Category Archives: 4- HOW WE THINK

3- SOLVING WORLD PROBLEMS, 4- HOW WE THINK

THE UNETHICAL CANADIAN REAL ESTATE MARKET

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Nowhere in Canada is a company allowed to advertise a product at a certain price without being made to sell it for that price. That is, except when it comes to real estate. The recent practice of creating bidding wars by advertising a house for a price far below what the vendor is willing to sell, crosses the ethical line.

In bidding wars, potential buyers are not provided with details of other offers, forcing them into making high-pressure, time-limited decisions that can cause them to overpay by tens of thousands of dollars. It is purposely designed to place buyers in a vulnerable state in order to take advantage of them. Also, overpaying falsely drives up the cost of housing, especially when supply is low.

Bidding wars are the latest of what, up until now, was a gray area in the ways real estate agents can manipulate buyers and sellers. Most methods are subtle, and you may not even be aware of them. Think about it, when looking to buy a house, the agent showing the property has nothing to do with whether or not you like it and how much you are willing to pay. Sure, they can provide details of the neighborhood, and point out the house’s features, but most of this is obvious and shown on the MLS listing. Beware of agents claiming to be better at sales than all the rest, they are the ones skilled at various psychological techniques that can be used against you.

Open houses, for example, mostly benefit the agent. After all, if your house is listed on the MLS, any serious buyers know it’s for sale and can schedule a private viewing at their convenience. Nosy neighbors and people not serious about buying tend to account for most of the traffic. It is those who are not serious that agents are looking for. These are their possible future clients. They can even be used as ponds for the house they are selling. Being falsely led to believe that the seller could accept a ridiculously low offer can get a non-serious buyer engaged. Who could pass up the “deal of a lifetime”? Even though the offer doesn’t go anywhere, it softens up the seller on other future offers below asking price. The experience also changes the non-serious buyer’s mindset, making it easier for the agent to get them to look at other “deal of a lifetime properties”.

Offering free appraisals for people not serious about moving is another tactic. Some agents will overestimate the value of their current house to convince them to sell. Once listed, they come up with complex market situations as to why their house is not selling and how they need to drop the price.

The negotiation part of the sale, when the offer is going back and forth, is another stressful time to watch out for. A counter offer has a much better chance of being accepted if it is presented just before it expires. Your own agent could purposely hold off on presenting a counter offer to you for this reason.

These are only the methods I have personally noticed when buying and selling, no doubt there are many more. For most of us, buying or selling real estate is the biggest financial transaction of our life. Decisions made should be well thought out, and not while in a temporary, artificially created mental state. When buying or selling, beware of the friendly agent that brags they can do a better job than anyone else. Manipulating you is how they do it.

Dave Lister

listerlogic.com

3- SOLVING WORLD PROBLEMS, 4- HOW WE THINK

SOCIETY HAS BECOME AN ENABLER FOR YOUNG OFFENDERS, AND VIOLENCE BY THE MENTALLY ILL

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Every day in Toronto, there is another incident involving either an unprovoked attack by someone in a mental crisis or a swarming of someone by teenagers. Sympathetic treatment toward mental illness involving violence and the “Young Offender’s Act” are the root cause of this growing problem.

In Oct 2022 RCMP officer Shaelyn Yang was attacked by a homeless man with a knife. She managed to shoot him during the altercation, the homeless man survived, but officer Yang did not. Yang was not only trained as a police officer but trained in dealing with mental health and was part of a homeless outreach program, but despite that, she not only could not help the homeless man but was murdered by him. As tragic as this was, it boggles my mind, that in today’s society, it was necessary to have an investigation afterward to determine if her shooting him was justified. She’s dead! It’s obvious the shooting was not only justified but she should have done more.

There has never been more empathy and acceptance toward mental illness than there is today. As positive as this is, acceptance of the behavior associated with it has enabled a small number to escalate their actions to violence, leading to serious injury and death of innocent people on a daily basis. While some of these attacks are unpredictable, the ones done by people with a history of violence are totally preventable. Lack of a deterrent at the onset of violence because someone has mental issues reduces their need to control themselves and enables their behavior to escalate.

