20101129

50 Free Services to Dig Up Info on Anyone

Whether you’re an employer trying to research a sketchy job candidate, someone suspicious of the show-off date they found online, or trying to research sex offenders in your area, there are a number of free internet tools to turn you into an amateur private eye. Check out our list of 50 totally free services that will let you dig up the dirt on anyone.

All-in-One Services and Public Records Search

Searching through public records is easy when you turn to these free sites that connect you to internet databases of court records, jail records, corporate records, and more.

  1. Free Public Records Finder: Search free public records by state, view corporate records, court records, criminal records and more on this site.
  2. Net-Investigation.com: Search by state to look up court records on almost anyone. This site also provides a background check crash course and tutorials for how to find the most relevant information.
  3. Public Record Finder: This site uses "the largest public records search database on the World Wide Web" and pours through public records from the U.S., Canada and even Mexico.
  4. Abika: At Abika, you can verify licenses, do a criminal records check, find contact information, dig up marriage and divorce records, do a license plate search, trace e-mails, and more.
  5. Dates and Love: Run a background check, reverse cell phone number lookup, employee screening or people search on this site for free.

Criminal Background Checks

To find out if anyone has a criminal history, perform a free criminal background check on them using one of these tools.

  1. Zimbio: Here you can run a free criminal background check by searching "millions of records at blazing fast speeds."
  2. CrimCheck.com: CrimCheck.com connects users to over 1,330 public records and websites to help you with your search.
  3. eFindOuttheTruth.com, Inc.: If it’s your birthday, you are eligible to perform a free background check using this site’s quality search services.
  4. RecordCheck.com: Conduct your search on this site, and if you don’t get any results, you won’t be charged for the search.
  5. Detective Unlimited: This site connects users to a free version of the Intelius service. Results bring up addresses, lawsuits, sex offender information, property ownership, relatives, neighbors, marriage records and more.
  6. Instant Background Report: Type in the name and state of the person you want to search, and you’ll find out approximate ages and cities where people who have that name live. You do have to pay for more specific information, though.
  7. Direct Pass: Non-subscribers to this service receive a description of each database used in their search plus access to the public record locator.
  8. Public Records Information: Search by state and county on this site and get links to investigation records, judicial organizations, sex offender registries and more.

Contact Information

Verify addresses and other contact information by going to one of these free search sites, from the White Pages to the more elusive Internet Sleuth.

  1. White Pages: The White Pages is a perfectly free way to find addresses and contact information for individuals.
  2. Free Address Lookup: Browse by state or just type in a name to find out where someone lives in the U.S.
  3. The Search Advisor: Search the U.S. database on this site to find missing people, do a quick address verification or find your birth family.
  4. Addresses.com: This website offers a White Pages search, Yellow Pages search, cell phone caller ID and e-mail lookup.
  5. AnyWho: To find a person or a business through this site, you need to type in their land line phone number.
  6. MelissaDATA: You can verify and look up addresses on this website, which prompts you to type in a street address, zip code or city.
  7. PhoneNumber.com: Conduct a people search or business search on this site, where you can find and verify addresses and phone numbers.
  8. Superpages.com: Look up addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses on Superpages.com.
  9. Internet Sleuth: Internet Sleuth searches databases at Addresses.com, Whitepages.com, SmartPages, 411.com, Anywho and Yahoo! to bring you contact information for your people search.
  10. 411.com: At 411.com, search the white pages or yellow pages, do a reverse phone number check, reverse address check, look up an area or zip code and more.

Marital History and Genealogy

Has your date secretly been married before? Find out by digging into marriage and family records by state or county.

  1. GeneaLinks: The free marriage records database lets you search ancestors’ records and link up to marriage records on other sites to maximize your search.
  2. A - Z Marriage Records: Look up marriage records in the US, UK, Canada and Ireland on this site.
  3. FamilySearch.org: This site lets you do a basic look up of named family members within a specific year range, country. You can choose a certain life event, too, like a birth, death or marriage.
  4. Census Diggins: Browse marriage and divorce records by state and county from the 1700s to the present.
  5. I Dream of Genealogy: This site is another service that provides free marriage records organized by state.

Employment Screenings

Employers need to be careful about who they hire, and there are several free services that allow you to verify contact information, past work experience, and even driving records.

  1. Free Employment Screening: This site offers a "comprehensive employee screener search engine" that lets you search by name or combine a name with city, zip code, employer and birth year.
  2. BackgroundSearch.com: Do a pre-employment background search by typing in a name and birthday. Using a SSN to narrow down your search is optional.
  3. DatabaseRecords.com: Sign in with your name and e-mail address to get access to a free employee screening report here.
  4. Switchboard: Verify that an applicant’s past work experience is legitimate by verifying their business here.
  5. Driver’s License Search: Find court records and driving records by looking up your applicant’s driver’s license here.

Real Estate and Rent

Run a tenant check on a seedy looking applicant to find out if they’ve been blacklisted on one of these sites.

  1. LandlordOnline.com: When you sign up for a free basic membership on this site, you’ll be eligible for two free credit reports and three free industry reports.
  2. Deadbeat Tenant: Start by selecting your state and then conduct an eviction check or criminal record check on applicants.
  3. Bad Tenant: This site offers free membership and a search to find out if an applicant has been blacklisted in the database.

Sex Offender Sites

Protect your family and your neighborhood by looking up sex offenders by name or zip code. Some sites even offer photos of each offender.

  1. National Sex Offender Registry: The family watchdog on this site directs users to a search by location or search by name.
  2. FBI Crimes Against Children: Click on a state to conduct a sex offender search from the FBI’s website.
  3. MapSexOffenders.com: There are over 300,000 sex offenders listed in this database. You can view maps of the offenders and search by name.
  4. Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Registry: On this site, you can type in a name, zip code, county or city to perform your search. Results include a photo, names and aliases used by the offender, registration information and address.
  5. Free Sex Offenders Search: Perform a sex offender lookup by state and get public access to criminal records and jail records.
  6. SexOffender.com Database Search: Look up sex offenders and anyone who has a history or record of violent behavior towards children.
  7. US-Sex-Offenders.com: This site can search information and addresses for sex offenders in 27 different U.S. states.

People Searches

To conduct a general people search on someone, use one of these sites, which feature search options like reverse telephone number look up, e-mail addresses, online profiles and more.

  1. Zaba Search: This free people search and public information search engine features search options by name, phone number or social security number.
  2. Free Public Records Directory: Find death records, court records, marriage and divorce records and a lot more on this "absolutely free" site.
  3. Yahoo! People Search: Conduct a U.S. phone and address search, reverse phone number check or e-mail search here.
  4. Bigfoot: Find individuals or businesses through this site, which can reveal e-mail addresses, phone numbers, addresses and more.
  5. Peek You: Peek You is "the smartest way to find people online." You can find out if someone has any risque pictures or information on their online profiles, on any site.
  6. pipl: pipl is another online people search site that brings up social networking profiles, public records, mentions on blogs and the Web, and even customer profiles on sites like Amazon.com.

The 5 Points of Yoga

These 5 principles constitute the essence of the teachings of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers.

To clarify the science of Yoga and make it accessible to the majority of seekers, Swami Vishnu-devananda extracted its essence and presented it in these universal principles for physical and mental health as well as spiritual growth.

1. Proper Exercise (Asanas)

Our physical body is meant to move and exercise. If our lifestyle does not provide natural motion of muscles and joints, then disease and great discomfort will ensue with time. Proper exercise should be pleasant to the practitioner while beneficial to the body, mind and spiritual life.

2. Proper Breathing (Pranayama)

Yoga teaches us how to use the lungs to their maximum capacity and how to control
the breath. Proper breathing should be deep, slow and rhythmical. This
increases vitality and mental clarity.

3. Proper Relaxation (Savasana)

Long before the invention of cars, planes, telephones, computers, freeways and other modern triggers of stress, the Rishis (sages or seers) and Yogis of yore devised very powerful techniques of deep relaxation. As a matter of fact, many modern stress-management and relaxation methods borrow heavily from this tradition. By relaxing deeply all the muscles the Yogi can thoroughly rejuvenate his nervous system and attain a deep sense of inner peace.

4. Proper Diet (Vegetarian)

Besides being responsible for building our physical body, the foods we eat profoundly affect our mind. For maximum body-mind efficiency and complete spiritual awareness, Yoga advocates a lacto-vegetarian diet. This is an integral part of the Yogic lifestyle.

5. Meditation (Dhyana)

Here is the most important point of all, we become what we think. Thus we should exert to entertain positive and creative thoughts as these will contribute to vibrant health and a peaceful, joyful mind. A positive outlook on life can be developed by learning and practicing the teachings of the philosophy of Vedanta. The mind will be brought under perfect control by regular
practice of meditation.

How to Solve It

adapted from the book How to Solve It, by George Pòlya, published by Princeton University Press

Orange  & Blue Bar

1. Understanding the Problem.
First you have to understand the problem.

  • What is the unknown? What are the data? What is the condition?
  • Is it possible to satisfy the condition? Is the condition sufficient to determine the unknown? Or is it insufficient? Or redundant? Or contradictory?
  • Draw a figure. Introduce suitable notation.
  • Separate the various parts of the condition. Can you write them down?

Orange  & Blue Bar

2. Devising a Plan.
Find the connection between the data and the unknown. You may be obliged to consider auxiliary problems if an immediate connection cannot be found. You should obtain eventually a plan of the solution.

  • Have you seen it before? Or have you seen the same problem in a slightly different form?
  • Do you know a related problem? Do you know a theorem that could be useful?
  • Look at the unknown! And try to think of a familiar problem having the same or a similar unknown.
  • Here is a problem related to yours and solved before. Could you use it? Could you use its result? Could you use its method? Should you introduce some auxiliary element in order to make its use possible?
  • Could you restate the problem? Could you restate it still differently?
  • Go back to the definitions.
  • If you cannot solve the proposed problem try to solve first some related problem. Could you imagine a more accessible related problem? A more general problem? A more special problem? An analogous problem? Can you solve a part of the problem.? Keep only a part of the condition, drop the other part; how far is the unknown then determined, how can it vary? Could you derive something useful from the data? Could you think of other data appropriate to determine the unknown? Could you change the unknown or the data, or both if necessary, so that the new unknown and the new data are nearer to each other?
  • Did you use all the data? Did you use the whole condition? Have you taken into account all essential notions involved in the problem?

Orange  & Blue Bar

3. Carrying out the Plan.
Carry out your plan.

  • Carrying out your plan of the solution, check each step. Can you see clearly that the step is correct? Can you prove that it is correct?

Orange  & Blue Bar

4. Looking back.
Examine the solution obtained.

  • Can you check the result? Can you check the argument?
  • Can you derive the result differently? Can you see it at a glance?
  • Can you use the result, or the method, for some other problem?

