Mississippi is going to change its state flag

At CNN Politics on June 29, 2020 there is an article by Paul LeBlanc titled Mississippi state legislature passes bill to remove Confederate symbol from state flag in historic vote. They voted on June 28 to get rid of the flag shown above and replace it with one having the words IN GOD WE TRUST, with the rest of its design to be established by a commission. The Wikipedia article says Mississippi has a curious history regarding state flags. Before the Civil war there was none. At the end of March 1861 (as a Confederate state) they adopted one with a magnolia. In 1894 they came up with a second flag similar to the one shown above. But in a 1906 revision of their legal code they accidentally got rid of it, and did not  bring it back until 2001 – when a proposal for another design was defeated via a referendum. 

On May 14, 2016 I blogged about how Looking at flag design will change how you make PowerPoint slides. In that post I linked to an 8-page Guide from 2013 by Ted Kaye titled GOOD FLAG, BAD FLAG How to Design a Great Flag. His five basic principles are shown above. Note that #4 is having no lettering. 

One simple design using the Hospitality stars pattern and including the legislatively mandated motto is shown above. On September 23, 2017 I also blogged about A new, simpler, better flag for the city of Pocatello, Idaho.

Removing clutter from PowerPoint slides

It is easy to confuse an audience when you cram way too much information into a PowerPoint slide. On July 22, 2015 I blogged about how It always is okay to break the rules when you are told to blindly follow something like Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 Rule and only use ten slides. Instead you should use just enough slides to tell your story clearly. 

At Presentation Guru on June 22, 2020 there is a very useful article by Jim Harvey titled What are the simple rules that help us design better visual aids? His third point is to have just one idea per slide. 

He starts with the example shown above, which is trying to make three different points that instead should be on separate slides. I agree, but have some different ideas on how to accomplish that goal.

Jim’s first makeover slide, shown above, uses the same quote but adds a headline above it. But he unnecessarily cut off the right end of the motor, and left a lot of white space. I used the whole motor. Also, he never told us that a VSD is a variable speed drive.

Jim’s second makeover slide used the information from the table on the original slide. He put the lifetime total cost at the top, but left the largest percent cost for energy at the bottom. The costs in pounds really belong in another column from the percentages. And there is no cost shown for the variable speed drive (VSD). We can’t talk about a benefit without revealing what it costs. I assumed it was the same as for the motor. Then I reordered to put the energy cost just below the total cost.

Jim’s third makeover slide showed the two percentage savings from the original, and left the tiny formula  indicating that the power is proportional to the speed cubed - with no explanation. You might have naively expected that the power would be proportional to the speed. Then you would expect that reducing the speed by 20% just would reduce the power by 20% (as shown by the dashed blue line). It instead is reduced by 49%! I show that by a pair of slides – first a graph and then a more detailed table. The nonlinear relationship shows how there are massive opportunities for savings.  

His fourth point is to use animations for complex ideas/visuals. He redid the slide shown above at the left using SmartArt to produce four rectangular boxes, each containing three smaller boxes. Unfortunately he left off the original colors! That’s okay as an unfinished example though.

Then when he redid the box with three smaller ones inside, he used overlapping circles. But those usually are interpreted as being Venn diagrams by scientists or engineers.

President Trump flip-flops on saying he pushed for less coronavirus testing

The U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a pocket Emergency Card on Crisis Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) which I blogged about back on May 30, 2014. On the rear at the bottom it says in red that:

“CONSISTENT MESSAGES ARE VITAL”

Instead during the current coronavirus pandemic crisis the Trump administration has flip-flopped. A recent example concerns testing. During his speech at the Tulsa, Oklahoma rally on June 20, 2020 President Trump stated:

“So I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down, please.’ “

Then on June 21, 2020 at USA Today an article by Jeanine Santucci said that trade adviser Peter Navarro had said the statement was in jest: White House adviser says Trump’s call for less coronavirus testing was ‘tongue in cheek.’

But on June 23, 2020 Trump was quoted on Twitter in replying to Weija Jiang as saying: ‘I don’t kid.’

Finally, on June 26, 2020 at Politico an article by Jordan Muller reported Trump says push for less coronavirus testing was sarcasm. What does he really think? Who knows!

The image of flip flops was adapted from one at Wikimedia Commons.

Contrails or chemtrails?

