Few random things, completely unrelated...

[conuly]

Anybody heard of this book? The comic artist keeps reccommending books I'd already read (and liked), but this one is new to me. Should I devote part of my weekend to it?

From the Times:

In an effort to motivate our 7½-year-old grandson, Nathan, to call us, I decided on a monetary incentive: $1 for calling me in my office after school, $2 for

Comments

[lizziey]

hahaha. i love my husband bunches, but i damn sure ain't going a month with no hot baths and Cbale tv, to show any type of solidarity. screw that. :)

I will however, eat af much Afghani food as i can get my fingers on.

[conuly]

It's not about solidarity to the soldiers, as far as I can tell, but to the civilians. Just so you know.

[lizziey]

yes i figured that. but they are doing it for people they "care" about right??

i just don't care that much...

[lizziey]

i *am* careful around what i say around you. and throwing bubble is my eyes was an accident...right. It was on purpose, but you weren't thinking straight maybe. :) nope, didn;t see zubbles... i shall look when i am done uplaoding pics of chris with his weapon before he deployed friday.

[leora]

Sometimes I wish parents/grandparents had to run their plans past psychologists. This has been well studied and the child is responding exactly as expected. If you over reward for a behavior, you make the person like the behavior less and less likely to do it if/when the reward is removed. This counts for things the person actively wanted to do initially. For things that the person doesn't want to do, you need to use the minimum amount of encouragement that will achieve the effect. Praise is a lot more effective for manipulating emotions. Yes, rewards affect behavior. It's easy to get behavior you want while the action is monitored using rewards and punishments. But it goes well against getting the behavior through intrinsic motivation of the child.

[conuly]

Forget psychologists, what about plain common sense? What person wants to think that they have to *pay* people to call them? Didn't that *ever* cross this woman's mind? (Apparently not, so don't answer the question)

[conuly]

And I agree with you, of course :)

What this woman *should* have done to encourage phone calls is twofold: start calling them more often and, additionally, talk to the parents about setting up a weekly phone call to her, that's made no matter what.

Which would set up a habit that'd be hard for the kid to break later.

[leora]

Oh, and it looks like it's a man, not a woman. It looks to be signed by Ray, which I think is more often a man's name. I can't get a clear bit of info on the sex from the text.

[joeymew]

My dad, who is a living encyclopedia of everything Science Fiction, says that it's one of the best books he's ever read. He also says that if you do read it, there are a couple more books you're going to have to read in order to have the first book resolved. I kinda want to read it now after his summary...

[conuly]

Well, I'll read it, but ask him what those books are!

[joeymew]

Brightness Reef, Infinity Shore, and Heaven's Reach is the books that are directly resolving. He also says there are a few books set in the same universe, called Uplift War, Earth, and Sundiver.

*got a hold of a falling apart copy of Startide Rising* =D

[joeymew]

And we will all ignore my use of is instead of are, while I go and find the burlap bag and the reeds.

[ancarett]

I second the recommendation for "Startide Rising" -- I've yet to be disappointed in David Brin. And the whole dolphins in space aspect is very, very cool!

[sunnydale47]

I have a story in response to the part about the boy and the phone calls -- but I decided to post it in my own journal so I could tag it, so please read it there.