Spouting (Birther) Nonsense: After five years, Donald J. Trump finally admits that Barack Obama really was born in the United States

Today a CNN article reported that Trump finally admits it: “President Barack Obama was born in the United States.” He didn’t say why he’d changed his mind, but it’s easy to speculate that he did not want to leave that brazen lie around as a subject for the upcoming debate. But his campaign also made a point of blaming Hillary Clinton’s campaign for originating it, as also was discussed in a New York Times article. Trump mainly ran a publicity stunt for his new D.C. hotel.

Back in 2011 Jerome Corsi was almost ready to release his book titled Where’s the Birth Certificate. Instead the president released his long-form birth certificate just three weeks before Corsi’s tome was published. That was like a ‘Roger Rabbit’ comedy routine:

“Eddie: Do you mean to tell me you could have taken your hand out of that cuff at any time?

Roger: No, not at any time. Only when it was funny!”

Toastmasters International is moving its headquarters from southern California to the Denver area

An article by Anh Do in the September 9th Los Angeles Times described how Toastmasters is moving to Denver because O.C. is too expensive. Since 1990 its headquarters have been in the city of Rancho Santa Margarita, in Orange County (O.C.), south of Los Angeles. That nonprofit organization was founded in Santa Ana back in 1924.

The move probably will happen in another two years. Back on August 16th there was another article in the Orange Country Register by Keith Sharon and Hannah Madans on How one woman is fighting to keep Toastmasters from leaving Orange County.

Why Denver? Why not? Any of the top 30 cities or metro areas in the U.S. with lower costs and more affordable housing could be considered. Denver ranks 19th.

The image of a train of three freight wagons came from the Library of Congress. 

Dress for success, not like a ninja

On September 5th at the SketchBubble blog Ashish Arora posted on Look the Part: How to Dress for Success for Your Next Presentation. His  good advice included headings about:

Dress as well as your audience

Wear an outfit that allows movement

Dress Age-appropriate

Watch those colors

For the ladies...

And for you men...

What did he miss? Look at his image showing a man’s black suit coat against a slightly lighter gray background. Instead you should check out where you will be speaking. The clothes colors you choose should provide significant contrast with the background.

Otherwise you will be a stealth speaker, as I discussed on March 20th in a post titled Don’t dress like a ninja when you are going to speak! In an earlier 2011 post I also mentioned that you also should avoid finely spaced patterns like check shirts, which will produce moire patterns on video recordings. 

The ninja image is from Wikimedia Commons. 

Where’s Jane? Western Ohio isn’t on the border by Pennsylvania

It’s on the border by Indiana. But in her Speechwriter-Ghostwriter blog Jane Genova made that mistake twice when describing her recent move to the eastern Ohio city of Austintown. Revealing that you are geographically challenged is not great storytelling. You’d expect a professional writer to stop and proofread her stuff after months of research.

In a post on September 8th titled Settling In - Not when making a good living requires non-stop pivots and also here she said:

“....Finally, western Ohio, on the border of Pennsylvania, turned out to be the right fit.”

In an earlier one on August 26th titled You age out of New York metro - Surprisingly, you can start up success elsewhere  and also here she proclaimed:

“....After about seven months of research, I zeroed in on western Ohio, next to Pennsylvania. I knew the region from going to school and working there.”

UPDATE

On September 16th she finally referred to eastern Ohio.

Also, her CONTACT INFO says she is in the Northeast United States. According to Wikipedia the Census Bureau would disagree - they consider Ohio to be part of  Region 2 - the Midwest. A more honest description would have said Eastern Ohio (and Eastern Time Zone).

Then on October 8th she again referred to being in Western Ohio! Lady, make up your mind where the hell you are!

Why using FOPS as an acronym for Fear of Public Speaking is a lousy idea

At the Huffington Post (for Australia) on August 31st Libby-Jane Charleston had an article titled How Fear of Public Speaking Can Hold Back Your Career and subtitled It’s known as FOPS and it’s everywhere.

Arrgh! Why do we need another meaning for an  acronym that has widespread use in engineering? FOPS already means Falling Object Protective Structures.

