Self-congratulatory stories from a leader

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The dialogue in today’s Dilbert comic strip consists mostly of a monologue about stories from Dave:

 

Dave: I can’t get enough of your stories. Especially the ones I’ve already heard. Your terrific stories need to be repeated so their wisdom sinks in. If you think about it, that’s no different than how we learn anything else. I love the fact that all of your stories have the same point. You’re awesome. And that’s a lesson that has helped me grow as a person and as a professional. I don’t know how I can ever repay you for that gift.

 

Pointy-haired Boss: Is he serious? I can’t tell.

 

Dilbert: No one knows.

 

An article by Kenneth T. Walsh at U.S. News on October 20, 2017 titled The Smartest Person in the Room told us about how Donald Trump likes to distort the record to present himself as the best.

 

A playing card image was derived from one at Openclipart.

 

Is there any excuse for using a pie chart?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not really. There is an article by Dan Kopf at Priceonomics on October 5, 2015 titled Should you ever use a pie chart? Pie charts work well for showing the relation between two to five parts and a whole. Not otherwise. He shows a slightly useful and humorous example, the pyramid chart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But that pyramid information can be presented equally well via a stacked bar chart in PowerPoint or Excel (either vertical or horizontal), as are shown above.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two funny examples of single-category pie charts from another article at imgur on August 14, 2016 are shown above.

 

Eight top fears Americans are willing to face to get their favorite food free for life

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are pancakes your favorite food? What would you do to get them for free? At Newsweek on July 21, 2022 there is an article by Simona Kitanovska titled Americans would face their fears in exchange for free food, survey shows. It discusses a survey of 2,000 adults done by OnePoll for the antacid Tums. There also is a one-minute YouTube video from Zenger and 72 Point. That survey also said 52% of Americans say they love food more than anything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As shown above via a bar chart, 27% would face public speaking, 26% would face thunder/lightning, 25% would face either heights or spiders/insects, 24% would face either flying or snakes, and 23% would face either enclosed spaces or mice/rats.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A second bar chart shows the top five things that people would be willing to give up forever in order to enjoy foods they love daily. 11% would give up drinking/alcohol, vacation days, or watching favorite sports; 10% would give up social media, and 9% would give up sex.

 

The image of eating pancakes was derived from one at Openclipart.

 

The Dark Ages in the early universe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is fascinating to find that your picture of the universe is quite incomplete. On July 7, 2022 my brother-in-law Tony Stark spoke to the Cape Cod Astronomical Society about Astronomy’s Final Frontier: The Dark Ages at High Redshift. He invited my wife and I to sit in at the Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School. Tony is a Senior Astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Their web page about the Early Universe says:

 

“Until roughly 380,000 years after the Big Bang, the entire universe was a thick opaque cloud of plasma of electrons and nuclei. As the universe expanded, it cooled off enough to let the plasma become atoms, and the cosmos became transparent. We observe the light from this time as the cosmic microwave background (CMB).

…. When the CMB formed, the ordinary matter in the universe transitioned from a hot opaque plasma to incandescent hydrogen and helium gas. Astronomers call this the ‘dark age’ of the universe, since no stars had formed yet.

Researchers are using the best observatories in the world both to study the dark age and to find evidence for the first stars in the universe. As the first stars and black holes formed, they turned much of the hydrogen gas in the universe into plasma again, a process astronomers call “reionization”. The environment producing the earliest stars was radically different than star-forming regions today. The raw ingredients were almost exclusively hydrogen and helium, since stars themselves produce heavier elements through nuclear fusion.”

Tony’s LinkedIn page mentions that there is an Antarctic ridge named after him.

 

The NASA image of the CMB time line came from Wikimedia Commons.

 

Make sure you understand an idiom before you use it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s Dilbert cartoon is titled Eat Our Own Dog Food, and has the following dialogue between his Pointy-Haired Boss (PHB) and Dilbert:

 

PHB:      We need to eat our own dog food.

Dilbert: You mean we need to use our company’s

               products as if we were customers?

PHB:       I’m not sure what I mean. I once heard our CEO say

                the dog food thing and I liked how wise it sounded.

Dilbert: It means we should use our own products.

PHB:      That doesn’t sound right. Why would we use our products

               when we can use good ones?

Dilbert: Because…it will make our products better over time.

