What I Eat in a Day

Disclaimer: This is only one day out of my whole life; so these meals do not represent what I eat all the time. I'm also not telling people what to eat or how much to eat. People should eat the things that make them feel happy and full :).

Breakfast part 1: Green Juice, Dates, and Mango
Green Juice Ingredients:
-mango
-orange
-kale
side note: I eat dates almost every morning as a way to wake me up instead of drinking coffee or tea.

Breakfast part 2: Chocolate Nice Cream (This picture was taken on a different day which is why the lighting doesn't look like morning light.)
Ingredients:
-frozen bananas

-chocolate protein powder
-cocoa powder
-vanilla extract
Toppings:
-chia seeds
-coconut flakes
-cacao nibs
-strawberries
-blueberries

Lunch: Quinoa and Hummus 
Ingredients:
-quinoa
-broccoli
-corn
-tomatoes
-kidney beans
-sriracha
-lemon
-hummus





Dinner: Tacos and Garlic Fries 

Inside tacos:
-guacamole
-black beans
-corn
-tomatoes
-nutritional yeast
-sriracha

Bias as a Sin of Memory: Ronald Cotton as a Rapist

In the mid 80s, a black 22 year old named Ronald Cotton was convicted of raping a woman named Jennifer Thompson. Cotton spent almost 11 years in jail before the true rapist- Bobby Poole- was discovered.

How did this happen?:
Thompson was a college students living on her own in North Carolina when a man entered her home one night. The rapist made sure that the lights were turned off so Thompson could not identify or remember him later. However, during the course of the night Thompson decided that she would piece together the features of his face and study him as much as possible so that if she did escape she would know who her rapist was. Thompson escaped.

After producing a sketch of her perpetrator, Thompson was asked to pick him out of a photo line-up where she identified Cotton immediately. Thompson was then asked to identify him in an actual line-up where she chose Cotton again.

The picture to the left displays Cotton (who was sent to jail) and Poole (who was later convicted).

While in jail, Cotton came across Poole who was serving multiple life sentences. Poole began bragging about how he was the one who raped Thompson and Cotton was the one paying for it. DNA testing would later prove Cotton's innocence.

Psychological component:
Bias as a sin of memory* made it unable for Thompson to see Cotton as anything but her rapist. After identifying Cotton as her murderer, Thompson's memory did not allow her to be open to other possibilities.

Things to know:
-Eyewitnesses are wrong about a third of the time
-Juries tend to over believe eyewitness testimony

*Bias as a sin of memory: rewriting a past memory under the influence of present knowledge and beliefs

Sources:
-my psychology and law professor Ellsworth Fersch
-Adam Liptak (things to know)
-Schacter, The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers (2001) (psychological component)

The Salem Witch Trials of the 80s: The Amiraults as Molesters

*The video at the bottom of the post does a really good job of summarizing what happened 

Violet Amirault was the owner of the Fells Acres Day School where both her children Gerald and Cheryl worked. Accusations against them began when a parent believed that her son was molested by Gerald. She started extensively questioning her son until finally he told his mother about "a secret room and sexual acts Gerald had him perform each day" (NCT 7). Gerald was arrested immediately; and the accusations towards the Amiraults only worsened until all three of them were charged with molesting 31 of their students (NCT).

How and why did this happen:
-The testimony of pediatric nurse Susan Kelly
-The testimony of child abuse expert Eileen Treacy
-The media 

The nurse:

As a persistent pediatric nurse, Kelly “promised rewards if the children talked about the bad things” (NCT 29). By wanting and gaining rewards, the children were merely coerced-compliant; which represents how they did not actually believe that they were molested, but confessed that they were in order to gain an award. Susan Kelly also implanted suggestibility into the children by telling the students that others had confessed to being molested, and by repeatedly asking the children if they had been molested. By telling the children that others had confessed to being molested, Kelly was contributing to the children’s bias as a sin of memory. She would get children to lie about being molested because their memories were being influenced by the present knowledge of their classmates supposedly being molested. Kelly would continue to persist regardless of the children's denial. For example, Kelly told a girl’s parents that their child had been molested even after the girl “repeatedly denied” it (NCT 32). By misdiagnosing children, Kelly was able to create hysteria among parents who then began to worry about their children.

