going to strike him as he rode through the intersection.

The bottom line: 36,560 people died in highway accidents in 2018. The vast majority of those accidents were caused by human behavior.

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Here's why we should hope self-driving tech is ready soon - Axios

A viral coyote-badger video demonstrates the incredible complexity of nature – High Country News

Somewhere in the Southern Santa Cruz Mountains of California, a coyote playfully bows to an American badger just before both duck into a culvert under a highway, the coyote casually trotting along with the badger waddling close behind. When the Peninsula Open Space Trust and Pathways For Wildlife shared a remote video of the crossing online in early February, it went viral. The video is part of a project to help wild animals move around safely in high-traffic, dangerous areas, something critical to maintaining populations genetic health. I greatly admire this work. However, what makes this particular crossing exceptional, to me, as a behavioral ecologist, are the deeper implications of the video itself.

The first thing that excites me is that it allows the charisma of this partnership to reach a broad audience. Scientists have observed coyotes and badgers working together before; one study even demonstrated that both species have an easier time catching prey when they hunt together. But the more the general public sees the playful, social side of two extremely persecuted carnivores, the better. I will never stop sharing videos of coyotes playing with dog toys or domestic animal companions, or scaling crab-apple trees for a snack.

The second thing that excites me is what the video means for animal research, management and behavioral ecology. There isnt a consistentnatural rulethat coyotes and badgers get along; in fact, the two species sometimes kill and eat one another. This demonstrates the flexibility in natural processes. Humans (many scientists included) are often guilty of thinking animal behavior must follow hard and fast rules: Stimulus A elicits Behavior B, always. I see this a lot when people ask me about canine behavior or crow calls; a wagging tail doesnt always indicate a happy dog, for instance, and certain crow calls mean very different things in different circumstances, much the way the intention behind a humans use of the word hey varies with tone, inflection and context.

A badger and coyote hunt prairie dogs together at Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota.

Charlie Summers

Experiments and rules that eliminate context often end up framing animal behavior and ecological associations as coded, robotic and inflexible. People tend to think of animal actions as simply instinct, denying the role of thinking, plasticity and decision-making in other creatures lives.

Scientifically, we are finally emerging from a dark period of studying nature simply as a stimulus-and-instinct-driven movie that humans can observe the kind of thinking used to justify government-funded culls and mass indiscriminate killing of native species. Recent research demonstrates the cognitive and cultural capabilities of non-human animals, as well as the importance of their proclivities and personalities, and more data keep piling up. Some individual animals, for example, have the right combination of bold, exploratory traits to do well in human-dominated landscapes, while more cautious ones may flourish in relatively rural and wild landscapes. In fact, researchers have observed population-level genetic changes in city-dwellers compared to their country cousins of the same species, in everything from coyotes to anoles and black widow spiders.

Different animals also hold different social statuses within an ecosystem. Much like what can happen within a human community, the death of a specific individual may have a large impact on social structure. Ive watched whole regions of crows restructure their social dynamics and movements due to the death of a single key individual, and Ive seen how age and experience shape individuals and the behavior they pass on to others. Wildlife managers must take all of this into account rather than relying on the traditional, numbers-only management style that treats all individuals of a species as if they have equal weight in an ecosystem.

In the viral video, I see an elegant demonstration of how complex and flexible nature is. How intelligent these two animals are not simply two animal-robots reacting solely to stimuli. How the body language and ease between them suggests that they know each other as individuals, and that those individuals matter.

While its scientifically prudent to acknowledge only the data that exist in peer-reviewed studies, we humans must broaden our lens and see the metaphorical forest before we get lost in the trees. We must hold each other, management agencies and policymakers accountable for the broader picture that the evidence is highlighting and use it to better relate to the world we live in, and the organisms that exist alongside us.

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The key struggle is getting these ideas into the zeitgeist of modern human culture, a mission that social media has greatly enhanced. So here I am, a behavioral ecologist who is grateful that a single 12-second viral video of a coyote and badger sauntering through a culvert together can help more people observe and consider what I and many in my scientific generation see: A thinking, complex, dynamic, individual nature that demands our respect and mindfulness as we move through this world.

Jennifer Campbell-Smith has a Ph.D. in behavioral ecology from Binghamton University. She currently resides in Denver, Colorado, where she is working to get high school students involved in urban wildlife research. You can find her on Twitter @drcampbellsmith.EmailHigh Country Newsat[emailprotected]or submit aletter to the editor.

