“Close scrutiny will show that most ‘crisis situations’ are opportunities to either advance, or stay where you are.” — Maxwell Maltz
And now we will see who are the real leaders around the world. As always, some will be better than the others. Some will be more decisive and others will reveal that they may not be leaders at all. History will be the judge perhaps years from now.
“Panic causes tunnel vision. Calm acceptance of danger allows us to more easily assess the situation and see the options.” — Simon Sinek
It’s a practiced skill, although true leaders seem to be born with it the ability to put aside feelings and deal with it. It’s why Army Rangers and Navy Seals can enter a hostile situation and execute. Many drives by sports teams to the winning score are by level headed leaders who see the goal and understand the situation. Adding perceived danger only clouds the situation and adds complexity.
“A harmless man is not a good man. A good man is a very dangerous man who has that under voluntary control.” — Jordan Peterson
Self control is a good trait. The baddest man in the room never has to prove it, but should be able to defend himself and the weak when necessary. This is not just a bare knuckles statement. Being intellectually strong as well as spiritually sound are also strengths one needs.
None of these come for free. You must work on them, and work on them constantly. The world doesn’t stop and neither does evil. Now go out and be dangerous to evil.
Update: On April 5th, the Surgeon General compared the Corona Virus to Pearl Harbor.
There are events in history that cause a divided nation to come together.
Some have been pandemics and others have been wars, but there are times defined by history that people put their selfishness aside and gather to do what is best.
As an example, I could pick the Spanish Flu, SARS, MERS, H1N1, Y2K, the Swine Flu, the Space Race to the Moon or any number of events, but I’m going to use Pearl Harbor.
I wasn’t there, but our nation was divided as to whether we should enter another World War or isolate ourselves and hope the problem would go away or others would solve it. This all changed on December 7, 1941 when our country was forced into the events of the world.
We could have cowered to the attack and ask them not to do it again. Neville Chamberlin tried to appease Hitler this way and it didn’t work out so well.
THE MIGHT OF THE USA
Admiral Yamamoto, the architect of Pearl Harbor knew that a surprise attack to take out our Navy was the only real chance for Japan to stop the USA so they they could expand their reach in the Pacific Rim. After all, he had studied and lived in the USA and knew that our forces were depleted after WWI. He also knew that he couldn’t attack us on our own soil.
What also turned out to be true was that if the attack didn’t work, that he would awaken the might of the greatest industrialized nation in the world and unite our country to defeat evil.
On December 8th 1941, men young and old were lined up to enlist to fight for our survival. They knew that they would be leaving loved ones behind and there was a distinct possibility that they wouldn’t return alive. They put their fears aside and were willing to fight for our survival and the future that we enjoy today.
Not long after, women went to work in the factories. We had to ration rubber and metal for war supplies, but everyone did their part.
Companies changed their direction. Auto makers went from making cars to building bombers. Scientists invented new weapons to win, not to just survive and suffer. Our nation came together as one because we had a cause to fight for.
After the war, the greatest achievements in technology, medicine and space exploration happened at a speed heretofore never accomplished.
WE’VE BEEN COMPLACENT AND DIVIDED
All of that progress created wealth, comfort and abundance and we lost our focus. It’s no secret that we’ve been a divided country. I’m not here to point fingers because there is enough of that going on through the tradional news and social media. All of it has a bias one way or the other and it has been pulling us apart.
We haven’t had a common enemy to rally against since the downfall of the Soviet Union. Instead, we’ve been feeding on ourselves instead of pulling together. There is a strain of hatred for what we have been that defies the achievements that built our country. I have read celebtards and sports figures that say we have never been great. This just proves that they have no appreciation for the sacrifice and achievements that gave them the fame and fortune to preach from their soapboxes. It also denies our ability to do it again.
We as humans need a cause to believe in and to fight for, whether we are handed or invent it ourselves. Conversely, politicians have been poisoning us with their desire for power and control. They have been playing a game of capture the flag on their own islands and haven’t put the good of the country and the people first. They have been building their power base by taking away our freedom through regulation.
Our government was set up with a system of checks and balances to ensure that no one had the power like the monarchy who we defeated to become what we are. We now potentially suffer from what the history of the world has suffered from since the beginning of time. That is the selfishness, greed and desire for power that has aflicted man since the expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
There also has been a faction for globalization that has tried to deplete our greatness by moving manufacturing offshore to the point that we could be held hostage for medical supplies. Our spirit of nationalization has been tested by the border fight and ideology fueled by hate of the President. It has ratcheted up these last few years in a power struggle because there was no enemy other than from within.
We have been eating ourselves instead of fighting together.
THE CORONA/COVID-19/CHINA/WUHAN/WHATEVER VIRUS
We now have a new Pearl Harbor. We have been attacked by a new enemy who ambushed us again. It is time for us to realize that we have a fight on our hands Opportunity for success or failure knocks at the door of the fate of our country.
To do that, we need to go back to the spirit of 1941. It was the people who came together in both the public and private sector, not the control of the Government that helped us save ourselves.
We can go back to being the humans that have struggle to fight against, rally together and overcome (both the virus and the overbearance of the governement regulations).
THE SILVER LINING
There is a great opportunity if we do the same as our forefathers. Manufacturing in America again can help us right ourselves to help reunite our country and help other countries as we’ve done before.
We are beginning to see the automakers making ventilators, factories starting to make facemasks and other birth pains of our possible re-emergance to self-sustainment. It can be done.
Before you manufacture in the USA instead of cheap labor offshore, there needs to be a construction boom to prepare production facilities. After that, the job creation of made in in America is limitless, profitable and will help us help ourselves and others if they want it.
We already have become energy independent by producing enough oil so as to not be dependent on countries who hate us.
Our pharmacuticals are all made offshore by countries that have threatened to cut us off. We need to do the same in the drug industry to continue our trend of independence and strength. Through this can we help the rest of the world and save our nation from being held hostage for needed medical supplies and energy.
Most of all, we need fix our goverment and make them serve us instead of us serving them. Companies and individuals need to be let loose to invent, design and create to defeat this latest Pearl Harbor instead of being told when and what we can or can’t do. It’s time to limit their power and continue the greatness that history proves is inside of us.
“I don’t fear failure. I only fear the slowing up of the engine inside of me which is saying, ‘Keep going, someone must be on top, why not you?’” — George S. Patton Jr.
Love him or hate him, he got things done and was feared by the enemy, so much so that they had a respect for his command. In these times of the Covid-19 virus, we need to keep going and not give up. Stay on top and don’t give up.
“If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I’d still swim. And I’d despise the one who gave up.” — Abraham Maslow
I’ve been in some dark places before either in life or just competition. They say in the Marines that there is always an end to whatever pain you are going through so don’t give up. You’d be amazed at what you can accomplish.
They train Seals until exhaustion, but it’s said that they are only at their 60% level and have a reserve. How do I know? If someone pointed a rifle at them, they could still run some more. It’s said if you get to your end and someone offered you $100 to go 30 seconds more, almost everyone can and will do it.
“There can be no failure to a man who has not lost his courage, his character, his self-respect, or his self-confidence. He is still a King.” — Orison Swett Marden
A lot can be said for the person who is has not lost his courage, even if he is afraid. You can have both at the same time, just don’t let the one out do the other. As for character, that will be what others talk about when they speak of you either behind your back or at your funeral.
I’ve heard him being quoted with different versions of this one, so I’ll put in the ones that I’ve heard.
“Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.” — Vince Lombardi
If winning isn’t important, why do they keep score?
Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.
It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s whether you win.
“Adversity toughens manhood, and the characteristic of the good or the great man is not that he has been exempt from the evils of life, but that he has surmounted them.” – Patrick Henry
“If you want to be respected by others, the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.” — Fyodor Dostoyevsk
“Life is too short to be little. Man is never so manly as when he feels deeply, acts boldly, and expresses himself with frankness and with fervor.” – Benjamin Disraeli
Some sanity and reasonableness should be considered when putting yourself out into the social media universe. Everyone seems to think that it is now their responsibility to tell us how to think, speak and act.
Here are 10 logical statements that are not new, but should have been taught to those who think they should tell us what to do, especially by politicians, the media and celebtards. I wish George Orwell were alive today to see how right he was when he wrote 1984.
PC culture is ruining our society and frankly is taking the fun out of life for those of us who don’t get offended easily.
It’s time for a lot of people to grow up and act like adults. Personally, I blame the educational system. It has a considerable lack of diversity in terms of being able to view all sides of an issue before opening there mouths or post on Twitter, which I now call Hater. Other platforms are becoming just as bad, but the hate usually starts there.
Rep. Stephen M. Young inserted into the Congressional Record, in 1950, an article from Harper’s magazine, written by a Lincoln scholar, Albert A. Wolman, listing most of the ”Ten Cannots” and other material falsely attributed to Lincoln.
The 10 Cannots:
1) You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
2) You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
3) You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
4) You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
5) You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
6) You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
7) You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
8) You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
9) You cannot build character and courage by taking away men’s initiative and independence.
10) You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.
WordPress says this is my 600th post, but I know I lost the year 2007 when I switched from Blogger to WordPress because I avoid Google whenever possible. I likely passed it a while back, but they are gone forever now.
I post a lot about IQ, intelligence, Introverts, tech and a lot of subjects that would provide a platform to post something meaningful, deep in meaning , intelligent, well thought out and well written. As they say, the road to hell….
In that spirit, I give you a to do list that is sarcastic, funny to me and given the mood I’m in as I write this and very appropriate especially since my last name is Simonds (see number 8).
#3
Reporters interviewing a 104-year-old woman:
“And what do you think is the best thing about being 104?” the reporter asked.
She simply replied, “No peer pressure.”
#4
I’ve sure gotten old!
I have outlived my feet and my teeth,
I’ve had two bypass surgeries, a hip replacement,
New knees, fought prostate cancer and diabetes I’m half blind,
Can’t hear anything quieter than a jet engine,
Take 40 different medications that make me dizzy, winded, and subject to blackouts.
Have bouts with dementia. Have poor circulation;
Hardly feel my hands and feet anymore.
Can’t remember if I’m 85 or 92.
Have lost all my friends. But, thank God,
I still have my driver’s license.
#5
I feel like my body has gotten totally out of shape,
So I got my doctor’s permission to join a fitness club and start exercising.
I decided to take an aerobics class for seniors.
I bent, twisted, gyrated, jumped up and down, and perspired for an hour. But, By the time I got my leotards on,The class was over.
#6
An elderly woman decided to prepare her will and told her preacher she had two final requests.
First, she wanted to be cremated, and second,
She wanted her ashes scattered over Wal-Mart.
“Wal-Mart?” the preacher exclaimed.
“Why Wal-Mart?”
“Then I’ll be sure my daughters visit me twice a week.”
#7
My memory’s not as sharp as it used to be..
Also, my memory’s not as sharp as it used to be.
#8
Know how to prevent sagging?
Just eat till the wrinkles fill out.
#9
It’s scary when you start making the same noises
As your coffee maker.
#10
These days about half the stuff
In my shopping cart says,
‘For fast relief.’
#11
THE SENILITY PRAYER:
Grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway,
The good fortune to run into the ones I do, and
The eyesight to tell the difference.
Authors Note: I have a tendency to notice patterns in both a macro and micro universes. I’ve been watching this one brew for a while now.
FIRST, WHAT IS GODWIN’S LAW?
Reformulated in the Net.Legends FAQs “Usenet Rule #4”:
“Any off-topic mention of Hitler or Nazis will cause the thread it is mentioned in to come to an irrelevant and off-topic end very soon; every thread on Usenet has a constantly-increasing probability to contain such a mention.”
It is generally accepted that whoever is the first to play the “Hitler card” has lost the argument as well as any trace of respect, as having to resort to comparing your adversary to the most infamous mass-murdering dictator in history generally means you’ve run out of better arguments. Thus, once such a comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever debate was in progress. This principle is itself frequently referred to as Godwin’s law.
Disclaimer: This blog post does not take a position on racism, it’s prevalence, who is or isn’t or might be racist and my position on this subject. Aristotle noted that the mark of an educated mind is to entertain a thought without accepting it. Therefore I am observing a speech and behavioral pattern of the public. In other words it’s on them, not me.
It is also noted that a trait of people with a higher IQ is that you can argue from multiple perspectives (unfortunately so can lawyers and politicians who may or may not be of higher intelligence – especially politicians and especially millennial politicians).
The original Godwin’s Law has lost its’ sting since everyone is now Hitler, so the new talking point is racism or white supremacy. Rather than argue on the merits of the position of the person (political candidates mostly since they dominate the news) the go to is now calling the other person one of these two pejorative names. This constant overuse has devalued the meaning of the words and rendered them ineffective at worst and boring at best.
Here is a quick search that shows views from multiple points doing just this:
This is in direct conflict with Martin Luther King’s evocative phrase: “I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Now, it is common to hear you are a racist or white supremacist because you don’t agree with me. It greatly devalues MLK’s position.
1: a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race, racial prejudice or discrimination.
While I could list any or all of the comments that have been made in public themselves could be racist in tone, one could make the case for or against whether the accused are really racist. Calling someone a racist is easy but proving most of these ad hominem attacks is harder.
One would need to know what is inside the person making the statements to know if it were really true or just talking points. I won’t and am not even sure if I can make that value judgement. These attacks are easy enough to find (see the media below).
This is not the point of this post. I am not here to call someone a racist or White supremacist (or Hitler), rather to point out a trend.
In the department of redundancy department, this discussion is that the replacement for Godwin’s Law is that you are not Hitler, instead you are racist for whatever reason or whatever you say.
Why is this the case? The overuse of Godwin’s Law has made it impotent in political circles, the media and on social media platforms. Hitler stands with few others in history, perhaps Mao, Stalin or Pol Pot as true villains. Nobody really believes that the other person is like Hitler, they are just trying to make the worst case as they flush their argument down the toilet due to lack of substance.
HOW TO WIN YOUR POLITICAL RACE OR PUT YOUR OPPONENT ON THE DEFENSIVE WITHOUT TAKING A POSITION
What most of the accusers are doing is described in Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals numbers 7-13 as follows:
Rather than argue on a platform, beliefs and issues, it is far easier to make your opponent defend themselves, and put them off their talking points.
Example: Candidate 1) If elected, I’ll lower taxes if elected (insert any issue here because it’s about to be destroyed).
Candidate 2) my opponent is Hitler and molests collies.
Press coverage: Candidate 1 is a well known collie molester. How long has this person been molesting Collies? The first question in the next debate; Candidate 1, are you still molesting Collies?
Now insert the word racist or white supremacist for molesting collies and you get the point of why this is effective.
HOW THE PRESS BECOMES AN ENABLER
A common adage is that sex sells, as do murders, rapes, political embarrassments and anything not good news. Guess what they will print (hint: collie molester)?
A not so recent trend is that there is a common thread where a preponderance of reporters has similar talking points concurrently. There is a groupthink that causes the media to focus on a particular phrase, word or subject. Like piranha on carcass, they hammer it home. https://www.google.com/search?q=why+do+news+anchors+say+the+same+thing&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwim9dyQxv3jAhWFB80KHeyQAE0Q1QIoAHoECAsQAQ&biw=1440&bih=825
Since the new go to in Godwin’s Law is you are a racist and/or white supremacist, it makes for headlines that sell advertising. I can also be taken as ideological. This is the de-facto statement now to the point that it has lost effectiveness.
Having spent decades working with (and against) all forms of media, they have a tendency to take the position of them being right, even if proven wrong. A correction is meaningless as once a statement is printed, it is still in the minds of the reader. Almost no one reads the corrections.
Most are journalists who write about a topic because it is assigned to them. In the case of social media everyone thinks they have the moral high ground.
SOCIAL MEDIA
I’m not going to spend much time here, because most people have gotten into an Internet argument. Nobody wins unless the motive of one of the combatants is to piss off the other. It won’t matter how factual your argument is because it is just Internet road rage.
If you go to the above link, you see the outcome and great advice on how to handle this.
So the net result of overusing this theme is the same thing that happens with all overuse. Godwin’s Law is becoming meaningless. The definition of what racism really is and when the word should be used to protect the oppressed has been damaged. Even Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals suffers from overuse and tediousness.
The political landscape is a train wreck of who can sling the most mud. Watch the ratings nosedive for upcoming debates.
Stay out of it on Social Media except to observe who isn’t smart enough to stay out of this pool. With each use of the attack, the meaning becomes less valid and meaningful.
I thought about calling someone a racist instead of Hitler the Simonds Law, since I haven’t found this discussion fully hashed out, but I’d rather be associated with something more positive.
Everyone is a loser who engages in this behavior. My advice is grow up or be better educated to discuss your position better than: you are Hitler/racist/white supremacist and whatever the next insult is.
It used to be that to call someone Hitler was the ultimate insult, albeit the indication that the argument is lost. Has calling them a racist and/or a white supremacist suffered the same fate?
This is a story about my young son trying to catch the biggest fish in the pond.
Fathers do things for their children. They take them places and (try to) teach them things.
I like to fish and wanted my son to also like it so we could fish together. I made sure that we went catching instead of fishing. For those who have gone a entire day fishing without catching anything, you know what I mean.
I took him to the fishing show one year to show him around. It is a place where they sell things mostly to catch fishermen’s wallets.
We started the show by dropping quarters into a large fish tank. If the quarter glided through the water and into the shot glass at the bottom, you were a winner with the prize being your choice of worms. He won on the first try and was very excited about it.
I knew his attention span was limited so we went to the trout pond to fish. When I say pond, I mean a temporary pool filled with fish. They were mostly small trout with maybe 3 big boys in the pond (actually the big ones are female). It came complete with plastic palm trees in the middle for décor. You paid your $2 and could keep anything you caught in 5 minutes. The poles were a 4-foot stick with a short line and small hook baited with a mostly inedible piece of plastic half the size of a fingernail.
The odds are with the fish on this one. Especially when they have seen the same bait for 3 days and got fed every night.
My goal was for him to catch anything while I wanted to get enough of the small guys for dinner. I told him that any fish was a good fish.
HUNTING MOBY DICK
Never the small dreamer, he spotted the biggest fish in the pool and said he was going after it. I feared he would be disappointed as everyone threw a line at it, but I knew I could just take him through the line again and tell him to go for something catchable.
I had landed about 3 of the small fish and was well on the way to having dinner by half the time allotted. He kept trying for the big fish (nicknamed Moby Dick).
As time was counting down and I had caught enough for dinner, I heard a huge splash beside me. I looked over and sure enough, my son had hooked Moby.
My new fear was that he would be crushed if the fish spit the hook. The hooks they provided were tiny and easy for the fish get off the line. I saw it happen to every kid before us. If you didn’t get one to the side in less than 15 seconds, it was pretty much over.
This fish was almost too strong for the small stick and line we were given. Over a minute into the fight, it was still on and I knew the odds were against us.
THE FIRST CHANCE TO LOSE THE FISH
Things took a turn for the worse as his fish got wrapped around one of the plastic palm trees. In my mind, I was already preparing to console him for his loss.
I knew I had to try something. After all, I was his Dad so I reached into the tank and grabbed the palm tree. The pond monitors weren’t happy with me but it was my son.
