FOD

On the road today, back to South Texas to begin another semester of trying to offset 12 years of public schooling. Based on past results, it's not likely, but I'm an optimist. Every semester I see the light dawn in a couple of students' eyes, which is enough to keep me coming back for more. It's a version of what B.F. Skinner called random or intermittent reinforcement.

Skinner said "Behavior that is reinforced intermittently is much more difficult to extinguish than behavior that is reinforced continuously."

Why? Because once the continuous reinforcement stops, it usually stops for good, while intermittent reinforcement typically continues to occur over time.

In the animal world, for example, you might only drop food on the kitchen floor once or twice a month, but that's enough to keep your dog following you around every time you cook. As for people, just think about how many people play lottery scratch-off games, or play the slots in Las Vages. They all know (or should know) that the long-term odds are against them winning, but those occasional rewards keep them playing.

But I digress. The purpose of today's post is to report on my recent search for obama's birth certificate while I was in Hawaii.

Alas, I must report that I found no evidence, either supporting or disproving, the claim that obama was not born in Hawaii. It's similar to the hordes of media people who swarmed Florida in the wake of Bush's controversial victory over Al Gore in 2000. After months of research and investigation, all they could say was "We didn't find any evidence that Bush stole the election." Well, all I can say is that I didn't find any evidence that obama was born, or not born, in Hawaii.

I did, however, find the following picture.