The child abuse "expert":

Treacy enforced parental hysteria by weakly arguing that children were in a suppressed stage when they denied being abused (NCT 14). This reasoning implies that the children would always be viewed as being molested. When will no actually mean no? Treacy contributed to a form of bias as a sin of memory by proposing how nightmares, bedwetting, and lack in appetite for tuna fish and peanut butter were all signs of the children being abused (NCT 15). What the parents had once viewed as merely normal child behavior was being rewritten in their heads as negative signs that contributed to their child’s molestation- a form of bias as a sin of memory. However, because  Treacy was a child abuse expert, the majority of victims’ parents and the jury viewed her words as truth. This resulted in the reinforcement of the media to portray the Amiraults in a bad light, and discouraged the minority of parents, who disagreed with the prosecution, from speaking up.

What was wrong?:

-There was no physical evidence to suggest that the children were telling the truth.

The aftermath:

-Violet died of cancer during the process

-Cheryl finally got out of jail with 10 years of parole

-Gerald spent the most time in jail and was labeled as a level three sexual offender when he finally got out (NCT)

-This was not an isolated case, there were multiple day care centers and preschools in the 80s whose fate was similar to that of the Fells Acre Day Care Center.

*Video to watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIbFZ54WPrk

Sources:

-No Curler Tyrannies (NCT) by Dorothy Rabinowitz

-My psychology and law professor Ellsworth Fersch

False Confessions: Michael Crowe as a Murderer

There are many cases in history where people falsely confess to crimes they did not commit and an example of such is Michael Crowe's confession of murdering his sister. This case took place in 1998 when Michael Crowe's younger sister, Stephanie Crowe, was found dead in her family's house. Michael Crowe was 14 at the time of the murder and police profiled him as a suspect because of his aloof behavior when officers came to the scene and his interest in violent video games.

How and why did Michael Crowe (displayed on the left) confess to murdering his sister?

1) while he was being questioned he waived his miranda rights and his right to have an attorney and his right to have his parents present

2) the detectives made Crowe take a lie detector test and lied about the results (detectives are allowed to lie in interrogations)

3) the detectives lied about finding the murder weapon in Crowe's possession
4) the detectives told Crowe that they found his hair in his sister's hand
5) the detectives made Crowe write a letter to his sister as if he killed her (an apology letter)
6) Crowe was asked questions such as: "have you ever blacked out before"implying that he had blacked out while killing his sister
7) the detectives lied again to Crowe by telling him that his parents no longer loved him
8) the interrogation lasted 10 hours and Crowe definitely suffered psychologically

Crowe's memory was twisted, turned, and distorted until he finally believed that he murdered his sister. However, I think that Crowe was coerced compliant instead of coerced internalized. Which means that Crowe did not actually believe he killed his sister but rather he confessed to doing so in order to stop the confusion and gain people (the detectives) that he could trust since his parents had supposedly stopped loving him. Also, in case people were wondering, Crowe's parents were unaware that the interrogation was occurring until after Crowe's confession.

Video of parts of Crowe's interrogation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkLHXKHb1Vc (If you are at all interested in the case I definitely recommend watching this)

Sources:
- http://www.kpbs.org/news/2012/may/22/michael-crowe-found-factually-innocent-sisters-mur/
- my psychology and law professor Ellsworth Fersch

We are All Intelligent: A Letter to My Younger Self

Please keep an open mind while reading this.

The Oxford dictionary defines intelligence as "the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills." By this definition everyone is technically intelligent. Essentially anyone who has ever questioned something, or critically thought about something, or created an idea based off of something, or been apart of some type of sport, or performed some form of art should be considered intelligent. Some of us are conventionally intelligent. Some of us are artistically intelligent. Some of us are athletically intelligent. Some of us are musically intelligent. We all deserve to be called intelligent because we all are.

Howard Gardner, a psychology professor at Harvard University, is well known for his theory of multiple intelligence. Gardner believes that there 8 types of intelligence (displayed to the left).

Some people are so focused on logical intelligence as the sole intelligence because as a society we tend to equate intelligence with success. The smarter one is the more potential they have to succeed. We are taught that all the other types of intelligences are insignificant because they are harder to find career paths in and because success rates in such fields are low. For example, music, art, and sports are usually taught as extracurriculars and are often cut from schools when they can no longer be afforded. Children are set up to think that such forms of intelligence are subpar or not as useful in society and while logical intelligence may be more practical, it is by no means superior.

We normally call artistic or music or athletic intelligence as "talented" which does not make them any less important but it changes their meaning. More people should start considering these "talents" as forms of intelligence because that is what they are.