Anyone who ever had a fish on knows that if you get slack in the line, the fish is as good as gone once the line goes taut and the sudden tension pulls the hook out of the fish’s mouth.
To my surprise, Moby stayed on despite the tree incident and he was well past 2 minutes into the fight. Time was now over for that fishing session, but since he had one on we were allowed to finish. We had an audience as everyone waiting to fish and those who just finished could see that he had a good one on.
I decided that if by chance I could get my hands on this fish that I was willing to do anything to get it for my son. I didn’t want him to be disappointed after overcoming virtually everything that could go wrong, just to lose it at the last second. This wasn’t going to be easy, as anyone who has handled a trout knows they have a coating of slime. They are as slippery as greased ice. Landing them is usually done with a net, which we weren’t allowed to use.
PANIC AT THE MOMENT OF TRUTH
I thought nothing more could go wrong, but to my horror I could see that it was foul hooked (hooked on the body rather than the mouth). My sense of the odds of landing Moby were next to nothing now.
After what seemed like a million circles in the pond, Moby came within my reach and I stuck my hand under the fish and threw it out of the pond in one swoop.
On that day, he had landed the biggest fish in the pond, a Dad was proud and a small boy became a fisherman.
Here is a picture later in life of fishing together. He learned well
Have you ever wondered what the f&*% the kids are talking about lately? Do you parents want to decode your kids texts?
Below is the Generation Z dictionary distributed by a Mr. Callahan so I point to him if any Gen Z’ers have a problem with it.
When thinking about this, I’m sure every generation trashes the previous by describing them as not as learned and their improper use of grammar. I’m also pretty confident that Shakespeare is rolling in his grave as he probably has done for each generation after him.
I’ve put some screenshots below and full link to the dictionary in PDF form to download.
What I fear is these people will be making decisions about my generation in a few years.
To fully honor this generation, I purposely didn’t put it in alphabetical order just to mess with them.
So says an article published by the Washington Post.
Having discussed high IQ people including those with a perceived higher intelligence a number of times (this one with the highest Google ranking), I like to ponder on these things.
The first in this article tends to reference dwelling among all people as it relates to happiness:
They use what they call “the savanna theory of happiness” to explain two main findings from an analysis of a large national survey (15,000 respondents) of adults aged 18 to 28.
First, they find that people who live in more densely populated areas tend to report less satisfaction with their life overall. “The higher the population density of the immediate environment, the less happy” the survey respondents said they were. Second, they find that the more social interactions with close friends a person has, the greater their self-reported happiness.
Why would high population density cause a person to be less happy? There’s a whole body of sociological research addressing this question. But for the most visceral demonstration of the effect, simply take a 45-minute ride on a crowded rush-hour Red Line train and tell me how you feel afterward.
One would tend to think that if you weren’t in such a densely populated area, that it might lead to greater happiness. No wonder New York, Chicago and other highly populated cities have such low rankings in this category.
THE NEED TO BE ALONE
I can’t prove it, but there is a tendency for “Smart People” to be either introverted or have a need to spend time alone to gather their thoughts when making contributions to inventions, theorem’s, calculations and other notable achievements. (Note: the link above describes things introverts won’t tell you, but you should know).
Being an author, I know that I prefer quiet to gather my thoughts and increase the powers of concentration on what I am trying to write. It’s hard to clear your mind when there is a bombardment of distractions either from people, social media or other causes.
The article does state the obvious, long commutes, traffic, waiting in line and crowds are tedious, monotonous, and can grate on anyone over time. The infrastructure is usually older (see the lead in the water in Flint, Mich.) I’ve often wondered why anyone would want to live in a place like that if they really had a choice. Maybe that is why there is such a large population outflow to Florida upon retirement.
Kanazawa and Li’s second finding is a little more interesting. It’s no surprise that friend and family connections are generally seen as a foundational component of happiness and well-being. But why would this relationship get turned on its head for really smart people?
I posed this question to Carol Graham, a Brookings Institution researcher who studies the economics of happiness. “The findings in here suggest (and it is no surprise) that those with more intelligence and the capacity to use it … are less likely to spend so much time socializing because they are focused on some other longer term objective,” she said.
Think of the really smart people you know. They may include a doctor trying to cure cancer or a writer working on the great American novel or a human rights lawyer working to protect the most vulnerable people in society. To the extent that frequent social interaction detracts from the pursuit of these goals, it may negatively affect their overall satisfaction with life.
The article and researchers discuss a “Savannah theory of happiness” which is a bit of a reach since there weren’t iPhones for cavemen, although an ability to deal with new challenges seems obvious.
FEAR OF MISSING OUT OF SOMETHING FOR SOME, LOATHING PEOPLE FOR OTHERS
There is a need for many in the general population to gain happiness from their social interactions. I have relatives who suffer from FoMo syndrome, generally indicating that they derive their happiness and/or satisfaction from others or the perception of others.
When drilling down and specifically targeting high IQ people, there is a distinct difference from the last sentence in the above quote:
Second, they find that the more social interactions with close friends a person has, the greater their self-reported happiness.
But there was one big exception. For more intelligent people, these correlations were diminished or even reversed.
“The effect of population density on life satisfaction was therefore more than twice as large for low-IQ individuals than for high-IQ individuals,” they found. And “more intelligent individuals were actually less satisfied with life if they socialized with their friends more frequently.”
Let me repeat that last one: When smart people spend more time with their friends, it makes them less happy.
Again, an observation from the high IQ group and personal introspection, there seems to be less of a need to find your happiness in others or what others think of you in this space. It might be in the above stated pursuit of goals:
Hell might actually be other people — at least if you’re really smart.
That’s the implication of fascinating new research published last month in the British Journal of Psychology. Evolutionary psychologists Satoshi Kanazawa of the London School of Economics and Norman Li of Singapore Management University dig in to the question of what makes a life well-lived. While traditionally the domain of priests, philosophers and novelists, in recent years survey researchers, economists, biologists and scientists have been tackling that question.
There’s a twist, though, at least as Kanazawa and Li see it. Smarter people may be better equipped to deal with the new (at least from an evolutionary perspective) challenges present-day life throws at us. “More intelligent individuals, who possess higher levels of general intelligence and thus greater ability to solve evolutionarily novel problems, may face less difficulty in comprehending and dealing with evolutionarily novel entities and situations,” they write.
It appears that the high IQ might actually have another less socially accepted skill that is less politically correct as defined by the masses. They may just have thought out that they are able to be happier or more satisfied while being alone rather than by having to try and satisfy others definition of their happiness.
Conversely, they might find being around other people annoying, especially the chatty or needy.
Once you are able to happy alone, the ability to be happy with others is icing on the cake, but shouldn’t be the definition of the cake.
What is Internet Road Rage? My definition is that you are willing to engage in hateful, spiteful language aimed at someone whom you either don’t agree with ideologically/religiously/politically/any excuse to vent, or a counter attack to someone who got on you or your ideas.
Here is the caveat. You most likely wouldn’t act or speak that way in person or to someone’s face with that tone or language. Most of you have either more self-decency in person or a survival instinct that would prevent you from getting your ass kicked.
Worse, you could or are likely a Porch Dog, one who barks severely, but is no real threat. In other words, you yap by tapping the keyboard but pose no intellectual threat.
ACTUAL ROAD RAGE
Most people have road rage inside them. Here is how it works:
Polite drivers may think that dialogue like that is the territory of deranged, out-of-control, or terrible drivers, and maybe they’re right. But according to a new survey from AAA, most drivers in the United States display signs of road rage. So too bad, you supposedly polite drivers.
The survey, published today, polled 2,705 drivers 16 years old and older about their road rage habits. Seventy-eight percent of drivers—more than three-quarters—reported engaging in some kind of aggressive driving maneuver, including tailgating, yelling, honking, gesturing angrily, purposely blocking another vehicle, cutting someone off, confronting someone, and intentionally ramming another car.
The breakdown of each category was fairly unsurprising. Fifty-one percent of drivers reported tailgating at least once; 47 percent reported yelling at least once; 45 percent reported honking at least once. The more bats**t responses—confronting another driver and ramming another vehicle—polled much lower on the list.
INTERNET ROAD RAGE
There is every flavor in the book, more than I can write about. It started with email flaming. As soon as forums or ideological websites like Quora, Instagram, Facebook, The Huffpo, Fox News, etc., etc. The net of it was that people were able to transfer their hate to others online. The comments are mendacious, eviscerating and frequently ad hominem attacks that most wouldn’t do face to face.
I call B.S. as most of those people are cowards and wouldn’t stand up to others in real life. There are of course some that do speak their minds, but they generally have more of a life than pissing on each other online.
What would the other person do? Back in the schoolyard days, you say something like what is written almost everywhere now and you’d have to fight. Most people don’t like to fight and there are a few who know very well how to protect themselves. I’d even bet that a lot of folks who are right wingers fully explore their second amendment rights. Who wants to walk into that? There are some who would be very able to kick your ass and would.
WHY DO YOU DO IT?
I use the word you in its’ plural and direct form. I’m pointing at everyone who reads this because most of you have crossed the line when someone pissed you off.
The reason is that you envision some curtain of invisibility or invincibility because you are typing to a screen. You wouldn’t say it in person, or wouldn’t say it that way. Therefore, you are either a coward or a bully. Most people lose considerable IQ points when you think this way.
So stop it. Grow up and act like an adult. Be big enough to pass over some typed letters of venting. More than likely, there isn’t enough reason for responses that are so harsh. Before you type it, imagine saying it face to face and see if you would do it, or risk either your reputation or an ass whooping.
Even though I like to write about intellectual subjects, this one will have nothing to do with that.
Disclaimer: This game has been around for decades. It is not the somehow now bad OK sign that the evil PC police have condemned. When it was invented, no one cared about the OK sign. FWIW, the circle is upside down in this game. The PC SJW’s are dumbasses because a Reddit joke that trolled people by saying it was some supremacist sign. The woke fell for it immediately because they want to cancel any fun.
If you know or have played the game, you will get this whole post without reading it, but I’m posting for those who do not get it.
I searched this on the Interweb and it stated that this started in the 1980’s. Since I was in middle school way before this I’m calling BS and guessing that those before me have played it for 50 years.
So when I saw these examples, I knew what it was and it took me back to childhood, but I understood it without explanation.
The rules of the game are here:
Basically, you get someone to look at the circle below your waist against their will and you get to punch them.
It’s a game designed to be able to hit your friends and have them be ok with it.
The link provides other instructions like breaking the circle and not brushing it off, but they are just variations on being able to punch your friend.
We took it to all kinds of limits like drawing circles on the floor and other variations, but it’s simple.
I like all of these meme’s, but Darth Vader is my favorite. Readers like the volleyball girl the best if you look at how many times it’s been downloaded off this post.
I think the girl is giving a sign as to the play to make, but if not, it’s a really good Internet punch.
The Walmart guy is funny on many lev
els.
The black hole circle is a Universal punch.
The duck is just funny.
I found a new one that isn’t really meant to be in the circle game, but is.
I recently posted how Social Media is probably making your life worse, especially those who have to look anything up to know everything. Even more, those whose lives and feelings are governed by their online image and how many likes they got vs. others are losing out on life to a device.
The other issue is having your face buried in your phone while walking. You are clueless to the world around you. See the video above.
UPDATE: Getting Cosmetic Surgery for Snapchat Dysmorphia
This is by far the most narcissistic thing I’ve read. People (tide pod eaters) are getting surgery to look like the filters they use on their Snapchat because they don’t look good enough in life because it is wreaking havoc on their self-esteem. The report in the journal JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery claims that these filters can sometimes trigger body dysmorphic disorder, a mental illness that can lead to compulsive tendencies and unnecessary beauty procedures, among other negative outcomes.
A study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that people who were regular users of social media were twice as likely to feel lonely than those that were light users.
Another study released found that social media, especially Instagram, deepened feelings of anxiety and inadequacy for 15 to 24 year olds.
Go play outside and leave your phone in your pocket. Also, don’t live your life on social media and you won’t be so self-obsessed.
UPDATE: A study came out stating that good social media don’t out weigh the bad:
(Reuters Health) – For young adults, the adverse effect of negative social media experiences on mental health outweigh any potential benefits of positive experiences, a study of university students suggests.
Each 10 percent increase in a student’s negative experiences on social media was associated with a 20 percent increase in the odds of depressive symptoms, researchers found.
But positive experiences on social media were only weakly linked to lower depressive symptoms. Each 10 percent increase in positive social media interaction was associated with only a four percent drop in depressive symptoms – a difference so small that it might have been due to chance.
“This is not inconsistent with the way we see things in the offline world . . . The negative things we encounter in the world count more than positive ones,” said study leader Brian A. Primack, director of the Center for Research on Media, Technology and Health at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.
“If you have four different classes in college, the fourth class that you did poorly in probably took up all your mental energy,” he told Reuters Health by phone.
Primack said he believes social media lends itself to negativity bias because it is saturated with positive experiences that leave people jaded.
YOU ARE BEING WATCHED
I talked with friends at the gym who are or were in law enforcement In cop terms they are always made by others because they are constantly looking around. They are aware of their environment, potential danger, potentially dangerous people and escape routes. As you can see in the video of fails, these people are vulnerable to all of the above.
Guess how else you are vulnerable with your head buried in a screen? It doesn’t take a genius to know that Facebook, Google, Amazon and every other site is not only tracking your clicks, but are tracking where you go and what you do.
We used to have instructions, a map and intuition to get where we were going and for the most part, we got there. millennial’s can’t get to the 7-11 without Google Maps now. It’s also funny how they can know everything, but have knowledge of very little. Take away their phone and not only would they not run into things, they’d have to actually learn about how things really work and how to navigate (I’m not discriminating here, I know directionally challenged relatives my age who fall into this category). Looking up something on your phone doesn’t make you smart.
YOU ARE GIVING THE PERV’S A FREE TICKET
I’m not in law enforcement, but I put my phone away and watch others, especially those watching girls. It’s almost a sport. It used to be if a guy was looking in the wrong part of a girl, they got busted immediately. It was like watching a tennis match seeing the heads turn when a cute girl walked by. They had to use mirrored sunglasses and just glance when they could and not let their wives/girlfriends catch them. Now, instead of having to glance behind sunglasses, the perv’s just look down or up (or up and down) anyone they want and modesty just goes out the window. It’s truly tasteless, but if you had your head out of the phone, you wouldn’t be getting eyeballed so lasciviously.
GET A LIFE
It’s amazing to watch people now escape to their phone in what used to be a social situation. So stop running into things and get a life.
FACEBOOK IS DESIGNED TO EXPLOIT HUMAN VULNERABILITIES
Recently, former Facebook president Sean Parker pointed out how Facebook is hurting people.
When Facebook was getting going, I had these people who would come up to me and they would say, ‘I’m not on social media.’ And I would say, ‘OK. You know, you will be. And then they would say, ‘No, no, no. I value my real-life interactions. I value the moment. I value presence. I value intimacy.’ And I would say, … ‘We’ll get you eventually.’
Parker discussed the possible psychological effects of social media and Facebook in particular, especially for children who are now growing up in a digitally connected age:
I don’t know if I really understood the consequences of what I was saying, because [of] the unintended consequences of a network when it grows to a billion or 2 billion people and … it literally changes your relationship with society, with each other … It probably interferes with productivity in weird ways. God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains.
The former Facebook President discussed the company’s initial aim, which was mainly centered around drawing in and building their audience:
The thought process that went into building these applications, Facebook being the first of them, … was all about: ‘How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?’ And that means that we need to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while, because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever. And that’s going to get you to contribute more content, and that’s going to get you … more likes and comments.
Parker described Facebook’s appeal as a “social-validation feedback loop” which exploits human psychology to keep users coming back to the app:
It’s a social-validation feedback loop … exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with, because you’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology. The inventors, creators — it’s me, it’s Mark [Zuckerberg], it’s Kevin Systrom on Instagram, it’s all of these people — understood this consciously. And we did it anyway.
Parker also briefly discussed how his vast wealth is likely to allow him to live longer than the average person due to advances in medical science
I’ll bet if you ask most people of a certain age, they are going to realize that this is true. I remember asking my father for life advice on his 75th birthday. He answered, “where did it all go so fast?” You’ll find that one below also.
Read and learn if you are young, commiserate if you agree.
#1 – I talk to myself because there are times I need expert advice.
#2 – I consider “In Style” to be the clothes that still fit.
#3 – I don’t need anger management. I need people to stop pissing me off.
#4 – My people skills are just fine. It’s my tolerance for idiots that needs work.
#5 – The biggest lie I tell myself is, “I don’t need to write that down. I’ll remember it.”
#6 – I have days when my life is just a tent away from a circus.
#7 – These days, “on time” is when I get there.
#8 – Even duct tape can’t fix stupid – but it sure does muffle the sound.
#9 – Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could put ourselves in the dryer for ten minutes, then come out wrinkle-free and three sizes smaller?
#10 – Lately, I’ve noticed people my age are so much older than me.
#11 – “Getting lucky” means walking into a room and remembering why I’m there.
#12 – When I was a child, I thought nap time was punishment. Now it feels like a mini-vacation.
#13 – Some days I have no idea what I’m doing out of bed.
#14 – I thought growing old would take longer.
#15 – Aging sure has slowed me down, but it hasn’t shut me up.
#16 – I still haven’t learned to act my age and doubt I’ll live that long.
Unfortunately, these are all sadly true!
I love controversial subjects, especially among the sexes. Nothing gets the hackles up quicker than something that offends what you hold close to your heart. I’ve worked with the media for decades and sensationalism is what sells. It’s sex, death, murder, immorality, bankruptcy, divorce and other vices that can be cherry picked to place on the headline. This is not real life, like…..
Ye old workplace.
It is a petri dish of human interaction that has been infected by #MeToo, harassment, incivility, sexism, partiality, affairs and occasionally competent work and results. I’ve already discussed if Men and Women can work together here, and Women now swear more than men, so I found this article and it looked either like a headline maker or a trend. I decided to find out.
Having sat through weeks of diversity training that is beyond boring and is a CYA for the legal department, I’ve been told that you can’t say certain things, act in a ways that could be demeaning or sexually suggestive or anything outside of plain vanilla. I choose to keep to myself and observe. That is why this study caught my eye. The behavior is far outside of my diversity training, yet it goes on unabated.
WHO ARE THE BIGGEST OFFENDERS?
A recent study shows that women are reporting that it is other women who are the most rude and uncivil towards women. It goes like this:
In terms of how it is acted out:
“Across the three studies, we found consistent evidence that women reported higher levels of incivility from other women than their male counterparts,” Gabriel says. “In other words, women are ruder to each other than they are to men, or than men are to women.
“This isn’t to say men were off the hook or they weren’t engaging in these behaviors,” she notes. “But when we compared the average levels of incivility reported, female-instigated incivility was reported more often than male-instigated incivility by women in our three studies.”
THE QUEEN BEE SYNDROME
The article at the link above states:
The phenomenon of women discriminating against other women in the workplace—particularly as they rise in seniority—has long been documented as the “queen bee syndrome.” As women have increased their ranks in the workplace, most will admit to experiencing rude behavior and incivility.
Who is at fault for dishing out these mildly deviant behaviors? Has the syndrome grown more pervasive?
