People are getting upset now that the police are giving out 50  to 90 percent more moving violation tickets.   They don't like the fact that the police departments are trying to raise more revenue by spending more time enforcing speed limits etc.     But if a motorist is breaking the law does it matter what is motivating the police to do their job?   Stand on any busy street corner and see if you don't see a moving violation within 5 minutes.

Every time I get out on the road, I see people tail gate, cut each other off, not using signals, speeding through school zones, drive aggressively.  It's pretty much the same where ever I go. 

The only thing that seems to work faily well is the intersection cameras.  I noticed the number of people running red lights at the interesections with cameras has decreased.   And of course many of the ones who get caught on those cameras argue they are not wrong - again showing hard core violators are going to protest keep on violating the traffic laws.  In fact in one community the camera got a really great picture of a motorist making an obscene gesture at the camera while he ran the red light.  So I'm convinced the hard core traffic violators are not going to change their behaviour.   So, all in all, I don't think a traffic ticket quota is making much of a dent in the behaviour of most motorists.   But if everyone is really so outraged than there is a way to get back at the police departments-    "Dont break the traffic laws"     Of course if everyone would really do that the cities and counties would have to look for other ways to raise revenue - like raising your taxes.   But really the quotas are not going to stop the huge amount of hardcore traffic violators who will right after getting a ticket drive away and as soon as out of sight of the police push the pedal to the metal.

   WHile reading one of my favorite books  "The Diffinitive Book of Body Language" bY Allen and Barbara Peace  I again enjoyed reading the section about the pupils of the eyes and what they signal to us.   It's interesting to note that we all actually without being aware of it know how to read the pupils of the eyes.   We automatically respond to the dilation and contraction of eye pupils without fully being aware of it.   But it becomes very interesting once we are aware of it.  Here are some interesting facts about the language of the pupils of the eyes. 

First of all we all know that changes in light conditions will cause our pupils to either dilate or contract.  Usually the brighter the light the more our eyes contract and when the light becomes much less our pupils dilate.   But we seem to not be consciously  aware of what what our pupils do when we see things that appear to us to be pleasant or when we see things that we don't like.  

Well there is a whole study of this that was pioneered by a person named Eckhard Hess who at that time was the head of the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago.     He found in his studies there that pupil size is affected by one's general state of arousal.     It turns out that in general pupil size increases when people view something that stimulates them.  

For instance Hess discovered that the pupils of both heterosexual men and women dilate when viewing pinups of the opposite sex and constrict when viewing same-sex pinups.   He also found that when people viewed pleasant  or unpleasant pictures of food, or war scenes or when listening to music their pupils again responded accordingly.   But that's not all.   He also discovered that pupil size also positively correlated with mental acitivities associated with problem solving.    The pupils would reach maximum dialation as a person arrives at the solution to a problem!!  

The authors of the book "The Diffinitive Book of Body Language"  did some testing of their own on this.   They found in their study that when people were asked to rate photographs of models as to which models were most attractive.   Prior to doing that they altered some of the photo graphs to make the pupils larger on some of the models.   The models with the larger eye pupils got the higher ratings.   

They next applied this information in an Revlon catalogue for the ads for the lipstick.   By increasing the pupils of the model in that lipstick ad in the brochure the catalog sales of that lipstick increased by 45%.   Just by enlarging the pupils of the eyes on those photographs!!  

Well now it's easy to see why during courtship two people making google eyes at each other seem to really get lost in each other's eyes.    WHen a woman is attracted to a man her eye's pupils dilate.   What does that do to the man?    He correctly decodes this signal in his brain without being aware of it and he responds like a love sick puppy.     In a dimly lit situation this eye pupil thing is even more enhanced as the dim light makes the pupils dilate even more so then the  couple see romatic eyes and are even more smitten.   They each become exited by the other's eye pupils.   