When I look in the sky I sometimes see contrails – white lines behind airplanes. A web page by the Center for Science Education at the University Center for Atmospheric Research succinctly explains:

“The white streaks you see coming off high-flying jet airplanes are called contrails, which is short for condensation trail. Contrails are clouds that form when water vapor condenses and freezes around small particles (aerosols) in aircraft exhaust. The water vapor comes from the air around the plane and the exhaust of the aircraft. These contrails can become human-made cirrus clouds. Contrails last longer when there is a greater amount of water in the air; when all of the water in the clouds evaporates the contrail disappears. There are three types of contrails: short-lived, persistent non-spreading, and persistent spreading.”

Here in Boise at jet aircraft altitudes the humidity usually is low, and most contrails are short-lived. At the Metabunk web site there is an article by Mick West from October 6, 2016 discussing Why were there contrails today, but not yesterday? It’s the weather!

What are chemtrails? A Wikipedia article titled Chemtrail Conspiracy Theory begins:

“The chemtrail conspiracy theory posits the erroneous belief that long-lasting condensation trails are ‘chemtrails’ consisting of chemicals or biological agents left in the sky by high-flying aircraft, sprayed for nefarious purposes undisclosed to the general public. Believers in this conspiracy theory say that while normal contrails dissipate relatively quickly, contrails that linger must contain additional substances. Those who subscribe to the theory speculate that the purpose of the chemical release may be solar radiation management, weather modification, psychological manipulation, human population control, or biological or chemical warfare, and that the trails are causing respiratory illnesses and other health problems.”

The conspiracy is called a Secret Large-scale Atmospheric Program (SLAP). There is a serious  article by Christine Shearer, Mick West, Ken Caldeira and Steven J. Davis in IOP Science Environmental Research Letters on August 10, 2016 titled Quantifying expert consensus against the existence of a secret, large-scale atmospheric spraying program. Experts on both contrails (49) and atmospheric deposition (28) replied to surveys. Just one deposition expert had ever seen evidence of SLAP – the other 76 said no. There is a less technical brief article about this one by Sabrina Stierwalt in Scientific American on September 22, 2018 titled What are chemtrails made of?

A web page on Chemtrails at Rational Wiki shows a doctored image of a control panel from an alleged chemtrail plane. Another article by Dan Evon at Snopes on June 7, 2017 titled Did President Trump tour a chemtrail plane? said no, that plane just had water ballast tanks for test flights – and the original article was at a satirical web site.

Images of contrails from twin engine and four engine jet planes both came from Wikimedia Commons.

Where did the June 23, 2020 bogus ‘special session’ of the Idaho Legislature go?

Nowhere! Just 15 of 70 members (about one fifth) from the House showed up. There was no one from the Senate. Kevin Richert at IdahoEdNews summed it up in an article on June 23, 2020 titled Tuesday’s ‘special session’ tally: fifteen lawmakers, no action. At the Idaho Press Betsy Russell had an article titled Rep. Boyle: ‘This is not a session of the Legislature’ and another titled Lawmakers’ gathering ends with a closing prayer, no votes…

The 15 who showed up all had voted against ending the session back in March, as shown in an article by Clark Corbin at IdahoEdNews on March 20, 2020 titled Idaho House adjourns for the year.

On June 22, 2020 I blogged about Will the Idaho Legislature convene a “Red Dawn” special session on June 23, 2020, and said I doubt it.

Over in Idaho Falls the Post Register had an editorial titled A footnote in the history of insurrections which called that meeting the Cuckoo Coup.

I imagine a food column in a Spokane newspaper once might have said something like:

“I just moved here and keep hearing about Idaho Nutballs. Could you print a recipe?”

 An image was adapted from a blank sign to Nowhere at Wikimedia Commons.  

Will the Idaho Legislature convene a “Red Dawn” special session on June 23, 2020?

I doubt it. That claim is being made by a political action committee called Freedom Man on a web page titled Everything You Need to Know About the Special Legislative Session on June 23 rd in Boise, ID. A Facebook post from Health Freedom Idaho also claims there will be a special session. (Red Dawn is a 1984 alternate-history war movie about a Soviet invasion of Colorado).

You would expect the leaders of the House (Speaker Scott Bedke) and Senate (President Pro Tempore Brent Hill) would need to head such an effort. But Mr. Bedke already has declined, based on a legal Memorandum dated June 8, 2020. Freedom Man instead refers to another Legal Memorandum dated June 11, 2020 written by two lawyers at a Phoenix law firm called Statecraft. On June 12, 2020 at the Idaho Freedom Foundation there was an article by Wayne Hoffman titled Little’s property tax relief plan shines as he ponders new handouts that also referenced the Statecraft memo.