“Studies show women report more incivility experiences overall than men, but we wanted to find out who was targeting women with rude remarks,” says Allison Gabriel, assistant professor of management and organizations in the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management.
I worked with a female named Sandy. No one was harder to understand or trust as a senior manager than she. My friends would dread working for her and it was a success not to get fired before your term was complete. Everyone tried to get out as fast as they could, or would not seek a promotion just to not work for or with her.
I WANTED TO KNOW SO I ASKED THEM IF IT WAS TRUE, WHAT THEY SAID, PERHAPS NSFW
I like to look at things from the point of view of how would an intellectual view this. Normally, this would entail a scientific study without bias, with control groups and so forth. My observation is that people’s behavior is not scientific when it comes to emotions and I’ve been told by those of the female persuasion that they are more likely to be emotional. I couldn’t argue the point, nor did I care to.
Therefore, I figured that asking some females if this was correct and what they’ve seen at work would be my best estimate as to whether this is true. Please note that some of the comments while stated verbatim are not always complimentary and some are off-color. Commenters: Note, if you get pissed off, these are answers by women to a question I asked about working with females and is the study accurate. If you just want to hate, please go elsewhere as if it’s directed at me, it’s a fart in the wind and that’s how I’ll treat it.
Here are some responses:
Females can be bitchy, catty. other names.
She slept her way to her position.
She got there because of her looks (or tits), not her ability.
She dresses like a whore.
There is one bitch who leans over in front of guys to get her way.
Women are the biggest backstabbers.
Sure there is an occasional guy who bugs me or tries to hit on me, but girls are far worse as a group.
Sure she was nice when she was one of us, but as soon as they gave her a little power, she turned on us like we’d done something to her.
She’s great to work for if you are female. She only promotes women and you can get your way over any guys.
Women here can only manage 2 inches in front of their face. They don’t get the big picture or work towards the company’s goals.
Once you make it clear you aren’t going to sleep with them, the men are much easier to work with or for. The mission and strategy are clear and they can focus on that.
Guys will either just not say anything or will tell you how it is. The girls say something to your face and f__k you over behind your back if you aren’t in their group.
Guys handle success and failure better than the girls I work with. One of them always takes it personally and spends weeks trying to get back at you instead of trying to get work done.
I can never trust what a woman says to me. Guys don’t lie as much or as well as girls do unless they want in your pants.
Women talk too much and I can’t get my work done.
When aunt Flo comes calling honey you better hide from that bitch.
Just get more than one female together in a group and watch the fireworks.
Guys are used to joking, I think they learned it in a locker room or something. They can cuss each other out in a meeting and it’s like a punch in the arm and then go have a beer. A woman will hold something you say to her against you for the rest of your life.
Enough! Most of these I got multiple times, which is why they made the list. I stopped asking because this attitude was overwhelming me.
CONCLUSION
I can only surmise that it is tough for women to work with women. I didn’t give it much thought until I read this study, but it does appear that women are more difficult towards other women at the workplace
Schaeffer’s First Law of the Digital Age:
The Global Digital Infrastructure (GDI) connects all human life on the planet into a single, giant, metastasizing organism throbbing with incredible potential for advancing human good, expanding knowledge exponentially, invading our lives with unimaginable malice and evil, and transforming unsuspecting users into helpless and obedient cyborgs.
Schaeffer’s Second Law of the Digital Age:
Each breakthrough in utility deriving from advances in the Global Digital Domain is accompanied by equal or greater vulnerabilities and potential detriments to quality of life. Anything that can do amazingly great things for you can almost always do terribly awful things to you as well.
Schaeffer’s Third Law of the Digital Age:
I’m not a conspiracy person, rather an observer of trends and patterns. Haven’t we been down this path before in history where there are classes of people? This time, they start as digital helpers like Alexa, Echo, Google assistant or Siri, but at what point are they re-directing our lives? Aren’t there always people who try to control your lives thus enriching their lives both in money and power.
Since there are hackers constantly attacking the cloud, where your data is stored and accessible, when you lose control over your life? The digital hacks can be found at Krebsonsecurity.com.
It has already begun with your digital footprint being tracked, monitored and being sold off to advertisers, but where does it stop, the Jetson’s?
I advise that you carefully monitor who is monitoring you, even the government.
Now for fun, why is that in the movies that the robots always try to take over the world and kill humans?
This post was inspired by Candace who states:
They used to be respected more when they cared for their country, their fans and people in general. Social media, fame and fortune have convinced them that someone actually cares what they think. There have been some who actually contributed to the betterment of the world, but most of them were in the WWII class.
These days, they seem to have a delusion that their opinion on politics, climate change, gender identity, what to eat and anything else would actually matter to someone outside of Hollywood. They are a part of the do as I say, not as I do crowd. In fact they are the president of the club.
TRAIN WRECK
The basic nature of people is that they care about people who think like they do or conversely, are looking for a train wreck. Celebrities and now many sports figures fit into these categories.
People are tired of them pontificating about anything or their pet cause, even if it is noble. Shut up and act and don’t tell us what to do. Most of us who live real lives are smarter and have more common sense.
SPORTS ALSO
The overpaid sports stars are now getting into the act by trying to inform us on how we are to act with respect to our personal patriotism. Again, shut up and play the game. They are entertainment for us to distract us from daily life at best. We don’t care about your personal vendetta’s that you thrust upon us because somehow your millions don’t make up for your perceived injustice.
How do I know this? The NFL is now worried about dwindling numbers both at the stadiums and the TV numbers. Go to the link and find one team who can’t even sell out a 27,000 seat stadium.
Some of the athletes think that we care what they think because they can play a kids game.
I read this at Diogenes Middle Finger and found it enlightening on the subject as he called out the assholiness of LeBron James. BTW, you should follow DMF, a blog I read daily and recommend it.
It’s not as if we’re talking about some of the real heroes in sports of my youth, here. The Lebron James’ of the world did not have to struggle, and in the process, advance the character and quality of American Life by their example, like some of my childhood heroes did. Lebron James is no Hank Aaron, suffering death threats for being good enough to threaten a cherished record, or being a — maybe THE — visible symbol of the pernicious, past influence of racism.
James wouldn’t be judged worthy to hold Muhammad Ali’s jockstrap, on his best day. He certainly couldn’t make you think about a common humanity, couldn’t be a universal symbol of hope, like Ali did and was.
Jim Brown would run Lebron James over and trample him into the dirt, demanding respect. Just respect. James will never have the grace, the quiet dignity, or garner the universal love, of a Gayle Sayers.
In fact, James is most likely the visible symbol of the moral decay and decadence of the Modern Athlete, and symptomatic of the greater trend in society wherein people who obviously couldn’t find their own asses with both hands and a road map consistently have microphones shoved in their faces with an expectation that they will — as if by magic — make some profound statement that will occupy the intellect and nourish the soul.
VOTING WITH OUR WALLETS
The net of it is that movie sales are declining, there are fewer attendees in sports and the only people who care about actors are other actors, and I’ll bet they don’t like each other that much either.
WHEN CELEBTARDS ARE BETTER NOT TALKING BECAUSE THEY DON’T THINK
Barbra Streisand should just stick to singing, or retiring.
Update: The 2018 Oscars were last night. They went on about #MeToo, yet it was their ilk that were the worst offenders of moral debauchery. Instead, they chose to reduce their likeability and their relevance by again making it political. I wonder how they justify in their minds that the rest of the country actually cares what they think about anything (except millineals who believe anything and eat Tide pods). Jennifer Lawrence, with her 8th grade education is going to save democracy while she is taking a year off from acting.
The most relevant tweet of the event was this one:
In these days of divisiveness, there are some facts based on economics that are hard to refute, even if you don’t want to admit it. I enjoy discussion by people of high IQ and of great wisdom, something the world of Political Correctness is sadly overlooking.
The 2008 and 2012 election showed that a coalition of minorities was the winning formula. As for 2016, not so much.
With all the minority identity groups out there vying for political power, social media control, fund raising and media presence; how do they stack up when they compete for hierarchy? At some point, when the power and money is being doled out, the queue is determined by some order. Who are these groups and how do they vie for power?
Author disclaimer: I have no dog in this hunt. I am a pattern watcher and try to learn from them. Human nature is hard to understand and explain due to it’s ever changing allies and favored group status depending on circumstances. I was watching the groups at the last election and wondered how you coalesce a group of disparate people with conflicting causes as a voter block.
Who are they?
While this isn’t a comprehensive list and I am not discriminating as I just Googled it, the last election revealed the groups of Black Lives Matter (BLM), LGBTQ (apologies if I omitted a letter), Islam (including ISIS), socialists, Antifa, environmentalists and feminists. They each compete for their cause and have usually selected an enemy with whom they are opposed to, but are now conflicting with each other in the power grab. They for the most part have an ideological position (some more than others) and garner the lion’s share of media attention.
Before the haters come out, I write this post because of my position that one of the characteristics of a higher IQ is the ability to argue from multiple positions on a subject. I will proceed with this post from that premise.
I also am merely an observer of trends. The consolidating power of the above listed groups is becoming a relevant discussion regardless of where you source your information. I’ve excluded the typical mainstream media as sources of information on both sides as their coverage is either too conservative or liberal. Their inherent bias excludes them from this conversation. I also excluded Hollywood and celebrities since they have a limited integration with the real world and often spout declarations for others which they do not adhere to. When you get to the heart of their talent, they pretend to be others and to take their opinions seriously is difficult at best.
Here are non-comprehensive, yet representative examples of identity group disagreements.
BLM vs. LGBTQ
I first noticed this when BLM shut down a gay pride parade.
These are two significant voter populations when added together.
What surprised me that it was during the last election cycle and both groups made up a voting block for the same candidate. From said article:
BLM held Toronto Pride hostage, unless their demands, which included excluding police from the parade, were immediately met.
(Pride parades typically have contingents of LGBT cops and firefighters, and booths set up by the local LGBT officers’ group at the accompanying street festival.)
Judging by their success in forcing Toronto Pride to capitulate, I suspect we’ll see Black Lives Matter groups protesting more Pride parades in the future. And as a longtime national and international LGBT rights activist, I have a problem with that.
In my internet search for protests, it seems that BLM also protested and shut down Bernie Sanders and Hillary whom they supported. It goes without saying that they all protested Trump, but that is not the point of my curiosity as I assumed this was a given. This alone is surprising since both are a part of the coalition of voters candidates need to be elected per the aforementioned 2008/2012/2016 campaigns.
ISLAM vs. Feminists and LGBTQ
I later observed the Muslim and ISIS positions that women are treated poorly and that homosexuals were declared wrong and being executed. On a side point, they also considered most pets as unclean and black dogs should be killed (animal cruelty), which brings in the animal rights group, but they don’t be as significant as the other groups currently. Apparently, women don’t have the same rights as men and must be subservient.
Then there is the recent Linda Sansour dust up revealing this dichotomy:
It further goes on to say:
Sarsour apparently identifies as a feminist. Sarsour’s kind of feminism, however, embraces the most oppressive legal system, especially for women: Islamic religious law, Sharia. Sarsour’s feminism is supposedly for empowering women, but it twists logic in a way similar to how Muslim preachers do when they claim that beating one’s wife is a husband’s way of honoring her.
Here is the dichotomy:
Pro-Sharia feminism is a perverted kind of feminism that could not care less about the well-being of oppressed Muslim women. Sarsour’s logic concerning women does not differ much from that of Suad Saleh, an Egyptian female Islamic cleric, who recently justified on Egyptian TV the doctrine of intentional humiliation and rape of captured women in Islam. Saleh said, “One of the purposes of raping captured enemy women and young girls was to humiliate and disgrace them and that is permissible under Islamic law.” There was not even a peep in Egypt’s civil society about such a statement.
On 7/25/17 a direct conflict happened when this occurred: An Oakland Muslim plotted to attack a gay club in San Francisco and talked about killing thousands of innocents on behalf of ISIS.
Finally, there is this non-sequitur that I can’t fathom:
“Feminist” Muslim women calling beatings by their husbands a “blessing from Allah”!
Who wants a beating?
ISLAM (ISIS) vs. Antifa
I don’t fully understand this one. It has the trappings of a sibling quarrel at best. ISIS is claiming that Antifa has culturally appropriated their uniforms, that being their black flag and terrorist tactics.
Here are some details:
Based on this proof, we hereby request that the UNHRC’s CESCR begin an immediate investigation into this matter, and, if you concur that ANTIFA is culturally appropriating ISIS, that you use all means at your disposal to put a stop to it. You could start by visiting this ANTIFA website, which contains links to many of its affiliates throughout the world.
Sincerely,
ISIS High Command
PS: You might mention to the ANTIFA punks that in quite a few aspects, we are at war with the very same people, organizations and ideas, and, in fact, Western civilization itself. So, if you could arrange a sit-down over tea with us, and them, it might serve all of our interests, and provide a holistic, inclusive resolution to our complaint.
Islam appears to have support from the media and the left side of the political sphere as does the other listed minorities claiming status. One can see the obvious conflicts.
Socialists
It appeared that quite a bit of traction was gained by the Bernie Sanders crowd. It seemed to have enough momentum to be a winning group within its’ primary. Somehow, it was defeated by a political machine by what is being revealed as suspicious activities.
Nevertheless, a discussion of the socialism movement by Ross Wolf summarizes some of my points:
Ross Wolfe argues in The Charnel House, the identity politics that arose in the 1960s, ‘70s and ’80s developed in reaction to the identity politics of actually-existing socialism itself:
The various forms of identity politics associated with the “new social movements” coming out of the New Left during the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s (feminism, black nationalism, gay pride) were themselves a reaction, perhaps understandable, to the miserable failure of working-class identity politics associated with Stalinism coming out of the Old Left during the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s (socialist and mainstream labor movements). Working-class identity politics — admittedly avant la lettre — was based on a crude, reductionist understanding of politics that urged socialists and union organizers to stay vigilant and keep on the lookout for “alien class elements.” Any and every form of ideological deviation was thought to be traceable to a bourgeois or petit-bourgeois upbringing. One’s political position was thought to flow automatically and mechanically from one’s social position, i.e. from one’s background as a member of a given class within capitalist society.
Questions I Have
If you are courting one group, how do you avoid alienating another group if there is acrimony? At some point you step on the wrong toes.
If there is limited money, how does the donor decide who gets it without upsetting other groups?
How do you herd this group of cats to vote together when trying to win an election? It worked twice, but failed recently and there is finger pointing as to why.
What is Racist?
In Seattle, they can’t clean the sidewalks with pressure washers because it could be racist.
Council member Larry Gossett said he didn’t like the idea of power-washing the sidewalks because it brought back images of the use of hoses against civil-rights activists.
It seems that non-black people using gifs are being racist also. I don’t understand this one though.
Finally, who wins this victim’s game?
So I guess you have out victim everyone else. By doing so, it disrupts the coalition of identities required by one of the political parties to win elections. I suppose it is a popularity contest to win the money and the status.
My final observation is that human nature is the constant here. People are selfish enough to grab power and money when possible. Most do not have the ability to argue from multiple positions on the same subject and are ideologues for their cause.
This alone is going to make a coalition such as the one that voted in the president in 2008 difficult. Being a female wasn’t enough of a victim status in the 2016 election.
These are things I ponder as we wind our way down the path of being a country.
For my fellow High IQ readers, see how you would do on this test. It’s not are you as smart as a 5th grader. No, it’s much tougher. No wonder that our public school system is turning out under educated students. It appears that not only did our ancestors have to walk to school in the snow, they had to actually learn more than google on a smart phone.
Perhaps if they could pass this test, they wouldn’t have as much time to spend on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat.
Press on.
This post was supposed to fall in the intellectual category for people to decide if Harvard has the qualities that high IQ people still desire (such as being able to see/argue multiple sides of an issue). They have managed to ruin any hope of defending both sides of an issue given the updates as you read them below. I’ll leave it for those who may be on the fence, and wish them the best in their decision.
Original Post Begins Here
If you look at the previous post, you will see some of the traits you might have indicating a high intellect.
One of them is the ability to see and argue from multiple perspectives. To have this trait, you have to shut out ideological thinking or persuasiveness of others before developing a hypothesis. Many have preconceived thoughts on a subject, political stance or values influenced by others rather than examining all aspects of a subject. In other words, they read one side of a subject on the Internet and believe what they want to. Everyone has a bias, but one needs to come to problems with an open mind and use facts and history to evaluate the solution otherwise you run at least a 50% chance of being wrong.
Harvard has released their list of Fake News sites. This is a popular subject given the 2016 Presidential election. If you look at the coverage and predictions of the various news sites, you can come to a conclusion which ones were actually wrong (based on forecasts, coverage and predictions) and if their coverage was biased or indeed “Fake News”. You have to make up your own mind where you stand on this. I am not saying their position is necessarily wrong, rather questioning their intelligence.
The list is decidedly one-sided, showing a bias. This is unfortunate. Again, readers have to decide if this is correct or not. No one or news institution is right or wrong 100% of the time.
In fair disclosure, one trait may indicate nothing, or it may be the bread crumb down the trail of truth if they are the institution they claim to be. Once more, each must reach his or her own conclusion. I show later in the post how I came to my decision about the title based more on empirical evidence.
Given the perceived prestige that comes with a Harvard degree (note: I did not say education), one would hope that the inflated price for such would be well spent money. It would appear that their logic in such a one-sided position on what is “Fake News” doesn’t indicate that they show this intellectual trait. You take a chance where to get an education or where you send your kids. One just hopes that it is the right decision. Since almost every decision is a cost/benefit analysis in your mind, one now must question if it is worth it. Maybe your kid isn’t really an intellectual so the point might be moot.
I realize that you can develop relationships with power people at college that can advance a successful career. It is not the point of this discussion. I am merely observing a perceived status and whether it is justified or not.
Update: Harvard now supports segregation. MLK would not have wanted this.
Update: Harvard Grad students have organized themselves to start a resistance school.
Update: Students don’t understand the danger of ISIS.
Update: You can now submit a rap album as a senior thesis instead of actual academic work.
Update: Harvard discriminates, avoids meritocracy and endorses legacy of the privileged
The grad students, who consider themselves a progressive version of “Dumbledore’s Army,” have enlisted former Obama staffers to teach the class sessions. The syllabus includes readings on “Black-Palestinian Queer Reciprocal Solidarity.”
They have decidedly taken a position of only viewing issues from one side. One should greatly question the concept of critical thinking ability being taught there. For those of us who can balance multiple views of the same subject, it is clear that these snowflakes will be under-educated and might be damaged goods in the marketplace of talent.
I formed my own opinion having worked for decades with Ivy League educated employees, albeit somewhat weighted towards Harvard and Columbia. It was made exceedingly clear by a PR flak who after having worked with a number of Harvard MBA’s stated that they had obviously wasted their money on their education. We were working for a prestigious company that attracts genius level talent. She showed remarkable intuition that caused me to further observe the Ivy’s. The majority didn’t last as they had a piece of paper saying that they should be smart, but lacked an education in people or the understanding that life is a series of challenges and hurdles.
Some of the most successful executives and workers I’ve encountered didn’t rely on their degree in school, rather what they learned in life and how they applied it to the next problem.