Why I Went Vegan

Disclaimer: The purpose of this post is not to convert people to veganism (although that would be nice). There are amazing people who aren't vegan and who help the world in their own way. This post is mostly meant to answer the people who keep asking me why I went vegan. 

Just to clarify: 

Vegan Definition: Someone who doesn't eat food that contains animal products and doesn't use products that derived from animal parts.
Plant Based Definition: Someone who eats a vegan diet but who still uses cruelty products.

Based off of these definitions I am technically not a vegan yet because I still have products that were derived from animals (i.e. certain shampoos and conditioners). However, my intention is to become fully vegan after I finish researching which brands are cruelty free.

There are three main reasons why a person goes vegan:
1) For the environment
2) For the animals
3) For health reasons
I have gone vegan for the the first two reasons so this post will primarily focus on those.

The following statistics were taken from the documentary Cowspiracy:

Animal Cruelty Facts:

- Calves are torn away from their mothers immediately after birth

- Male piglets are cut open with knives and have their testicles torn out without any form of anesthetic 

- In the egg industry male chicks are grinded up alive or suffocated because they don't grow fast enough and don't profit the business as much as female chicks 

- Organic and Cage Free Explained: 

"Hens on large-scale commercial cage-free farms are not kept in cages as the birds on standard egg factory farms are, but the difference usually stops there. Most still have their sensitive beaks cut off with a hot blade and are crammed together in filthy sheds. They never go outside, breathe fresh air, feel the sun on their backs, or do anything else that is natural or important to them." (Peta) "While free-range and organic egg farms are technically supposed to give birds outdoor access, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has decided that 'they may be temporarily confined' for 'reasons of health, safety, the animal’s stage of production or to protect soil or water quality.' Many free-range egg farms take full advantage of this loophole by almost never allowing the birds outside." (Peta)

-If people are interested in knowing more it is highly effective to watch videos of such torture described above (links to videos will be copied below) 

For everyone who thinks that people are more important than animals:

Yes, there are starving and dying people around the world and that's slightly more important in my eyes than helping animals but there is only so much that I can do to help such people. When I find an immediate way that I can have an impact on helping people then I will take the actions necessary to do so. Veganism has an immediate impact on the environment and animal rights so I am going to continue to be vegan. It's also not at all as hard as I thought it was going to be so why would I not do it? 

After seeing what I've seen and hearing what I've heard I won't sit back and intentionally do nothing. The only part of my life that has changed is simply choosing something else to eat or simply picking something else to buy. That's why I went vegan. 

Videos:

From Farm to Fridge- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icOD7hxUGI8

Best Speech You Will Ever Here- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es6U00LMmC4

Documentaries to watch:
Cowspiracy (environment related)
Earthlings (animal/ethics/cruelty related)
Forks Over Knives (health related)

Sources: 
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/organic-free-range-meat/ (Organic and cage free)
http://www.cowspiracy.com/facts/ (facts displayed on visuals)

Typical Persians: Facts and Stereotypes

First off, Persians are from Iran and they speak Farsi. I'm just putting that out there because it can get confusing sometimes for people who aren't Persian. More importantly though, Iran is pronounced "ee-RON" not "EYE-ran" (We aren't running anywhere). This is also true for Iraq which is pronounced "ee-ROCK" not "EYE-rack". Now that that's out of the way we can get into the awkward weirdness that Persians are made of...

Disclaimer: The things that I mention below are not universal by any means. They are merely things that I've observed or heard other Persians talk about being true. Also, I'm only half Persian so I'm not as immersed into the culture as other Persians are. 

Persians...

1) eat a lot of rice and stews 

2) kiss each other's cheeks when they meet each other

3) are really LOUD 

4) always have food set out when guests come over and constantly offer the food to people 

5) have a bump of some sort on their nose

6) ALWAYS drink tea (hot tea) even when it's boiling hot outside 

7) fight about who will pay for the bill because they always want to pay for the bill (especially when they are out with other Persians). Side tip- if you don't have money find a Persian to go out with because they will insist on paying for you :)

8) Persian girls stereotypically have long, straight, and dark hair. They also wear a lot of makeup and typically wear all black.

9) Persian boys stereotypically drive BMWs. 

Videos for people who want to explore more about Persians: 

Funny video of stereotypical Persian moms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwZUt9cwprk   

100 years of Persian beauty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7XmJUtcsak 

A Rant About Why Prisons in America are Seriously Messed Up

Disclaimer: I am by no means an expert on the American prison system. I am simply sharing facts and opinions that I have accumulated so that more people are exposed to this issue.

