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.