They are discussed in an international standard, ISO 3449: Earth-moving machinery -- Falling-object protective structures -- Laboratory tests and performance requirements. SAE International has another standard, J1119_197609 about Steel Products for Rollover Protective Structures (ROPS) and Falling Object Protective Structures (FOPS). There also were two SAE performance standards: SAE J231_199903 on Minimum Performance Criteria for Falling Object Protective Structure (FOPS) and J1043_199903 on Performance Criteria for Falling Object Protective Structure (FOPS) for Industrial Machines - both of which were canceled back in March 1999.   

What would be better than FOPS? How about the venerable old 1909 term speech fright?

A fairy tale about a space probe failure that never happened

I enjoy reading Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy blog. On September 5th he posted about The Great Kersten Blunder Blunder. That was a story about failure of a space probe due to a programming error. Among other places, the story appeared in an apparently reputable publication from the National Physical Laboratory titled Beginner’s Guide to Measurement in Mechanical Engineering (on page 8):

“Software controlling the Vigor space probe, on course for Venus, used 24.5 instead of 25.4 to convert millimetres to inches. The error meant that the probe missed Venus completely, and $2 billion worth of technology was lost. The eponymous Kersten was the programmer who made the error.”

What is missing from this story? It doesn’t say who launched the probe, or when. Phil pointed out that even a little Google search will reveal the story is a fairy tale. The moral is that you never should pass along a story without checking to see if it is real. See my August 27th post titled Stamp out fuzzy thinking: Please don’t confuse satire with reality. 

The image of a wolf and Red Riding Hood came from Wikimedia Commons.

15 ChangeThis manifestos about public speaking and related topics

According to Wikipedia, a manifesto is:

“...a published verbal declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government.”

Similarly, a white paper is:

“... an authoritative report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision.”

Back on November 29, 2011 I blogged about how you could Be your own Santa Claus - get these free holiday gifts right now, and linked to five ChangeThis manifestos. They are Acrobat .pdf files which are comparable to magazine articles. It’s time to revisit that site and link to more recent ones as well. These 15 are:

1]    #138-01 by Nancy Duarte and Patti Sanchez - February 17, 2016
Ignite Change: How Empathetic Communication Helps You Illuminate a Path That People Will Want to Follow. (18 pages)

2]    #137-06 by Kenny Nguyen, Gus Murillo, Robert Killeen, and Luke Jones - January 27, 2016
3 Strategies to Persuade Any Audience. (19 pages).

3]    #136-03 by Michael Parker - December 17, 2015
This Is an Emotional Pitch. (13 pages)

4]    #134-04 by Jeffrey Hazlett -  October 14, 2015
Think Big, Act Big, and Do It Your Way - Because You Can! (15 pages).

5]    #115-03 by Joseph McCormack - March 12, 2014
The Brevity Mandate. (10 pages).

6]    #111-06 by Ron Shapiro - November 20, 2013
Perfecting Your Pitch. (13 pages).

7]    #100-04 by Scott Schwertly - November 14, 2012
The Snowflake Moment: Presenting the Future Today. (12 pages).

8]    #90-04 by Matt Eventoff - January 25, 2012
It Really is As Simple As ABC: What Leaders Can Learn from Masterful Orators of the Past. (17 pages).

9]    #70-04 by Kristin Arnold - September 8, 2010
15-1/2 Ideas to Make Your Presentation Go From Boring to Bravo. (16 pages).

10]  #66-04 by Frances Cole Jones - January 23, 2010
The Wow Factor Is You. (6 pages).

11]  #63-05 by Nancy Ancowitz - October 14, 2009
Self-Promotion for Introverts: Get Heard More. Even If You Talk Less. (13 pages).

12]  58-06 by Nick Morgan - May 6, 2009
Before You Open Your Mouth: The Keys to Great Public Speaking. (10 pages).

13]  #51-06 by Frances Cole Jones - October 8, 2008
Being a Gifted Speaker Isn’t a Gift. (8 pages).

14]  #50-06 by Andrew Abela  September - 10, 2008
Presenting to Small Audiences: Switch off the projector. (17 pages).

15]  #38-05 by Scott B. Schwertly - June 6, 2007
Presentation Revolution: Changing the Way the World Does Presentations. (17 pages).

The image was adapted from a statue of Major General Nathaneal Greene at the Library of Congress.