Advice on ground rules for meetings that also applies to presentations

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On July 11, 2023 Doug Savage had the cartoon shown above. His ground rules for meetings also will work for presentations.

Quotations from Vital Speeches of the Day: # 001 – Jacinda Ardern

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jacinda Ardern served as the 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand. An article at Vital Speeches of the Day on March 2023 (pages 39 and 40) is titled I will not be seeking reelection. In her speech to the Labour Party Caucus at Wellington, New Zealand on January 19, 2023 she succinctly stated:

 

“I know what this job takes, and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It is that simple.”

 

You can watch a video of that speech here on YouTube.

 

At his Manner of Speaking blog John Zimmer has a long series on quotes. On March 14, 2023 he has a post titled Quotes for Public Speakers (No. 350) – Rudyard Kipling. I don’t know how he selects his. But instead I decided to look at recent ones from David Murray’s magazine, Vital Speeches of the Day, which I can read at EBSCOhost via databases from my friendly local public library.  

 

The image was adapted from page 127 of The Grammar of Ornament.

 

 

Celebrating having published 2500 blog posts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday I reached the milestone of having published 2500 posts on this blog. The PowerPoint image shown above illustrates 2500 items. Were you surprised that a simple object could be repeated that many times?

 

Am I running out of ideas? No! I have quite a few speech topics about trips, like a recent full-day jet boat tour of Hells Canyon on the Snake River. And there are always more silly claims about people having a short attention span, or inflated fears of public speaking.

 

I am also going to do a series of posts on recent quotes from presentations which have appeared in a monthly magazine titled Vital Speeches of the Day.   

 

 

 

Who does the Attorney General of Idaho really work for?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lately I was perturbed by some actions taken by Raul Labrador regarding the University of Idaho and their proposed purchase of the University of Phoenix. There are a pair of articles in the Idaho Capital Sun by Kevin Richert. The first on June 30, 2023 is titled Idaho State Board of Education steps up battle with AG Labrador, and the second on July 7, 2023 is titled Statehouse showdown over University of Idaho – Phoenix discussion escalates. Mr. Labrador sued the Board of Education – even though one of his deputies had attended the meeting he now chose to dispute.

 

Jim Jones has an article at JJCommonTater on June 28, 2023 titled Labrador’s shoot-first style does not serve his or Idaho’s best interests. He had been Attorney General of Idaho for eight years, so his opinions on how to handle that position are worth listening to.

 

The relevant Idaho statue says in part:

 

67-1401.  Duties of attorney general. Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, it is the duty of the attorney general:

(1)  To perform all legal services for the state and to represent the state and all departments, agencies, offices, officers, boards, commissions, institutions and other state entities in all courts and before all administrative tribunals or bodies of any nature. Representation shall be provided to those entities exempted pursuant to the provisions of section 67-1406, Idaho Code. Whenever required to attend upon any court or administrative tribunal, the attorney general shall be allowed necessary and actual expenses, all claims for which shall be audited by the state board of examiners.

(2)  To advise all departments, agencies, offices, officers, boards, commissions, institutions and other state entities in all matters involving questions of law.

 

Labrador and his office are supposed to work for the Board, not against them. I recalled that there was an article by Ruth Brown at Idaho Reports on January 5, 2023 titled AG Labrador moves to dismiss trespassing case against Sara Brady. In April 2020 she was arrested after refusing to leave a closed park. She had told the officers to arrest her! I don’t see why the AG needed to get involved with undoing her stupid behavior.

 

Speaking of stupid behavior, the previous AG, Lawrence Wasden, had wisely advised Idaho not to join in a silly election lawsuit. An article in the AP News on December 10, 2020 titled Idaho attorney general won’t join Texas election lawsuit described the situation. The very next day the US Supreme Court rejected that lawsuit for lacking standing to sue!

 

A very recent survey of Russian fears

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On June 28, 2023 there is an article from the TASS news agency titled Russians reveal their greatest fears – poll which listed the top ten from a telephone survey of 1600 adults by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM). 30% are afraid of heights, 28% are afraid of snakes, and 24% are afraid of water (particularly deep water). 18% are afraid of dentists, or insects, or spiders. And 12% are afraid of either enclosed spaces or microorganisms, bacteria, or viruses. 11% are afraid of public speaking, and 10% are afraid of flying (on a plane).

 

Another article that day by Mohammed Ali at Urdupoint titled Poll shows fear of heights as Russia’s most common phobia added additional details. 9% of Russians are afraid of either crowds or thunder and lightning. 8% are afraid of blood, 5% are afraid of the dark, 3% are afraid of clowns, and just 2% are afraid of death. Thirteen other items were feared by less than 2%: birds, dogs, dolls, fire, God, hunger, loneliness, mice, natural disasters, other people, poverty, speed, and war.

 

A horizontal bar chart of those sixteen fears made using Excel is shown above. (Click on it to see a larger view).

 

The previous day there was yet another article at the Teller Report titled VTsIOM: Russians over 60 are more likely than young people to be afraid of bacteria and viruses. I was somewhat frustrated that since I don’t read Russian I may be missing a comprehensive article or press release from VTsIOM with all the aforementioned results and perhaps more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How do these fears compare with those found for comparable fears in a recent U. S. Survey? Another bar chart shows the nine results from the 2022 Chapman Survey of American Fears, which I have blogged about on October 22, 2022 in a post titled The Chapman Survey of American Fears has a forest with 92 fears. Public speaking was feared by 34% of adults and only ranked 46th.