While history reveals that many leaders and intelligent people came from Harvard, the direction they are heading and the principles that they now uphold should add some cost to the side of the cost/benefit decision making process. I hope it’s worth it if you choose it as your place for an education. You will apparently get an institution that has a bias.
Most people think the are smarter than they are but usually are wrong. This has nothing to do with whether they have a high IQ or have trained extensively in an area (discussed throughout). These are indicators of whether you possess intelligence, but does not discuss whether you use it.
You can go anywhere on the Internet and find any research you want, but here are 5 indicators that show that you have potential for intelligence.
I saw this at My Domaine which show 3 of them you can’t fake.
You Learn From Your Mistakes
Intelligent people are able to accept their own failures and re-purpose them into lessons for future success. In fact, a study on decision-making skills reports that critical feedback from a mistake results in better performance the second time around. So while errors and setbacks can be frustrating, highly intelligent people are able to perceive them as growth opportunities.
It could of course be argued that humans are not that intelligent to begin with as we’ve continued to make the same mistakes throughout history.
I would argue that you learn more from a mistake than success. In giving one of my prodigy advice for life, I told him I didn’t remember every success because I expected it. I remembered every failure as it hurt and I vowed never to do it again. Some however never learn. They reveal narcissistic behavior which prevents them from admitting they were wrong.
You’re an Avid Reader
If someone doesn’t cite their sources but insists upon an opinion regardless of evidence, they’re likely exaggerating expertise. A simple way to check is by asking them what they do for fun. Beyond being a good way to gain knowledge about history or experiences that are different from your own, research shows that reading increases memory function, communication skills, and focus.
I am intrigued to talk with people with good vocabularies. To a person, they are readers of books, not social media.
One of the most intelligent fellows I’ve met was an avid reader, but couldn’t put life together due to lack of common sense. That is another subject altogether. He was obviously intelligent, but he couldn’t make good life decisions.
I see people in the gym taking selfies (or at the party, or anywhere) to garner likes on their Instagram or Fake Book (ok Facebook, but it is edited and acts a lot like a high school reunion). Those who are contemplating intelligent thoughts aren’t as concerned about likes or emoji’s. They are enjoying a book.
You See Both Sides of an Issue
When someone can articulately and convincingly argue every angle of an argument, they’re genuinely smart. Travis Bradberry, author of Emotional Intelligence 2.0, reveals the issues with assumptions; if someone is thoughtful and well-informed, they’re probably not faking their intelligence to get ahead. So while they’re really passionate and well-versed on a topic from their own perspective, if they haven’t evaluated all sides of an issue, they don’t understand it (or how to respond to it effectively).
This to me is one of the biggest indicators. The less intelligent can become so fixated on being right that they fail to observe the whole issue. You can intrinsically know what is correct by understanding which part of the subject being discussed is not correct or what part is flawed. The logic presents itself when you view it in its entirety.
I exempt lawyers here. Some of them may actually be intelligent, but they are trained to argue any side of an issue. Training is not an indicator that you are intelligent other than that you can learn.
You think before you speak
Truly intelligent people have a brain that is quicker than their mouth.
If you take your time to answer people’s questions and think them through to provide a genuine answer that you’ve thought about, you’re one step ahead.
It is also related with being overly concerned with what others think of you and the idea that you must be right. Many times, it is best to hear everything that is to be said before you respond. This point helps clarify celebrity behavior. They more often than not speak before they think or hear what is being said and then not thinking out the entirety of a subject. Combined with living in a bubble, the few that are intelligent are overshadowed by the celebtards who have to be heard. They expose themselves by opening their mouths, most often without their brain in gear.
You don’t care what others think
Seriously intelligent people don’t consider other people when making decisions.
They don’t think about how others will feel as a result of their own actions and do things regardless of other people’s judgement.
The net of it is look at yourself or your behavior. If you have these traits, you are likely more intelligent.
There are lists that say more intelligent people are messy and swear more, but I’d rather look for good qualities in people.
I read a WSJ article on ineffective meetings. It is about the manifesto to end boring meetings.
This brought back thousands of hours of meetings I wished I could have back or would certainly decline to attend had I realized what I know now. Most of this post is tongue in cheek unlike the WSJ, but I’ll bet everyone wishes they weren’t in so many meetings.
First, let me start out with some quotes I found from The Quote Garden, starting with the one that reminded me most of the meetings I’ve attended:
A committee is a group that keeps minutes and loses hours. ~Milton Berle
To kill time, a committee meeting is the perfect weapon. ~Author Unknown
If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be “meetings.” ~Dave Barry, “Things That It Took Me 50 Years to Learn”
Our age will be known as the age of committees. ~Ernest Benn
If Columbus had an advisory committee he would probably still be at the dock. ~Arthur Goldberg
A committee is an animal with four back legs. ~John le Carré, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
It is impossible to imagine the universe run by a wise, just and omnipotent God, but it is quite easy to imagine it run by a board of gods. ~H.L. Mencken
A “Normal” person is the sort of person that might be designed by a committee. You know, “Each person puts in a pretty color and it comes out gray.” ~Alan Sherman
A committee is a thing which takes a week to do what one good man can do in an hour. ~Elbert Hubbard
A camel looks like a horse that was planned by a committee. ~Author Unknown
A committee is a group of the unwilling chosen form the unfit, to do the unnecessary. ~Author Unknown
If you live in a country run by committee, be on the committee. ~Author Unknown
Could Hamlet have been written by a committee, or the Mona Lisa painted by a club?… Creative ideas do not spring from groups. They spring from individuals. The divine spark leaps from the finger of God to the finger of Adam. ~Alfred Whitney Griswold
We always carry out by committee anything in which any one of us alone would be too reasonable to persist. ~Frank Moore Colby
I don’t believe a committee can write a book. It can, oh, govern a country, perhaps, but I don’t believe it can write a book. ~Arnold Toynbee
There is no monument dedicated to the memory of a committee. ~Lester J. Pourciau
Any committee that is the slightest use is composed of people who are too busy to want to sit on it for a second longer than they have to. ~Katharine Whitehorn
Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything. ~John Kenneth Galbraith
People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything. ~Thomas Sowell
Usually, the meetings were a way to get other people to do your work for you, or to assign work to others they wouldn’t do or volunteer for were it not for the fact that they were at a meeting. The only time this didn’t work was when I actually needed to get a speaker for a press briefing for an interview with Time Magazine when print media was important. His manager, John Callies then VP of Netfinity or X series at IBM(x86 servers), wouldn’t let the speaker leave the staff meeting stating, “it’s only your job” as the reason. See how manage executive ego’s for more on this. I’d have never imagined having to cancel an interview with what was then an important publication due to an executives’ ego. I’ve seen bad manager moves in my time, but this was top 10 worst of the worst for me. He still ranks as the number one suit I’ve ever worked with. The below meme was how it felt to be in a meeting with him.
Execs have also had meetings in places that they wanted to visit (click on the link to see who it is), and most people knew that. That was a waste of travel time and money for a wasted meeting. There were other reasons they had meetings, but read the quotes at the beginning to find out why said were held.
Avoid training meetings, unless it was a way to be busy during a meeting you want to avoid. This is especially true of diversity training. It is a waste of time (same exact meeting every time every year for the required legal reason) but is more important than almost any other meeting, so it serves 2 purposes. No one will go against diversity training for fear of being politically or legally incorrect. It does allow you to miss another meeting and no one pays attention anyway. It’s an opportunity to get work done while the training is going on in the background. Your attendance is recorded so you are twice as effective as you complete your work, earn your mark for training and ignore the same speech you went through last year all at the same time.
MEETING RULES TO SURVIVE
The best way to deal with a meeting is to avoid it. If you can already have a meeting at a time that the scheduler proposes it or be busy and/or somehow away or out of the office. Teleconferencing kills that strategery unless you can be found traveling, but sometimes it’s unavoidable (see how to get out of a meeting below if you have to go). The people calling the meeting are really only people who want the meeting anyway.
For things to do to avoid meetings or how to goof around during a meeting, go to the link How to goof around at work.
HERE IS MY RULE WHEN TO DECIDE TO ATTEND IF I HAD A CHOICE: if there were more than 4 people, don’t go. Nothing will get done other than resulting in another meeting to have to attend. This is especially true if there are more than 1 executives, as each brings a team of competing players who guarantee the death of productivity.
The WSJ agrees with me, but goes on to say that if it has 17 people, there is no chance anything will get accomplished.
Don’t speak at a meeting if possible. It usually wastes time and extends the meeting length. There are only a couple of people who really have something to contribute, the rest want to hear themselves talk, show off their PowerPoint skills to bore you, or think they are more important if they speak. These show offs can be insufferable, but they offer time to check your email at best while pretending to listen.
This is in the department of redundancy department, but it is so important to note is to be careful when attending because the meeting leader’s purpose is to assign their work to others or get people to do work they wouldn’t do because they can’t decline in public (this is a corporate tradition). This further kills your ability to be productive at your real job. There are some who want to look important by accepting work magnanimously to show off, thinking they were climbing the ladder. Gladly accept their offer as most people have 10 hours of work for an 8 hour day anyway. Only accept it if it produces revenue or if you are the only one qualified to do it, but generally don’t, especially if you perceive it as a make work project.
Especially avoid planning meetings. A meeting to plan another meeting is one to be skipped unless you are the project manager and called the meeting, then you have to do it. Avoid these at all costs. Once nobody shows up, the meeting gets cancelled for email updates, which is a far better use of your time. As my grandfather said, they are as common as pig tracks and as useless as teats on a boar hog.
Avoid staff meetings. These are like planning meetings, but they occur regularly and when you miss one, nobody really cares (especially if there are more than 4 people). Only attend them occasionally as you work with these people everyday anyway, it’s not like you don’t know what is going on. Email your boss on a regular basis with your activity and you can plan something more productive during that time.
HOW TO GET OUT OF A MEETING
The tongue in cheek part really goes here. I’ll bet there are folks out there far more creative about this than me.
My favorite methods are to have a customer who needs you. They are your business and that overrides almost everything. Even your boss can’t deny this.
Pre-plan an emergency. I occasionally had another employee phone or knock on the door to call me out (email or text isn’t as good as that is not public enough) to get you out of a meeting. The trick is to never return. You’ll get the notes anyway, I promise. Since I worked with the press and analysts, I sometimes had a co-worker say that a reporter needed me right now. They were my customer and no one could say no. Many times there was no real emergency even if the press did call, it was the best and most efficient use of my time to leave the meeting so as to be actually working instead of being at a meeting. I usually dealt with the press immediately unless I had to do some digging to get back to them.
Attend meetings by phone if possible. You can always put the phone on mute and get your real work done, or surf the web or watch TV, which is usually just as productive. It’s easier to go to the bathroom, which brings me to…
Go to the bathroom. Offer to get a water to others when you go, then take as much time reading the sports page in the stall as you can. You are just as productive as listening to someone prattle on about their project.
Send your meeting information in by proxy. See above where someone is willing to talk. Give them your results or input so you don’t have to be there.
I realize that some meetings are necessary, so I understand that it’s the only way to get some things done. For the other majority of the time, see above.
The best meeting is a hall meeting. You run into the person you need help from and in 5 minutes, you’ve explained your need, what they can do and your time frame for doing it. Problem solved.
I also recommend having meetings with introverts and/or men. They don’t like to talk much (most of them) and want to get it over as quickly as you do. Attire requirements are less of a priority as is small talk.
Here is the net net, don’t go to a meeting if you don’t have to, get out early if at all possible and above all, don’t speak unless you have no option. Consider it a victory if you don’t attend, or a minor victory if you have to attend but don’t come out with anyone else’s work. You are a complete failure if you open your mouth and double your workload on something that is not tangential to your job or career. Enjoy your job more by having the time to actually be productive.
Hat tip to Curmudgeon, a blog that I like and follow
I like the Microsoft slant as humor.
Revelations of what happened leading up to and following this tragic day inform us of a backstory of the events that took place in Washington.
Let me go on record to state that I am patriotic and an avid admirer of what the men of our nation did to overcome the tyranny of the Japanese and Germans in WWII. If you click on the military category of my posts, you will see that when I get cut, I bleed red, white and blue. I believe in the greatness and considerable achievements of the United States as well as it being the largest contributor for the betterment of others by any country in history.
However, as an amateur historian and an observer of the (in)competency and motives of bureaucrats in Washington, what our government did leading up to and on that day shows the weaknesses of humans. It should be noted that the Americans and more especially the soldiers who fought the war are held as honorable in my opinion. This post is not written to tear down any of the bravery accomplished during the war. They fought valiantly and protected freedom with the Allies.
This event brought together the country so that good overcame evil and I have the utmost respect for what was accomplished in that war.
Much of this was inspired by “History Honors Pearl Harbor” on the History Channel as well as other documented sources.
A historical documentation and the actual speech can be found here.
Incompetency
America was woefully unable to protect itself by December 6, 1941. It is not unlike today, December 7, 2016, as our current military has been decimated, or the decay of the military before the 9/11 Islamic terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center Towers by the administration in charge during the decade of the 1990’s .
On the day of the attack, Roosevelt was viewed by his son as frozen at times because of the thought of what it would do to his legacy. Just like the 42nd and 44th president, their legacy was more important than the nation. The worst attack on American soil would be under his watch and he would be unprepared to deal with it. Fortunately, by 8 am on 12/9/41, brave young men around the country were lined up at the draft offices, but it would take the monumental effort of the country to overcome the government’s lack of responsibility to have a force that could protect our borders.
Next was the communications between Pearl Harbor and Washington. Roosevelt couldn’t get information about what was happening. Granted, the communications infrastructure was not what it is today, but there weren’t even secure lines or even direct lines to Washington. The Naval commander in Hawaii who tried to communicate information to the Chief Naval officer Admiral Stark at the War Department couldn’t give specifics as he wasn’t sure if the Japanese were listening in.
Further, the American leadership greatly underestimated the mental acuity of the Japanese thinking that they weren’t technologically capable of such an attack. It was speculated that the Germans had given them assistance. Hitler later admitted he had no idea that the Japanese were planning to, or had attacked Pearl Harbor despite what was taught at Faber College.
Douglas MacArthur couldn’t be reached in the Philippines for most of the day. General Marshal of the Army tried for the better part of the day to warn him of the happenings in Hawaii and to prepare for a similar attack. Washington wasn’t sure of where he even was or if the Japanese had already attacked. MacArthur boasted that he had special insight into the oriental mind. When he finally was reached, his response was that he was on full alert and that “We are ready, we have our tails in the air”. History documents that the Japanese attacked and drove him out of the Philipines shortly thereafter as MacArthur did virtually nothing and lost the islands in an embarrassing defeat. He was woefully unprepared, but his ego wouldn’t let him admit it.
Finally, the government couldn’t spend more than $750 on an automobile so they couldn’t get a bullet proof car for the President to be transported from the White House to the Capitol to give the speech. The Treasury Department had confiscated Al Capone’s car earlier so that one was used instead as they couldn’t be bothered to have proper protection for the leader of the free world. That would haunt Washington as recently as November 22, 1963.
Roughly 6 hours after the attack, FDR approved Executive Order 9066 which imprisoned 92,000 Japanese to internment camps for no reason other than their might be a fifth column attack within. It was supposed to be limited in scope to arrest any spies but morphed into what was one of the lowest points of FDR’s term of leadership. Little to no evidence is ever recorded that there was any treason on their part and no one was convicted of espionage or disloyalty.
They were deemed guilty rather than innocent in one of the greatest acts of prejudice by an administration.
MORE INCOMPETENCE AND DID WASHINGTON KNOW ABOUT THE ATTACK BEFOREHAND?
As I’ve stated, I’m not a conspiracy theorist, I am for facts. FDR ordered an investigation headed by Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts of the attack 18 days after the attack. Some interesting things were revealed. You can read further about it in the book A Matter of Honor, Betrayal, Blame and a Family’s Quest for Justice.
Admiral Kimmel, head of the Navy in the Pacific had asked Chief of Naval Operations Harold Stark six months before the attack to keep him apprised of latest intelligence regarding what the Japanese were up to. Washington knew that Pearl Harbor was vulnerable to attack as early as November 1940.
Stark held back the information that aerial torpedos capable of being deployed in waters shallower than at Pearl were being used, despite Stark reassuring Kimmel that the water in the harbor was too shallow for a torpedo attack. How this wasn’t an act of treason is curious.
The FBI had intercepted information that the Japanese had made inquiries as to the depth at Pearl and whether anti-torpedo nets had been deployed there, but again Kimmel was never informed. Not sharing this with the command was grossly incompetent or an act of political chess.
Code-breaker Lawrence Safford visited Kimmel after he had resigned. He then told Kimmel about project Magic that broke coded Japanese diplomatic messages. Washington failed to inform Kimmel what they knew prior to the attack. It reveals the Japanese had spies informing the Imperial Forces where the exact location of the ships anchored as recently as 3 months before the attack. The code breakers who discovered this in Magic was only shared by as few as 10 men who couldn’t or wouldn’t tell anyone else. It was a power play by political operatives in Washington instead of military strategists who would have warned the fleet in Oahu and had the capability to defend against a surprise attack.
A message to the Japanese embassy was decoded instructing them to move to negotiations that had to be completed by 11/5/41, or things will happen automatically beyond that.
The Japanese fleet set sail on November 25th. There was no turning back at this point.
FDR was aware that the Japanese were going to break off negotiations and 10 days prior to the attack, Admiral Stark issued a warning that there could be an attack, unfortunately not mentioning or notifying the Hawaiian Islands that they were a possible target.
Three hours prior to the attack, Stark received a message that indicated what was about to happen but failed to notify Kimmel. By the time the message was placed into Kimmel’s hands, it was 8 hours after the attack and was not marked priority.
The intelligence was available, but Washington failed to connect the dots.
I hope that the administration which has meandered it’s way around the safety of our country hasn’t set the table for a repeat by those who have lost their respect for our capability to defend ourselves.
SEX
Missy LaHand, FDR’s assistant for 21 years contacted him on December 7th. She was closer to the president than Eleanor during that time, some speculate in many ways other than a secretary. With everything that was going on, the last thing he needed was to hear from a woman he’d had a relationship with. Eleanor allegedly pushed for a divorce after discovering hat FDR had an affair with her social secretary, so the last thing he wanted to do was push the envelope unnecessarily by contacting her. With the decisions that would change the world in front of him, all he needed was additional drama from his wife and another woman. He decided not to return her call from Warm Springs where she was recovering and it devastated her so greatly that she attempted suicide shortly thereafter. Presidents have had trouble keeping their pants zipped.
As a side note, but belonging in the sex category, Edward R. Murrow interviewed FDR that night. Not that it has anything to affect the situation, Murrow carried on a wartime affair with Churchill’s daughter-in-law Pamela Digby Churchill when he was a reporter in London. He had a close relationship with the Leaders of the Free World and an even closer relationship with some of their relatives.
DRUGS
Roosevelt had a chronic sinus condition from which he suffered most of his life. Shortly after the attack, he had a headache and was congested, so he was wheeled into the office of his physician, Dr. Ross Macintyre where he was treated with cocaine. It can be argued that it may have affected his decision-making that day. Since it was legal, it wasn’t an issue. Drugs used to be a political show stopper until Obama, who admitted he snorted it got elected.