Many people seem to know that there is a problem with our prison system and that prison overcrowding is a thing however they are unsure of the extent to which the American prison system is seriously messed up. The following data will shed a little more light onto the issue.

Looking at the table to the right we 

can conclude that even if our incarceration rate is cut in half we would still be the third most incarcerated country in the world. This calls for a serious need for prison reform.

The graphs to the left and below represent how the crime rate has been decreasing over the course of almost 25 years yet the incarceration rate has been increasing over the same course of time. Pay close attention to how the crime rate graph starts in the 90s and the prison population graph has a sharp increase at around the same time.  

Maybe these next statistics will give us insight into why the above graphs are so contradictory. 

  

Black men do not deserve to have over a thirty percent chance of going to jail; and Latino men do not deserve to have over a 16 percent chance of going to jail. All of these ratios are way too high; but the most cringe worthy part is the race and gender factors. The extent of this discrimination is disgusting to say the least. We are solely arresting people because of the color of their skin. Although this conclusion is debatable, it is still necessary to expose people to these statistics. 

An increase in incarceration rates results in an increase in detrimental effects (NPR):

• conversion of gymnasiums into prisons for people who violate their parole conditions
• conversion of double bunked beds into triple bunked beds
• segregation and racism: The showers and toilets are divided among race and inmates are “forced” to comply 
• No room for rehabilitation
• Repeated offenders: “82.1 percent of released property offenders arrested for a new crime compared with 76.9 percent of drug offenders, 73.6 percent of public order offenders and 71.3 percent of violent offenders” (National Institute of Justice)

Psychological Effects:

• The findings of Stuart Grassian, a former faculty member of Harvard's Medical School, represent how about a third of solitarily confined prisoners were “actively psychotic and/or acutely suicidal”
• Grassian also found that some inmates formed obsessions and lost their ability to be alert
• The only time inmates are touched is when a guard puts handcuffs on them so they are never touched in a loving or friendly way again
• Craig Haney a professor at UC Santa Cruz found that prisoners in solitary confinement “lose the ability to initiate or to control their own behavior, or to organize their own lives.”

Inmates may be given treatment or put into rehabilitation programs but they are minimally effective. For example, this is what group therapy may look like:
 

Inmates are forced to sit in confined cages during therapy. Although this is an attempt at rehabilitation it dehumanizes the inmates. How is this effective?




Then there is the problem of mentally ill people in prisons:



Quotes on the mentally ill in prisons:

• “Such individuals are often raped or otherwise victimized, disproportionately held in solitary confinement, and frequently attempt suicide. Because treatment of mental illness is often not available behind bars, symptoms often get worse, sometimes leading to self-mutilation” (tracreports).

• “In New York, a man with schizophrenia was in prison for 15 years, 13 years of which were spent in solitary confinement. In a Minnesota county jail, a man with schizophrenia blinded himself with a pencil while ‘standing naked in his cell, standing in his own feces, screaming gibberish.’ In a Mississippi prison specially designed for mentally ill inmates, ‘rats climb over the prisoners’ beds, and some prisoners capture the rats, put them on makeshift leashes, and sell them as pets to other inmates”’ (tracreports).

Our country needs to stop asking how we can punish those who break the law and instead ask why those people broke the law. Let's work on prevention and rehabilitation not punishment because it's evident that punishment isn't working. 

A quick summary of the most important facts:

- there are 10 times as many mentally ill people in jail than in mental hospitals

- 1/3 black people have a chance of going to jail 

- even if we cut out incarceration rate in half we would still be the third most incarcerated country in the world 

Some people might read this and just feel sad and annoyed about the prison system in America. Take those feelings and share them with someone. Spread the message. Be a voice.

Sources:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92296114 (gym prisons)
http://sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Trends-in-US-Corrections.pdf (visuals)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/what-does-solitary-confinement-do-to-your-mind/  (solitary confinement)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/04/30/a-shocking-number-of-mentally-ill-americans-end-up-in-prisons-instead-of-psychiatric-hospitals/ (mentally ill in prisons)
https://aspe.hhs.gov/basic-report/psychological-impact-incarceration-implications-post-prison-adjustment (psychological effects)
http://www.nij.gov/topics/corrections/recidivism/Pages/welcome.aspx  (repeat offenders)
http://www.tacreports.org/storage/documents/treatment-behind-bars/treatment-behind-bars.pdf (mentally ill effects)