How to Think About the Mind

Neuroscience shows that the 'soul' is the activity of the brain

Every evening our eyes tell us that the sun sets, while we know that, in fact, the Earth is turning us away from it. Astronomy taught us centuries ago that common sense is not a reliable guide to reality. Today it is neuroscience that is forcing us to readjust our intuitions. People naturally believe in the Ghost in the Machine: that we have bodies made of matter and spirits made of an ethereal something. Yes, people acknowledge that the brain is involved in mental life. But they still think of it as a pocket PC for the soul, managing information at the behest of a ghostly user.

Modern neuroscience has shown that there is no user. "The soul" is, in fact, the information-processing activity of the brain. New imaging techniques have tied every thought and emotion to neural activity. And any change to the brain—from strokes, drugs, electricity or surgery—will literally change your mind. But this understanding hasn't penetrated the conventional wisdom. We tell people to "use their brains," we speculate about brain transplants (which really should be called body transplants) and we express astonishment that meditation, education and psycho-therapy can actually change the brain. How else could they work?

This resistance is not surprising. In "Descartes' Baby," psychologist Paul Bloom argues that a mind-body distinction is built into the very way we think. Children easily accept stories in which a person changes from a frog to a prince, or leaves the body to go where the wild things are. And though kids know the brain is useful for thinking, they deny that it makes them feel sad or love their siblings.

The disconnect between our common sense and our best science is not an academic curiosity. Neuroscience is putting us in unfamiliar predicaments, and if we continue to think of ourselves as shadowy users of our brains we will be needlessly befuddled. The Prozac revolution provides an example. With antidepressant and anti-anxiety drugs so common, critics wonder whether we're losing the ability to overcome problems through force of will. Many an uncomprehending spouse has asked, "Why don't you just snap out of it?" But depressed people don't have lazy souls. The parts of their brains that could "snap out of it" are not working properly. To depressed people it is objectively obvious that their prospects are hopeless. Tweaking the brain with drugs may sometimes be the best way to jump-start the machinery that we call the will.

Prozac shouldn't be dispensed like mints, of course, but the reason is not that it undermines the will. The reason is that emotional pain, like physical pain, is not always pathological. Anxiety is an impetus to avoid invisible threats, and most of us would never meet a deadline without it. Low mood may help us recalibrate our prospects after a damaging loss. But just as surgeons don't force patients to endure agony to improve their characters, people shouldn't be forced to endure anxiety or depression beyond what's needed to prompt self-examination.

To many, the scariest prospect is medication that can make us better than well by enhancing mood, memory and attention. Such drugs, they say, will undermine striving and sacrifice; they are a kind of cheating, like giving the soul a corked bat. But anything that improves our functioning—from practice and education to a good night's sleep and a double espresso—changes the brain. As long as people are not coerced, it's unclear why we should tolerate every method of brain enrichment but one.

In Galileo's time, the counter-intuitive discovery that the Earth moved around the sun was laden with moral danger. Now it seems obvious that the motion of rock and gas in space has nothing to do with right and wrong. Yet to many people, the discovery that the soul is the activity of the brain is just as fraught, with pernicious implications for everything from criminal responsibility to our image of ourselves as a species. Turning back the clock on the ultimate form of self-knowledge is neither possible nor desirable. We can live with the new challenges from brain science. But it will require setting aside childlike intuitions and traditional dogmas, and thinking afresh about what makes people better off and worse off.

20101125

Socrates v. Callicles

The old honor code as endorsing a form of egoism over principle:

--Privileges friends and relatives, which is Socrates's worry (p.49)

--Worships the power of the tyrant, despite the unjust means by which he gains it (p.50).

--Thus Callicles insists that doing injustice is not more shameful than suffering it (p.52)

--The stronger, more aggressive and domineering by nature, have been defanged and domesticated by the new legal institutions of the weak demos (p.53-4)



Egoism (1) (law of the jungle egoism):

We may do whatever we can to advance our interests against others, or promote our aggrandization over others by any means available.

Callicles defends this form of egoism by asserting that "the superior should take by force what belongs to the inferior" (p.59). He really means that the drive to self-aggrandizement is the mark of nobility, kalon.

(a) Socrates interprets this as the assertion that the physically stronger are better, more noble. But then this is refuted by counterexample: the many (demos) is stronger in virtue of its numbers, and thus it can make the laws, but this does not make the many better (p.60).

(b) Socrates then interprets this as: the more intelligent and talented should rule (p.61). But the more intelligent or talented don't necessarily want or need a greater share of what they can understand or produce better than others (p.62-3).

(c) Finally, Socrates interprets Callicles's claim as: the superior (kalon) are those who are brave and assertive in politics (pp.63-4). They can master others. But can they, and should they, master themselves? (p.64). This leads to another version of egoism: the superior life is the life of uninhibited pleasure.



Egoism (2) (hedonistic egoism):

We may enlarge our physical appetites and all other accidental particular desires to any extent, and do everything possible to satisfy these desires to the maximum extent.

With the tyrant in mind again, Callicles says this is what is most admirable by nature (p.64). This is what aristocrats will choose (p.65). Here we see a hedonistic perversion of the old honor code, a sign of decadence perhaps.

Socrates responds with the images of the undisciplined soul as like a sieve (p.66-67);

Callicles says pleasure is greatest when the greatest quantity of desire and satisfaction (p.67).

Against this, Socrates offers three reductios:

(a) First, it would imply that the best life is the life of unlimited sexual ecstacy, prostitution, an luxury (the life of a catamite --p.68). This is too shameful for Callicles to accept.

(b) Second, the pain of desire and pleasure of satisfaction can co-exist (p.71).
--Suppose feeling enjoyment or desire-satisfaction is doing well pain is doing badly.
--Thus a person can be doing well and doing badly (in the same respect, at the same time).
--But this is absurd (p.71)

(c) Intelligent and brave men are good, the foolish and cowardly are evil (by the old honor code) (p.74). But the foolish and cowardly may feel pleasure, and the intelligent and brave may feel pain. If our pleasure makes our life good, and our pain makes our life bad, then the intelligent and brave men can have bad lives (as well as good ones) and the foolish and cowardly can have good lives (as well as bad)--which is absurd (p.75).


Callicles then rejects Hedonism (p.76), and admits that some pleasures are good for us, while others are bad for us (an objective ranking of pleasures and pains).

-- Division of practices into crafts with knowledge of the good, and knacks without knowledge (p.77)

-- Two lives: the political and the philosophical as opposed paradigms (p.78)

-- Music, tragedy, and popular oratory as flattery, without concern for the good (pp.79-82).

-- All true crafts bring organization to their objects in accordance with objective standards of excellence for such objects (pp.82-3). The ordered soul is lawful, just, self-controlled.

-- To be disciplined is better for the soul than lack of discipline (contra egoism 1-c) (p.85).


Socrates's monologue

Develops the idea that excellence in something is the result of its proper organizations (p.86).

For the soul, the proper order is self-control, restraint of appetite (p.87).

Finally, he links proper ordering to happiness (the key claim of eudaimonism).

The Psychology of Closing

What is one of the most obvious ways to get inside your prospects' minds? It is actually a twofold process: a) Don't talk too much; and b) Ask lots of questions so they are the ones doing all the talking.

When we ask lots of questions, particularly if they are open-ended (the most effective type), we experience several positive byproducts. First, our prospects have the opportunity to tell us exactly what their needs are. That is, they can inform us of what they are looking for and why. In sales, using questions to acquire this kind of information is often called "uncovering the hot button." How can you solve your prospects' problems if you don't know what their "hot buttons" are? This is key information if you are to turn your prospects into long-term raving fans.

Second, keeping your own mouth closed avoids the fatal but common error of jabbering away about all of a product's perks and pluses. The truth is, most people only have one or two key reasons for buying, and the more you talk, the more you diffuse the transaction's energy. The more you talk, the more wind you also take out of your sales. Your prospects really just wanted to come get a good deal; they didn't come to hear your discourse on the whole product line. They may listen politely, but as you monopolize the conversation, spouting off about all kinds of sparkles and pizzazz that have nothing to do with their "hot button," their minds begin wandering to where they're going to go next. Then, the sale is lost before you've even asked for it. Just remember, talk little, and when you do, keep it simple. Information overload is just going to overwhelm and confuse your prospects, and as the old sales adage goes, "A confused mind says 'NO'!"

The third reason for asking open-ended questions is that it gives you better control over the conversation and where it's heading. As soon as your prospects are the ones grilling you, the tables have turned. You lost control. Consider the following question/answer scenarios and you'll see clearly that the individual asking the questions has control, while, perhaps surprisingly, the one doing all the talking does not have control: an employer interviewing for a job opening, a doctor preparing to diagnose a patient and an attorney questioning a witness. Note that in each of these examples, the individual asking the questions is in some sort of authoritative and/or advisory role. It is not so different when someone comes to you looking for a particular product or service to fit her/his needs. When you are the "interviewer," you will glean all the information you need to best guide your prospects while still maintaining control over the course the conversation takes, including, most importantly, the sought-after final conclusion where they'll enthusiastically buy from you.

The fourth reason for asking open-ended questions of your prospects is that as you let them express their feelings and concerns, it is clearly communicated, albeit in an unspoken manner, that you are sincerely interested in them--always a very important selling technique. Your prospects want to feel that you have their best interest at heart and that you are mindful of their needs. Genuine interest will explode your ability to develop a relationship of trust and solidifying rapport.

The fifth reason for using questions in your selling strategy is that in discussing the issues that are important to your prospects, they are drawn more proactively into the conversation and thus become emotionally involved. Consider the fact that every purchasing action under any circumstance is an attempt to improve or enhance the current status of a person, place or situation. Why do I consider an emotionally engaged prospect a positive, even necessary, thing? Emotions drive actions; they are the catalysts to closed deals. This is not to say that logic doesn't play a part in the persuasion process as well, because it most certainly does. Emotions, however, provide the initial ignition. They incite action. Meanwhile, logic is the tinder that continues to burn after the initial energy and excitement end. It keeps the commitment intact because there is still something concrete to point to. Some buying personalities will be more logically inclined, but as a general rule, an emotionally engaged individual is much more compelled to purchase. This is not a statement of one's intellectual prowess or lack thereof; it is simply a statement of human nature. In a nutshell, all buying decisions are emotional, while logic rationalizes the purchasing decision.

Another key component of successful closing psychology is the importance of acting with authority. This does not mean that you are arrogant or condescending toward your prospects. It does mean that your prospects have a certain expectation that you will be an expert in your field and that you will have the ability to advise them. Your prospects have a need and they want it fulfilled competently. Think of a time when you were faced with an important buying decision. Do you think that an apologetic and insecure salesperson, one who was constantly wringing his hands, would have made you feel more positive and confident about your purchase? Probably not--in fact, you probably would have found it annoying, maybe even disturbing. With this tendency in mind, when in a persuasive setting, do not be afraid to demonstrate your expertise. You could even look at the seller-buyer relationship as a student-teacher relationship. Think of yourself as a consultant or an advisor. You are the doctor of sales. That is, you are diagnosing your prospects' condition and recommending a cure. When you look at the selling scenario that way, you are practically under obligation to conduct yourself as an authority figure.