ROCK AND ROLL
Fortunately, the attack woke up the nation and kick-started the industrial might the US. Some of the greatest human, scientific and technological achievements happened during the war.
Most important though was the lesson on how wars should be fought and won, something that has been lost on the leadership today. You fight to win and settle only for unconditional surrender. At that point, you set the terms of how the relationship will proceed. Germany and Japan have become industrial and world leaders, built up by the USA after the war unlike Vietnam and the middle east where our troops were strangled by congress rather than let soldiers fight the war.
So this one has been around, but funny is funny, plus my dad was an engineer.
The following is a question given on a Thermodynamics exam: Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)? Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:
First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let’s look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle’s Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added. This gives two possibilities:
So which is it? If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, “It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,” and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct—leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting “Oh my God.”
The student received an A+.
I have always been warned of the great wealth transfer from the middle and lower class to the wealthiest. I first thought it would be through the devaluation, then revaluation of gold, but I didn’t realize that it was engineered through Washington programs, financial crisis, stock compensation and accounting tricks.
I have been reading and found this. Attribution is below and comments should consider this if you get upset, especially if you lose your shirt. Here are some excerpts:
“Corporate earnings reports for the fourth quarter are pretty much in the books. The deception, falsification, accounting manipulation, and propaganda utilized by mega-corporations and their compliant corporate media mouthpieces has been outrageously blatant. It reeks of desperation as the Wall Street shysters attempt to extract the last dollar from their muppet clients before this house of cards collapses.”
“The previous all-time high in stock buybacks occurred in 2008 at the previous peak. That brilliant strategy led to 50% shareholder losses in a matter of months. No Board of Directors fired any CEO for these disastrous strategic blunders. These cowardly ego maniacs didn’t buy back any stock in 2009 and 2010 when they could have made a killing with valuations at decade lows. After the stock market recovered by 100%, these stooges then began borrowing and buying. It has now reached another all-time high crescendo.
Dividends and stock buybacks in 2015 topped $1 trillion for the first time according to S&P Capital IQ Global Markets Intelligence. As CEOs have borrowed billions to buyback their inflated overvalued stock, they have put the long-term sustainability of their firms at extreme risk.”
“The 2008 Wall Street created financial crisis will look like a walk in the park compared to what’s coming down the pike now. We now have a bond bubble, stock bubble, housing bubble, commercial real estate bubble and central banker confidence bubble all poised to pop simultaneously. The negative interest rate and banning of cash schemes will be dead on arrival, driving a stake into the heart of the Fed vampire.”
“
Even the billionaire oligarch crony capitalist Warren Buffett addressed this despicably flagrant flaunting of basic accounting principles to mislead shareholders in his annual letter last week:
It has become common for managers to tell their owners to ignore certain expense items that are all too real. “Stock-based compensation” is the most egregious example. The very name says it all: “compensation.” If compensation isn’t an expense, what is it? And, if real and recurring expenses don’t belong in the calculation of earnings, where in the world do they belong?
Wall Street analysts often play their part in this charade, too, parroting the phony, compensation-ignoring “earnings” figures fed them by managements. Maybe the offending analysts don’t know any better. Or maybe they fear losing “access” to management. Or maybe they are cynical, telling themselves that since everyone else is playing the game, why shouldn’t they go along with it. Whatever their reasoning, these analysts are guilty of propagating misleading numbers that can deceive investors…. When CEOs or investment bankers tout pre-depreciation figures such as EBITDA as a valuation guide, watch their noses lengthen while they speak.
Buffett’s words are borne out in the chart below. Based on fake reported earnings per share, the profits of the S&P 500 mega-corporations were essentially flat between 2014 and 2015. Using real GAAP results, earnings per share plunged by 12.7%, the largest decline since the memorable year of 2008. Despite persistent inquiry it is virtually impossible for a Wall Street outsider to gain access to the actual GAAP net income numbers for all S&P 500 companies. With almost $500 billion of shares bought back in 2015, the true decline in earnings is closer to 15%.”
I do not support any politician in my blog. I’m generally not happy with any of the current crop. One is called out in the following paragraph that causes problems with Wall Street….
“The establishment is aghast that Donald Trump is storming towards the presidency. They are blind to the fact their unconcealed felonious actions rise to the level of treason in the eyes of average hard working Americans. The fabric of this country is being torn asunder by a contemptible class of corporate fascists, ego maniacal bankers, shadowy billionaires, and media titans. They have reaped billions of profits since 2009 as the Fed and politicians in D.C. rolled out “solutions” designed to enrich them. They are confident their failures will be shifted to the American people again. The American people may have a different opinion this time. Pitchforks and torches are being readied.”
I found this article from The Burning Platform which was entitled the Great Corporate Earnings Fraud.
This is the Background for my Facebook page, the reason I thought this article was so interesting. Perhaps you will also. Even the person some regard as the smartest surely forgot some things, especially on his desk.
Even the smartest people out there sometimes forget some of those obvious concepts:
1. Not feeling ready can be a good thing
Opportunities rarely come when we are 100% ready to seize them. They are more likely to knock on your door when you feel insecure with your preparation, knowledge and skills. But that doesn’t mean you should be ignoring them until you feel ready. Most of our lifetime opportunities force us to grow both emotionally and intellectually. They push us to give the best of ourselves, even if that means getting out of our comfort zones. But sacrificing our comfort can give us the chance for personal growth. If you want to change your life for the better, you should open yourself to the opportunities that arise, even if you don’t feel 100% ready.
2. Success and failure go hand in hand
Often times people tend to misinterpret the meaning of the word “failure”. Why are we so afraid of failure? It is just as natural as succeeding. Failure doesn’t mean not succeeding. It is actually a part of the circle of success. And success itself shouldn’t be measured by the achievement of a particular goal. Success is a state of being and therefore everyone can feel successful.
3. Action is the key for all success
We often hear that knowledge is power. But it only is power if you use it. Knowing how to do something and actually doing it are two completely different things. It doesn’t matter if ,for example, you read books and articles on fighting procrastination, and take no particular action to overcome that problem. Knowledge and intelligence are useless without action.
4. Even mistakes mean progress
If you look back in your life, maybe you will realize that the mistakes you have done in the past have taught you valuable lessons. So why should we be scared of making mistakes, if they help us grow stronger and wiser? Every mistake you make on the way to a particular goal brings you one step closer to achieving it. It is highly possible that the mistake you will regret the most in your life is not taking action because of the fear of making mistakes. This way you will always be wondering what could have happened, if you hadn’t been so scared. And most importantly- you wouldn’t have made any progress. So don’t be afraid of feeling uncertain about something- give it a try and see what happens.
5. Making decisions is impeded when there are too many options
We live in times when there are so many opportunities for us to choose from when it comes to determining our career and life paths. But when we have so many choices before us, we can often times get confused and indecisive. Business and marketing studies prove that when a consumer has more product choices, he’s predisposed to buy less. If you think about it, choosing one product out of three product choices feels much easier than choosing one out of three hundred. Most people will give up easily, if the buying decision process is tough.
6. Success doesn’t necessarily mean happiness
Many people believe that they can only be happy if they accomplish a particular goal. In my opinion, we can choose to be happy every day, no matter where on the path to our goals we are at the moment. “The monk who sold his Ferrari” by Robin Sharma is one of the most inspiring books I have ever read. One of the main ideas shared by the author is that you don’t have to wait to accomplish your dreams to be happy. The main character was one of the most successful layers in the country but even though he had everything he ever wanted, he wasn’t a happy person. The most important thing is to cherish every moment of every day and to be thankful for who you are and what you have now.
7. You can be the best at something even if you don’t like doing it
Some people say that in order to be good at doing something, you should love doing this thing. In my opinion, this isn’t necessarily true. If a person devotes their time and effort to learn a particular skill, they can become excellent at it. How they feel about the activity doesn’t determine their success in it.
8. What we see in others exists in us
When we have a problem with someone, this can actually help us learn more about ourselves. It can help us learn why we see that problem in the other person, and the reason can be that we hold it inside of us, too, and seeing it exposed before us can be frustrating. But acknowledging that what we see in others is a reflection of ourselves, can help us overcome our unsolved issues.
Hat tip to Intelligence.com
I read this article and could hardly believe it. It was me. I’ll editorialize between the lines based on past and current experiences, but people should realize that people are different and here is one group that is virtually unnoticed but should be understood.
The link is now broken, but here is the annotated article:
Introverts catch a lot of shit for being introverted. The whole world seems
so enamored by extroverts – the people we know who just want
to be around people all the time. While we introverts might
not want that, it doesn’t mean we’re depressed or
suicidal or anything wacky like that. There are
some things you should know about us.
1. Small talk sucks.
We’re just not very good at it. We’re typically the big-thinking types.
We like big ideas and theories. Small talk is uncomfortable.
We don’t care about the weather or how
your cat has been doing.
It is very annoying because it mostly is useless to us.
If you need to share so badly,
check with an extrovert who can’t wait to share back.
You just won’t get good
feedback from us.
2. Being alone is fine.
Seriously, we’re doing okay, even if we hole up in our houses for a while.
We don’t need other people for stimulation. We find that ourselves.
We’d almost always rather be alone. We don’t want to be hermits,
but we are good at keeping ourselves busy and this is
our comfort zone for life.
We don’t have to be with a crowd to do something,
although we might come
along once in a while.
3. We aren’t rude or uptight.
We might seem like that at first, but get to know us. We’re still a fun bunch
of friends, we just don’t always acclimate to unfamiliar settings and people
so quickly.
Mostly because you are loud and want to be the center of attention,
something we can’t relate to. When we find out who you really are
behind the facade, it’s easy to get to know us, unless you are phony.
4. Sometimes, we swing both ways.
We might be introverts, but sometimes we are just so the life of the
party. We do this willingly when we’re up to it, but we can’t always
keep that kind of energy going. If we throw a party, great! But give
us some time to recover.
Recover is the key word. We can be with or in a crowd, but afterwords,
we need time alone.
5. We have friends. And they like us! Probably.
People hear the word ‘introvert’ and think of the goth kid sitting alone
at the food court. That’s a whole different thing entirely. We love having
friends, and our friends love having us! We put in a conscious effort for
people we think are worth it.
We see through those who are not worth it and move on as those who
have a constant self centered need for attention aren’t real people,
and likely are far more insecure than we are.
6. When with the right people, we feel safe.
Having the right people in our lives is amazing. we really give our
best selves to the best people. We shine in the right company.
But sometimes it takes a while to find those people.
7. We like to write things out.
Writing is easier than talking for us sometimes. Email is the best
because it helps us get the thoughts out of our heads without
being interrupted. Thinking about giving us a call? Try a text or email instead.
8. We’re super productive.
Sometimes at least. Usually in our alone time, we’re able to really
rock and roll on projects that we need to finish. The solitude helps us,
as we tend to be a bit more distractible than most.
Especially when you constantly talk about nothing just to talk. At work,
the people who have to comment on everything are the worst as
it usually isn’t productive. See small talk.
9. If we don’t like you, you won’t know it.
It’s the truth of the matter. We hate conflict. So even if we don’t like you,
we’ll still be nice. It’s a lot easier than being real with you. Especially if
your feelings are inconsequential enough that confronting you on your
bullshit isn’t even worth the time. Sorry. Well, not sorry.
And we move along without you as you just aren’t worth it.
10. Networking events suck.
Seriously. Is there a mailing list we need to opt out of? There are few
things more uncomfortable than a networking party. Except maybe a
dentist’s networking party that we’ve just been accidentally invited to.
Yes, so why do extroverts keep trying to drag us into this nightmare?
11. We don’t like crowds.
Though I find that after a few beers, I can tolerate it. Introverts tend to
get overstimulated easily, so big crowds are tough to deal with.
It’s just not worth it. Those who have MOP (miss out phobia)
have to be with the crowd, not us. See number 2.
12. Sorry, we probably weren’t listening to your story.
We care deeply about our friends, but people outside of that
circle will have a tough time maintaining our attention. It’s not
that we have ADD or anything like that, we just don’t really
care about you. On the plus side, we won’t judge you, so feel
free to tell us all the fucked up things you said to your ex.
People will tell me anything and everything because
I won’t repeat it. But usually won’t remember it either.
13. Don’t make a fuss out of our birthdays.
For the longest time, I had a great deal of difficulty
understanding why I hated my birthday so much.
Everyone I ever knew would come out and party
with me! But then I realized: that’s the problem!
We don’t need to make a fuss out of our birthdays,
so please don’t do it to us.
Or any holiday for that matter. It’s just another day.
14. We don’t want to make a fuss out of your birthday.
We can quietly honor the annual birthday, right?
It’s your day. You have everyone else making a big deal about it.
Let them.
15. If we’ve chosen to be friends with you, appreciate it.
We value our alone time. If we see you often, it means that we
really love you. Just don’t get too bummed out when we
don’t hang for a week at a time sometimes.
We’ll likely be the most reliable friend you have, the one
you can call on when your loud friends let you down.
But visitors are like fish, they smell after 3 days.
Hat tip to Higher Perspective.
What they might not tell you but you need to know is that they are good for your business.
In a WSJ article today entitled, “Men and Women at Work: Unhappy, But Productive“, I couldn’t help but recall some observations I’ve made over the years at multiple companies in many situations. If you are the PC police, save your hostilities as most of this is common sense.
The article states this:
When women and men work together on teams, the results are good for business—but they don’t enjoy it much.
That, at least, is the experience of employees in one company, a large US professional services firm studied by economists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and George Washington University.
Researchers looked at eight years of the firm’s revenue data and employee surveys, measuring satisfaction, cooperation, morale and attitudes toward diversity. That included data from offices or teams that were entirely male or entirely female, along with data from teams that were more evenly mixed.
On surveys, individual employees reported higher levels of job satisfaction when they were on teams that were mainly staffed with people of their own gender. Those on more diverse teams reported lower levels of happiness, trust and cooperation–consider this Journal essay on what men don’t know about women at work – although revenue figures showed they were more productive and better performing—by a lot.
“People are more comfortable around people who are like them,” says study co-author Sara Fisher Ellison, of MIT.
It may be that members of homogenous groups “socialize more and work less,” Ellison notes. Mixed groups may lack social capital, but varied perspectives and skills may help a unit perform better. The researchers posit that shifting an all-female or all-male team to a coed one would increase revenues by 41%.
Also, researchers found that workers seemed to appreciate the idea of a diverse workplace more than they liked diversity in practice. According to employee surveys, workers gave gender and racial diversity high marks for boosting morale, trust and employee satisfaction, but those who actually worked on diverse teams tended to report lower levels of those traits.
My take so far…..
This prompted some thoughts that many have made about the differences between men and women. It’s likely that women have kept men from wiping each other off the planet in the adult version of kill the man with the ball, or who wants to be king. Conversely, men have killed each other over a woman (OK, women have killed over men also to a lesser degree) but that isn’t the same as competition in the workplace.
The sexes still are created differently. Little boys can make a gun out of sticks and play war. A majority of younger girls have a greater preference to play with dolls. Not long after, more boys begin in sports, even if on the street level. This activity encourages them to play your position as a team to win the game. While an increasing number of girls are playing sports, those that do appear to decline in numbers when social engagements take priority. It’s been observed that women enjoy shopping far more than men, but there is no winning the game in dolls or shopping. There certainly are a great number of outstanding female athletes, but the trends and volume of numbers still appear to favor men. Men on the other hand generally fail at these more social activities which women exceed at. It manifests itself in social behavior later in life where women can tend to be far more social than men.
This has to do with corporate behavior. Men get a rush out of hitting the walk off home run, catching or throwing the winning touchdown, scoring the winning goal or getting the biggest hit in the game. Delivering the crushing hit isn’t as big of a priority to most women. The workplace is a place of competition, even in a teamwork situation. You work together to kill the competition for market share. There traditionally has been a disproportionate number of women in the marketing and communications disciplines which by nature are more social. While there is an increasing number of female executives, one still notices that the skill of hitting the walk off is a learned practice, not ingrained and salivated for by testosterone driven executives.
Having observed these early differences, the article goes on to state the following:
There is a “mismatch between the kind of workplace people think they would like and the actual workplace that makes them happier,” says Ellison, and that may suggest employers could do more to help workers embrace differing backgrounds and viewpoints.
The researchers only studied one firm, Ellison cautions, so the results don’t necessarily translate to other companies. Other studies have found similar results — a positive relationship between gender diversity and firm performance, and higher satisfaction and trust among groups composed of similar people. What’s unusual about this study is that the researchers found both effects in the same firm.
The paper, Diversity, Social Goods Provision, and Performance in the Firm, recently published in the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, is by Ellison and Wallace P. Mullin, an economist at George Washington University.
THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN AROUND EACH OTHER
Men act differently with each other when women aren’t around as I’ve been assured that women also do. We punch (physically or verbally), snap each other with towels and so forth. Women tend to act more grown up around each other, except that they can be harder on each other, especially behind other women’s backs. Men will hand your a$$ to you right to your face.
SEXUAL TENSION
There is another issue I’ve observed, sexual tension. Both sexes are genetically encoded to reproduce. This behavior requires some level of courtship ranging from drunken hookups to abstinence until marriage, but it exists. When you put men and women together, generally something is going to go on. I have yet to see an office where it hasn’t happened. When you stick opposite sexes together, or worse on extended business trips, guess what goes down? This almost always gets in the way in the form of nepotism while it’s going on, to retribution afterwords. The army saying is don’t s–t in your own foxhole.
PUSHING IT TOO FAR
Why the PC police are forcing the military to make the sexes cooperate in tight spaces like a submarine where you are guaranteed deserted island behavior is beyond me. The recent incident where men have filmed women in the shower on a sub is no surprise. That is asking for something to happen. You can only push the bubble so far before it breaks. This is quarters that are just too close. Someone is going to hop into the sack.
I also get diversity and have been through hours of training. It’s the same boring training year after year on what you can and can’t do and how to act so that the company doesn’t get sued or blame you for the easy way out. I’m for hiring the most talented and best candidate for a position rather than a quota based system. It can result in distorted statistics that the racial and feminist overlords use against companies, but the idea is to create the optimal team be the most competitive and win. Sometimes that creates teams of men and women, sometimes it’s dominated by more of one sex than the other. When it’s time for battle though, you put your best team on the field, and that is determined by meritocracy.
So do men and women like working together? For the most part to a person will say they do. Behind the others backs or in the back of their mind, the differences are there and likely go unspoken or not thought of until the instinct to crush the opponent is instinctual or learned. You can point the gun, but can you pull the trigger.
CRYING
I saw an article on LinkedIn about women crying more than men. You can read the article here and draw your own conclusion, but it appears that there are clear differences between the two sexes emotionally.
And…..women tell me the difference between women and men is women have 2000 web pages open at once and work them all. Men have one page open, but know every inch of it.
So in conclusion, no.
with.
friends. If they’re OK, you’re it.
nobody appreciates how difficult it was.
you left them to where you can’t find them.
BARK!!
while you’re gone. (Have you noticed that your toothbrush tastes a little
like cat butt?)
who’s walk is this anyway?
carpet?
haven’t quite mastered that handshake thing yet.
you’re just jealous.
your stuff up when you’re not home.
behind schedule that puts me?
freak out every time we go back.
moment for the top of the food chain!