PHB:      To be honest it made more sense

               when I thought it meant dog food.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wikipedia has an article on Eating your own dog food, which suggests a better phrase would be Drinking Our Own Champagne. When using an idiom, you also need to get the spelling right. On April 19, 2010 I blogged about Right out of the shoot? Another type of YAKWIRM! It should be the rodeo inspired phrase ‘Right out of the chute.’

 

The image of a dog food sign by Carol M. Highsmith came from the Library of Congress, and an image of a champagne bottle came from Wikimedia Commons.

 

Could you trim a presentation to less than half of its previous length?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the Presentation Mastery path, Level 5 of that Toastmasters education program has a required project titled Prepare to Speak Professionally that calls for giving an 18-to-22 minute keynote speech. Ken Jenkins gave his masterful keynote speech titled Why Don’t You Act My Age? at the July 20 meeting of the Pioneer Toastmasters club in Boise.

 

He derived it from a presentation titled Reconnecting Across the Years: Generational Collaboration in Toastmasters which he had given for a one-hour breakout session in May 2021 at the District 15 Toastmasters Conference. You can view a 52-minute YouTube video of that presentation, and download a 26-page pdf of his PowerPoint presentation. He also has a single page handout titled The Generations in Toastmasters – A Brief Overview, which shows the seven generations, the ranges for their birth years, and their current ages.   

 

For his July 20 speech, he skipped the PowerPoint, and instead just gave us a half-page handout titled Generations and Their Ages in 2022 listing only their current ages. Ken cut out many details, and successfully fit his material into the allotted time.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As shown above, the definitions Ken used for those generations differ from those you can find at Wikipedia for the Greatest (G.I.), Silent, Baby Boomer, Generation X, (Generation Y) Millennials, and Generation Z.

 

Donald Trump just sat around watching TV for three hours during the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday evening I watched the televised January 6th hearing. An article by Patricia Zengerle and Sarah N. Lynch at Reuters on July 22, 2022 titled Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot hearings lay blame at Trump’s feet reported:

 

" ‘President Trump sat at his dining table and watched the attack on television while his senior-most staff, closest advisors and family members begged him to do what is expected of any American president,’ U.S. Representative Elaine Luria said. ‘President Trump refused to act because of his selfish desire to stay in power.’ "

 

There also was a ludicrous moment described by Cody Godwin at USA Today on July 22, 2022 in another article titled Security cameras catch Sen. Josh Hawley running out of the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riots.

 

No photos were taken showing Trump in his dining room, so I Photoshopped one from a working lunch.   

 

A free 132-page ebook from the WHO on Doing What Matters in Times of Stress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an illustrated 132-page ebook from the World Health Organization (WHO) titled Doing What Matters in Times of Stress: An Illustrated Guide which you can download for free. It has five sections about Grounding, Unhooking, Acting on Your Values, Being Kind, and Making Room.

 

I found it via serendipity - an incorrect link in a blog post at Prezi by Anete Ezera on July 5, 2022 on titled How not to be nervous for a presentation: 6 useful tips. The link instead was supposed to go to an article on how 73% of the population supposedly is affected by public speaking anxiety. But that is a bogus statistic I blogged about back on March 22, 2019 in a post titled An apparently authoritative statistic about fear of public speaking that really lacks any support.

 

The image of business stress came from Openclipart.

 

Unsupported statements from an arrogant blowhard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The seventh paragraph of an article by Dr. John Livingston in the Gem State Patriot News on July 3, 2022 titled Idaho is not California contains the sweeping claim that:

 

“In the 15,000-year history of modern man, slavery had always been considered ethical in all societies and cultures.”

 

But, as illustrated above via a graphic, that blanket statement is obvious nonsense since the History of slavery should be no longer than the History of writing (which only goes back about 5,000 years). His claim just is an ipse dixit. John started to bring up that expansive claim about 15,000 years in comments on his June 5, 2022 article in the Gem State Patriot News titled Time for Some Common Sense, where he said:

 

“Focused Protection”—technically known as REVERSE ISOLATION has been used for 15,000 years.”

 

“In the 15,000-year history of modern man we have only once been able to eliminate a virus with vaccination—smallpox.”