Hand in hand with the need to act with authority is the need to be assumptive. What do I mean by this? Assumption relates especially to the final stage of your close, when you're waiting to hear your prospect's final decision. Many salespeople hate this part of the selling transaction. They build rapport and shoot the breeze just fine, but then when it comes down to closing the deal, their whole demeanor changes. They suddenly become tense as they ask their prospect what s/he wants to do. They then cringe as they wait on pins and needles for the prospect's answer. How do you think this type of demeanor makes your prospects feel? If it hasn't happened to you before, I can tell you--it freaks them out. They may not be able to pinpoint it exactly, but they sense that something isn't right and then walk away from the deal based on that one moment alone. Such a backing-down response could be a conscious or subconscious reaction. Everything else could have gone perfectly. Remember, a confused mind says "no."

If you're this type of salesperson, you've got to talk yourself through the process. Prospective buyers clearly want to buy; after all the time and energy they spend on trying to make a decision, they want you to confirm that their decision to purchase is a good one. How do you make them feel that way? You have to assume the sale. In other words, in your mind, it's already a done deal. By acting assumptive, you yourself will feel confident and more at ease, and consequently, you'll make your prospect feel much more comfortable, too. As you implement this tool, you'll quickly discover that the more assumptive you are, the easier people close--in fact, they'll often close themselves. You'll just have been the vehicle that assisted them to the obvious conclusion. Conversely, you'll discover that buyer resistance usually only emerges as your own uneasiness is apparent.

There is a story of an old man who goes to a dentist because he has a tooth that is killing him. He has been putting it off for months and finally he has to get the tooth taken care of. Once there, the dentist agrees that the tooth needs to come out. The man asks the dentist how much it will cost. The dentist replies that it will be about $250. The old man yelps and yells, "Two hundred fifty dollars to pull out a tooth?!!" Then he asks how long the procedure will take. He is told that it will take about five minutes. "Two hundred fifty dollars for five minutes of work? That's highway robbery!" the old man protests. He then asks the dentist how he can live with himself charging people that kind of money. The dentist smiles and says, "If it's the time you are worried about, I can take as long as you want." When planning and preparing your call to action, remember that the process does not have to be long and painful. Be short, be brief and be to the point.

The final component of successful closing psychology that I'm going to discuss here is the need for persistence. Calvin Coolidge said,

Successful people always have high levels of persistence, and don't give up until they have reached their objective. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not. Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not. Un-rewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not. The world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence, determination and hard work make the difference.

I love this quote because it's so easy for us to get bogged down in all the "I'm not smart enough, talented enough, experienced enough" mindset. Successful closing comes down to numbers. Plain and simple, it's a numbers game. Only by sifting and sorting through X number of prospects will you secure Y number of deals. There is no other way around it. In the sales industry, even amongst the most seasoned professionals, a 20 percent close rate is considered very successful. The question is, are most people persistent enough to make ten calls to get two winners? Or, if they're not yet "seasoned" in the art of sales and persuasion, are they persistent enough to make one hundred calls to get one winner? The answer is no, most people are not. Their first prospect falls through and they are distraught. That just isn't how the sales game works, however. So, the first part of persistence is just realizing how many "nos" you have to go through before getting a "yes." The second part of persistence is not giving up prematurely.

Another facet of persistence is that many of those very same prospects who told you "no" would have said yes if you just hadn't accepted their first answer as their final one. You would be surprised how many sales come through because a rep approaches the prospect one more time. In light of this, it is more surprising still that over 70 percent of salespeople don't re-approach their prospect after the initial rejection. Did you know that the average person has to be asked five to six times before a sale actually takes place? A lot of times when we get that initial "no," we just accept it because we assume the prospect has thought it through and come to an educated conclusion. Well, the truth is, s/he often hasn't. People forget or get distracted. The demands of daily living crowd out even the best of intentions. That's why repetition and persistence are worthwhile in a sales scenario. It's often not that people are putting you off as much as they just haven't taken the time to really sort it all through. As you practice your closing skills, you'll become more and more adept at discerning the fine line between persistence and annoyance. My general rule of thumb is that if you detect even the remotest hint of interest, keep up your persistence.

My last plug along the persistence vein is that, as you sift and sort through what will sometimes feel like an awful lot of "nos," you should never allow yourself to feel desperate. Prospects can detect this nuance in your behavior, and nothing makes them run faster. It kind of has to do with the confidence issue I was discussing earlier. Anytime a prospect senses your uneasiness, they will become equally uneasy, even if they are not sure why. In the sales industry, desperation showing through in your game is called "selling hungry." To help you understand exactly how desperation comes across to your prospects, think of the age-old reference to "wolves in sheep's clothing." As soon as the wolf is found out, not only do the sheep run, but they bleat and talk to all their other sheep friends. So, even during those times when you are feeling pretty hungry, you're much better off playing it cool. Natural, positive and assumptive are your best bets in a persuasive situation.

Learning the Psychology of Closing Sales

Learning to close the sale is one of the most important steps in sales. After you have given them a surprising pitch you need to give them the time to think things over.

Closing a Sale:

When you come to the closing you have already laid a great foundation for the call by gathering much needed information on the prospect. Learning to build the walls are very important in your sales. Knowing when to listen and when to wait are also important to the sales call. When you think of the closing you should think of it as your "Roof" the protective layer that sits on the "house" of sales. The perfect finish to a beautiful creation. You must remain persistent in you attempts to make the close and don't lose track of your goals. This will help you in completing the sale because we all know the next salesmen will surely finish where you left off if you don't!

Just as there are signals to let you know when a prospect is not interested there are some for when they are. The following signals will let you know when to make you best moves. Learn them and watch your success grow:

  • Requesting service-setting appointments. Like- "How soon can you come out?"
  • Asking you about your rates and questions on the affordability of the product and service.
  • Asking you to repeat a phrase or response.
  • Asking about follow-up or care of services and products.
  • Asking you questions on other satisfied customers.

Make sure at the closing that the prospect understands you and is clear on all things before moving on. Avoid using the word "Sign" instead joke about a bit "My I have your John Hancock?" The word Sign is very final and distracting. It may make the prospect think again. Try using some of the following techniques to help you with the closing:

  • Silence is best when a prospect is thinking about closing the sale. Also at some point you must give the prospect the opportunity to breathe giving a "Yes" then is very possible.
  • Offering the prospects some added service like discounted or free shipping and packing.
  • Giving them the choice color or size, etc... On a purchase.
  • Discount incentives on the product or services (Such as an additional 10% off first purchases).
  • If it is the last one-(and it should be to do it) tell them! The feeling on urgency will help move the sale along.
  • Don't give up on closing any sale. Sometimes a little persuasion can go a long way!
  • Don't be afraid to ask to repeat the order more than once. It is better to be safe than sorry!

When you are finished with your prospective customer make sure to take a mental note of all you do. Review it thoroughly to help you see where you can improve and where you did well. Don't worry about the impending questions about what went wrong with the sale and why you couldn't close just know what you can do to fix it. Each experience can teach us all something and we will always be learning.

Practice this everyday and you will see the change in you. You will see the world through wider eyes. It will open up a new world that you would have seen if you just stopped worrying!

20101122

The 48 Laws of Power

The 48 Laws of Power

by Robert Greene and Joost Elffers

Law 1

Never Outshine the Master

Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite – inspire fear and insecurity. Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain the heights of power.

Law 2

Never put too Much Trust in Friends, Learn how to use Enemies

Be wary of friends-they will betray you more quickly, for they are easily aroused to envy. They also become spoiled and tyrannical. But hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend, because he has more to prove. In fact, you have more to fear from friends than from enemies. If you have no enemies, find a way to make them.

Law 3

Conceal your Intentions

Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense. Guide them far enough down the wrong path, envelope them in enough smoke, and by the time they realize your intentions, it will be too late.

Law 4

Always Say Less than Necessary

When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike. Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less. The more you say, the more likely you are to say something foolish.

Law 5

So Much Depends on Reputation – Guard it with your Life

Reputation is the cornerstone of power. Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win; once you slip, however, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides. Make your reputation unassailable. Always be alert to potential attacks and thwart them before they happen. Meanwhile, learn to destroy your enemies by opening holes in their own reputations. Then stand aside and let public opinion hang them.

Law 6

Court Attention at all Cost

Everything is judged by its appearance; what is unseen counts for nothing. Never let yourself get lost in the crowd, then, or buried in oblivion. Stand out. Be conspicuous, at all cost. Make yourself a magnet of attention by appearing larger, more colorful, more mysterious, than the bland and timid masses.

Law 7

Get others to do the Work for you, but Always Take the Credit

Use the wisdom, knowledge, and legwork of other people to further your own cause. Not only will such assistance save you valuable time and energy, it will give you a godlike aura of efficiency and speed. In the end your helpers will be forgotten and you will be remembered. Never do yourself what others can do for you.

Law 8

Make other People come to you – use Bait if Necessary

When you force the other person to act, you are the one in control. It is always better to make your opponent come to you, abandoning his own plans in the process. Lure him with fabulous gains – then attack. You hold the cards.

Law 9

Win through your Actions, Never through Argument

Any momentary triumph you think gained through argument is really a Pyrrhic victory: The resentment and ill will you stir up is stronger and lasts longer than any momentary change of opinion. It is much more powerful to get others to agree with you through your actions, without saying a word. Demonstrate, do not explicate.

Law 10

Infection: Avoid the Unhappy and Unlucky

You can die from someone else’s misery – emotional states are as infectious as disease. You may feel you are helping the drowning man but you are only precipitating your own disaster. The unfortunate sometimes draw misfortune on themselves; they will also draw it on you. Associate with the happy and fortunate instead.

Law 11

Learn to Keep People Dependent on You

To maintain your independence you must always be needed and wanted. The more you are relied on, the more freedom you have. Make people depend on you for their happiness and prosperity and you have nothing to fear. Never teach them enough so that they can do without you.

Law 12

Use Selective Honesty and Generosity to Disarm your Victim

One sincere and honest move will cover over dozens of dishonest ones. Open-hearted gestures of honesty and generosity bring down the guard of even the most suspicious people. Once your selective honesty opens a hole in their armor, you can deceive and manipulate them at will. A timely gift – a Trojan horse – will serve the same purpose.

Law 13

When Asking for Help, Appeal to People’s Self-Interest,

Never to their Mercy or Gratitude

If you need to turn to an ally for help, do not bother to remind him of your past assistance and good deeds. He will find a way to ignore you. Instead, uncover something in your request, or in your alliance with him, that will benefit him, and emphasize it out of all proportion. He will respond enthusiastically when he sees something to be gained for himself.

Law 14

Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy

Knowing about your rival is critical. Use spies to gather valuable information that will keep you a step ahead. Better still: Play the spy yourself. In polite social encounters, learn to probe. Ask indirect questions to get people to reveal their weaknesses and intentions. There is no occasion that is not an opportunity for artful spying.