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A viral coyote-badger video demonstrates the incredible complexity of nature - High Country News

PHS Honors Essay Project: The True Nature of Humans – theportlandbeacon.com

The true nature of humans is self-interested. Humans are born selfish and without a nurturing upbringing, will continue to be selfish their entire lives. Henceforth a deeper understanding of human actions is produced when the true nature of humans is accepted.

Humans are born self-interested. Children rely on their parents for everything. As they develop, they are taught right from wrong by their parents and society as a whole. In the story of Lord of the Flies, William Golding spins a tale of what happens when there is no authoritative figure or civil society to tell children right from wrong. In the story, the character Roger is one of the antagonists. He is one of the older boys on the island and among the group of hunters. While the boys are frolicking on the idyllic beach, Roger throws stones at a younger child and purposely misses. Golding explains the situation as Here was the taboo of the old life. Round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law. Rogers arm was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins, (87). The orderly civilization the boys have left behind coerced Roger from his sociopathic tendencies. Later in the novel, Roger is free of civil limitations and his actions are rash, destructive, and violent, eventually ending in murder. Rogers actions in the novel Lord of the Flies exemplifies that humans are born, at the very least self-interested, at the most, evil.

An infants self-interested nature often persists into childhood, but the parents tend to curb their behavior at this time. During this early period, children learn how to be acceptable in society. They learn the laws, learn in school, and learn right from wrong, what to do and not to do. In the article, Psychopathy to Altruism: Neurobiology of the Selfish - Selfless Spectrum, the author discusses the upbringing of children, ... promoting positive behavior via the brain reward system... to mitigate violent, destructive behavior. (Sonne). This article explains how parents reward their children for behavior they see as positive and refuse to reward behavior they see as negative. However, this method is not necessarily teaching children right from wrong, but rather teaching children what behavior will get them a reward and what will not. Children adhere to these rules simply because they know if they do, they will be rewarded. Children act, in societys view, good not because it is their true nature but because they want to be rewarded. An example of this is when a young person does something unhealthy or criminal, like smoking or stealing, society tends to give them the excuse that they had a bad childhood. The definition of a bad childhood is one that lacked the proper nurture, in which a child was not strictly taught right from wrong. Golding expertly illustrates this value of nurture in his novel. At the beginning of the novel, while the boys are romping along the beach, some of the older boys, including one named Maurice, kick sand into some of the younger childrens faces. Maurice immediately feels guilty. His former life would have punished him for hurting someone else. But on the island, no one does. Had Maurice grown up on the island without a civil upbringing, he would not have felt guilty for kicking sand in someones eyes. He would not have known it was wrong and would not have stopped. The other boys would have acted the same way. Therefore, if a child is not groomed to societys molds, they act as their true nature desires, self-interestedly.

In almost every situation, it is easier to be selfish. When children discover the selfish choice and they are not deterred, they will discover an easier course for themselves. The child will find that the selfish decision is easier and choose to make selfish decisions more often. Young children dont have a moral compass to tell them if a decision they are making is harmful and hurting others. It is a parents job to inspire a moral compass in their child.

One may argue that no human is born evil. However, Goldings Lord of the Flies disproves this claim with the character of Roger. Roger is a sociopath who uses the circumstances on the island to satisfy his violent impulses. As stated in the novel, Roger was conditioned during his upbringing to not harm another human because it is immoral. Nevertheless, on the island, he hurt many of his fellow boys and even murders one of them. If all children were truly born good, Roger would not have committed any of his horrid deeds. But even with his civilized upbringing, he does. Therefore, children are not born good but are instead born selfish.