Why snot is green or yellow, or other color. Click to read more.
Mucus is clear when you’re healthy and have no serious invaders. However, when bacteria or viruses attack, it will turn yellow or green due to the influx of iron-containing enzymes including myeloperoxidases, other oxidases and peroxidases. These enzymes are used by white blood cells, namely polymorphonuclear granulocytes, to help ingest and deactivate bacteria through an oxidative process. The combination of dead white blood cells, used up enzymes and eaten bacteria, all of which still contain a fair amount of iron, results in the green or yellow color.
Notably, the longer snot stays in your sinuses, the greener it will get.
Is eating boogers healthy for you? Click to read.
That said, while it may seem gross to those of us who’ve never tried (or don’t remember- nearly all children do this at one point or another), according to the sparse few studies that have been conducted on booger eaters, the vast number of people who eat their nasal mucus find it palatable, which probably isn’t a surprise to anyone as if they didn’t, they’d likely just stop. As SidneyTarachow in a 1966 report oncoprophagia (the compulsive eating bodily secretions) noted, “persons do eat nasal debris, and find it tasty, too!”
So to sum up, at least to date, there is no scientific proof that ingesting snot by passing it through your mouth is beneficial. That said, it is plausible that the snot we do all ingest all the time is benefiting us in the way snot-eating proponents suggest. It’s just that we don’t need to put it into our mouths to see the benefit, if such a benefit does exist as hypothesized.
In the end, though, as long as you’re careful, picking and eating is not generally going to hurt you, and many find it tasty… so, if that’s your thing, bon appétit!
Why is poop brown? Click to read more.
Poop is brown due to bile from your gall bladder being metabolized by the bacteria in your intestines. This results in a byproduct called stercobilin, which, in turn, makes poop look brown-ish.
Without this stercobilin, your poop would typically look grey-ish/white. Because of this, a sure sign you are having problems with bile production, such as a blocked bile duct by a gall stone or something more serious like pancreatic cancer, is if you notice your poop is this white/grey-ish color.
In the end *pun intended*, brown poop is a pretty good sign you are a relatively healthy individual. Some other common poop colors that generally aren’t a good sign of health are as follows:
Bonus Facts:
There of course are many links in these pages that lead to other gross stuff. Enjoy.
On the anniversary of one of the most historic battles and largest amphibious landing, here is a round up of coverage and events taking place.
I’ll be adding links throughout the day. If you have a suggestion, please leave a comment and I’ll add it.
Remembrances of the men who were there
The War that had to be won to make D-Day a success
D-Day photo’s still haunting after the invasion
WSJ – D-Day Veterans Gather to remember
D-Day Memorial Anniversary Events
WWII Vets Travel To Normandy to Remember
BBC – Staged Landing and Remembrances Event
D-Day Historic Battle Re-created
The Darkroom, pictures and video’s of D-Day
Blackfive – The President’s Prayer, Eisenhower
Blackfive – Courage beyond measure
France will never forget what it owes these soldiers
What does D-Day Stand for and other facts?
The eyes of the world were upon us on the longest day
One of the finest speeches ever delivered at Pointe-du-hoc
93 year old re-creates parachute jump over Normandy
89 year old veteran sneaks out of nursing home to attend ceremony
WSJ – The debt owed to the hero’s of D-Day
This is not only very inspiring, it is some of the best advice on the Interweb. For those in a good way, it will make you better, for those in a bad way it will show you how to begin to pick yourself up. If you are young, it is a good lesson in how to live your life.
AP Photo/The University of Texas at Austin, Marsha Miller
UT alum Adm. William H. McRaven gives students the “hook ’em horns” at the university’s commencement last week.
U.S. Navy admiral and University of Texas, Austin, alumnus William H. McRaven returned to his alma mater last week to give seniors 10 lessons from basic SEAL training when he spoke at the school’s commencement.
McRaven, the commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command who organized the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, stressed the importance of making your bed every morning, taking on obstacles headfirst, and realizing that it’s OK to be a “sugar cookie.”
All of his lessons were supported by personal stories from McRaven’s many years as a Navy SEAL.
“While these lessons were learned during my time in the military, I can assure you that it matters not whether you ever served a day in uniform,” McRaven told students. “It matters not your gender, your ethnic or religious background, your orientation, or your social status.”
We remember those who served for our country, sometimes fighting for the freedom of other countries. Most of all, we honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Never forget, Freedom is not Free.
Memorial Day is a day of remembrance of those who have died serving our country.
Memorial Day was a response to the unprecedented carnage of the Civil War, in which some 620,000 soldiers on both sides died.
From the practice of decorating graves with flowers, wreaths and flags, the holiday was long known as Decoration Day. The name Memorial Day goes back to 1882, but the older name didn’t disappear until after World War II. Federal law declared “Memorial Day” the official name in 1967.
4. The playing of ‘Taps’
The 24-note bugle call, is played at all military funerals and memorial services.
It is customary on Memorial Day to fly the flag at half staff until noon, and then raise it to the top of the staff until sunset.
These are the two most popular items people use to remember soldiers.
Memorial Day is observed on the last Monday of May.
America’s Top 10 Deadliest Wars.
From Blackfive: The Gates of Heaven
What is Memorial Day really about? While we are busy gearing up for the weekend, I thought I should post this annual reminder about the holiday. It may surprise some of you.
If you are relatively new to Blackfive, you should read this story about a Memorial Day eleven years ago – Mathew Schram’s Memorial Day. And, unfortunately, we’ve posted many memorials to our Fallen Americans.
The words to “Taps” are:
Day Is Done,
Gone the Sun,
From the Earth,
From the Hill,
From the Sky,
All Is Well,
Safely Rest,
God Is NighWhen Taps is played at dusk, it has a completely different meaning than when Taps is played during the day. No soldier really wants to hear it played during daylight. For when the bugle plays Taps in the daylight…that means a soldier has fallen…There is a belief among some that Taps is the clarion call to open the gates of heaven for the fallen warrior and letting them know to “Safely Rest”…
Of course, Memorial Day is about remembering the sacrifices that our military men and women have made over the last 237 years. We are still a young nation, but one that has made many sacrifices to remain free. We should also take time to remember the families who have lost loved ones.
We have focused on just a few of the fallen over the last few years. I’ve lost good friends during the War on Terror. And I write about the others to ensure that we don’t forget their sacrifices – I do that for me as much as for anybody.
Click on the link to read the entire blog post.
AOMDA Honors War Vets Buried Overseas
There will be many Memorial Day observances here in the U.S. this weekend, but loved ones of service members buried abroad can rest assured their veterans will not be forgotten.
The American Overseas Memorial Day Association (AOMDA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to honoring the memory of those who gave their lives in World Wars I and II, whose final resting places are in American military cemeteries or separate graves all over Europe and even Africa…….
Memorial Day, the day to honor those who gave their lives for the freedom we all enjoy. We must protect our country so they did not die in vain.
While he was not an American, he was a great leader that sums it up…
You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life. —Winston Churchill
Once again, a smattering from many on this subject, but I can vouch for many of these techniques.
Some obvious examples.
But there are other aspects of it.
If you have learned to play the piano, you will be able to learn touch typing easier. This is because learning touch typing requires a rhythm and hand-and-eye motor skills.
If you have learnt to draw well you will generally be more observant.
You can use Venn diagrams to see what skills have in common.
Let’s imagine you want to learn three different subjects of:
Touch Typing
Piano
French
Also assume you were a beginner in each, and had only an hour a day to learn.
You can now use your practice hour in the following way.
This is only an indication of how skills can be transferred. We do it all the time in lesser ways, but it can be worked out systematically.
In my own case I once worked as a sailor.
I transferred that skill to helping run a diving boat. I was able to get free diving lessons for doing this.
Once I had learned to dive, I took up underwater photography. I now used my diving skills to get photos.
Once I got photos I sent them to magazines, so used my photo skills to get into journalism.
Once I got into journalism I wrote travel articles about diving.
I then expanded my journalistic skills to other subjects.
In most cases I simply learned enough to do the job required, so I was never particularly good at any of them, but good enough to achieve my purpose.
From an outside view I appeared to be a quick learner with many skills, whereas I was a normal learner with adequate skills applied in a systematic way.
The first one is pretty straightforward. Repeatedly think about something and the neurons related to that something will grow dendrites and make associations with other neurons, making it easier for us to remember and recall that something, when needed. We all know how to learn or memorize by repetition.
The second is the more complicated one. Our brains store information by context and association based on existing mental models (AKA schema). If we want to learn new information successfully we need to either find an existing mental model that will associate with the new information or we need to build a new mental model in which the new information will fit.
The quick learner determines the analogous existing mental model or realizes when they don’t have an existing acceptable mental model and they back-off and build a new mental model before trying to absorb the concept that is new. Building new mental models can be done by outlining or mind-mapping. Start with the central new concept and branch off to the key features of that concept. Keep branching off until you reach a point where you have existing knowledge that can connect to the new knowledge.
Here is a crude example. Let’s assume we wanted to learn how to play chess:
By making the association between the shape of the Bishop piece and a picture of a bishop’s hat we will have a neural association that will make it easy for us to recognize which piece is the Bishop.
Using images wherever practical is a benefit, because our brains are better at remembering images than words.
ir own stupidity.Related to this perhaps is not learning to lose gracefully.
And care more about being perceived as smart rather than doubling down and becoming smarter through failure.
They value intelligence over kindness.
Assuming other people think the same way about things as themselves. Also, assuming people act according to rational cost/benefit analysis of outcomes instead of according to their “gut”, habits or emotions.Also, conflating education (college degrees) for intelligence. This can lead them to pay too much attention to people with the right Ivy League credentials and not realize that it is often people who are “working in the trenches” who know more about what is going on.
A study of successful con-men will show that they choose smart people to con.This is because smart people think they are smart in all things as against just their area of expertise.Smart people are commonly successful from a young age so do not have to experience the problems of surviving on a daily basis. They are not forced to work for people they don’t like or do jobs they hate.They do not have to live without hope, or accept insults and attitudes of others who denigrate them.In all, they become divorced from the realities of life. They mix with others of their kind, and this reinforces their belief that they are smarter than those of lower social rank.They indulge in conspicuous consumption to keep up with their peers. They develop a lifestyle that assumes they will always have the means to live that way.They are easily conned because con-men flatter them on how smart they are.
The smart people who end up in jail are rarely short of money, they do what they do because they think they can outsmart others.
How we love to see pride come before a fall.
They are the fodder of movie makers and writers.
Wow, there are so many. Here are but a few of my favorite stupid things smart people tend to do:
Here is the opening ofSlavojZizek’s magnum opus, Less than Nothing. He is a self-described idiot, imbecile, and neurotic. Others call him the most important philosopher alive:
There are two opposed types of stupidity. The first is the (occasionally) hyper-intelligent subject who just doesn’t “get it,” who understands a situation logically, but simply misses its hidden contextual rules. For example, when I first visited New York, a waiter at a café asked me: “How was your day?” Mistaking the phrase for a genuine question, I answered him truthfully (“ I am dead tired, jet-lagged, stressed out …”), and he looked at me as if I were a complete idiot … and he was right: this kind of stupidity is precisely that of an idiot. Alan Turing was an exemplary idiot: a man of extraordinary intelligence, but a proto-psychotic unable to process implicit contextual rules. In literature, one cannot avoid recalling Jaroslav Hašek’s good soldier Švejk, who, when he saw soldiers shooting from their trenches at the enemy soldiers, ran into no-man’s land and started to shout: “Stop shooting, there are people on the other side!” The arch-model of this idiocy is, however, the naïve child from Andersen’s tale who publicly exclaims that the emperor is naked— thereby missing the point that, as Alphonse Allais put it, we are all naked beneath our clothes.
I originally named this blog Delusions of Adequacy after a political campaign that described themselves as not having delusions of grandeur. I have decided (for now) to write about people, places and things that are delusional as a category. I borrowed the idea from F1Rejects, although my writings will not be about rejects, just those who don’t realize that they fall short in others eyes.
So when do you have only delusions of adequacy?
LAME DUCKS
I read this story in the WSJ about those who were retiring/resigning and were they lame ducks. Having witnessed it throughout my career in business and socially on a constant basis, I realized that the minute you have announced your intention to move on the perception of reality is that you are a lame duck. Additionally, when you are not effective in others eyes, again you are a lame duck or just perhaps lame.
The article states:
Steve Ballmer above.
Steve Ballmer tried hard to show he was no lame duck after announcing last summer that he would step down as Microsoft Corp.’s MSFT -0.59% chief executive within a year.
“If you are a lame duck, your company is not moving forward,” he said in a March 17 interview. “You don’t want to get into an inaction period.”
Amid a spate of executive departures announced many months in advance, top bosses at big companies are figuring out how to stay in charge during their long goodbyes. These lengthy lead times give boards extra time to find replacements, but they also create uncertainty within a company as workers wonder who is actually in charge and would-be successors publicly jockey for attention.
Regardless of what he says, people are sucking up to the new leader and don’t care nearly as much about Steve the minute he said he’s leaving. Folks I know at Microsoft couldn’t wait for him to go, not to mention a good portion of the tech industry.
NOT EVEN THE PRESIDENT IS EXEMPT
Except for the liberal portion of the Democrat party, people are backing away from Obama. Those running for election, most notably Kay Hagen and Hillary Clinton who can’t get far enough away from him to get elected.
As far as getting any legislation he wants passed, the opposition controls only 1/2 of 1/3rd of the power yet he can’t get anything accomplished since his re-election. Most presidents are lame ducks only after an election that he doesn’t win or can’t run for, but he was labeled a lame duck almost as soon as the 2012 election was complete.
Leaders around the world, most notably Iran President Rohani and Vladimir Putin aren’t showing any respect with nuclear proliferation and the Crimea respectively. Even smaller countries like Belgium are making fun of him. Putin has a 35 point advantage in approval and he is a criminal.
Remember the red line in Syria? He refused to back it up. Now leaders and terrorist factions know he is all talk. That is an example of lame duck actions. It also could be interpreted as all talk no action, but that is a road I don’t want to go down in this post. Let the reader decide for themselves.
CONCLUSION
As stated by many, perception is reality. When there is any doubt that you are a lame duck, you are. It undermines your ability to lead and be respected. Sometimes you announce that you are leaving, sometimes it happens because you are ineffective. Either way, it is real.
This plus the decline of morals have been the beginning of the end for Rome and all other great countries/societies/cultures in history.
Go ahead, make jokes….they are always funny about this.
Now, The 7 reasons farting is good for you.
For many years it was thought the moon did have something to do with the attraction of moths to light. The so-called light-compass theory held that moths used the moon as a navigational beacon. By keeping it at a constant angle to their direction of travel, they were supposedly able to fly in a straight line. The trouble (for the moths) came when they made their sightings on a close-up light source like a candle flame. Instead of heading in a straight line, they flew around the flame in an ever-narrowing spiral until finally, phhhht, moth flambé.
But this theory had more holes in it than a moth-eaten sweater. The main problem was that moths simply don’t fly around lights in spirals. This was shown by an ingenious bug researcher named Henry Hsiao. He tethered moths to little styrofoam boats in a tiny artificial pond — I love guys like this — and tracked their flight as they headed toward a light source. He found the moths flew more or less straight at the light until they got up close, at which point they veered off and circled around it at a more or less constant distance. They seldom actually touched the light.
A number of other theories have also been discredited. Some claim that, to the moth, bright lights mean open space and open space means safety. But moths are nocturnal, and the night sky has no light sources anywhere near as bright as a porch light. Besides, why should the moth feel compelled to fly around the light in circles? Others argue that moths associate light with warmth. Yet ultraviolet lamps, which are much cooler than incandescent bulbs, attract more moths.
Henry Hsiao to the rescue. He said moths exhibit two kinds of behavior. When they’re distant from a light source (they’re drawn to light from as far as 200 feet away), they make a beeline straight toward it. Why, nobody knows. Maybe they’ve tumbled to the fact that lights mean people, and people mean: Wool sweaters! On an even more basic level, a light means: Other moths! Par-ty!
However, when the moths get close to the light, a different kind of behavior takes over. Instead of being attracted to the light, the moth is actually trying to avoid the light. When you think about it, this is only natural. To a creature of the night like a moth, daylight and by extension any bright light means danger. The moth doesn’t fly directly away from the light due to a peculiarity of vision called a Mach band. A Mach band, which apparently is common to all sighted creatures, is the region surrounding a bright light that seems darker than any other part of the sky.
Hsiao conjectured that the moth’s atom-sized brain figures the darkest part of the sky is safest. So it circles the light in the Mach band region, usually at a radius of about one foot, depending on the species. Eventually either its momentum carries it away or it finds a dark corner to hole up in.
In short, moths like some light but not too much — just like other creatures I could name. Nobody wants to get burned, naturally, but at some point in our lives, aren’t we all attracted to those bright porch lights?
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 35,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 13 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
In 2013, there were 51 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 460 posts. There were 24 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 1 MB. That’s about 2 pictures per month.
The busiest day of the year was February 25th with 1,894 views. The most popular post that day was
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 35,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 13 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
In 2013, there were 51 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 460 posts. There were 24 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 1 MB. That’s about 2 pictures per month.
The busiest day of the year was February 25th with 1,894 views. The most popular post that day was:
Views: 1,894?
Visitors: 1,545
Views per Visitor: 1.23
Next was WD-40 interesting facts
9/11 facts and pictures was next most popular
My all time number one hit though in any search engine, especially Google is:
My Dad and me have had tons of conversations growing up and even now when I go home, It is usually Friday evenings that we spend from late afternoons till late nights just talking about everything that comes to our mind. 🙂 It always brings us closer.
After my first break up, It was one of the best piece of advice he gave me. He said
“Never be naive enough to think love happens only once in your life. It will happen again, I cant say when, but it will. She was your first love and you wont have your first love with anyone again. but love, It will happen. You will find someone who is strong enough to stand up for you and along with you and not leave you in the first sign of hardship. It is her you should not miss in life”
There are a few other gems as well.
I just wish I can be as much a father to my son as my Dad was to me!
My dad had always been a big inspiration to me. I realized that after he passed away in an accident.
When he was in front of me, I never took him seriously, just like any other teenager. But I have always been thanking him for all the words of wisdom.
There is one story he always told me about his friend who cleared an IAS – Indian Administrative Services exam.
He used to write his dreams and stick in on the walls of his room his study table and even his wall ceiling above. Wherever he looked up in despair, he saw his DREAMS, which he always strived for till the end.
“Never ever keep your eye away from your goals. If you always keep getting distracted, imagine yourself winning the accolade which provided you the motivation to fight in the first place. Cover your surroundings with people who always bring you closer to your goals.”
“Always try to be the best of the lot. Even if you fail, you will always be motivated to do better the next time.”
“No matter what you do in life, always keep your character clean. People actually remember the good ones.”
“Never betray anyone in your life. You wont be able to live with the guilt inside.”
For the first 25 years of your life, you decide your habits. For the rest of your life, your habits decide you. Don’t ever give in to peer pressure.