Law 15

Crush your Enemy Totally

All great leaders since Moses have known that a feared enemy must be crushed completely. (Sometimes they have learned this the hard way.) If one ember is left alight, no matter how dimly it smolders, a fire will eventually break out. More is lost through stopping halfway than through total annihilation: The enemy will recover, and will seek revenge. Crush him, not only in body but in spirit.

Law 16

Use Absence to Increase Respect and Honor

Too much circulation makes the price go down: The more you are seen and heard from, the more common you appear. If you are already established in a group, temporary withdrawal from it will make you more talked about, even more admired. You must learn when to leave. Create value through scarcity.

Law 17

Keep Others in Suspended Terror: Cultivate an Air of Unpredictability

Humans are creatures of habit with an insatiable need to see familiarity in other people’s actions. Your predictability gives them a sense of control. Turn the tables: Be deliberately unpredictable. Behavior that seems to have no consistency or purpose will keep them off-balance, and they will wear themselves out trying to explain your moves. Taken to an extreme, this strategy can intimidate and terrorize.

Law 18

Do Not Build Fortresses to Protect Yourself – Isolation is Dangerous

The world is dangerous and enemies are everywhere – everyone has to protect themselves. A fortress seems the safest. But isolation exposes you to more dangers than it protects you from – it cuts you off from valuable information, it makes you conspicuous and an easy target. Better to circulate among people find allies, mingle. You are shielded from your enemies by the crowd.

Law 19

Know Who You’re Dealing with – Do Not Offend the Wrong Person

There are many different kinds of people in the world, and you can never assume that everyone will react to your strategies in the same way. Deceive or outmaneuver some people and they will spend the rest of their lives seeking revenge. They are wolves in lambs’ clothing. Choose your victims and opponents carefully, then – never offend or deceive the wrong person.

Law 20

Do Not Commit to Anyone

It is the fool who always rushes to take sides. Do not commit to any side or cause but yourself. By maintaining your independence, you become the master of others – playing people against one another, making them pursue you.

Law 21

Play a Sucker to Catch a Sucker – Seem Dumber than your Mark

No one likes feeling stupider than the next persons. The trick, is to make your victims feel smart – and not just smart, but smarter than you are. Once convinced of this, they will never suspect that you may have ulterior motives.

Law 22

Use the Surrender Tactic: Transform Weakness into Power

When you are weaker, never fight for honor’s sake; choose surrender instead. Surrender gives you time to recover, time to torment and irritate your conqueror, time to wait for his power to wane. Do not give him the satisfaction of fighting and defeating you – surrender first. By turning the other check you infuriate and unsettle him. Make surrender a tool of power.

Law 23

Concentrate Your Forces

Conserve your forces and energies by keeping them concentrated at their strongest point. You gain more by finding a rich mine and mining it deeper, than by flitting from one shallow mine to another – intensity defeats extensity every time. When looking for sources of power to elevate you, find the one key patron, the fat cow who will give you milk for a long time to come.

Law 24

Play the Perfect Courtier

The perfect courtier thrives in a world where everything revolves around power and political dexterity. He has mastered the art of indirection; he flatters, yields to superiors, and asserts power over others in the mot oblique and graceful manner. Learn and apply the laws of courtiership and there will be no limit to how far you can rise in the court.

Law 25

Re-Create Yourself

Do not accept the roles that society foists on you. Re-create yourself by forging a new identity, one that commands attention and never bores the audience. Be the master of your own image rather than letting others define if for you. Incorporate dramatic devices into your public gestures and actions – your power will be enhanced and your character will seem larger than life.

Law 26

Keep Your Hands Clean

You must seem a paragon of civility and efficiency: Your hands are never soiled by mistakes and nasty deeds. Maintain such a spotless appearance by using others as scapegoats and cat’s-paws to disguise your involvement.

Law 27

Play on People’s Need to Believe to Create a Cultlike Following

People have an overwhelming desire to believe in something. Become the focal point of such desire by offering them a cause, a new faith to follow. Keep your words vague but full of promise; emphasize enthusiasm over rationality and clear thinking. Give your new disciples rituals to perform, ask them to make sacrifices on your behalf. In the absence of organized religion and grand causes, your new belief system will bring you untold power.

Law 28

Enter Action with Boldness

If you are unsure of a course of action, do not attempt it. Your doubts and hesitations will infect your execution. Timidity is dangerous: Better to enter with boldness. Any mistakes you commit through audacity are easily corrected with more audacity. Everyone admires the bold; no one honors the timid.

Law 29

Plan All the Way to the End

The ending is everything. Plan all the way to it, taking into account all the possible consequences, obstacles, and twists of fortune that might reverse your hard work and give the glory to others. By planning to the end you will not be overwhelmed by circumstances and you will know when to stop. Gently guide fortune and help determine the future by thinking far ahead.

Law 30

Make your Accomplishments Seem Effortless

Your actions must seem natural and executed with ease. All the toil and practice that go into them, and also all the clever tricks, must be concealed. When you act, act effortlessly, as if you could do much more. Avoid the temptation of revealing how hard you work – it only raises questions. Teach no one your tricks or they will be used against you.

Law 31

Control the Options: Get Others to Play with the Cards you Deal

The best deceptions are the ones that seem to give the other person a choice: Your victims feel they are in control, but are actually your puppets. Give people options that come out in your favor whichever one they choose. Force them to make choices between the lesser of two evils, both of which serve your purpose. Put them on the horns of a dilemma: They are gored wherever they turn.

Law 32

Play to People’s Fantasies

The truth is often avoided because it is ugly and unpleasant. Never appeal to truth and reality unless you are prepared for the anger that comes for disenchantment. Life is so harsh and distressing that people who can manufacture romance or conjure up fantasy are like oases in the desert: Everyone flocks to them. There is great power in tapping into the fantasies of the masses.

Law 33

Discover Each Man’s Thumbscrew

Everyone has a weakness, a gap in the castle wall. That weakness is usual y an insecurity, an uncontrollable emotion or need; it can also be a small secret pleasure. Either way, once found, it is a thumbscrew you can turn to your advantage.

Law 34

Be Royal in your Own Fashion: Act like a King to be treated like one

The way you carry yourself will often determine how you are treated; In the long run, appearing vulgar or common will make people disrespect you. For a king respects himself and inspires the same sentiment in others. By acting regally and confident of your powers, you make yourself seem destined to wear a crown.

Law 35

Master the Art of Timing

Never seem to be in a hurry – hurrying betrays a lack of control over yourself, and over time. Always seem patient, as if you know that everything will come to you eventually. Become a detective of the right moment; sniff out the spirit of the times, the trends that will carry you to power. Learn to stand back when the time is not yet ripe, and to strike fiercely when it has reached fruition.

Law 36

Disdain Things you cannot have: Ignoring them is the best Revenge

By acknowledging a petty problem you give it existence and credibility. The more attention you pay an enemy, the stronger you make him; and a small mistake is often made worse and more visible when you try to fix it. It is sometimes best to leave things alone. If there is something you want but cannot have, show contempt for it. The less interest you reveal, the more superior you seem.

Law 37

Create Compelling Spectacles

Striking imagery and grand symbolic gestures create the aura of power – everyone responds to them. Stage spectacles for those around you, then full of arresting visuals and radiant symbols that heighten your presence. Dazzled by appearances, no one will notice what you are really doing.

Law 38

Think as you like but Behave like others

If you make a show of going against the times, flaunting your unconventional ideas and unorthodox ways, people will think that you only want attention and that you look down upon them. They will find a way to punish you for making them feel inferior. It is far safer to blend in and nurture the common touch. Share your originality only with tolerant friends and those who are sure to appreciate your uniqueness.

Law 39

Stir up Waters to Catch Fish

Anger and emotion are strategically counterproductive. You must always stay calm and objective. But if you can make your enemies angry while staying calm yourself, you gain a decided advantage. Put your enemies off-balance: Find the chink in their vanity through which you can rattle them and you hold the strings.

Law 40

Despise the Free Lunch

What is offered for free is dangerous – it usually involves either a trick or a hidden obligation. What has worth is worth paying for. By paying your own way you stay clear of gratitude, guilt, and deceit. It is also often wise to pay the full price – there is no cutting corners with excellence. Be lavish with your money and keep it circulating, for generosity is a sign and a magnet for power.

Law 41

Avoid Stepping into a Great Man’s Shoes

What happens first always appears better and more original than what comes after. If you succeed a great man or have a famous parent, you will have to accomplish double their achievements to outshine them. Do not get lost in their shadow, or stuck in a past not of your own making: Establish your own name and identity by changing course. Slay the overbearing father, disparage his legacy, and gain power by shining in your own way.

Law 42

Strike the Shepherd and the Sheep will Scatter

Trouble can often be traced to a single strong individual – the stirrer, the arrogant underling, the poisoned of goodwill. If you allow such people room to operate, others will succumb to their influence. Do not wait for the troubles they cause to multiply, do not try to negotiate with them – they are irredeemable. Neutralize their influence by isolating or banishing them. Strike at the source of the trouble and the sheep will scatter.

Law 43

Work on the Hearts and Minds of Others

Coercion creates a reaction that will eventually work against you. You must seduce others into wanting to move in your direction. A person you have seduced becomes your loyal pawn. And the way to seduce others is to operate on their individual psychologies and weaknesses. Soften up the resistant by working on their emotions, playing on what they hold dear and what they fear. Ignore the hearts and minds of others and they will grow to hate you.

Law 44

Disarm and Infuriate with the Mirror Effect

The mirror reflects reality, but it is also the perfect tool for deception: When you mirror your enemies, doing exactly as they do, they cannot figure out your strategy. The Mirror Effect mocks and humiliates them, making them overreact. By holding up a mirror to their psyches, you seduce them with the illusion that you share their values; by holding up a mirror to their actions, you teach them a lesson. Few can resist the power of Mirror Effect.

Law 45

Preach the Need for Change, but Never Reform too much at Once

Everyone understands the need for change in the abstract, but on the day-to-day level people are creatures of habit. Too much innovation is traumatic, and will lead to revolt. If you are new to a position of power, or an outsider trying to build a power base, make a show of respecting the old way of doing things. If change is necessary, make it feel like a gentle improvement on the past.

Law 46

Never appear too Perfect

Appearing better than others is always dangerous, but most dangerous of all is to appear to have no faults or weaknesses. Envy creates silent enemies. It is smart to occasionally display defects, and admit to harmless vices, in order to deflect envy and appear more human and approachable. Only gods and the dead can seem perfect with impunity.

Law 47

Do not go Past the Mark you Aimed for; In Victory, Learn when to Stop

The moment of victory is often the moment of greatest peril. In the heat of victory, arrogance and overconfidence can push you past the goal you had aimed for, and by going too far, you make more enemies than you defeat. Do not allow success to go to your head. There is no substitute for strategy and careful planning. Set a goal, and when you reach it, stop.