This pupillometry gets even more interesting.   Guess what makes a womans eye pupils dilate the most?   For most women it's the sight of their mother or the sight of a baby!   Hold on there's more.    The babies eye pupils also dilate when adults are present.   WHy?   Apparently to to look more appealing thereby receiving the attention they need.    And guess what??    For most mothers this is very very powerful- like steel to a magnet!   The mothers pupils enlarge and the babies pupils enlarge and it's quite a site to see- the mother and baby looking into each others eyes.    A beautiful sight to behold!! 

Most of us have probably heard the story of Pinocchio.   In the story each time he lied his nose would grow.    A silly notion - or is it?  IN Chicago there is an scientific institution called the "Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation.  At that foundation Scientists discovered that when a person tells a lie the tissues inside tehir nose swell.    This swelling of these nose tissues is caused by chemicals known as catecholamines which are released when a person lies.  The scientists cleverly used special imaging cameras to observe the blood flow in the body.   They saw that intentional lying caused an increase in blood pressure.   The nose then actually grows larger while the person is deliberately telling a lie.   Naturally the scientists called this the "Pinocchio Effect".  

Can you actually see this with the naked eye?    Well no you cannot.   However, as the nose inflates with the higher blood pressure the nerve endings in the nose tingle.  This then caused the lier to start rubbing his nose with his hand to satisfy the itch.  This is known by expert interrogators as the nose touching gesture.  But before you go off an start accusing nose rubbers liers be aware that anxiety, anger, and being upset causes the same nose touching or rubbing gesture.   So this gesture alone is not enough to determine lying.    However, when observed along with a couple of  other body language signals an expert can pretty much usuallly tell if a person is lying.  And there are experts out there trained to recognize the body language of liers.  

Though it can't be used as proof in court it is still quite helpful in helping law enforcement and laywers.   This ability to read body language is useful in a number of fields but it takes a bit of practice.   There are some expert liars who practice hard to hide their body language.   Actors are good had looking concincing in their roles.  THey have to learn to act like what they say is real and so they must learn to gesture and control the body language in a way that harmonizes with their lines.  But they can't keepl it up non stop nor can they hide large clusters of body signals for more than a couple of minutes.   It's just humanly too difficult and so time works against even the most expert liars.   So it is just another of many reasons why it's a really good idea to practice honesty.   Think about it.   If a person is going to do something they will end up feeling they have to lie to hide then perhaps what they are doing is not such a good idea???   Telling lies is just too cheasy and chicken to be pulled off with any long term success.   So liars - give it up cause your nose knows!!

 Recently a read an article in the news about a group of 17 teen girls about age 15 who made a pact to get pregenant.   And guess what?   They did just that.   Now of course all the adults and school officials and parents etc are asking the question- WHY?  Well it would be interesting to ask the teens themselves that question.    What would they say?      But before anyone asks this question they have to understand something about we humans.   As children we  take many years of our live to develop mentally and physcially.   Scientists have discovered that in youths the frontal lobe of the brain is not fully developed until around age 25.   And they found that during the teen years the brain undergoes a lot of change that lags way behind the physcial changes and the biochemistry and hormonal changes going on.   The result is very intense feeling of biological attraction to the opposite sex but with no ability to make good judgement.   The frontal lobe of the brain is where one is able to weigh the consequences of possible decisions where judgements are made.  In the teens this part of the brain is not developed enough nor integrated in a way with the rest of the brain to do this well enough.   In fact the teen brain thinks so different from adults that it is amazing. 

The teenage brain is impulsive and reckless often at moments when the hormones influence on the brain creating a sensation of excitement and good feelings.   This has been studied very much and is quite revealing of why teenagers often make choices that seem to fly in the face of sound reason.    The main problem is their is little thought given to consequences.   Even when the consequences are known the frontal lob just does not seem to be making such knowledge of any use to the teen.  The judgement ability is next to nill.     The teens need guidance and direction during the teen years because they just can't quite put it all together with out some guidance from a more wise source then themselves.  Unfortunetly they often seek this from each other.   But that is totally in vane as most youths in school have not got a clue that they have impaired judgment and they themselves need guidance.     So if someone were to ask these teens why they made a pact to get pregnant the answers are most likely going to fall short of any serious long term thought.