If people are truly inherently altruistic, then how could they live with the state of the dying earth and the state of humanity itself. If humans are truly good, then such things would not be happening or would have been stopped by previous generations. But it is, people are starving and dying and the planet itself may soon be uninhabitable for humans. Because people are too self-centered to see the big picture. A possible solution to this extensive problem would be laws backing the protection of the environment but no comprehensive legislation has passed. The article Democratic, Accountable States Are Impossible Without Behavioral Humans proves how humans selfish nature is preventing society from bettering and improving. Accountable, democratic government is impossible assuming that selfinterested individuals... are the only available citizen, (Putterman). People dont aid climate change fighting or species saving efforts because its not directly affecting them. Humans are too often focused on the here and now. This is explained in the book Living in the Anthropocene: Earth in the Age of Human, the book argues, The human negligence of the earth: how extinctions of fauna are caused by our own selfish desire, (Sajal). Tens of thousands of species worldwide are endangered and people arent providing proper aid even though humans are responsible for their demise. A reason for this is provided in the article A Game of Cards, which explains that fear is what drives humans to be so selfish. Existence of fear and mans inability to cope with fear bring about the worst in him. (Cousins). Humans fear what may happen to themselves or their interests if they are vulnerable or self-sacrificing. So they keep their heads down and ignore the issues occurring all around them. The state of the planet is proof that humans are selfish, self-centered, and self-interested.

Humans are inherently self-interested. The underlying nature of humans is selfish and self-centered, once accepted, peoples motivation for their actions becomes clear and defined. Human behavior is explained through their inherently selfish nature.

Works Cited

Cousins, Norman A Game of Cards. npr.org, National Public Radio, 4 April 2005,

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4544547

Golding, William, et al. William Goldings Lord of the Flies: Text, Notes and

Criticism.

PUTTERMAN, Louis. DEMOCRATIC, ACCOUNTABLE STATES ARE

IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT BEHAVIORAL HUMANS. Wiley Online Library, John

Wiley & Sons, Ltd (10.1111), 8 Feb. 2018,

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/apce.12198

Sajal, Roy. Living in the Anthropocene: Earth in the Age of Humans. Environment

and History, 1 Jan. 1970,

https://researchdirect.westernsydney.edu.au/islandora/object/uws:46110

Sonne, James, et al. Psychopathy to Altruism: Neurobiology of the Selfish

Selfless Spectrum. Frontiers, Frontiers, 5 Apr. 2018,

http://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00575/full.

This is one of 24 essays that will be written by PHS Honors English students in collaboration with The Portland Beacon over the next six months. Ms. Chandra Polasek, PHS Honors English and Drama teacher, will provide the essays on a regular basis to The Beacon. All essays are original work of the students.

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PHS Honors Essay Project: The True Nature of Humans - theportlandbeacon.com

A rare disease among children is discovered in a 66-million-year-old dinosaur tumor – WITI FOX 6 Milwaukee

A rare disease that still affects humans today has been found in the fossilized remains of a duck-billed dinosaur that roamed the Earth at least 66 million years ago.

Researchers at Tel Aviv University noticed unusual cavities in two tail segments of the hadrosaur, which were unearthed at the Dinosaur Provincial Park in southern Alberta, Canada.

They compared the vertebrae with the skeletons of two humans who were known to have a benign tumor calledLCH (Langerhans cell histiocytosis),a rare and sometimes painful disease that affects children, mainly boys.

Diagnosing diseases in skeletal remains and fossils is complicated as in some cases different diseases leave similar marks on bones. LCH, however, has a distinctive appearance that fit to the lesions found in the hadrosaur, said Dr. Hila May, head of the Biohistory and Evolutionary Medicine Laboratory, at TAUs Sackler Faculty of Medicine.

The researchers used advanced, high-resolution CT scans to analyze the dinosaur tail fossils.

New technologies,such as the micro CT scanning, enabled us to examine the structure of the lesion and reconstruct the overgrowth as well as the blood vessels that fed it, May told CNN.

The micro and macro analyses confirmed that it was, in fact, LCH. This is the first time this disease has been identified in a dinosaur, May said.

In humans, LCH is sometimes described as a rare form of cancer but May said that there are different opinions among experts as to whether it is definitively a cancer or not because in some cases its passes spontaneously.

Most of the LCH-related tumors, which can be very painful, suddenly appear in the bones of children aged 2-10 years. Thankfully, these tumors disappear without intervention in many cases, she said.

Hadrosaurs would have stood about 10 meters high and weighed several tons. They roamed in large herds 66 to 80 million years ago, the study, which published this week in the journalScientific Reportssaid.

Like us, dinosaurs got sick but evidence of disease and infection in the fossil record a field known as paleopathology has been scant.

However, there is evidence that tyrannosaurids, like the T-Rex, suffered from gout and that iguanodons may have had osteoarthritis. Cancer has proved more difficult for paleopathologists to diagnose but there is evidence that dinosaurs would have suffered from the disease, the study said.