 

Let’s compare results. First, 30% of Russians fear heights, as do 30.6% of Americans. Second, 28% of Russians fear snakes, and 27.2% of Americans fear reptiles. There are no American results for water or dentists. 18% of Russians fear insects or spiders, versus 23.8% of Americans who fear the combination Insects/Arachnids. 12% of Russians fear enclosed spaces, versus a larger 21.7% of Americans. 12% of Russians fear microorganisms, bacteria, and viruses versus a slightly larger 14.5% of Americans who fear germs. 11% of Russians fear public speaking, which is over three times less than the 34% of Americans who do. 10% of Russians fear flying, versus a slightly larger 12.4% of Americans. There are no American results for either clowns or darkness. 8% of Russians fear blood, versus 5.8 % of Americans. Finally, and most differently just 2% of Russians fear death versus 29% of Americans who fear dying.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ratio (results for Americans divided by those for Russians) is shown in a third horizontal bar chart. Results range from 14.5 times for death and 3.09 for public speaking to just 0.73 for blood.

 

 We should probably take these Russian results with a large grain of salt. An article by Yekaterina Pachikova and Nadezhda Kolobaeva at The Insider on June 28, 2023 is titled The silent nation: Why wartime opinion polls cannot be trusted.

 

 

Top zodiac signs who allegedly have excellent communication skills, are afraid of public speaking, or are introverts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On October 14, 2020 I blogged about Does your zodiac sign predict how you will be as a public speaker? and discussed several articles. There is aan article about Astrology at RationalWiki that lists the usual dates attributed to the signs, as shown above in a table (but that aren’t currently their actual dates). And Wikipedia has an article about the Seasons, which also are shown above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The topic came up again recently in three articles at Astrotalk. One is an article by Kasturi Chaudhari on June 15, 2023 titled 6 Zodiac Signs That Have Excellent Communication Skills. Those six, as shown above in green, are Gemini, Libra, Leo, Sagittarius, Virgo, and Aquarius. There is a cluster of three (Leo, Virgo, Libra) in the quarter from July 23 to October 23, plus three individuals. Why aren’t there two opposite clusters of three? And why don’t the clusters just correspond with the opposite seasons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second is another article by Tammoyee Roy on June 28, 2023 titled Top 5 zodiac signs who are afraid of public speaking. Those five reportedly are Cancer, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, and Pisces. But, as shown above in red, they are not evenly distributed around the calendar. Virgo, Libra, and Scorpio are adjacent signs – a quarter from August 23 to November 22. But then there is a gap of one (Leo) before Cancer. On the other side there is a gap of three (Sagittarius, Capricorn, and Aquarius) before Pisces. Perhaps I’m being too picky by asking for consistency.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The third is still another article by Karan Singh on June 29, 2023 titled Top 5 introvert zodiac signs. As shown above in orange, these are Cancer, Virgo, Capricorn, Pisces, and Aquarius. Capricorn Aquarius, and Pisces, are adjacent signs - a cluster of three for the winter season from 22 December 22 to March 22, and there is a gap of three between both Pisces and Cancer, and of Capricorn and Virgo.

 

We might have expected a link between being afraid of speaking and being introverted, but only three signs, Cancer, Virgo, and Pisces are the same.

 

There is a dismissive article by Scott A. McGreal at Psychology Today on June 30, 2022 titled The final word on astrology and personality. Another recent article by Stephen Luntz at IFLscience onMarch 24, 2023 is titled How we know astrology isn’t real.

 

Three more bogus blackmail phishing emails

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On June 6th and then both June 28th and 29th I received bogus blackmail phishing emails, as was described in an article at My Antispyware titled I am a professional hacker EMAIL SCAM. Here’s how it works:

“The scam starts with an email, which claims to be from a professional hacker, who has successfully hacked your operating system and gained full access to your account. The scammer then goes on to say that they have been secretly monitoring all of your activities, including watching you for several months. They claim that your computer was infected with harmful spyware due to the fact that you had visited a website with pornographic content, and that they can see everything on your screen and switch on your camera and microphone at any time.

The scammer then threatens to share a video compilation of you engaging in sexual activities with your contacts unless you pay a ransom. The ransom demand is usually in the form of Bitcoin [in the June 6 case $510 to be paid within fifty hours], and the scammer provides their Bitcoin wallet address for payment. The scammer may also claim to have a list of your contacts and threaten to send the video to them if the ransom is not paid within a certain time frame.”

But those emails were completely generic, except for mentioning my address. They didn’t contain any specific details to back up actually having hacked into my computer. I previously blogged about this scam in a post on January 23, 2019 titled A bogus blackmail phishing email. There I pointed out he couldn’t possibly have any video, because the camera on my iMac was completely masked by a piece of electrical tape. For the June 6th one, I didn’t pay the ransom in fifty hours, and of course nothing happened.

 

The image of a holdup was adapted from one at Wikimedia Commons.