My father is a recluse. Even though I lived at home after college, he and I rarely exchanged more than a few sentences. Last fall, I snagged my first full-time corporate job, earning nearly thrice as much as when I taught kids at a nonprofit. Life was beginning to stabilize, and I was happy to assist my parents, but I felt a deep sadness.
One night, my dad was asking me about work as usual. I gave him the customary, trite responses. Instead of walking off to his bedroom, he stood there, looking pensive, and broke the silence:
“Please, please, don’t chase after money. Don’t worry about supporting me and your mother. You come from a family that strives for higher ideals. I know you love painting, writing, music. You love learning. Pursue your passion – money is secondary. Your happiness is more important to me.”
If Wealth is lost nothing is lost, if health is lost something is lost and if character is lost everything is lost….
When I saw a man drawing a beautiful picture I said
– “I’d love to draw like that!”
– “Then what are you doing to accomplish that?” – my father replied
Every person you meet in life, even the last wretch on the street can teach you something.
Since then I don’t judge people but try to learn from them / their state.
My father was a Vietnam vet and a lifelong hunter. He was quiet and didn’t show much affection but he loved me and my siblings fully, in his own way. The advice he gave me that stuck with me the most was the following:
“Never bring a weapon to a fight that you aren’t prepared to use. It will be taken and used against you.”
I’m a nonviolent person but I see wisdom deep in that advice, even now as an adult. I interpret it as always be prepared to keep your word. If I threaten to turn the car around and you keep yelling, I will turn the car around.
“Trees with the deepest roots are those which have bore through the worst of storms.”
Sitting down in the soothing sun, one winter afternoon my dad explained to me the importance of going through hardships in life.
He showed to me that, the trees having the deepest of roots are the ones which have gone through the worst of storms, but those are the ones which persisted, survived and set in deeper.
The same is with us, hardships never hurt us they only make us stronger. And sometimes the best comes out of us when we are facing the worst situations.
A tender sapling pampered in an over protective environment would not last long even in a mild storm, but a young tree nurturing it self in the wild would grow stronger in those storms.
I am blessed to have a dad who knew when to let us fight our own battles, when to leave us to tough times and when to come to our aid.
My father was too busy as a New York area psychiatrist to ever do anything like come to a soccer game or track meet. So I didn’t expect to see him at all when I was at a major east coast track championship about to anchor the final 440 yards for a mile relay team. In fact, spectators were not allowed in at that meet held in the Armory (in upper Manhattan or the Bronx, I forget). I’d been doing high school sports for several years and it had never crossed his mind to watch me. And we lived out in the suburbs. This championship was held in the city.
But, as I was warming up for the race, he walked right up to me, having driven up from a meeting in midtown.
I was dumbfounded. I asked “How the heck were you even allowed in”?
He answered “Always act as if you own the place.” and then added “Now let’s see you own the track”.
I won that race for the team with something like a 58.5 second run (which could win back then). Then I remember throwing up in a bucket he found for me in anticipation of what I’d be like when I finished.
But it wasn’t my “motivated run” that I remember so much, nor the sentimental aspect of a dad remembering a track meet. That’s B movie material. That’s just a checkmark on the box that says “my dad did that too”.
It was the way he walked right in there and onto the track like he was Donald Trump…and then delivered that powerful advice.
“Charge what you’re worth.” This advice from my dad, who has been successfully self-employed my whole life, was hugely helpful when I struck out on my own as a freelancer.
“Sleep on it. You shouldn’t make life changing decisions when you are angry.”
I did. And I changed my mind.
Hire people who are smarter than you.
My dad was a special ed teacher for 30 years. He wanted his kids to have lots of wonderful experiences, but these things cost money and teachers don’t make a ton. He wanted to have a safe, reliable car to drive us places – so he became a real estate agent on the side so that he could write the car off as a business expense. Still not satisfied with the life he could provide for his family as a teacher/real estate agent, he once attended a seminar given by a lawyer about real estate law. As he sat in the class, he thought, “This is bulls**t. I can do this.” So he went to law school. At night. While teaching, and doing real estate and having three kids under 5 years old. He sometimes recounts this time in his life as “the best time ever” because he would come home and all three of us would want to crawl into his lap and have him read to us. He had real estate to sell and law to study, but he sat with us and read until we all fell asleep in his arms. Then he did his work. In the months leading up to the bar exam, his father got sick. He came to live with us and my parents tried their best to make him comfortable as he slowly faded away. The day before the bar exam, his father passed away.
Then he went in and took the exam he had been staying up nights studying for for months. And he failed. By one point.
He retook the test and passed. He got a job as a lawyer at a firm. But they expected him to bill 80 hour weeks (while still doing his teaching job) and he wasn’t getting to spend time with his family. So he quit the firm.
He started his own practice. Out of our house so he could be around. The practice did well and he continues it to this day. He loves to fight for the little guy. One of his proudest achievements is that because of what he did, we were all able to start our adult lives without any student debt.
Another important one was, “This too, shall pass.”
Sometimes, when life is particularly dark, a simple message can be the candle light that gets us through the storm. This one is worth holding on to.
UPDATE: Gun ownership (as of 6/16) is at an all time high, but homicide rate is at an all time low.
Let’s explain this to Bloomberg, Holder, Rahm Emmanuel, Feinstein, the Prez.
It’s about enforcing existing laws, controlling the bad guys with guns and not banning self-defense against oppressiveness like the government and the UN.
Added bonus! Here are the 8 myths by the gun control grabbers debunked like women who carry, more gun control stops violence, the USA should adopt the Australian model of gun control, the AR-15 is a Military grade assault rifle, anyone can buy a gun and other tripe.
I dedicate this one to idiots like Thomas Woosley (tjawoolsey@gmail.com) from the UK who needs more education but would rather use mendacious ad-hominem attacks on me instead of facts. He clearly doesn’t understand the USA and guns and must live under a rock to make false assumptions about gun control the wanker. He also doesn’t understand the north vs the south when trying to call people names. At least educate yourself before putting out to the world how stupid you are.
Bonus Bonus! Below are the myths of gun control including the gun show loophole, that there are more murders than suicides (not by a long shot) and others for idiots like Tom :
An elderly couple had just learned how to send text messages on their cell phones. The wife was a romantic type and the husband was more of a no-nonsense guy.
One afternoon the wife went out to meet a friend for coffee. She decided to send her husband a romantic text message and she wrote: “If you are sleeping, send me your dreams. If you are laughing, send me your smile. If you are eating, send me a bite. If you are drinking, send me a sip. If you are crying, send me your tears. I love you.”
The husband texted back to her: “I’m on the toilet. Please advise.”
I’ve decided to that hurrying through life just doesn’t have the payback it seems. The hustle and bustle of busy work, conference calls, email and social media keep some in a coffee enhanced mode glued to their screen and missing out on life just isn’t worth it. I got to thinking about this and decided to take some stress off of things and so whenever possible, I now work on my schedule. I’ll get around to what is needed to do, but I’m not going to let it keep me up at night. I’m not as worried that my comments on social media or political diatribes that upset me really don’t matter all that much. Once you get used to this, those pesky deadlines that are mostly self inflicted become less important. After all, most of the above described issues are nuisances at best.
WHERE DO WE GET THIS CULTURE?
For many, they just can’t wait to grow up fast (not me). Then can’t wait to get promoted (partly me), can’t wait for kids to grow (not me) and finally can’t wait to retire (me even thought I’m working again, but for myself). Work seems to exacerbate it the most with demands endless meetings (Meeting = a cul-de-sac where ideas get strangled and go to die), phone calls, emails, instant messages, texts and incessant demands from bosses (the less competent usually are the worst like 3 of my last 4 before I retired, on my terms).
My last couple of Boss’s in this picture
It turns out that this extra stress can lead to brain damage.
On the social side, I have a relative with MOP (miss out phobia) who is afraid something is going to happen without her. Her sibling just doesn’t give a rats rump what others think and has far less pressure socially, but missed out on some things in life. Striking a balance is good.
The Wall Street Journal recently published an article on when not to accept a promotion. There is a myriad of reasons given including family life, unrewarded extra burdens for the less than promised climb up the ladder. I personally turned down 2 promotions as they wanted me to move to New York where I would get a 30% higher cost of living, three times the responsibility that I wouldn’t be compensated for and a back stabbing culture of ladder climbers. My real reason for not doing it is that I didn’t want to raise a family there and wanted to bring them up in a better part of the country. After that, I was happy not to be there stressing out more. Since I’d already been on every rung of the ladder, the need to be at the top was less than taking care of my kids. I still managed to beat the system to be rewarded better than the curve and on my terms.
All of this adds up to the rat race. I’m not sure why I didn’t think about it before, but it’s a terrible way to go through life. Now that I think about it, I just knew that taking it easy and beating the system was the way to get ahead the right way, and not sell your soul in the process
MOUNTAIN TIME AND ISLAND TIME
Having spent time in both places, I noticed that the folks there just don’t seem to be in a rush. It truly is a New Yorker’s nightmare not to have someone jump when they say how high or to have to be busy in crisis mode over everything. Don’t get me wrong, I’m for punctuality, but these two groups set a different deadline (sometimes internally) and usually meet it. They don’t die early from stress usually.
I noticed it in the Caribbean islands first. They are not in a hurry for anything.
I then noticed it in the mountains that they get around to things..eventually. It was enough of a coincidence that I quickly connected the dots between the two.
I’M GETTING THINGS ACCOMPLISHED
To be fair, I’m busy and am accomplishing more under my own direction than when under the gun of a manager overlooking by shoulder. I’m the manager now. It’s just that I’m making the deadlines and am meeting all of them.
So I’m happier in life and wish that for others and hope that this 24/7/365 mentality doesn’t overtake your priorities. It’s corny, but true in this video below:
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all up hill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must—but don’t you quit. Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up, though the pace seems slow—
You might succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor’s cup,
And he learned too late, when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out—
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit—
It’s when things seem worst that you mustn’t quit.
I have half of my relatives on one side of the Civil War and half on the other. I have equal respect for both.
I searched my name and was surprised to find a ship with my name. It fell on the Confederate side of my family.
John Simonds, a 1024-ton side-wheel river steamer, was built at Freedom, Pennsylvania, in 1852. The Confederate Army used her as a support ship on the Mississippi River, where she was sunk off the fortress at Island Number Ten on 7 April 1862. It was sunk to prevent it from being used by the Union forces.
You should search yourself to see what is in your background.
Not all of these are my idea, rather they were gathered from a collection of many, many others as I’ve run across them. Nevertheless, they are interesting to ponder. I’m sure there a thousands more, but they are here for you to share:
Don’t stop learning: If you start coasting through life, you’re gonna lose. Always stretch your intellect.
Don’t always try to be original: Just tell the story or paint the canvas or whatever.
Focusing on “fairness” will lead to stagnation.
If you’re not failing, you’re doing it wrong. (It’s OK to make mistakes.)
Don’t try to reason with mindless, irrational people.
Don’t stress yourself out with news and “staying informed” too much.
Do something that’s not for money.
The key to happiness is BUILDING stuff, not GETTING stuff.
Time passes by a lot faster than you’d think. This effect accelerates with age.
Wealth is relatively unimportant.
Some things can’t be learned; they can only be experienced.
Figure out who you are, then ACCEPT that person, and then BE that person.
Don’t wait for permission. Give yourself the okay.
Don’t lie to yourself.
Forgive as much as possible. Grudges achieve little.
Be humble (especially to the “little” people).
You and you alone control how happy you allow yourself to be.
Find a mentor and BE a mentor.
Find what you like and let it kill you.
You don’t have to eat everything that’s on your plate.
You don’t have to pick up a phone that’s ringing.
Always take action on things. People regret inaction more than action.
The past is something you learn from. It is not something you live in.
Wealth is measured by your happiness and not by your financial statement.
Your mind decides what is hopeless. Your circumstances do not.
More things will happen to you that you have absolutely no control over than things you do have control over. You ALWAYS Have the power to choose how you will react.
Remember that their is a God and don’t stop seeking him.
Do one thing at a time. All that huzzah about multi-tasking? BS
Don’t compare yourself with others. It’s an inaccurate measuring stick. It is more accurate to compare from within. Compare yourself with yourself. How much progress have you made? How have you changed? What negative behavior have you stopped engaging in? That’s what matters.
Don’t believe what you think. Never make up stories in your head about what other people are thinking or why they do certain things. Your made-up stories are making you miserable. You’re often wrong about other people are thinking anyway (I cannot count the number of times I’ve overhead “I think x hates me.”) Quit it. Remember, people are by nature benevolent). The criticism you hear about you is only ever one person’s opinion about you. If it becomes a pattern, then you can re-evaluate course and improve. More power to you.
Learn to handle criticism. Don’t take it personally. Criticism of an idea or project is not criticism of the creator as a person. Everything can always be improved; criticism is the vehicle to allow you to improve. Only apply remedial measures if the criticism has value. ”Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” – Aristotle
Anniversary of D-Day b the Army
On D-Day, 6 June 1944, the Allied nations landed around 156,000 troops on the Normandy coastline. The American forces landed numbered 73,000: 23,250 on Utah Beach, 34,250 on Omaha Beach, and 15,500 airborne troops. In the British and Canadian sector, 83,115 troops were landed (61,715 of them British): 24,970 on Gold Beach, 21,400 on Juno Beach, 28,845 on Sword Beach, and 7900 airborne troops.
The War Years has created a range of D-Day commemorative designs and merchandise. Each of our designs incorporates QR barcodes that enables anyone with a smartphone or similar web-enabled mobile device to connect to our digital content, such as this Omaha Beach video. We also use 2D QR codes so that you can connect to our social media pages on Facebook and Twitter. Checkout our website: http://www.thewaryears.co.uk
The Assault on Omaha Beach
On D-Day, the untested 29th Infantry Division, joined by nine companies of U.S. Army Rangers redirected from Pointe du Hoc, were to assault the western half of the beach. The battle-hardened 1st Infantry Division was given the eastern half. The initial assault waves, consisting of tanks, infantry, and combat engineer forces, were carefully planned to reduce the coastal defences and allow the larger ships of the follow-up waves to land.
However, the assault on Omaha Beach did not go to plan. Almost all the specially designed amphibious DD tanks, that were to provide much needed covering fire for the infantry assault waves, sank off shore. Navigation problems caused the majority of landing craft to miss their targets throughout the day. The defences were unexpectedly strong, and the Germans inflicted heavy casualties on landing US troops. Under heavy fire, engineers struggled to clear beach obstacles; later landings bunched up around the few channels that were cleared.
Many troops were drowned or killed the moment they hit the beach. Many landing craft hit under water obstacles or were destroyed by mines. The surviving assault troops could not clear the heavily defended exits off the beach. This caused further problems and consequent delays for later landings.
Eventually small groups of Rangers and infantrymen scaled the heavily defended bluffs commanding the beach. Allied naval gunfire supported these improvised assaults. By day’s end, two small footholds had been won, which were subsequently exploited against weaker defences further inland, thus achieving the original D-Day objectives over the following days.
By The War Years Online http://www.zazzle.com/trumpess
Disclaimer: I think you should work hard and earn what you are paid. Nevertheless, I like to see the levity in things. I collected the lot of this on the internet.
George Costanza’s 10 Commandments For ‘Working Hard’
1 – Never walk without a document in your hands.
People with documents in their hands look like hardworking employees heading for important meetings. People with nothing in their hands look like they’re heading for the cafeteria. People with a newspaper in their hand look like they’re heading for the toilet. Above all, make sure you carry loads of stuff home with you at night, thus generating the false impression that you work longer hours than you do.
2 – Use computers to look busy.
Any time you use a computer, it looks like “work” to the casual observer. You can send and receive personal e-mail, chat, and generally have a blast without doing anything remotely related to work. These aren’t exactly the societal benefits that the proponents of the computer revolution would like to talk about but they’re not bad either. When you get caught by your boss — and you will get caught — your best defense is to claim you’re teaching yourself to use new software, thus saving valuable training dollars.
3 – Keep a messy desk.
Top management can get away with a clean desk. For the rest of us, it looks like we’re not working hard enough. Build huge piles of documents around your workspace. To the observer, last year’s work looks the same as today’s work; it’s volume that counts. Pile them high and wide. If you know somebody is coming to your cubicle, bury the document you’ll need halfway down in an existing stack and rummage for it when he/she arrives.
4 – Use voice mail.
Never answer your phone if you have voice mail. People don’t call you just because they want to give you something for nothing — they call because they want you to do work for them. That’s no way to live. Screen all your calls through voice mail. If somebody leaves a voice-mail message for you and it sounds like impending work, respond during lunch hour when you know they’re not there — it looks like you’re hardworking and conscientious even though you’re being a devious weasel.
5 – Look impatient & annoyed.
One should also always try to look impatient and annoyed to give your bosses the impression that you are always busy.
6 – Leave the office late.
Always leave the office late, especially when the boss is still around. You could read magazines and story books that you always wanted to read but have no time until late before leaving. Make sure you walk past the boss’ room on your way out. Send important e-mail at unearthly hours (e.g. 9:35 p.m., 7:05 a.m., etc.) and during public holidays.
7 – Use sighing for effect.
Sigh loudly when there are many people around, giving the impression that you are under extreme pressure.
8 – Opt for the stacking strategy.
It is not enough to pile lots of documents on the table. Put lots of books on the floor etc. (thick computer manuals are the best).
9 – Build your vocabulary.
Read up on some computer magazines and pick out all the jargon and new products. Use the phrases freely when in conversation with bosses. Remember; they don’t have to understand what you say, but you sure sound impressive.
10 – Don’t get caught.
MOST IMPORTANT: Don’t forward this page’s URL to your boss by mistake!
OTHER HELPFUL HINTS:
Never smile when I’m on phone talking with someone at work and it isn’t about business. If you smile, then people won’t think that it is work-related.
Hold a pen in your hand at all times in between keyboarding tasks… keep it in your hand even while on the phone… have your writing pad there as well and occasionally jot something down… you’ll look as if at all times contemplating something really intelligent and ready to write it down.
Keep a really complex spreadsheet or lengthy document file (or both) open on your desktop.
Use an extended monitor with your laptop.Run a regression suite or that long build on your monitor and continue to do whatever you are doing on your laptop.
Keep your office communicator/jabber connected even when you are home.Gives a notion to your colleagues that you are really working Do it even the weekends.
Send one email a day to the team.if you don’t have anything just make up.
File bugs in your own name and keep solving them.
Go into a technical discussion and just listen even if you are not remotely interested in it.
Keep your white board messed up. Change the text everyday.
Add your manager on Facebook and show no activity when you are working.
Updating any open ticket that is being monitored by a manager on an irregular but time bound basis. Ie they love updates so give them updates. The more the better.
Narrate facts at meetings that the manager can use with his own manager. Depending on the stupidity of your manager, you’ll have to coat these nuggets with verbal accordance – ie., you’ll have to spell out exactly what you mean and then obtusely mention that your manager’s manager might find that interesting.
Sick days – well everyone knows that.
Really understanding how your boss thinks.
If you can really figure out how your boss thinks, you can focus on those activities except at deadline time. Even if you don’t hit the deadline your boss is usually confused enough between what he sees and your results to give you 1 more chance till the next review. so this method gives you 2 review cycles worth of time to phone it in.