Studying disease in fossils, independent of the species, is a complicated task. And it is even more complicated when dealing with those of animals that are extinct as we do not have a living reference, May explained.

The authors said the finding could help further evolutionary medicine a new field of research that investigates the development and behavior of diseases over time.

Given that many of the diseases we suffer from come from animals, such as coronovirus, HIV and tuberculosis, May said understanding how they manifest themselves in different species and survive evolution can help find new and effective ways to treat them.

When we know that a disease is independent of species or time, it means the mechanism that encourages its development is not specific to human behavior and environment, rather [its] a basic problem in an organisms physiology, May said.

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A rare disease among children is discovered in a 66-million-year-old dinosaur tumor - WITI FOX 6 Milwaukee

Low Sex Drive in Men Could Be Helped by Hormone Kisspeptin, Scientists Believe – Newsweek

A hormone linked to reproduction appears to light up pathways in the brain linked to sexual attraction, according to scientists who hope it could help those struggling with problems such as a low sex drive.

The study involved 33 healthy, heterosexual men with an average age of 24.5 who filled out questionnaires on the quality of their sex lives. Researchers either hooked up the men to a drip of kisspeptin or a placebo and asked them to complete tasks while inside an MRI scanner.

In one test, they smelled the perfume Chanel No.5, which in previous studies was linked to boosting sexual arousal as a feminine scent. Kisspeptin was found to enhance activity in parts of the brain linked to smell and sexual processes.

A second test involved looking at 60 female faces in a random order, and showed the hormone appeared to help the brain with computing beauty.

Kisspeptin appeared to enhance the sexual arousal-linked brain activity of men who reported having low-quality sex lives the most.

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According to research cited by the authors of the paper published in the journal JCI Insight, one in three people experience psychosexual disorders worldwide but there are few effective treatments due to our lack of understanding of the underlying brain processes.

Study co-author Dr. Alexander Comninos, consultant endocrinologist and honorary senior lecturer at Imperial College, U.K., told Newsweek: "We were surprised that the boosting effect of kisspeptin on attraction centers in the brain on viewing female faces was even more pronounced in men who reported a lower sexual quality of lifebasically men who were not happy with their sex life.

"This makes us think that kisspeptin really might have some therapeutic benefits in patients with related psychosexual problemssexual problems that are predominantly psychological in origin."

He continued: "Our work is at an early stage but it improves our understanding of human behavior related to attraction and sex.

"Hopefully our work can be taken forward to assess if kisspeptin administration could be used for patients with conditions such as distressing low sexual desire, which is a really important and frequently overlooked problem affecting up to 17 percent of the population."

However, Comninos also said: "It is important to consider that human attraction is not just about smell and facial appreciation.

"There is a multitude of other factors such as body language, personality traits, conversation and so forth. Also, our work is at an early stage and so we really need our colleagues in basic science research to help us understand the precise pathways and mechanisms for what we are seeing."

He said it will be several years before kisspeptin is used as treatment.

Asked if the hormone could help with low libido in people with mental conditions such as depression, Comninos said: "Kisspeptin seems to have a variety of emotional and behavioral roles in humans that we are just starting to appreciate.

"Indeed, we have previously shown that kisspeptin can have anti-depressant like effects in humans. Obviously the recommended treatments for mental illnesses will be the standard ones like anti-depressants but let's see where we go down the line."

In order to carry out the study, the team had to work out a way to get the volunteers to sniff a perfume periodically while in an MRI body scanner. To achieve this, the team created a special device featuring plastic tubes passing from a control room to the participants. "It worked really well in the end," Comninos said.

Explaining the context of the study, Comninos said a seminal work in 2003 revealed that kisspeptin is important in controlling reproductive hormones.

But experts only recently learned that it may also be important for related emotions and behaviors. The team was inspired by research in animals which suggested kisspeptin may be important for how we interpret smells and odors.

"We were also keen to build on our previous work showing that kisspeptin has roles in sexual arousal brain activity," he said.

"Attraction is often an initial and integral part of sexual arousal, so we wanted to see if kisspeptin had effects on this."

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Low Sex Drive in Men Could Be Helped by Hormone Kisspeptin, Scientists Believe - Newsweek

Everyday Religion: What the Bible says about lying – Winston-Salem Journal

Q: What does the Bible say about lying?

Answer: The Bible has many references about unacceptable human actions and many instructive passages that speak to Gods will and laws.

