Day: December 28, 2000

The Psychology of Gridlock

The latest issue of Atlantic Monthly, includes an article by Stephen Budiansky on something most Americans have had all too much experience with — traffic gridlock. I was particularly struck by what Budiansky has to say about what might best be called psychological gridlock,

The eeriest thing that came out of these equations, however, was the implication that traffic congestion can arise completely spontaneously under certain circumstances. No bottlenecks or other external causes are necessary. Traffic can be flowing freely along, at a density well below what the road can handle, and then suddenly gel into a slow-moving ooze. Under the right conditions a small, brief, and local fluctuation in the speed or spacing of cars — the sort of fluctuation that happens all the time just by chance on a busy highway — is all it takes to trigger a system-wide breakdown that persists for hours after the blip that triggered it is gone. In fact, the Germans’ analysis suggested, such spontaneous breakdowns in traffic flow probably occur quite frequently on highways.

A few years ago I experienced just such congestion. My wife and I were late meeting my in-laws at a zoo about 30 miles away. We headed toward the normally speedy four-lane divided highway but about 5 miles out of town came to a dead stop on the freeway.

There were “Construction Ahead” signs posted on either side of the highway so we assumed there were men and women working on the highway ahead which caused the slowdown. But when we finally emerged to where traffic resumed a normal speed, there was in fact no construction or other obstruction whatsoever (it was a Sunday afternoon). The highway was completely free.

As best we could figure out, the mere suggestion that there was construction ahead was enough to create conditions that lead to traffic completely stopped and backed up for about 1 mile and a half.

Dawn Carr Receives Probation for Miss Rodeo America 2000 Pie

Last year animal rights activist Dawn Carr, 31, cowardly threw a pie in the face of 21-year-old Brandy DeJongh immediately after DeJongh’s crowning as Miss Rodeo America 2000. Carr intended the pie in the face as a commentary on rodeos and animals.

Not surprisingly, Carr is a member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

In December 2000, Carr pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery in Las Vegas, Nevada. She received one year’s probation and was ordered to pay $1,700 in restitution to DeJongh for damages done to the dress DeJongh was wearing.

Source:

Sentence set in activist’s pie incident. Las Vegas Review Journal, December 5, 2000.

Peggy McMartin Buckey, 74, Dies

Peggy McMartin Buckey, 74, was found unconcious at her California home and prounced dead on December 15, 2000. McMartin should have lived the last years of her life peacefully but instead was one of the victims in a witch hunt that claimed too many lives.

Buckey helped her family operate the McMartin Pre-School in Manhattan Beach, California. In 1983 children who had attended the McMartin Pre-School began telling fantastic tales of ritual sexual abuse directed at them, much of which allegedly took place in secret tunnels beneath the pre-school. Ultimately 349 of 384 students at the pre-school told investigators that they had been sexually assaulted at the pre-school. The fact that there simply no secret tunnels and that the claims of the children proved false in many details did not deter prosecutors from charging McMartin Buckey and others with sexually assaulting children

The case helped kick off a nationwide hysteria about Satanic and ritual abuse of children, helped on by a gullible media. McMartin Bukey was charged with sexual assault, but the case against her fell apart after it became clear that the testimony of the children had been improperly shaped and coerced by social workers who acted as latter day agents of the Inquisition. McMartin Buckey was acquitted on all charges, but was shadowed by the destruction of the business she helped run and the stigma attached to those even accused of sexual abuse of children.

Investigator’s relied on the highly specious belief that children always told the truth about such acts and could not be coerced to give false testimony or fail to remember accurately. In a series of experiments, memory expert Elizabeth Loftus demonstreated that it was relatively easy to get young children to falsely believe in events that had never happened.

Unfortunately there are still many people in jail based on testimony gleaned under such coercion or based on psychologists who used false memory techniques on their clients. The hysteria is largely over, but the effects still remain.

Source:

McMartin Case’s Legal, Social Legacies Linger. Ted Rohrlich, The Los Angeles times, December 18, 2000.

Woman Who Sought Asylum Turns Out to be a Fake

Adelaide Abankwah’s request for asylum in the United States made headlines and earned support from politicians such as Hillary Clinton and actors such as Julia Roberts and Vannessa Redgrave. Abankwah claimed she had been chosen “queen mother” of her tribe in Ghana and would be subjected to female genital mutilation if forced to return to that nation. She eventually won her asylum case, but now it turns out her entire story was false.

The woman’s real name is Regina Norman Danson, and she made up the story after being caught trying to enter the United States illegally in 1997. Somehow the real Adelaide Abankwah’s passport ended up in Danson’s hands, and Danson decided to assume the woman’s identity in an effort to stay in the United States. The real Abankwah says she didn’t come forward to dispute Danson because she was fearful of being deported due to unrelated immigration problems.

The Washington Post reported that prosecution of Danson was hindered by bureaucrats who didn’t want to embarrass the Clinton administration officials who had championed her asylum claim.

Source:

Hillary’s asylum queen was a fake. The Times (UK), December 21, 2000.