Monday, June 30, 2014

On being sane in insane places

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment
Rosenhan's study was done in two parts. The first part involved the use of healthy associates or "pseudopatients" (three women and five men) who briefly feigned auditory hallucinations in an attempt to gain admission to 12 different psychiatric hospitals in five different States in various locations in the United States. All were admitted and diagnosed with psychiatric disorders. After admission, the pseudopatients acted normally and told staff that they felt fine and had not experienced any more hallucinations. All were forced to admit to having a mental illness and agree to take antipsychotic drugs as a condition of their release. The average time that the patients spent in the hospital was 19 days. All but one were diagnosed with schizophrenia "in remission" before their release. The second part of his study involved an offended hospital administration challenging Rosenhan to send pseudopatients to its facility, whom its staff would then detect. Rosenhan agreed and in the following weeks out of 193 new patients the staff identified 41 as potential pseudopatients, with 19 of these receiving suspicion from at least 1 psychiatrist and 1 other staff member. In fact Rosenhan had sent no one to the hospital.

Friday, June 13, 2014

Detroit: A Hurrican Without Water

http://goobingdetroit.tumblr.com/

This is a blog that goes through Google and Bing street view images and compares recent ones to old ones.  This shows the rapid deterioration of houses in Detroit.

Keep in mind the oldest images are from 2008, and the newest are from 2013.  So, 5 years is all it takes for a couple of houses to turn into couches.

Let me stress that these pictures are of the same place.