Going Commercial or is that Coming?

It is fascinating to see the way that the ads on this blog change. For a while I was worried that I was stuck with those linked to alcohol abuse and that was making me a little uncomfortable. However it seems that DIY has been identified as a theme right now and so all the ads are to do with really interesting things like concrete garages and al things cement. AS part of the deal hosting these ads, i agreed not to spend all day clicking them, like a rat in a Skinner box, but there is nothing to stop any stray reader from doing just that. I get paid by the click and even though it may not be much - it adds up as long as I love long enough. Who knows, one day I may have enough for a bottle of wine.

Talking of Skinner boxes, i am sure that most people don't have a clue what i am talking about. No change there, I hear you thinking, but I once spent a whole day in a cubicle with a strange woman, teaching a rat to press a button. The woman is incidental and I wouldn't even remember her if she hadn't smelled of cigarettes and kept asking me back to her room. A kind offer which you will be glad to know that I declined. Anyhow, this was a summer school experiment in Rat psychology and I'll try to explain how it works. A skinner box is basically a cage in which there is room for a rat to move around, just. It contains a food delivery system and a lever. The rat, I'll call him Osama, is dropped into the cage. The unfortunate beast hasn't been fed in a while, probably fasting, and so therefore food acts as a big reward. Osama explores his environment as would any animal capable of moving, and here is the key to the thing, whenever he gets to the end of the cage with the lever, you deliver a food pellet. He has associatd that end of the cage with a reward and so he stays at that end. At this point the rewards stop. So the rat explores further and occasionally shows interest in the lever. Rewards are given once more as the lever becomes a focus of attention. It is important that you don't give Osama too much food, or he gets full and stops doing much. Again, once he has the lever in focus the rewards cease until he puts his nasty little paw on the lever, and so the process continues until eventually he presses the lever and delivers his own supply of food pellets. It works and is of course the basis of much learning that goes on in animals in general and humans in particular.

This experiment was taken further, but not by me, when pyhysiologists identified the pleasure centre of a rat's brain and shoves some stimulating electrodes into it. The box was set up so that instead of a food reward, a burst of electricity supplied the equivalent of an orgasm each time the lever was pressed. Allegedly, once the rat learned to press the lever, he lost interest in anything else, not bothering to stop to eat or drink, probably dying of thirst while experiencing a life of orgasms.

As far as i know this is not available on the National Health service but hey, you never know until you ask. I can think of no better way to go, can you?

Oh do please remember to press that lever as many times as possible. You may not get the orgasms but i will get the money.