 

That second statement about viruses is false. An article by the World Health Organization on October 24, 2019 titled Two out of three wild poliovirus strains eradicated begins by stating:

 

“In an historic announcement on World Polio Day, an independent commission of experts concluded that wild poliovirus type 3 (WPV3) has been eradicated worldwide. Following the eradication of smallpox and wild poliovirus type 2, this news represents a historic achievement for humanity.”

 

On June 29, 2022 I blogged about another of his articles in a post titled Don’t take advice from a crank – find a credible source instead.

 

Rolling up your shirt sleeves makes you look informal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As shown above, rolling up the sleeves of your shirt makes you look informal. An article by Simon Hall at the Cambridge Network on July 18, 2022 titled The strange psychology of public speaking mentioned that he didn’t have the energy and enthusiasm he needed unless he did that. Another article by Carola Long at FT (Financial Times) on October 27, 2021 titled What to wear for public speaking quoted Fashion stylist Victoria Hitchcock who said for women:

 

“Rolling up your sleeves will also make you much more approachable”

 

What should you avoid? A post at Gilda Bonanno’s blog on February 3, 2018 titled Public speaking body language mistakes: gestures, movement, posture & facial expressions mentioned:

 

“One of my public speaking coaching clients rolled and unrolled his shirt sleeves while he presented (we solved that problem by having him wear short sleeves).” 

 

An image of Barrack Obama was cropped from one at Wikimedia Commons.

 

Texas Republican party platform claims Biden didn’t win the 2020 presidential election; Idaho didn’t follow that silliness

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Insider on July 14, 2022 there is an article by Kayla Gallagher about a 72-page report titled High-profile conservatives debunk Trump’s 2020 election claims: there was ‘no fraud that changed the outcome in even a single precinct.’ Despite that, another article by Bill Chappell at NPR on June 20, 2022 is titled Texas GOP’s new platform says Biden didn’t really win. It also calls for secession. That platform instead claims:

 

"We reject the certified results of the 2020 presidential election, and we hold that acting President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was not legitimately elected by the people of the United States."

 

Of course, some Idaho Republicans wanted to say the same nonsense at their convention. An article by Keith Ridler at AP on July 14, 2022 is titled Idaho Republicans poised to reject 2020 election results. But instead an article by Steve Kirch at KMTV11 on July 17, 2022 titled IDGOP convention wraps up in Twin Falls reported:

 

“The one resolution sponsored by Sheila Ford out of Canyon County, citing that Joe Biden is not the legitimate president of the United States, did make it out of the resolutions committee.”

 

A cartoon of a baby crying came from Openclipart.

 

Making props on your dining room table

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Suppose you were writing a speech for your Toastmasters club about the Jurassic Park films and wanted to have a prop dinosaur egg to hold up. Could you easily make one at home? You might use paper mâché (made with PVA glue) layers formed over a round balloon. On YouTube you can find an hour-long webinar by Eric Hart at the Society of Properties Artisan Managers titled S*P*A*Minar: Props You Can Make At Home. Mr. Hart wrote (among other things) a recent book on Prop Building for Beginners, which he blogged about at his Prop Agenda on November 23, 2021.

 

Folks doing costume play (cosplay) also make props. There also are some interesting YouTube videos from KamuiCosplay. One on December 10, 2019 is titled Top 10 Crafting Materials for Cosplay. Another on December 1, 2016 titled EVA Foam Build – Sombra Gun Replica – Part 1 shows how to use contact cement to laminate ethylene vinyl acetate foam.

 

The image of an egg came from Openclipart.

 

Lighthouses on Cape Cod

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From July 2 to July 9 my wife and I visited Cape Cod. That area in eastern Massachusetts is so well known for its iconic lighthouses one is featured on the package for Cape Cod Potato Chips. The Nauset Light (shown above) is one in Eastham, at Nauset Beach on the eastern shore. About a third mile inland from there are the Three Sisters lighthouses. They are literally parked there – not on the coast but rather just in a wooded park to preserve them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Highland Light is in North Truro, also on the eastern shore and next to a golf course. When we walked there a window cleaning truck was parked on the west side and someone was finishing using a squeegee on the windows around the light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chatham Light is at the Coast Guard Station. Back on February 18, 1952 a 36-foot motor lifeboat from there famously rescued 32 sailors from the stern half of the tanker SS Pendleton. That story was told in the 2016 film The Finest Hours.   

 

Do we really make 35,000 ‘remotely conscious’ decisions per day? Perhaps not.