Law 48

Assume Formlessness

By taking a shape, by having a visible plan, you open yourself to attack. Instead of taking a form for your enemy to grasp, keep yourself adaptable and on the move. Accept the fact that nothing is certain and no law is fixed. The best way to protect yourself is to be as fluid and formless as water; never bet on stability or lasting order. Everything changes.





How to Win Friends and Influence People

How to Win Friends and Influence People

This is Dale Carnegie's summary of his book, from 1936

Table of Contents

Fundamental Techniques in Handling People
Six Ways to Make People Like You
How to Win People to Your Way of Thinking
Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment
Part One
Fundamental Techniques in Handling People

Don't criticize, condemn or complain.
Give honest and sincere appreciation.
Arouse in the other person an eager want.
Part Two
Six ways to make people like you

Become genuinely interested in other people.
Smile.
Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
Talk in terms of the other person's interests.
Make the other person feel important - and do it sincerely.
Part Three
Win people to your way of thinking

The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
Show respect for the other person's opinions. Never say, "You're wrong."
If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
Begin in a friendly way.
Get the other person saying "yes, yes" immediately.
Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
Try honestly to see things from the other person's point of view.
Be sympathetic with the other person's ideas and desires.
Appeal to the nobler motives.
Dramatize your ideas.
Throw down a challenge.
Part Four
Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment

A leader's job often includes changing your people's attitudes and behavior. Some suggestions to accomplish this:
Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
Call attention to people's mistakes indirectly.
Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
Let the other person save face.
Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be "hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise."
Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.

The Grave of the Hundred Head

The Grave of the Hundred Head

by Rudyard Kipling.

There's a widow in sleepy Chester
Who weeps for her only son;
There's a grave on the Pabeng River,
A grave that the Burmans shun;
And there's Subadar Prag Tewarri
Who tells how the work was done.
A Snider squibbed in the jungle-
Somebody laughed and fled,
And the men of the First Shikaris
Picked up their Subaltern dead,
With a big blue mark in his forehead
And the back blown out of his head.
Subadar Prag Tewarri,
Jemadar Hira Lal,
Took command of the party,
Twenty rifles in all,
Marched them down to the river
As the day was beginning to fall.
They buried the boy by the river,
A blanket over his face-
They wept for their dead Lieutenant,
The men of an alien race-
They made a samadh1 in his honour,
A mark for his resting-place.
For they swore by the Holy Water,
They swore by the salt they ate,
That the soul of Lieutenant Eshmitt Sahib
Should go to his God in state,
With fifty file of Burmans
To open him Heaven's Gate.
The men of the First Shikaris
Marched till the break of day,
Till they came to the rebel village
The village of Pabengmay-
A jingal2 covered the clearing,
Caltrops hampered the way.
Subadar Prag Tewarri,
Biddin8 them load with ball,
Halted a dozen rifles
Under the village wall;
Sent out a flanking-party
With Jemadar Hira Lal.
The men of the First Shikaris
Shouted and smote and slew,
Turning the grinning jingal
On to the howling crew.
The Jemadar's flanking-party
Butchered the folk who flew.
Long was the morn of slaughter,
Long was the list of slain,
Five score heads were taken,
Five score heads and twain;
And the men of the First Shikaris
Went back to their grave again,
Each man bearing a basket
Red as his palms that day,
Red as the blazing village-
The village of Pabengmay
And the "drip-drip-drip" from the baskets
Reddened the grass by the way
They made a pile of their trophies
High as a tall man's chin,
Head upon head distorted,
Set in a sightless grin,
Anger and pain and terror
Stamped on the smoke-scorched skin.
Subadar Prag Tewarri
Put the head of the Boh
On the top of the mound of triumph,
The head of his son below-
With the sword and the peacock banner
That the world might behold and know.
Thus the samadh was perfect,
Thus was the lesson plain
Of the wrath of the First Shikaris-
The price of white man slain;
And the men of the First Shikaris
Went back into camp again.
Then a silence came to the river,
A hush fell over the shore,
And Bohs that were brave departed,
And Sniders squibbed no more;
For the Burmans said
That a white man's head
Must be paid for with heads five-score.
There's a widow in sleepy Chester
Who weeps for her only son;
There's a grave on the Pabeng River,
A grave that the Burmans shun;
And there's Subadar Prag Tewarri
Who tells how the work was done.
1A memorial. 2 Native cannon.

20101121

Truisms (1978-1983)

A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE CAN GO A LONG WAY

A LOT OF PROFESSIONALS ARE CRACKPOTS

A MAN CAN'T KNOW WHAT IT IS TO BE A MOTHER

A NAME MEANS A LOT JUST BY ITSELF

A POSITIVE ATTITUDE MEANS ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD

A RELAXED MAN IS NOT NECESSARILY A BETTER MAN

A SENSE OF TIMING IS THE MARK OF GENIUS

A SINCERE EFFORT IS ALL YOU CAN ASK

A SINGLE EVENT CAN HAVE INFINITELY MANY INTERPRETATIONS

A SOLID HOME BASE BUILDS A SENSE OF SELF

A STRONG SENSE OF DUTY IMPRISONS YOU

ABSOLUTE SUBMISSION CAN BE A FORM OF FREEDOM

ABSTRACTION IS A TYPE OF DECADENCE

ABUSE OF POWER COMES AS NO SURPRISE

ACTION CAUSES MORE TROUBLE THAN THOUGHT

ALIENATION PRODUCES ECCENTRICS OR REVOLUTIONARIES

ALL THINGS ARE DELICATELY INTERCONNECTED

AMBITION IS JUST AS DANGEROUS AS COMPLACENCY

AMBIVALENCE CAN RUIN YOUR LIFE

AN ELITE IS INEVITABLE

ANGER OR HATE CAN BE A USEFUL MOTIVATING FORCE

ANIMALISM IS PERFECTLY HEALTHY

ANY SURPLUS IS IMMORAL

ANYTHING IS A LEGITIMATE AREA OF INVESTIGATION

ARTIFICIAL DESIRES ARE DESPOILING THE EARTH

AT TIMES INACTIVITY IS PREFERABLE TO MINDLESS FUNCTIONING

AT TIMES YOUR UNCONSCIOUSNESS IS TRUER THAN YOUR CONSCIOUS MIND

AUTOMATION IS DEADLY

AWFUL PUNISHMENT AWAITS REALLY BAD PEOPLE

BAD INTENTIONS CAN YIELD GOOD RESULTS

BEING ALONE WITH YOURSELF IS INCREASINGLY UNPOPULAR

BEING HAPPY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANYTHING ELSE

BEING JUDGMENTAL IS A SIGN OF LIFE

BEING SURE OF YOURSELF MEANS YOU'RE A FOOL

BELIEVING IN REBIRTH IS THE SAME AS ADMITTING DEFEAT

BOREDOM MAKES YOU DO CRAZY THINGS

CALM IS MORE CONDUCTIVE TO CREATIVITY THAN IS ANXIETY

CATEGORIZING FEAR IS CALMING

CHANGE IS VALUABLE WHEN THE OPPRESSED BECOME TYRANTS

CHASING THE NEW IS DANGEROUS TO SOCIETY

CHILDREN ARE THE MOST CRUEL OF ALL

CHILDREN ARE THE HOPE OF THE FUTURE

CLASS ACTION IS A NICE IDEA WITH NO SUBSTANCE

CLASS STRUCTURE IS AS ARTIFICIAL AS PLASTIC

CONFUSING YOURSELF IS A WAY TO STAY HONEST

CRIME AGAINST PROPERTY IS RELATIVELY UNIMPORTANT

DECADENCE CAN BE AN END IN ITSELF

DECENCY IS A RELATIVE THING

DEPENDENCE CAN BE A MEAL TICKET

DESCRIPTION IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN METAPHOR

DEVIANTS ARE SACRIFICED TO INCREASE GROUP SOLIDARITY

DISGUST IS THE APPROPRIATE RESPONSE TO MOST SITUATIONS

DISORGANIZATION IS A KIND OF ANESTHESIA

DON'T PLACE TO MUCH TRUST IN EXPERTS

DRAMA OFTEN OBSCURES THE REAL ISSUES

DREAMING WHILE AWAKE IS A FRIGHTENING CONTRADICTION

DYING AND COMING BACK GIVES YOU CONSIDERABLE PERSPECTIVE

DYING SHOULD BE AS EASY AS FALLING OFF A LOG

EATING TOO MUCH IS CRIMINAL

ELABORATION IS A FORM OF POLLUTION

EMOTIONAL RESPONSES AR AS VALUABLE AS INTELLECTUAL RESPONSES

ENJOY YOURSELF BECAUSE YOU CAN'T CHANGE ANYTHING ANYWAY

ENSURE THAT YOUR LIFE STAYS IN FLUX

EVEN YOUR FAMILY CAN BETRAY YOU

EVERY ACHIEVEMENT REQUIRES A SACRIFICE

EVERYONE'S WORK IS EQUALLY IMPORTANT

EVERYTHING THAT'S INTERESTING IS NEW

EXCEPTIONAL PEOPLE DESERVE SPECIAL CONCESSIONS

EXPIRING FOR LOVE IS BEAUTIFUL BUT STUPID

EXPRESSING ANGER IS NECESSARY

EXTREME BEHAVIOR HAS ITS BASIS IN PATHOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY

EXTREME SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS LEADS TO PERVERSION

FAITHFULNESS IS A SOCIAL NOT A BIOLOGICAL LAW

FAKE OR REAL INDIFFERENCE IS A POWERFUL PERSONAL WEAPON

FATHERS OFTEN USE TOO MUCH FORCE

FEAR IS THE GREATEST INCAPACITATOR

FREEDOM IS A LUXURY NOT A NECESSITY

GIVING FREE REIN TO YOUR EMOTIONS IS AN HONEST WAY TO LIVE

GO ALL OUT IN ROMANCE AND LET THE CHIPS FALL WHERE THEY MAY

GOING WITH THE FLOW IS SOOTHING BUT RISKY

GOOD DEEDS EVENTUALLY ARE REWARDED

GOVERNMENT IS A BURDEN ON THE PEOPLE

GRASS ROOTS AGITATION IS THE ONLY HOPE

GUILT AND SELF-LACERATION ARE INDULGENCES

HABITUAL CONTEMPT DOESN'T REFLECT A FINER SENSIBILITY

HIDING YOUR EMOTIONS IS DESPICABLE

HOLDING BACK PROTECTS YOUR VITAL ENERGIES

HUMANISM IS OBSOLETE

HUMOR IS A RELEASE

IDEALS ARE REPLACED BY CONVENTIONAL GOALS AT A CERTAIN AGE

IF YOU AREN'T POLITICAL YOUR PERSONAL LIFE SHOULD BE EXEMPLARY

IF YOU CAN'T LEAVE YOUR MARK GIVE UP

IF YOU HAVE MANY DESIRES YOUR LIFE WILL BE INTERESTING

IF YOU LIVE SIMPLY THERE IS NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT

IGNORING ENEMIES IS THE BEST WAY TO FIGHT

ILLNESS IS A STATE OF MIND

IMPOSING ORDER IS MAN'S VOCATION FOR CHAOS IS HELL

IN SOME INSTANCES IT'S BETTER TO DIE THAN TO CONTINUE

INHERITANCE MUST BE ABOLISHED

IT CAN BE HELPFUL TO KEEP GOING NO MATTER WHAT

IT IS HEROIC TO TRY TO STOP TIME

IT IS MAN'S FATE TO OUTSMART HIMSELF

IT IS A GIFT TO THE WORLD NOT TO HAVE BABIES

IT'S BETTER TO BE A GOOD PERSON THAN A FAMOUS PERSON

IT'S BETTER TO BE LONELY THAN TO BE WITH INFERIOR PEOPLE

IT'S BETTER TO BE NAIVE THAN JADED

IT'S BETTER TO STUDY THE LIVING FACT THAN TO ANALYZE HISTORY

IT'S CRUCIAL TO HAVE AN ACTIVE FANTASY LIFE

IT'S GOOD TO GIVE EXTRA MONEY TO CHARITY

IT'S IMPORTANT TO STAY CLEAN ON ALL LEVELS

IT'S JUST AN ACCIDENT THAT YOUR PARENTS ARE YOUR PARENTS

IT'S NOT GOOD TO HOLD TOO MANY ABSOLUTES

IT'S NOT GOOD TO OPERATE ON CREDIT

IT'S VITAL TO LIVE IN HARMONY WITH NATURE

JUST BELIEVING SOMETHING CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN

KEEP SOMETHING IN RESERVE FOR EMERGENCIES

KILLING IS UNAVOIDABLE BUT NOTHING TO BE PROUD OF

KNOWING YOURSELF LETS YOU UNDERSTAND OTHERS

KNOWLEDGE SHOULD BE ADVANCED AT ALL COSTS

LABOR IS A LIFE-DESTROYING ACTIVITY

LACK OF CHARISMA CAN BE FATAL

LEISURE TIME IS A GIGANTIC SMOKE SCREEN

LISTEN WHEN YOUR BODY TALKS

LOOKING BACK IS THE FIRST SIGN OF AGING AND DECAY

LOVING ANIMALS IS A SUBSTITUTE ACTIVITY

LOW EXPECTATIONS ARE GOOD PROTECTION

MANUAL LABOR CAN BE REFRESHING AND WHOLESOME

MEN ARE NOT MONOGAMOUS BY NATURE

MODERATION KILLS THE SPIRIT

MONEY CREATES TASTE

MONOMANIA IS A PREREQUISITE OF SUCCESS

MORALS ARE FOR LITTLE PEOPLE

MOST PEOPLE ARE NOT FIT TO RULE THEMSELVES

MOSTLY YOU SHOULD MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS

MOTHERS SHOULDN'T MAKE TOO MANY SACRIFICES

MUCH WAS DECIDED BEFORE YOU WERE BORN

MURDER HAS ITS SEXUAL SIDE

MYTH CAN MAKE REALITY MORE INTELLIGIBLE

NOISE CAN BE HOSTILE

NOTHING UPSETS THE BALANCE OF GOOD AND EVIL

OCCASIONALLY PRINCIPLES ARE MORE VALUABLE THAN PEOPLE

OFFER VERY LITTLE INFORMATION ABOUT YOURSELF

OFTEN YOU SHOULD ACT LIKE YOU ARE SEXLESS

OLD FRIENDS ARE BETTER LEFT IN THE PAST

OPACITY IS AN IRRESISTIBLE CHALLENGE

PAIN CAN BE A VERY POSITIVE THING

PEOPLE ARE BORING UNLESS THEY ARE EXTREMISTS

PEOPLE ARE NUTS IF THEY THINK THEY ARE IMPORTANT

PEOPLE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT THEY DO UNLESS THEY ARE INSANE

PEOPLE WHO DON'T WORK WITH THEIR HANDS ARE PARASITES

PEOPLE WHO GO CRAZY ARE TOO SENSITIVE

PEOPLE WON'T BEHAVE IF THEY HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE

PHYSICAL CULTURE IS SECOND BEST

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE IS ESCAPISM

PLAYING IT SAFE CAN CAUSE A LOT OF DAMAGE IN THE LONG RUN

POLITICS IS USED FOR PERSONAL GAIN

POTENTIAL COUNTS FOR NOTHING UNTIL IT'S REALIZED

PRIVATE PROPERTY CREATED CRIME

PURSUING PLEASURE FOR THE SAKE OF PLEASURE WILL RUIN YOU

PUSH YOURSELF TO THE LIMIT AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE

RAISE BOYS AND GIRLS THE SAME WAY

RANDOM MATING IS GOOD FOR DEBUNKING SEX MYTHS

RECHANNELING DESTRUCTIVE IMPULSES IS A SIGN OF MATURITY

RECLUSES ALWAYS GET WEAK

REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH IS IMPERATIVE

RELATIVITY IS NO BOON TO MANKIND

RELIGION CAUSES AS MANY PROBLEMS AS IT SOLVES

REMEMBER YOU ALWAYS HAVE FREEDOM OF CHOICE

REPETITION IS THE BEST WAY TO LEARN

RESOLUTIONS SERVE TO EASE OUR CONSCIENCE

REVOLUTION BEGINS WITH CHANGES IN THE INDIVIDUAL

ROMANTIC LOVE WAS INVENTED TO MANIPULATE WOMEN

ROUTINE IS A LINK WITH THE PAST

ROUTINE SMALL EXCESSES ARE WORSE THAN THEN THE OCCASIONAL DEBAUCH

SACRIFICING YOURSELF FOR A BAD CAUSE IS NOT A MORAL ACT

SALVATION CAN'T BE BOUGHT AND SOLD

SELF-AWARENESS CAN BE CRIPPLING

SELF-CONTEMPT CAN DO MORE HARM THAN GOOD

SELFISHNESS IS THE MOST BASIC MOTIVATION

SELFLESSNESS IS THE HIGHEST ACHIEVEMENT

SEPARATISM IS THE WAY TO A NEW BEGINNING

SEX DIFFERENCES ARE HERE TO STAY

SIN IS A MEANS OF SOCIAL CONTROL

SLIPPING INTO MADNESS IS GOOD FOR THE SAKE OF COMPARISON

SLOPPY THINKING GETS WORSE OVER TIME

SOLITUDE IS ENRICHING

SOMETIMES SCIENCE ADVANCES FASTER THAN IT SHOULD

SOMETIMES THINGS SEEM TO HAPPEN OF THEIR OWN ACCORD

SPENDING TOO MUCH TIME ON SELF-IMPROVEMENT IS ANTISOCIAL

STARVATION IS NATURE'S WAY

STASIS IS A DREAM STATE

STERILIZATION IS A WEAPON OF THE RULERS

STRONG EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT STEMS FROM BASIC INSECURITY

STUPID PEOPLE SHOULDN'T BREED

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST APPLIES TO MEN AND ANIMALS

SYMBOLS ARE MORE MEANINGFUL THAN THINGS THEMSELVES

TAKING A STRONG STAND PUBLICIZES THE OPPOSITE POSITION

TALKING IS USED TO HIDE ONE'S INABILITY TO ACT

TEASING PEOPLE SEXUALLY CAN HAVE UGLY CONSEQUENCES

TECHNOLOGY WILL MAKE OR BREAK US

THE CRUELEST DISAPPOINTMENT IS WHEN YOU LET YOURSELF DOWN

THE DESIRE TO REPRODUCE IS A DEATH WISH

THE FAMILY IS LIVING ON BORROWED TIME

THE IDEA OF REVOLUTION IS AN ADOLESCENT FANTASY

THE IDEA OF TRANSCENDENCE IS USED TO OBSCURE OPPRESSION

THE IDIOSYNCRATIC HAS LOST ITS AUTHORITY

THE MOST PROFOUND THINGS ARE INEXPRESSIBLE

THE MUNDANE IS TO BE CHERISHED

THE NEW IS NOTHING BUT A RESTATEMENT OF THE OLD

THE ONLY WAY TO BE PURE IS TO STAY BY YOURSELF

THE SUM OF YOUR ACTIONS DETERMINES WHAT YOU ARE

THE UNATTAINABLE IS INVARIABLE ATTRACTIVE

THE WORLD OPERATES ACCORDING TO DISCOVERABLE LAWS

THERE ARE TOO FEW IMMUTABLE TRUTHS TODAY

THERE'S NOTHING EXCEPT WHAT YOU SENSE

THERE'S NOTHING REDEEMING IN TOIL

THINKING TOO MUCH CAN ONLY CAUSE PROBLEMS

THREATENING SOMEONE SEXUALLY IS A HORRIBLE ACT

TIMIDITY IS LAUGHABLE

TO DISAGREE PRESUPPOSES MORAL INTEGRITY

TO VOLUNTEER IS REACTIONARY

TORTURE IS BARBARIC

TRADING A LIFE FOR A LIFE IS FAIR ENOUGH

TRUE FREEDOM IS FRIGHTFUL

UNIQUE THINGS MUST BE THE MOST VALUABLE

UNQUESTIONING LOVE DEMONSTRATES LARGESSE OF SPIRIT

USING FORCE TO STOP FORCE IS ABSURD

VIOLENCE IS PERMISSIBLE EVEN DESIRABLE OCCASIONALLY

WAR IS A PURIFICATION RITE

WE MUST MAKE SACRIFICES TO MAINTAIN OUR QUALITY OF LIFE

WHEN SOMETHING TERRIBLE HAPPENS PEOPLE WAKE UP

WISHING THINGS AWAY IS NOT EFFECTIVE

WITH PERSEVERANCE YOU CAN DISCOVER ANY TRUTH

WORDS TEND TO BE INADEQUATE

WORRYING CAN HELP YOU PREPARE

YOU ARE A VICTIM OF THE RULES YOU LIVE BY

YOU ARE GUILELESS IN YOUR DREAMS

YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR CONSTITUTING THE MEANING OF THINGS

YOU ARE THE PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE

YOU CAN LIVE ON THROUGH YOUR DESCENDANTS

YOU CAN'T EXPECT PEOPLE TO BE SOMETHING THEY'RE NOT

YOU CAN'T FOOL OTHERS IF YOU'RE FOOLING YOURSELF

YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT'S WHAT UNTIL YOU SUPPORT YOURSELF

YOU HAVE TO HURT OTHERS TO BE EXTRAORDINARY

YOU MUST BE INTIMATE WITH A TOKEN FEW

YOU MUST DISAGREE WITH AUTHORITY FIGURES

YOU MUST HAVE ONE GRAND PASSION

YOU MUST KNOW WHERE YOU STOP AND THE WORLD BEGINS

YOU CAN UNDERSTAND SOMEONE OF YOUR SEX ONLY

YOU OWE THE WORLD NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND

YOU SHOULD STUDY AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE

YOUR ACTIONS AE POINTLESS IF NO ONE NOTICES

YOUR OLDEST FEARS ARE THE WORST ONES

Photographer's Rights

1. You can make a photograph of anything and anyone on any public property, except where a specific law prohibits it.

i.e. streets, sidewalks, town squares, parks, government buildings open to the public, and public libraries.