Not unlike violence by the mentally ill, the amount of crime done by young offenders is enabled by the current “The Young Offenders Act”. Of course, everything possible needs to be done to keep youth on the right path and rehabilitate the ones that stray off it but current laws don’t do that. Although “The Young Offenders Act” works for the majority of youth for first or second offenses, it provides little deterrent to repeat offenders, enabling them to commit more serious crimes and reducing their chances of rehabilitation. Any young offender convicted of a second violent offense or a third criminal act should face the full wrath of the adult punishment for that offense.

Most crimes are totally preventable as people can control their actions when they need to. No one would put their hand on a hot stove if they were told not to. (NO I AM NOT SUGGESTING THAT BE DONE TO ANYONE!!!!) I am just saying most people that commit crimes have the ability to control their actions and would think twice before committing a crime if there was enough of a deterrent. Also, current deterrents do not work well because waiting months or years for a trial causes a disassociation between actions and punishment.

It would be nice if everyone could be helped with a hug and a long talk, but with the increase of money and programs toward this solution over the past years, problems are getting worse, not better. You have to be pretty naive to believe that acceptance, defunding the police, and throwing money into programs will help everyone. For a small but significant number, it becomes an enabler. We need to do everything possible to help people before things get out of hand but can not ignore or tolerate violence or repetitive criminal acts because of the age or mental state of the person.

When an armed, specially trained police officer can be killed, what chance do you and your loved ones have? We all have the right to be safe. The rights of the mentally ill and young offenders should not be above everyone else.

Dave Lister

listerlogic.com

4- HOW WE THINK, 5- THEORETICAL SCIENCE

HAS THE MOST INTENSE EXPERIENCE OF SPACE TRAVEL ELUDED ASTRONAUTS?

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3:30 AM, in a tent miles from anywhere, you awaken with an unignorable urge to pee. The moment you unzip the tent it hits you, millions of stars with clarity, unlike anything you have seen before. A powerful experience for anyone, regardless of background or interests. Hard to imagine, as incredible as it looks, you are viewing it through a dirty window called the atmosphere.

Now imagine you had a fascination with space and astronomy and had the same view from above the atmosphere’s distorting effects. Add in the excitement of space flight, weightlessness, the amplifying effect adrenalin has on experiences, and what you feel would most likely be in the life-changing zone. A normal experience for all astronauts you would think, but not so. In fact, no astronaut to date may have had this experience. Light from the sun, earth, and ambient light from the spacecraft wash out the light from faint stars. It also inhibits the physiological conditions of “3:30 am eyes” needed to see them.

Most photos taken by astronauts show space as being deep black and starless due to the abundance of light from the sun. Much like the sky from the earth throughout the day appears blue and starless. Even when a spacecraft’s orbit brings it in opposition to the sun, light from the earth and the interior of the spacecraft inhibit the astronaut’s eyes from achieving both the physical and chemical adaptation needed to be able to see in low light, as we can in the camping example.

Testing for this experience is not hard and may have already been done. The astronaut must be placed in a pitch-black part of the spacecraft for a minimum of 1 hour before, to allow full dilation of their pupils and give time for the chemical dark adaptation of their eyes to take place. The sun and moon need to be in opposition. Without exposure to ambient light from the spacecraft and using the spacecraft to block ambient light from the earth, the largest observation window facing away from the earth should provide the most spectacular experience and view of the universe.

The same experience could also be possible on sub-orbital flights, by wearing VR goggles 1 hour before apogee. During launch and ascent, cameras on the outside of the goggles convert what would normally be seen, to a red light image on the screen inside below 650 nanometers. Red light below 650 nanometers does not affect our night vision. During a nighttime launch, after main engine cut off when the spacecraft gets to its apogee, the goggles would be removed.

Life-changing experiences are not uncommon for astronauts. Years ago, only the most hard-core test pilots made it into the Mercury / Apollo programs. Many of these highly disciplined, stone-cold astronauts admitted to being overcome with emotion when traveling to space. Most notably is an experience called the “Overview Effect”. The overview effect is a well-documented feeling of enlightenment, reported by many astronauts when they view Earth from space. There is no reason seeing the universe from space would be any less intense, a sort of “Outerview-Effect”

We live our entire life in this house with dirty windows we call Earth, a unique and insignificant spec in an unimaginable vastness of space. How can we claim to have lived a full life if we have never punched through the atmosphere, gone outside on the front lawn, and clearly seen and felt the universe we live in, even if it’s only for a few moments?