The Statecraft memo quotes the ‘relevant part’ of section 27 from Article III of the Idaho Constitution shown above but omits the part I have outlined in red. But an argument based upon omitting one of two items connected by the conjunction ‘and’ is blatant nonsense. (I suspect that neither Freedom Man nor Hoffman looked up that section). There is no lack of continuity, and no temporary succession is needed. Also, there already was a press release by the Governor on March 16, 2020 titled Governor, Legislature advance additional $1.3 million to ensure continuity of essential government service amid coronavirus. Our part-time Legislature finished their session on March 20, 2020, and left the Governor alone to deal with the pandemic mess. The legislature has no right to second guess him later on.

  
More on the plans for tomorrow is in an article by Betsey Russell in the Idaho Press titled Far-right lawmakers to try to hold own special session despite law, Constitution. There is another article at IdahoEdNews by Kevin Richert titled Little's critics organize 'special session' of legislature. But will it even be a session?


 

How many people went to the Trump presidential campaign rally in Tulsa on June 20th?

Far fewer than you might have expected. It was held in the BOK Center which holds 19,200 people. An article at OAN Newsroom on June 17, 2020 said Vice President Pence: Trump campaign seeking second venue for rally in Tulsa, Okla. based on Trump having proudly tweeted that over 52 times that number had ordered tickets:

“Almost One Million people request tickets for the Saturday Night Rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma!”

But those who requested tickets had to agree with a disclaimer, as Ryan Nobles reported at CNN Politics on June 13, 2020 in an article titled Trump campaign says it can’t be held liable if rally attendees contract coronavirus. At Forbes on June 21, 2020 there was an article by Andrew Solender reporting the Fire Department’s estimate that Turnout at Trump’s Tulsa rally was just under 6,200 – a fraction of the venue’s capacity. (Just a third).The campaign later claimed about 12,000 went through metal detectors.

I looked at a YouTube video and saw that just before Trump came out to begin his speech, as shown above, the upper seats were almost empty. They didn’t need the second venue. A better view of the audience is shown at 0:35 in a video contained in an article from CNN titled Trump's campaign was trolled by TikTok users in Tulsa.  

What had happened? Look at the sharply rising state figures for coronavirus shown above. Did many people come to their senses and decide that being exposed to a virus pandemic was not worth it?

Other powerful social media factors also may have been present. An article by Laura Italiano at the New York Post on June 21, 2020 said that Organized TikTok campaigns jammed up Trump rally tickets by hundreds. Another article by Joshua Bote at USA Today said K-pop stans, teens on TikTok may have inflated expected turnout to Trump’s Tulsa rally. Still another article by Daniel Kreps at Rolling Stone predictably said Trump campaign denies K-pop fans, TikTok users caused sparsely attended Tulsa rally. An article by Richard Wolffe at The Guardian summed things up by saying Don’t call it a comeback: Trump’s Tulsa rally was just another sad farce.

Debunking two blatant lies with a few brief video clips

When he signed an executive order, President Trump said two ‘pants on fire’ lies:

“We will have reform without undermining our many great and extremely talented law enforcement officers. President Obama and Vice President Biden never even tried to fix this during their eight year period. The reason they didn’t try is because they had no idea how to do it, and it is a complex situation.”

You can view that statement at 4:11 in a 5:16 YouTube video from The Hill on June 16, 2020. At FactCheck on June 17, 2020 Lori Robertson debunked it in an article titled Trump wrong on Obama-Biden actions on policing.

But at MSNBC’s Morning Joe, as shown above, they demolished it in less than two minutes via a series of brief clips in another YouTube video titled Trump falsely claims Obama WH didn’t reform policing. That video also was embedded in an AOL article by Jane C. Timm titled Trump says Obama didn’t reform policing. But he did and then the president ditched it.

If you see Everything or Complete in a title, then prepare for nonsense

At Career Coach ie on June 12, 2020 there was an article by Joy Woods titled Everything you need to know about public speaking that opened by claiming without a supporting reference that:

“Public speaking can be considered one of the five scariest things people have today. It even (is) scarier than death to some. Given how scary speaking in public can be for some, it’s a good idea to be ready in advance. Use the following tips to help you with your public speaking.”