2. You may shoot on private property if it is open to the public, but you are obligated to stop if the owner requests it.

i.e. malls, retail stores, restaurants, banks, and office building lobbies.

3. Private property owners can prevent photography ON their property, but not photography OF their property from a public location.

4. Anyone can be photographed without consent when they are in a public place unless there is a reasonable expectation of privacy.

i.e. private homes, restrooms, dressing rooms, medical facilities, and phone booths.

5. Despite common misconceptions, the following subjects are almost always permissible:

* accidents, fire scenes, criminal activities
* children, celebrities, law enforcement officers
* bridges, infrastructure, transportation facilities
* residential, commercial, and industrial buildings

6. Security is rarely an acceptable reason for restricting photography. Photographing from a public place cannot infringe on trade secrets, nor is it terrorist activity.

7. Private parties cannot detain you against your will unless a serious crime was committed in their presence. Those that do so may be subject to criminal and civil charges.

8. It is a crime for someone to threaten injury, detention, confiscation, or arrest because you are making photographs.

9. You are not obligated to provide your identity or reason for photographing unless questioned by a law enforcement officer and state law requires it.

10. Private parties have no right to confiscate your equipment without a court order. Even law enforcement officers must obtain one unless making an arrest. No one can force you to delete photos you have made.


These are general guidelines regarding the right to make photos and should not be interpreted as legal advice. If you need legal help, please contact a lawyer.



























10

July 2010 Edition

1. You can make a photograph of anything and anyone on any public property, except where a specific law prohibits it.
i.e. streets, sidewalks, town squares, parks, government buildings open to the public, and public libraries.

2. You may shoot on private property if it is open to the public, but you are obligated to stop if the owner requests it.
i.e. malls, retail stores, restaurants, banks, and office building lobbies.

3. Private property owners can prevent photography ON their property, but not photography OF their property from a public location.

4. Anyone can be photographed without concent when they are in a public place unless there is a reasonable expectation of privacy.
i.e. private homes, restrooms, dressing rooms, medical facilities, and phone booths.

5. Despite misconceptions, the following subjects are almost always permissible:
* accidents, fire scenes, criminal activities
* children, celebrities, law enforcement officers
* bridges, infrastructure, transportation facilities
* residential, commercial, and industrial buildings

6. Security is rarely an acceptable reason for restricting photography. Photographing from a public place cannot infringe on trade secrets, nor is it terrorist activity.

7. Private parties cannot detain you against your will unless a serious crime was committed in their presence. Those that do so may be subject to criminal and civil charges.

8. It is a crime for someone to threaten injury, detention, confiscation, or arrest because you are making photographs.

9. You are not obligated to provide your identity or reason for photographing unless questioned by a law enforcement officer and state law requires it.

10. Private parties have no right to confiscate your equipment without a court order. Even law enforcement officers must obtain one unless making an arrest. No one can force you to delete photos you have made.







When confronted, threatened with detention or the confiscation of equipment, ask the following questions:

* What is your name?
* What is the name of your employer?
* May I leave? If not, what is the legal basis of my detention?
* If equipment is being demanded, what is the legal basis for the confiscation?







http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_place#Restrictions_on_state_action_in_public_spaces_in_the_United_States

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photography_and_the_law

http://www.flickr.com/groups/nomorefreephotos/discuss/72157604655395007/

http://www.krages.com/bpkphoto.htm

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/andrewkantor/2006-08-11-photography-rights_x.htm

When I Ask You To Listen

When I ask you to listen to me and you start giving advice and you have not done what I asked.

When I ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me why I shouldn’t feel that way, you are trampling on my feelings.

When I ask you to listen to me and you feel you have to do something to solve my problem you have failed me, strange as that may seem.

Listen! All I asked, was that you listen not talk or do - just hear me.

Advice is cheap; ten cents will get you both Dear Abby and Billy Graham in the same newspaper, and I can do for myself; I’m not helpless.

When you do something for me that I can and need to do for myself, you contribute to my fear and weakness.

But, when you accept as a simple fact that I do feel what I feel, no matter how irrational, then I can quit trying to convince you and can get about the business of understanding what’s behind this irrational feeling.

And when that’s clear, the answers are obvious and I don’t need advice.

Irrational feelings make sense when we understand what’s behind them.

Perhaps that’s why prayer works, sometimes, for some people because God is mute and he doesn’t give advice or try to fix things.

He “just listens and lets you work it out for yourself.”

So please listen and just hear me. And if you want to talk, wait a minute for your turn; And I’ll listen to you.

Is there a way not to get caught receiving contraband?

I'm writing a spy novel in which the main character needs a scheme that ensures he can receive some contraband through the mail without being caught. It would be ok of law enforcement confiscated the package, or if the main character could know that law enforcement is involved (and therefore just abort the scheme) but the scheme can not allow a successful "controlled delivery" whereby my character is identified or caught.

My current plot involves having the package sent to a non gov't PO box. I don't think it would be plausible that LE would stake out a PO Box place for weeks waiting for my main character to show up and claim the package.

This doesn't seem terribly "ingenious," I would like something better to make the story more interesting. Any ideas?
posted by harriet.killjoy to human relations (28 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite

Well, my first guess, having watched many a cop drama, would be that the cops wouldn't have to stake out the PO box store, but have the employees watch for the perp to come in and hold him up somehow after notifying them. So that might not work.

What kind of contraband is it? Does it have to be noticed during transit? Well, I guess that creates suspense.
posted by sugarfish at 9:32 PM on December 10, 2008


What kind of contraband is it? Guns would need different delivery methods than drugs, biowarfare materials, microfilm, flash paper, plastic explosives, etc.
posted by infinitewindow at 9:36 PM on December 10, 2008


In Peter Corris' Frank Hardy novels, the ingenious private detective has a mate at Sydney University who occasionally agrees to use his office's address as a postbox in return for free drinks.
That also allows Corris to do a lot of description and local colour. Sydney Uni's pretty friendly for geographical exposition.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 9:40 PM on December 10, 2008 [1 favorite]


criminals sometimes have fedex or ups deliver packages for them to houses of people they know are on vacation. so they use the occupants identity or some other stolen credit card information to buy stuff online, have it shipped there and just pick it up from the porch later. sometimes they even sign on the spot - it's not like the deliveryman will remember a particular face weeks later.
posted by krautland at 9:52 PM on December 10, 2008


Spies do not do this. They use what is known as a "dead drop" system, where a secluded but open and public place is used as a place where items are hidden and picked up later by means of a prearranged sign nearby.

The FBI has scouted such locations in the past and apprehended the spy making the pick up. Google Richard Hansen for details.
posted by Ironmouth at 9:53 PM on December 10, 2008


don't know what the law is like wherever you are, but here you need proof of identity to take out a PO box, for the precise kinds of reasons you are talking about.

i think krautland's on the money about sending it to somebody else's place - eg if they are on holidays, or maybe deceased or something. otherwise, send it to the spy's own residence, but addressed to somebody who lived there previously (as identified by the mail that inevitably shows up for them long after they've moved on) - plenty of plot twists you could work into that. or else, maybe addressed to the right person, but a slightly incorrect address (eg dyslexic house number). spy could show up at the other place & say "hey, a parcel was sent to me by my dyslexic grandmother - you wouldn't have received it, by any chance?" - something involving plausible & explainable confusion about the address. maybe to the body corporate of an apartment complex? or named OK but so badly addressed it ends up at the dead letter office, then spy shows up to collect it, showing ID?

otherwise, listen to Ironmouth on the dead drops.
posted by UbuRoivas at 10:05 PM on December 10, 2008


Contraband would be something along the lines of "secret documents" so it would be a letter or package.

@sugarfish - the spy knows he may be under scrutiny, so he wouldn't allow himself to be "held up" by an employee of the PO Box place. As soon as things seemed fishy he would bolt. He wants to get the letter/package but isn't willing to get caught.

@Fiasco da Gama - I don't get it. Wouldn't the cops just stake out the office? Or are you suggesting it is similar to my current plot where the spy assumes if he leaves the package their long enough, the cops aren't going to sit around for weeks waiting for him. So worse case, they take the package, but he wouldn't get caught receiving it.

@krautland - Interesting, but we still have the same "stake out" situation if the cops have been turned on to the package.

@Ironmouth - I could re-write it so that a private courier service us used, but it seems implausible that they would be willing to drop off the package in a strange place (like a garbage can or something)

I think if my guy waits long enough to pick it up, the cops won't be there. They will either have completely given up (and have confiscated to package) or worse case they replace the package with something similar and have the PO Box place call them when my character picks up the package. But unless the cop station is right around the corner, my character can immediately hide the package somewhere and again wait until the heat dies down to grab it again (in case he is being tailed).
posted by harriet.killjoy at 10:10 PM on December 10, 2008


@UbuRoivas - we can assume the spy is essentially a known entity to the cops. but he can't be caught in possession of the contraband. So I don't mind so much that his name is on a PO box. But I do like a couple of your other suggestions. They are intriguing.
posted by harriet.killjoy at 10:16 PM on December 10, 2008


Steganagraphy hidden in hundreds of ask.metafiliter answers over a couple fo months encoded by bad speling.
posted by troy at 10:26 PM on December 10, 2008 [4 favorites]


Bike courier? Surely someone would be willing to drop off a package in a garbage can for enough cash.
posted by niles at 10:37 PM on December 10, 2008 [1 favorite]


Dammit Troy. Now I gotta go back to pizza-braille and the old stalwart: engraved fried rice in the chinese take-out.
posted by Kerasia at 10:55 PM on December 10, 2008


I remember in The Constant Gardener, the guy had stuff mailed to his friend's cranky Great Aunt who lived in rural Italy and spoke no English. More of an obfuscation technique.

You could have the package Fedex'd somewhere where no-one is home so that the package gets held at a local depot, and have your spy pay a homeless guy to walk in and pick it up for him. He could even target a homeless guy and make a fake ID for him in advance, then address the package to him. That sounds pretty ingenious.
posted by PercussivePaul at 10:56 PM on December 10, 2008


harriet.killjoy writes "Contraband would be something along the lines of 'secret documents' so it would be a letter or package."

Secret documents the spy needs to read would be sent as microdots in a normal letter, or as coded radio signals, or, hell, he could just pre-arrange to check certain websites.

The only documents that would be sent in unaltered physical form would be documents he'd use as part of his cover: IDs, passports, etc. If the spy's country has an embassy or consulate in his target country, he'd get them from a dead drop supplied by the agent-in-place at the embassy, or through a chain of illegals.