A good starting place is to review the Ten Commandments found in Exodus, and Jesus Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew. These passages deal with love for God and love for each other (neighbors). The Ten Commandments explain the laws of God, and Jesus sermon presents Christian values.

Dishonoring God is a sin. Intentionally dishonoring and harming another person is an act against Gods laws and will. The commandment to consider for this discussion is Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. The words Bear false witness suggest perjury, but I believe that it includes speaking falsely, prejudicially or deceptively with harmful intent. Committing such a harmful act would require that the offender seek forgiveness and repent

Passages in the Bible deal with Gods concern about lying as found in Proverbs 12:22 The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy and in Proverbs 25:1: Telling lies about others is as harmful as hitting them with an ax, wounding them with a sword, or shooting them with a sharp arrow. Peter 3:10 presents guidance: Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech.

The Bible presents the consequences of lying. Ananias and Sapphira sold some property, and they lied and kept some of the money. This self-serving lie cost them their lives. The incident is found in Acts 5:3-4. Peter said, Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God. In another memorable incident, Peter lied three times about knowing Jesus. He acted out of fear. When confronted, Peter was remorseful and was forgiven through love and grace. Also there are incidents in the Bible in which people used false words or evasive acts to save others. The story of Rahab, who lied to save the lives of the two Israelites, is described in Joshua 2:1-24. In Exodus 1:15-21, Shiphrah and Puah distorted the truth to save the lives of first-born Hebrew males. These women were brave and their actions were not sinful.

The readers question opens the door to human behavior. The tendency to fib, tell a white lie, stretch the truth or be deceptive seems natural for some people. Some of these acts are not sins but can be morally questionable. They require judgment about intentionality and consequences.

Experience reveals the danger of misusing the truth. Sir Walter Scott made a good point when he wrote, Oh, what a tangled web we weave, / When first we practise to deceive!

False statements and deceptive actions in conversations, commercial interactions and public discourse limit the possibility of building trusting relationships. The Bible stresses the importance of trustworthiness. Proverbs 6:17-19 clearly describes actions that destroy trust between people: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

Following the advice found in Zechariah 8:16-17 is a path to building trust: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts; do not plot evil against each other, and do not swear falsely.

A Pew Research Center survey revealed that 43% of Americans think lying is morally unacceptable, but many people will accept false statements for personal gains. For the well-being of society, people should monitor information and hold each other accountable for words and deeds. Being trustworthy should be a personal, professional and communal goal.

Rosa Parks words are inspiring: People always say that I didnt give up my seat because I was tired, but that isnt true. I was not tired physically. ... No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in. I was a person with dignity and self-respect, and I should not set my sights lower than anybody else just because I was black.

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Everyday Religion: What the Bible says about lying - Winston-Salem Journal

Third and Pine: Change the space – Seattle Times

For at least the past 20 years, downtown Seattle at Third Avenue and Pine Street has been a no mans land between our vibrant Pike Place Market and the retail activity around Westlake Park. Thus it was with some cognitive dissonance that I heard Mayor Jenny Durkan refer to it as the heart of our city. Does the mayor really want McDonalds, a payday-loans center and a tobacco shop to be at our citys heart?

Land use determines human behavior. Designate land for auto use, and people will drive cars on it, plan for residential use and people will live there. If we want different activity going on at Third and Pine, we must change the land use. And to do that we need a vision of what kinds of activity we want to have in the heart of our city instead of drug deals and gun violence. Additional police wont fix the problem. Extra police had been added before the mass shooting of Jan. 22. An armed no mans land is still a no mans land.

The mayor has an opportunity to offer a different vision, one that creates and sustains activities that will make downtown a safe and desirable place to live, work and play.

Betty Merten, Seattle

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Third and Pine: Change the space - Seattle Times

Florida university class is teaching course on Jodi Arias – ABC15 Arizona

A Florida associate professor who has studied serial killers now teaches 'Jodi Arias' as a topic in her criminology class.

Why?

The case of Jodi Arias is so unique, especially because she's a woman.

"One of the things that has made this so fascinating to the public is if they saw someone like Jodi Arias walking down the street, it wouldn't induce any fear in us," said University of South Florida Associate Professor, Dr. Bryanna Fox.

Fox, a former FBI profiler who worked at Quantico, has studied American serial killers like Ted Bundy and Charles Manson.