Then in the fifth paragraph she advised:

“Make sure you have a good understanding about your topic before preparing your speech. Research it from various angles so you have a full understanding of the topic. This will pay off handsomely as your audience asks questions.”

But she did not take her own advice. That claim about five things is from a blog post by Sheri Ledbetter at Chapman University on October 20, 2014 titled What Americans Fear Most – New Poll from Chapman University. On September 29, 2019 I blogged about how you should Stop playing – do serious digging before you come up with an opening statement. In that post I pointed out that the 2014 Chapman survey didn’t ask questions in a consistent way. Thus those five scariest things were not a useful comparison. In all the later surveys from 2015 through 2019 fear of public speaking was no where near the top five. Another blog post of mine on July 10, 2016 discussed how you should Beware of anything labeled as a Complete Guide.

Making the audience a blur: Prince William and his ‘forgotten’ contact lenses

In May 2020 there was a BBC documentary titled Football, Prince William and our mental health. You can watch a video clip. There was an article by Stephanie Petit in People on May 28, 2020 titled Prince William’s secret contact lenses trick helped him overcome ‘anxiety’ about public speaking.

It revealed:

"My eyesight started to tail off a little bit as I got older, and I didn’t use to wear contacts when I was working, so actually when I gave speeches I couldn’t see anyone’s face," Prince William, 37, said. "And it helps, because it’s just a blur of faces and because you can't see anyone looking at you — I can see enough to read the paper and stuff like that — but I couldn’t actually see the whole room. And actually that really helps with my anxiety."

Opinions about blurring the audience varied. At Extra.ie on May 28, 2020 an article by Louise Burne was titled Prince William reveals brilliant trick he used to overcome public speaking fear. But at Woman & Home the same day another article was titled Prince William reveals bizarre trick for overcoming his fear of public speaking.

I think not having eye contact with the audience is a bad idea. If you can’t see them, then you have to depend on someone else to let you know whether people have hands raised to ask questions. The cover story in the December 2013 issue of Toastmaster magazine was an article by Ruth Nasrullah on page 22 titled The Eyes Have It.  

Also, if you are a political figure (like a prince) people may throw things at you (such as shoes or milkshakes) so you need to see clearly in order to duck. An image of an audience from Wikimedia Commons was blurred using a filter in Adobe Photoshop Elements.

President Trump blames North Carolina governor Roy Cooper for not allowing a ‘full’ Republican National Convention in Charlotte

Back on April 10, 2020 I blogged about Donald Trump Shifting blame elsewhere and provided a Wheel of Blame for keeping track. The latest addition to that wheel (shown above) is yet another Democrat - North Carolina’s governor Roy Cooper. Almost two years ago the Republican National Convention (RNC) was planned for the 20,000 seat Spectrum Center owned by the City of Charlotte. It had previously hosted the 2012 Democratic National Convention.

On April 2, 2020 there was an editorial in The Charlotte Observer which asked (due to the Coronavirus and rising numbers of new cases in North Carolina) The Republican convention is becoming unlikely. Who’s going to tell the president? On May 15, 2020 there instead was a Republican press release titled 100 Days until Convention Begins with the following glowing description:

“The 2020 Republican National Convention will be held at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina on August 24-27, 2020. Nearly 50,000 visitors– including delegates, members of the media and guests – are expected to gather to witness history as we re-nominate President Donald J. Trump as President of the United States. This 5-star event will play an integral role in promoting local businesses and generating millions of dollars across the region. It will leave a lasting impact – not only in the ‘Queen City’ of Charlotte, but also across the nation as we celebrate together American greatness.”

Let’s Pretend There is No Pandemic and Things Are Normal!

But on May 25, 2020 there was an article in The Charlotte Observer titled Trump threatens to pull GOP convention from Charlotte unless ‘full attendance’ allowed and the president tweeted:

“I love the Great State of North Carolina so much that I insisted on having the Republican National Convention in Charlotte at the end of August. Unfortunately, Democrat Governor Roy Cooper is still in Shutdown mood & unable to guarantee that by August we will be allowed full attendance in the Arena. In other words, we would be spending millions of dollars building the Arena to a very high standard without even knowing if the Democrat Governor would allow the Republican Party to fully occupy the space. Plans are being made by thousands of enthusiastic Republicans, and others, to head to beautiful North Carolina in August. They must be immediately given an answer by the Governor as to whether or not the space will be allowed to be fully occupied. If not we will be reluctantly forced to find, with all the jobs and economic development it brings, another Republican National Convention site. This is not something I want to do. Thank you, and I LOVE the people of North Carolina!”