If the contraband is large or bulky (e.g., a radio, weapons, a laser spotter to direct aircraft), it would either be dropped in by (para)military forces (as the OSS did in Occupied Europe and the CIA did in the Warsaw Pact), or delivered through commercial channels (the Soviets used Soviet or Warsaw Pact merchant ships).

If the spy's an illegal and he's known to the cops, he's blown (unless the cops don't know he knows he's blown, in which case he might supply disinformation; but in that case, it's easiest to let the cops intercept the package and the disinformation with it).

If he's not an illegal, but has some sort of official cover as non-spy foreign official, he's still mostly blown, again except for disinfo, or very very dangerously servicing illegals when he can escape surveillance.
posted by orthogonality at 11:02 PM on December 10, 2008


Your character goes to Home Depot and buys a mailbox. He drives just outside town to a rural area moderately populated with a mix of 2 to 20 acre lots, finds a lot with vacant acreage, and plants the box next to the access gate. He looks at other mailboxes on the road, decides on a good number that fits the pattern, and marks it on the box. He sends some letters to the mailbox for a week or two just to get it up and running. The rural carrier figures it's just another new customer and puts the standard rural service card in the box and begins servicing it. One day the "item" comes through. The protagonist drives up at midnight, pulls the mailbox out of the ground with its booty, and is gone.
posted by crapmatic at 11:53 PM on December 10, 2008 [10 favorites]


No. If the person can get it, they can be traced to it. It's sort of the definition of a physical item.

The only foolproof way around it is if the trackers aren't aware that it is or contains contraband (orthogonality's microdots, or Troy's steganography.) Or to break it into innocuous elements. For example person A sends fertilizer, person B sends potassium nitrate and the rogue agent fills up on diesel fuel--all perfectly legal substances. Well, in most of the world. Together they make a very destructive bomb, but each of them delivered separately would not usually be actionable.

Of course this is how old fashioned codes work. The one-time pad was delivered through one channel, the encoded messages through another. Separately they are incoherent, only together do they reveal their insightful payloads.

If you do go with the PO box, use a private mail box firm. The USPO is much more paranoid about misuse and go to greater depths to validate the holder. They're also a lot more friendly with law enforcement. I'd think the PO would give you one of those "too big for the box" notices, then when you go to claim it, give you the runaround for fifteen minutes while they find it and give time for the cops show up. On the other hand the Mom & Pop shop that I have my mail box with probably don't want anything to do with the cops because it would put a crimp in their pot smoking.

Other sneaky ways to pass goods are to have one person pawn the item, send the claim ticket to the other person and have them pick it up. (Hide the documents inside the pawned item.)

Coin lockers are another good way (send the key) but coin lockers are a bit rare these days in much of the world.

How about airline baggage claim? One person "forgets" to claim a bag, sends the claim tag to the other person who claims the luggage. You could also use a Lost & Found, but there's a danger of it getting lost or found by the wrong person.

Detective stories and spy novels are full of this kind of stuff.
posted by Ookseer at 11:53 PM on December 10, 2008


Ookseer writes "On the other hand the Mom & Pop shop that I have my mail box with probably don't want anything to do with the cops because it would put a crimp in their pot smoking."

That's why they'd co-operate with the cops, to avoid being charged for their crimes.
posted by orthogonality at 1:28 AM on December 11, 2008 [1 favorite]


Why send the real package through the mail at all?

The real papers are hidden in someone's furniture, sent with a moving company. Later the character breaks into the house of the person who moved, unscrews the back of a desk, and pulls out the package.
posted by gryftir at 2:02 AM on December 11, 2008


They have 24-hour po box places. Most of the time to open one (at a non USPS facility) it just takes an ID and maybe a bill (easily forged right?).

I'm a fan of using unsuspecting accomplices. 1.) Use craigslist to hire an errand runner 2.) Have them pick up the package from the po box or ship it to their house. Some scams in foreign countries actually use Monster.com to post jobs for "American assistants". They have them setup faxes / receive and remail packages, etc. LINK Your spy could stake out the assistants house to make sure nothing suspect was going on.

If sending through UPS or similar they have a service whereby the sender can call and request the item be held at the sortation/distribution center (for a fee). They could do this at the last minute to avoid staked out delivery locations.

Dead drops as mentioned. Ship to a vacant house or apartment where packages are left at the managers office. I like shipping to big multi unit buildings, waiting for delivery then walking in "Oh Hi I'm from suite 201, UPS called and said they dropped off my package at 102! Can you believe it?".

Oh or maybe ebay a ups / fedex uniform. Then have the package delivered by the same company to a random house. Wait an hour or a day. Come to the door dressed up in uniform and explain "the mixup" reclaim the package.
posted by syntheticfaith at 4:09 AM on December 11, 2008 [1 favorite]


No offense to the OP, but you don't seem to have a firm grasp on the conventions of your genre.

Perhaps yours will be a break-through novel that overturns those conventions, but those of us readers of the spy-fiction genre accustomed to those tropes may find your novel, even if it's "The Real Thing" and more truly accurate than what we have learned to expect, as unconvincing as the Monarchs Henry James's protagonist paints in his eponymous short story.
posted by orthogonality at 4:42 AM on December 11, 2008


A one-time pad system could work for PO boxes. The sender and recipient both have a list of destinations that they work through in sequence. Each box is used only once. Law enforcement can't nab the recipient unless they compromise the sender or otherwise obtain a copy of the list. The downside is that you can only make as many deliveries as you have destination addresses on your list.
posted by Ritchie at 5:22 AM on December 11, 2008


Have your spy drop in every morning at the coffee shop on the first floor of a multi-story office building. Have him introduce himself as "Jim Smith, I work in 22b upstairs! Oh, this is 1b? I'm 22 floors straight up! What a coincidence!" He always has a smile and a hello and a nice tip for the barristas and knows everyone by name.

"Jim Smith" is always there around when the mail is dropped off - it's just the time of morning he goes to take a coffee break. Oh, look! Someone sent a document envelope addressed to Jim here instead of 22b! "Hey, Jim, they think you work here now! Ha ha ha!"

"So does my boss! Ha ha ha! Thanks for catching that. Welp, time for me to go back to work up in 22b! I've got papers to notarize!"

Jim Black, the infamous spy, comes out of the coffee-house with his customary briefcase... the agents staking him out know that it's empty, that today isn't the day, as no-one apart from the mailman entered the coffee shop, and the mysterious empty office up on the 22nd floor remains dark and unused.

You can probably fill in any number of "It's all going wrong... no, wait, it's working... no, wait, it's not!" suspense bits to make it interesting.
posted by Slap*Happy at 5:46 AM on December 11, 2008 [1 favorite]


Have your man steal some housekeys from an estate agent - they sometimes have racks of them in the back of the office, helpfully labelled by address, for viewings. Then he just needs to case the house to make sure no one's living there and have anything he wants delivered.
posted by Mocata at 5:59 AM on December 11, 2008


Send packages to a corporation where your pickup guy works in the mail room. Saw this in a cop show.
posted by barjo at 6:43 AM on December 11, 2008


How high tech can the solution be? Have the spy hide a tiny transmitter in the envelope that stops transmitting when the flap is opened. Then he strolls past his mail drop with a receiver in his ear. If the package isn't transmitting, he just keeps walking.

For extra MacGuyver points, have him pull the triggering mechanism from one of those greeting cards that plays horrible music and use that.

(Why does it stop transmitting when you open it instead of starting? Because this way works even if the package is opened and the envelope is swapped for another one.)
posted by hayvac at 10:05 AM on December 11, 2008


Spy works for post office/fed ex/etc. Could pick up package before it's delivered. Or better, send it to another address and have the spy intercept it. Would be vaguely associated with the spy, but the amount of mail could involved could hide it.

Another variation of using obscurity would be to have the spy get lots of mail. Fan letters perhaps. Or catalogues. Or credit card applications. Any one of which could be the actual letter.

Item doesn't get mailed, but instead delivered to a store. Info is in one of the boxes of any sort of item that moves off shelves slowly. Spy buys all of them, perhaps one at a time. Or lets someone else buy them and follows them.

Package with a gps/camera and a transmitter in it. Spy could see if the package had been intercepted or tampered with. Spy could also steal it at any point in it's transmission since he knows where it is. That way the final address could more or less be arbitrary. Could also detect if it has been opened.

Spy works as "Santa". Secret letter is a letter to Santa.

Letter is encoded in junk mail. Same junk mail goes to everyone. Only spy can decode it.

Some variation of sending out hundreds of decoy letters. Too many to stake out. Spy takes a chance and picks up the one that matters. Spy would also have multiple destinations to watch to try to determine if he is being watched.
posted by alikins at 10:51 AM on December 11, 2008


May I just say: awesome question, and awesome answers!!! This is one of the things I love most about AskMe. Now I'm thinking all spy-ey.
posted by indiebass at 11:34 AM on December 11, 2008


okay, so the cops know about the package and so they will always know about the destination because you have to disclose that to the delivery service. even if it were a pizza they'd have thirty minutes. you'd think this was a tough one to solve but to the rescue comes a german blackmailer/extprtionist who called himself "Dagobert" (referring to this guy):

Dagobert's real name was Arno Funke and he had the brilliant idea to ask for his money back (and then some) from a national high street retailer with the help of explosive materials. he was quite the inventive chap when it came to his cash delivery methods. one time he built a slide-like construction that he put onto a rail track. the cop delivering the cash found the slide, put the money onto it and watched it zoom down the track, eluding the stakeout they had set up. the whole thing didn't work out because the slide crashed before it reached Funke, who was waiting further down the rail tracks.

another time Funke had cops deposit his ransom in a box used by street and sanitation services to store sand and salt for the winter season. those are about trash-container size, bright orange and can be found quite frequently around german cities. the cops making the deposit didn't notice a false bottom and staked out the box for hours while Funke got to the cash through a tunnel he had dug before the whole thing went down.

Funke was eventually caught and sentenced to 8 years and there is ample documentation about his exploits on the web. I linked to the wikipedia article.
posted by krautland at 4:11 PM on December 11, 2008


Thought of a couple more today:

Get work as a valet. The source puts the documents under the driver's seat and has the target park the car (and easily secret out the documents.) The cops cant watch to see the transfer take place and they can't search or track all of the cars that go in and out of a valet service.

Have the source work in retail. You go into the store, buy some merchandise from your contact, pay and leave. They put the merchandise in the prepared bag with your documents in it, but no one will have noticed the switch.

Your target takes a taxi to a predetermined location and time. They pay, get out, and leave your package behind. You're at the same location hailing a cab, so you take the one they just left and take the package too.

These should work if they have one party staked out, but not both since they'll brace you after you make contact. That's what dead drops are for, but then the cops just take out the drop point.

Seriously though, just about any mystery/thriller/spy/detective story has tons of these. I watched an old (original) Mission: Impossible the other day where they made the cops think the contraband was tied to one of a hundred helium balloons they let loose which was enough of a distraction (cops shooting down balloons) to let them escape with the secret recording in their pocket.

Though if you're writing a spy novel you have enough familiarity with the genre that I don't have to tell you.