"They tend to be very low emotion , they tend to be very low empathy, more narcissistic, coning, manipulative," said Dr. Fox.

Prosecutors said Arias violently attacked her boyfriend Travis Alexander in a jealous rage after he wanted to end their affair and planned a trip to Mexico with another woman. Arias has acknowledged killing Alexander but claimed it was self-defense after he attacked her.

The guilt phase of Arias' trial ended in 2013 with jurors convicting her but deadlocking on punishment. A second sentencing trial ended in early 2015 with another jury deadlock, leading a judge to sentence Arias to prison for life.

Dr. Fox never met or interviewed Arias but has studied dozens of hours of her and the behavior.

She can't say without conducting analysis on Arias if she is a psychopath, but she said she appears to have similar characteristics as the serial killers she's studied.

"The fact that Jodi Arias had committed such a heinous murder, the fact that it was dozens of stab wounds, and near decapitation and shooting of Travis Alexander, that would indicate to me that she probably lacked empathy, she was probably very anti social, things that would elevate her psychopathy score which is something we also see with serial killers," said Fox.

Fox said it's one thing to teach students in a textbook 'manipulation' in a courtroom, but its another to show examples.

The associate professor is able to show her criminology students how Arias appears to change her appearance at trial to seem more sympathetic, "and when she was in front of the investigators she sort of softened her tone, acted more docile and mousy," said Dr. Fox.

Arias also showed bizarre behavior in an interrogation room while being questioned for Alexander's murder. In one surveillance video captured by police, Arias appears to do yoga in the room, sing, and then do a handstand.

Knowing a psychopath is hard to the untrained eye, explained Dr. Fox. She said stats show that one in one people are psychopaths.

However, she said its still hard to predict human behavior.

"When we think of a horrible murderer, it's important to know, they can look like Jodi Arias," said Dr. Fox.

Link:
Florida university class is teaching course on Jodi Arias - ABC15 Arizona

Operationalizing Training in Manufacturing: Part 2 – ATD

In Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain, we talked about the need to do more with less in this ever-changing volatile environment. That post set the tone for helping your organization achieve a foundation around training and development and ensuring you, as a practitioner, have a seat at the decision-making table. The following model was created to help depict a fast way to roll out training initiatives for your organization.

When you are establishing or developing a training program, your site is most likely in a static or reactive phase. (Being in a reactive phase means that there is no or minimal vision and that resources are inadequate or barely cutting it and content is nonexistent or extremely scattered.)

Step 1. Locate the following information:

a. vision and strategyb. your sites key performance indicators.

Look for poor-performing indicators. At this point, you are looking for quick wins. What areas is your company suffering in based on data? Are any of these in part to human behavior? Can any of these indicators be influenced by development or training? Start here.

A good example of an indicator that you may be able to influence that is tracked due to government requirements, no matter where you work, is safety. Have there been any incidents recently that are trending and seemingly mindless? Mistakes like these usually can be influenced by refreshed and an increased rigor around safety training.

Dont try to do too much at oncegather your list of areas that you can impact and drill down a little further. After looking at your list of priorities, decide:

Who is the biggest customer? This could be an issue that affects the entire facility, or an issue that influences the largest department, or a department with the most money. (We need wins and to team up with those that can make that happen.) When you identify your biggest customer, sit down with them and complete a training analysis or a general interview to understand their pain points and use creativity for how training and can provide a solution.

Once you have narrowed who youre going to help and how you are going to help, you need to pilot and deploy.

After communicating to the stakeholders and the second- and first level-leaders, its time to pilot. We dont want to roll the program out to the entire group without ironing unseen kinks in the program. The best way to do that is to test the program on a smaller group. It is in this phase that you need to get, keep, and build engagement. During the pilot group, its best to get as much communication about the program as you can, and if the audience mentions any outstanding concerns, make sure you close those concerns before you deploy to the larger audience. This smaller pilot group is going to be a part of your success champions, and the goal is to get this group to be your advocate to the larger deployment audience.

Once you have tested your program on your pilot group, its time to deploy. Make sure youre ready; the biggest item here is the metric are we reporting on.

This may seem as if its oversimplifying the issue, but the foundation is clearget buy-in, determine priorities, pilot and deploy, evaluate, and determine next priority. Whats more, always align to strategy.

Read the original:
Operationalizing Training in Manufacturing: Part 2 - ATD