The Convention provided a sideshow for diverting attention away from the May 25, 2020 death of George Floyd. There was an article in The Charlotte Observer on May 29, 2020 titled Trump calls Cooper, asks for full GOP convention with no social distancing or masks, and an article on May 30, 2020 titled GOP planning for 19,000 in attendance, full bars and restaurants for Charlotte convention. Another article on June 2, 2020 was titled NC’s top health official signals that bid for a packed GOP convention is a non-starter. On June 2, 2020 the president tweeted:

“Had long planned to have the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, a place I love. Now NC Governor Roy Cooper and his representatives refuse to guarantee that we can have use of the Spectrum Arena – Spend millions of dollars, have everybody arrive, and then tell them they will not be able to gain entry. Governor Cooper is still in Shelter-In-Place Mode, and not allowing us to occupy the arena as originally anticipated and promised. Would have showcased beautiful North Carolina to the World and brought in hundreds of millions of dollars, and jobs for the State. Because of NC Governor we are now forced to seek another State to host the 2020 Republican National Convention.”

The usual way to find another host would be to simply contact the other cities who had submitted bids to hold the RNC convention. But an article by Steve Harrison at NPR on June 2, 2020 titled Trump suggests GOP move convention after N.C. Gov. refuses to allow packed arenas said that ONLY Charlotte had bid for it.

Is the Spectrum Center big enough to hold a socially distanced convention? Probably yes. On January 17, 2020 there was an article from WBTV3 in Charlotte titled What you need to know about the Republican National Convention and how it works. It explained:

“There will be 2,550 delegates in Charlotte, a similar number of alternate delegates, and then each alternate and delegate has guest passes. So you’re looking at about 10,000 people showing up just to be in the convention hall.”

Just the delegates easily would fit inside, and both the delegates and alternates might fit. What alternatives are there around Charlotte for holding 20,000 for a spectacular show like the president wants? They both are outdoor facilities. The Bank of America stadium seats 75,000, and the Charlotte Motor Speedway seats over 94,000. An article by Reid Wilson at The Hill on June 7, 2020 discussed Why Republicans aren’t likely to move their convention out of Charlotte.

Yet another sideshow from Donald J. Trump

President Trump gives us a media circus of sideshows to divert our attention - often by blaming others or picking fights.

On June 3, 2020 it was reported by CNN that the White House finally had released a summary of results from his annual physical. Most probably have forgotten that back on November 17, 2019 at Vanity Fair there was an article by Jordan Hoffman titled Trump heads to hospital for unannounced ‘part one’ of annual physical. There was speculation whether his hospital visit really was just for a routine exam.

Then on March 2, 2020 at The Hill there was another article by Brett Samuels titled Trump says he’ll complete annual physical in next 90 days. And on May 22, 2020 at NBC News there was yet another article by Geoff Bennett and Monica Alba titled 6 months on, Trump hasn’t completed his physical. The White House won’t say why. Presumably his campaign wanted to question Joe Biden’s health, but realized there still was an incomplete physical for the president.

The image was modified from a 1928 movie poster at Wikimedia Commons.

Why is that business named the Neptune Cremation Service?

In the mail I recently received an ad for the Neptune Cremation Service here in Boise. How did they come up with that business name? In Roman religion Neptune is the god of the sea and of fresh water, while Vulcan is the god of fire and thus he is more logically connected with cremation. It is not explained on their web site, but it actually does make some sense.

I found a book  from 2001 by Stephen Prothero titled Purified by Fire – A History of Cremation in America. He explains that what originally was called the Neptune Society (since they would scatter the ashes at sea) began in San Francisco, back in the 1970s. The founder was Charles Denning - a chiropractor with a goatee who was known (in parody of the fried chicken guy) as ‘Colonel Cinders.’ For an extra charge you even could go on Denning’s hundred-foot yacht for a scattering party. Funeral homes derisively referred to his cremation operation as a ‘bake and shake.’ But by 1980 he handled more ‘customers’ than anyone else in California except Glendale’s massive Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

According to the Wikipedia article on the Neptune Society, as of June 2011, Neptune was 70% owned by the very generically named Service Corporation International.

An image for a statue of Neptune came from Wikimedia Commons while an image for a statue of Vulcan came from the Library of Congress.