Dave Lister

listerlogic.com

3- SOLVING WORLD PROBLEMS, 4- HOW WE THINK

THE SLOW EROSION OF FREEDOM OF SPEECH

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Russia 1993, in a small cafe in downtown Moscow, I sat with my tour guide, Olga. It was the middle of winter and I was the only one on the city tour that day. With the formalities of the tour over, it was the perfect opportunity to ask some personal questions. Olga was in her mid 60’s and had lived through the extreme communism of Russia’s past, so I couldn’t wait to ask. “What was it like growing up?” She hesitated for a moment then told me “Everyone had their own opinions, anything that was against government policies would only be talked about with close friends and family, we would never dare voice it in public.” At the time I couldn’t fathom what that would be like, now in Canada 2022, I fear I am starting to understand.

At first thought, for most people, Canada may seem to be the same free Country now as it was back in 1993, but things have changed. Ever so slowly year after year, barely noticeable, freedom of speech has been slipping away. The repressers now are not only the government, but mainstream media and social media.

Disagree? Have you ever had a point of view, no matter how valid you thought it was, you only shared with friends and felt intimidated to admit publicly? Almost everyone I know today seems to. I remember back in 1993, trying to relate to Olga’s statement, I couldn’t think of anyone that did.

Today, even questioning mainstream ideas in public can immediately label you as an extremist that is uneducated, sexist, racist, an idiot, or has some phobia. Careers and businesses can be wiped out with 1 sentence taken out of context, even if made in private.

The latest example of the erosion of our free speech is the trucker’s protest in Ottawa against Covid-19 vaccinations. Although I strongly disagree with them occupying the streets of Ottawa, there are existing traffic laws that gave the police the authority to tow and impound their trucks. There are also existing laws that allow the police to arrest anyone that obstructs them from doing their job. However, the government’s response was beyond extreme, threatening to confiscate their trucks, cancel their insurance, and freeze their bank accounts. They even went so far as to threaten to freeze the bank accounts of anyone that donated to their cause, intimidating anyone that even partially supported the truckers. How long will it be before the government threatens to take everything you have for speaking out against any of their other policies.

The slow loss of our freedoms since 1993 shows no sign of stopping. If it is allowed to continue, where will we be in the next 30 years?

Dave Lister

listerlogic.com

4- HOW WE THINK, 5- THEORETICAL SCIENCE

ARE WE REALLY HERE?

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Over the past few years, video games have become an obsession for more and more people. As gaming systems become more advanced, what will the ultimate system turn out to be? Obviously, it would have to seem as realistic as possible but what if you even believed it was real?

Along with video games, medical science has also made huge advancements, right down to a molecular level. Many complex organs can now be transplanted and amputees can control basic functions in prosthetics through there own nerves. It no longer seems impossible that one day even a brain transplant could be done. As our understanding of how signals transmit through the nervous system also advances, it’s reasonable one day they could be duplicated by a computer. Now imagine combining the two. Our brain could be connected and interacting with a computer that would send all the sensations we would feel in reality. If perfected you would not be able to tell this new virtual reality from reality.

How popular would video games be then, if there was no difference in what you feel between virtual reality and reality? At first, all the video games we play now would be extremely popular at this new enhanced level. Racing cars and fighting aliens. The people we interact with could be real players also in VR or computer created.

After a while though, gamers would realize as good as this was there is still something else missing. The game would be even better if they thought it was real and didn’t know they were in a virtual reality world. If this became possible it would also draw the attention of not just gammers but those who also wanted to be educated beyond what a book can do. Imagine being able to experience life at any point of time in history without knowing it was virtual reality, being able to understand not only how people felt at that time but why. Picking wealthy or famous people with lavish lifestyles and perfect bodies would eventually get boring, just like gamers, you would eventually want to try harder, more difficult roles. Facing the challenges of higher levels while gaining the rewards of a further understanding of life.

Could the year now actually be 2220 and you are playing the ultimate virtual reality game. If so, it would be ironic if you wasted too much of it playing a primitive X-box.

Dave Lister

listerlogic.com