Use the Outlook email scheduler to send out emails at 4 am. Note: for important emails only, don’t send out “FYI”-type emails about interesting work articles you’ve come across, no one believes you’re browsing Bloomberg for work at 4 am.
And the most popular time strangler, go to a meeting. It’s a place where idea’s get stranded in a cul-de-sac.
UPDATE: Now there is an app for your computer from Corporate Avoidance to look busy!
I’ve just come upon some great sites that give unbelievable advice on how to maximize your appearance while minimizing your work. The first is Mastering the art of looking busy;
Looking busy has a bad rap. Sometimes you have to look busy so you can actually work on the things that matter. Here’s how to trick others into believing you’ve got a full plate so you’ll get the breathing room to actually get things done.
The point of looking busy is to remind your boss and your coworker that your time is valuable, that there are only so many things you can work on at once, and to give you some breathing room so you can actually think. In short, looking busy reminds everyone that you are busy, and gives you some freedom at the same time. Whether you use that freedom for valuable brainstorming or wasting time on your favorite tech blog is a choice we leave to you.
In this post, we’ll walk through some way to make sure everyone you talk to—whether it’s your boss or a distracting coworker—knows that you’re busy without you beating them over the head with the fact. Some of this is just good sense when it comes to productivity, but a few of these tips may seem counterproductive, but stick with us, we’ll explain why it all works. Let’s get started….
And this gem: How to do as little work as possible without getting fired;
Shaving five minutes from the start and end of your day can only do so much. If you really want to slack like a pro, you’re going to need to figure out how to appear occupied even if you’re not. First off, read this most illustrious guide from Lifehacker on how to look busy. It’s packed with helpful hints and tips on how to keep your boss satisfied with your workflow even when it’s more of a “work trickle”. That’s not to say you should be doing zero work—unless your endgame is unemployment—but this guide explains how to keep your boss from piling a bunch of busy work on your desk.
Once you’ve memorized the Lifehacker guide, you’re ready to take your slacking game to the next level. We’re not talking about standing around with a clipboard or staring intently at your computer screen whilst wearing headphones; those techniques are as played out as licking your palms to fake clammy hands and get out of school. No, what you need are a legion of unknowing allies, namely, your co-workers.
In short, be a Chatty Cathy. Roam the halls of your office building, stopping by any open door, break room, or cubicle stall to “synergize” and “collaborate” with any co-worker that is even halfway willing to listen. Be sure to ask about their kids, people love talking about their kids and will do so at length—allowing you to not only “build rapport” with your co-worker but also shave valuable hunks of time off your work day. Just keep them talking.
You can try a similar technique with your supervisor. At my old office, we’d routinely receive memos from management so laden with industry buzzwords and random acronyms that could only be deciphered with a Cracker Jack decoder ring. While some see this as just one more office-place hassle, you can easily spin it to your advantage. Take the memo to your supervisor and ask for a detailed explanation of what on earth it’s talking about. You’ll be shocked how often Hey, I don’t really understand how we’re supposed to collate the GRE reports with the ACTA file turns into a 30 minute discussion of proper sorting and stapling methodology.
The best part of this technique is that it doesn’t even need to be done face-to-face. With a little practice, you can turn any email chain into an eye-glazing morass of replies, corrections, and clarifications. Just be sure not to overdo it; you want to be just persistent enough to keep stringing people along, not so obtuse that they get fed up with your endless line of questioning.
And while we’re on the subject of emails, you should strive to craft the perfect email. Every. Single. Time. Don’t say in five words what can be said in five paragraphs. Don’t assume that your reader has a single clue about the topic at hand (even if they’re the ones that started the thread); explain every single detail in as much detail as possible. If it takes less than 45 minutes to craft a response to “where are you going for lunch today?” then you’re doing it wrong.
But sitting at your desk, staring at an email client can get lonely, so be sure to break up the monotony by taking as many meetings as possible. Even if you aren’t directly involved in the project, sit in on the meeting. Slink in just right and nobody will notice you’re there until the house lights come up. Just remember to have a feasible excuse for sitting in ready before-hand in case someone calls you on it.
It can be hard work not doing any, but with a little practice, you can get away with just about anything—or doing just about nothing—on any given weekday.
Disclaimer: I would like to say that I worked my hardest when left alone and be managed like an adult. My last good boss, Mike Bizovi did just that, and our team responded by delivering staggering results and awards. We were self motivated to work hard and the though of goofing off never entered my mind. Prior to that, Ray Gorman routinely tried to backstab me because I made too much money (read more than him). What was great was that his peer managers thought he was an asshole and he never could get me. I saved myself from being fired by not punching him at a conference years later, but it was tough.
The next boss was Amy Loomis, who quickly ruined both the morale of our team and lowered our results by meddling in our work by micro-managing the minutia to the point that we couldn’t be productive anymore. Even LinkedIn talks about how this can demoralize you and your productivity.. All of us were more professional than she was, and we responded to being treated like children rather than adults as you would expect. This post is a result of my thoughts about the dichotomy of the 2 managers and how the team reacted to their management styles. We never thought about this while working for Mike. You there have the example of a leader and a failure.
1. Where there’s a will, I want to be in it.
2. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it’s still on my list.
3. Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
4. If I agreed with you, we’d both be wrong.
5. We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.
6. War does not determine who is right – only who is left.
7. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit.. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
8. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.
9. I didn’t say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.
10. In filling out an application, where it says, ‘In case of emergency, Notify:’ I put ’911′
11. Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.
12. You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.
13. I used to be indecisive. Now I’m not so sure..
14. To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.
15. You’re never too old to learn something stupid.
16. I’m supposed to respect my elders, but its getting harder and harder for me to find one now.
I lost this post in the switch from Blogger to WordPress. I’m re-posting it with corrections to accurately represent the facts. I’m retired now and can tell the real story.
Intro:
It’s no secret that Software Group is doing well for IBM. Analysts should be particularly interested in how and what we are doing, now more than ever. (This part is true, they actually cared back then)
We hold a yearly analyst conference in November to discuss our issues and give the analysts who follow our business the chance to listen to our leaders and ask what they may.
Running the Event:
Each year, one (un)lucky soul gets to be the A/R liaison for this event for logistics with the strategy team. This year it is yours truly. I did it once before and it is time consuming and the details are overwhelming. It’s a job to add to your job. For the record, I’m honored to do it.
Annotation here. I wasn’t honored to do it because it sucked. They stick this lousy job on someone that they don’t think is busy enough. I’d pulled it off once in 2006 and that was a rousing success. They used this event to fire a colleague (Tom B.). When my manager Amy Loomis told me I was doing it, I said nothing in response for almost half a minute of awkward silence until she said she thought I’d be honored, why I wrote the above. I knew she had it out for me as I made more money for less responsibility than her. I knew it got to her like it did Ray Gorman, two of my worst managers at IBM.
They call it a stretch assignment, but it is a bullshit term for work that they dump on the back of some unlucky person that needs an employee screwing. There were more than 40 A/R reps to take turns at running this and I got stuck with it twice in three years.
It’s a time suck and a thankless job that I didn’t want to do. I did the best job I could to not get fired, but was stymied at many crossroads.
The first one I ran was under Dave Liddell, the best Director of Analyst Relations we ever had. He was reasonable and expected results. This one was under Sarita Torres and Amy, which made the job twice as hard. They couldn’t make decisions and were constantly interfering in the progress in the guise of helping out and giving guidance. Many times I had to not tell them what I was doing to be able to make progress to get the job done. At times it seemed they got in my way or didn’t let me do the job when appearance was at stake.
They clearly were favoring female employees as they put incompetent mangers in place who were a spanner in the works. I missed Dave and Mike Bizovi tremendously during this time suck.
At the end of the conference, it was a party for the retirement of Jerrilyn Glanville, a co-worker. I liked her and she was one of the more competent reps we had. They went on for half an hour at the end of the conference with one brief mention of me running it. It may sound like sour grapes, but that actually worked for me as I hated attention. I was glad they had the girl fest so I could catch a plane to get out of there as quickly as I could. I knew it was thankless if I pulled it off. The only real attention I would have gotten would have been if it screwed up.
I pulled it off flawlessly with maximum social media coverage never seen before at the time. None of them understood it and that got ignored. I was playing the game by a different set of rules. The analysts knew as I was the leading A/R blogger and social media expert in the group. The rest of the A/R team barely understood Twitter at that point.
I had to work around Christy Pappas also. She was a control freak who thought she helped run it when she mostly processed PO’s and got office supplies. She was more of a speed bump I had to avoid to get the job done.
So I made sure that it was run right, regardless of the managerial interference and attempted back stabbing that came with it from management.
After this, my desire to over perform, as I’d done for decades was sucked out of me. I saw how the sausage was made and it stunk. I was glad to get it over with and asked never to do it again. I retired early only 4 years later, something they couldn’t understand.
I’d been saving and paying off every debt so that I could call the shots on when I want to go. When most of them got canned a few years later, they all said they wished they could go out on their own terms like I did. They all were neck deep in debt and mortgages and couldn’t understand how I did it.
Back to the original post.
I’ve decided to blog about it as part of the Social Media outreach. There will be a second blog residing on My developerWorks (I”ll post the link in an additional blog) so that you can follow our progress and what tools we are going to use.
I’ve been working on it now for a few weeks, but we meet with the powers that be today which really kicks off the event in terms of work to do.
Request for Advice:
Since two way interaction is actual communication, I’m open for (reasonable) suggestions from the analysts who want to find out more and interact prior to the event. It will only make for a better conference.
We’ll have a closed portal only to those who are registered, so sorry competition, there are some issues off limits. We’ll provide tons of data and make the conference easier to attend and navigate than ever.
Wish us luck and don’t be afraid to send me suggestions. Jsimonds@us.ibm.com
More annotation: I put the request for advice to be able to show the girls in charge that I was working with the analysts. That way I could do what I wanted under the guise of Analyst input. It was the only way I could get things done when the girls started meddling in my work. I set the agenda and made the rules to get it done so they couldn’t screw me like they did Tom.
They don’t hold it anymore because it turned into a gabfest. The analysts cared less and less because it was a show rather than an information exchange. I think Covid finally killed it along with firing all the employees who didn’t work at the home office.
At the end of the day, I was smart enough to not let them screw me. I gave them a highly successful and well organized conference. All the time I knew I had to go through the motions, but also knew it was bullshit from start to finish.
I’ll state up front that Dave Barry should have written this, because I just can’t do it proper justice, but here goes.
I love going to the grocery store, not just because I get to buy stuff to eat, but it’s a people show extraordinaire. I pretty much hate shopping, it’s go get what I need and get out like most real guys. But the grocery store is different.
I first noticed that I liked going back when I lived in South Florida, where I spent most of my single years. People would get dolled up to go to the mall, out to dinner, the movies, anywhere. But ask them to go to the store and they’ll put anything on, anytime of day. I’ve seen some cuties that looked like death warmed over picking up something to eat. There was of course, some making the walk of shame picking up eats or coffee on the way home early in the morning.
Since it was South Florida, there were a few phenomenons. If you went to the store by the beach, people would shop in their bathing suits. Being a normal single male (walking hormone) at that time of my life, this made for quite a bit of entertainment. I’ll make only passing comments here about liking the frozen aisle.
The other phenomena there is that there were a lot of old retired cranky people, mostly moved down from New York which made for endless shopping entertainment. Where I lived in Delray Beach, they used to bus them in from the retirement villages, either Kings Point or Century Village, affectionally known as cemetery village. They’d hit the Publix en mass and raise the level of complaining to new highs. I varied between going to see this almost like going to a sporting event, and avoiding it because it could really grind on you. These folks could spend 30 minutes complaining to the manager about a 5 cent increase in the price of anything. If there was an advertised special, they moved faster to get there than the rest of the year, except maybe to the bathroom after prune breaks. Hitting each other with their shopping carts was hilarious until it happened to me. I politely informed the person that if they did it again, they’d wind up in the meat section.
You can tell pretty much the state of life they are in by what’s in their cart. The college kids usually had health food like cheez-its for breakfast, a frozen pizza and a case or two of beer, real cheap beer like old Milwaukee, Busch, Pabst or Schlitz when it was available. Young couples would have 40 cans of baby food and diapers. Middle age had progressively healthier food, the elderly’s had prune juice and polident.
The time of day that you shopped will vary the crowd also. The moms running households dominate the morning, Working moms and dads are on Saturday mornings. The folks picking up something for dinner after work are regulars from 5-7 PM. Anywhere from 10 PM on, especially are the partiers. Anyone after 10 in the twinkie aisle had the munchies.
Who don’t you want to see at the grocery store? Anyone you know usually, especially someone from work. Unless you’re already lunch buddies, the level of uncomfortableness increases dramatically with how far away they are from your cube. What’s really embarrassing is someone you know and forgot their name. People duck down the quickest escape route to avoid conversation like there was a nerve gas explosion for this one. I find it especially rewarding to see someone I know who looks like death warmed over at the store, but they spend extra time to be dolled up at work. I’ll always make it a point to say hello, even when I wouldn’t want to talk. One person whose name I’ll not mention does have her hair always perfect, I can’t figure this out. My son’s kindergarten teacher told us at orientation that seeing someone at the store was her least favorite place to see a parent as she would have to run down the kid’s behavior.
Back to South Florida, seeing someone you work with in a bathing suit at the store was like a touchdown and an extra point for me. Invariably, they acted like they were naked in public for which I got endless pleasure.
It’s a lot different now that I live in North Carolina and am married and running a household. It’s a contest to see if you can hit double or triple coupon day to see how much you can save. The old people are different here also. I heard the other day, “please get in front of me, you have a baby and I’m not in that big a hurry”.
Also, as I’ve mentioned, I have a dog, and we have to pick up the output when we take her for a walk. Only plastic (not paper) works for that. Since she goes for a walk about 20 times a day, we need a big supply of bags. So its always a struggle to get as many bags as possible for this while the store tries to cram every item you buy into as few as possible.
And about me, think I care what I look like? Think again. I’ll put on jeans and a hat and it’s off to funland, hunting for co-workers. Too bad we live inland now.
A question that has interested historians and researchers for decades is: why? Why did Japan launch an attack that, in hindsight at least, they clearly had no chance of winning? The obvious answer is that they thought they could, but military and naval strategists know the answer is not so simple.
Precisely because its resources were so depleted by the war with China, it is accepted wisdom that Japan was hoping to expand its territories in the Pacific. If these areas belonged to Japan, they would, almost by default, become customers for Japan’s industrial and resource sectors.
But the Japanese underestimated America’s resolve to defend itself, for however long, and by whatever means necessary. If Japan hoped that America might take a “c’est la vie” attitude to the prospect of losing a battle in the Philippines, it was sorely mistaken. Nor was America still weary from the First World War.
Japan also underestimated the extent of Americans’ outrage at the bombing in 1941. It fueled the nation’s desire to win at almost any cost. No democratic government on earth can move forward without the will of the people, and after Pearl Harbor, the American people’s will was ferocious.
Here is the text and a link to the speech that FDR made after the attack at Pearl Harbor.
I read the Biography of Admiral Yamamoto, the architect of the attack. He believed that the only way to defeat the United States of America was a surprise attack that would disable our military in the Pacific. He clearly stated that he feared that if the attack was not completely successful, it would awaken a sleeping giant that the Empire of Japan could not defeat in standard battle. It must haunt his legacy.
Tactically, the mistake was not destroying the aircraft carriers which were out at sea that day or his plan may have succeeded.
As it turned out, he was shot down only a few years later in a surprise attack by a squadron of P-38’s heading to an inspection in the Pacific.
Here is the Youtube speech by FDR
I find ironic the words of the second half of the speech, if applied to 9/11, would be appropriate. Also ironic is that Japan was extending its reach for economic resources.
The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its Government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in Oahu, the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to the Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. While this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or armed attack.
It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time, the Japanese Government had deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.
The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you, very many American lives were lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.
Yesterday the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Malaya.
Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.
Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam.
Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.
Last night Japanese forces attacked Wake Island.
This morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island.
Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.
As Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense.
But always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us.
No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.
I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again.
Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger.
With confidence in our armed forces-with the unbounded determination of our people-we will gain the inevitable triumph–so help us God.
I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, 7 December 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.
Here is the only color film of the event. Listen to how excited the Japanese are and their commitment to give everything, including lives to this war:
Update: I posted this in 2005. My daughters then bf got bent out of shape because I spoke the truth. He was going to write a rebuttal, but didn’t. This was before the Kardashian sex tape or their awful show that I never have watched. It turns out that this was right all along and he’s done a 180 now that he is in the working world. My sister has lost everything now, but due to financial mismanagement and the inability of her husband to keep a job, not due to natural disasters That is a different story.
I was going to call it the 2 faces of humanity, just thinking of what the folks in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are going through bringing out the good and bad in some, but it occurred to me that there are many flavors of this subject. But for this post, I’ll concentrate on the simple good and bad.
What is happening in those states is devastating. I can only mildly relate as we’ve had some bad hurricanes here (Fran comes to mind in NC where some are still recovering) and a recent ice storm where we were out of power for a week, but it is bad there. My sister lives near Lake Pontchartrain and has likely lost her house. Her family got out in time and are living with my parents right now, lucky them. It’s not the same for those who have lost lives, jobs, family and other things like heirlooms and photo’s which are forever gone.
These catastrophe’s bring out the good in some folks. Already there are local fisherman driving around in bass boats rescuing people from their houses. There are organizations which are gathering supplies, people lining up to donate time and money to help. I read this morning where you can donate like the Red Cross , Samaritans Purse, and other good groups who are sincere in helping out. FEMA is organizing for the biggest relief effort ever. For those that get my feed via RSS, I’ll be visiting del.ico.us today to add them to my list.
Then there is the other side. I’ve seen reports of looters, the construction scammers, insurance fraud and many others. This is also unfortunately something that raises it’s ugly head during these times. I hope that this is kept in check.
Then the way we can act hit me. Through the power of DVR (i was scanning and deleting shows), I happened to watch back to back the hurricane coverage then the reality show, “filthy rich cattle drive” where the spoiled brat kids of celebrity’s are “roughing” it on a cattle drive. This is like going to a zoo to watch animals. These kids are the most narcissistic people I’ve ever seen, worried about how they look, trying to get make up, dry cleaning and Fed Ex in the middle of nowhere and me, me, me. This was supposed to be about helping a charity. One of them of course was Kim Kardashian.
It’s just to ironic that these two faces of humanity are happening at the same time.
Natural disasters have been happening since the creation of the earth. There was the tsunami last year for example. Fortunately, people have stepped up and helped others through the course of history and I hope and pray it happens here.
A lesson that strikes me (besides the obvious of striving to be good) is to be prepared and to be able to take care of yourself in the many situations life will present to you. Acts of God like this (even for skeptics, this is the clause in your homeowners insurance) will continue, so dealing with it is inevitable. Being ready in anything is half the battle sometimes. Appreciate your family, friends and experiences in life. It’s times like this that remind you how important and fleeting they can be.
So it’s off to my now seemingly trivial day when compared to those now trying to put their lives back together.
Update on Sis: just heard from her and the house made it, but she won’t be able to go back for months. Thanks to those folks who sent regards.
Delusions of Adequacy 