 

Recently I was reading Bob Goff’s 2022 book, Undistracted: Capture Your Purpose. Rediscover Your Joy. The fourth paragraph in his fourth chapter (The Happiness of Pursuit) begins:

 

“How many decisions would you guess you make in a typical day? A dozen? One hundred? Does one thousand sound a little closer? Get this. Each of us makes about 35,000 decisions every day. More if you spend an hour in a candy store. Some decisions are mundane, and some are major.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I looked in the back of the book at his Notes section, but didn’t find a reference for that claim. But it is a relatively large (or even absurd) number. Consider that a day is 60 x 60 x 24 = 86,400 seconds – so 35,000 converts to one decision in every 2.469 seconds (or 24.3 per minute). The Wikipedia article on respiratory rate says for an adult at rest it is 12 to 15 breaths per minute. That equates to one breath every five or four seconds. For the slower respiration rate, we would have to make slightly more than two decisions for every breath we take.  

 

I also found an article by Eva M. Krockow at Pychology Today on September 27, 2018 titled How many decisions do we make each day? She linked to another article by Joel Hoomans at The Leading Edge on March 20, 2015 titled 35,000 Decisions: The great choices of strategic leaders. He said that:

 

“Various internet sources estimate that an adult makes about 35,000 remotely conscious decisions each day [in contrast a child makes about 3,000] (Sahakian & Labuzetta, 2013). This number may sound absurd, but in fact, we make 226.7 decisions each day on just food alone according to researchers at Cornell University (Wansink and Sobal, 2007).”

 

But Brian Wansink is not generally regarded as a very credible source. The Wikipedia article about him notes that as of 2020 Wansink had 18 of his research papers retracted (one twice). That article by Brian Wansink and Jeffrey Sobal at Environment and Behavior (January 2007 Vol 39 No. 1) titled Mindless Eating: The 200 Daily Food Decisions We Overlook was not retracted though.

 

Hyundai recalls ~240,000 vehicles for seat belt pretensioners like little hand grenades

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back on April 14, 2016 I blogged about How not to communicate – Honda told me my car is literally da bomb, and on December 6, 2018 I blogged about how My 2012 Honda Fit is still da bomb – another Takata airbag inflator recall. Those defective Takata airbag inflators could produce shrapnel rather than just blowing up the airbag.

 

An article at NPR on May 24, 2022 is titled Hyundai is recalling 239,000 cars for exploding seat belt parts. Their seat belt pretensioners also can behave like small hand grenades. Pretensioners are meant to take up slack in the seat belt to keep an occupant from jerking forward during a crash. Another safety system meant to reduce injury in a crash instead could cause it.      

 

The hand grenade cartoon came from Openclipart.

 

How did we learn to stick cotton swabs in our ear canals?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As shown above, in the toiletry bag I take on overnight trips there is a travel pack of thirty Q-tips (cotton swabs). I use them for removing water from my ear canals after a shower. (When I was much younger, I instead used to just tilt my head and jump up and down). But on the back of that package it says:

 

“If used to clean ears, stroke swab gently around the outer surface of the ear without entering the ear canal.

 

WARNING:

Use only as directed. Entering the ear canal could cause injury. Keep out of reach of children.”

 

How did I learn to stick Q-tips in my ear canals? An article by Nathaniel Meyersohn at CNN Business on June 25, 2022 titled How we got addicted to using Q-tips the wrong way (and repeated at EastIdahoNews) described magazine ads done long ago featuring that use for them. He included an image captioned:

 

“A Q-tips advertisement in Life magazine from 1956. Some ads around the period showed men cleaning water out of their ears with Q-tips.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I went looking for one at the Internet Archive. As shown above, page 59 in the October 14, 1957 issue of Life has that exact detail. My parents may have read similar ads, and then told me about using Q-tips.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a brief article titled Use and abuse of cotton buds (the British term for swabs) by Jonathan C. Hobson and Jeremy A. Lavy in the August 2005 issue of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. As shown above via a bar chart, they report results from a survey of 171 people who said why they used cotton buds (aka swabs). 52% said Because it seemed like a good idea, 28% said Family and friends use them, 12% were Not sure, 5% had No reply, 3% were Advised by a doctor, 2% were Advised by a nurse, and the remaining 2% said Advertising. On May 16, 2017 I blogged about how Cotton swabs are sending about 34 children to the emergency room daily