Female-named hurricanes cause “significantly more deaths”
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Researchers analyzed over six decades of death rates from U.S. hurricanes and concluded that a severe hurricane with a female name is likely to have a death toll triple that of an equally severe hurricane with a male name.
Say, what?
No, it’s not gender bias … it’s a cognitive bias induced by “Incidental stimuli”.
Classical educators argued that these disciplines are the building blocks of reasoning, problem-solving and critical thinking.
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The courses that I teach contain a heavy dose of problem-solving skills.
Early on, I assert my belief that that problem-solving skills can be taught – and, more importantly, learned – and set about to prove the point.
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I’ve been doing some summer reading on the topic of reasoning & problem-solving and learned:
“For twenty-six hundred years many philosophers and educators have been confident that reasoning could be taught.”
Elizabeth Warren went on the warpath yesterday against Donald Trump …
“In a speech at the Center for Popular Democracy’s annual gala, the progressive stalwart took aim at Trump’s business record and populist rhetoric during a 10-minute invective.” CNN
Warren prompted pundits to elevate the prospects of a Clinton-Warren ticket.
Add some charisma and excitement to the ticket. Check!
Successful audition as an attack dog against the other party’s Presidential candidate. Check!
Lasso in some (most? all?) of Bernie’s supporters. Check!
Create a dramatic, historical all-female ticket. Check!
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All good reasons why to do it.
But, there are also reasons against Hillary picking Warren …
Adding visuals to menus (and reports) creates interest and boosts credibility.
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Studies have shown that adding icons and photos to restaurant menus increase sales up to 30% for the featured items.
The visuals draw attention to the items … if done well, they stimulate diners’ senses.
OK, we’ve all be menu-enticed … that’s not news.
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But, did you know that simply adding a visual – a graph or chart or formula — to a report can boost the credibility of a conclusion by 50% or more?
Connecting some research “dots” suggests that may be the case.
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A recent Bankrate.com survey says that 40% of respondents or their immediate family ran into a major unexpected expense last year.
That’s a problem since most Americans (63%) don’t have enough budget-cushion or savings to cover an unexpected $1,000 expense (think, medical bill, house or car repair).
According to the poll, only 37% said they would be able to take the money directly from savings; the rest said they would try to cut expenses (24%), use their credit cards (15%) or borrow money from friends & family (15%). About 1 in 10 had no idea what they’d do.
Predictably, those with higher incomes were most likely to say they would be able to tap savings for emergencies or divert some discretionary spending.
75% of people in households making less than $50,000 a year and 2/3s of those making between $50,000 and $100,000 would have difficulty coming up with $1,000 to cover an unexpected bill.
Even for the wealthiest 20% — households making more than $100,000 a year — more than 1 in 3 say they would have some difficulty coming up with $1,000. Source
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Obviously, the threat of a large, unexpected expense is emotionally daunting to most Americans.
“It definitely adds stress to everyday life. It hangs over you.”
To make matters worse, there is some evidence that the financial stress may impair “cognitive functioning” – that is, dent a person’s IQ.
Washington, D.C. rated as “most fit city” for 3rd year in a row.
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Every year, the American College of Sports Medicine and the Anthem Foundation rates the “fitness” of major metro areas based on a number of health behaviors and environmental factors such as access to parks, recreational facilities and walking trails.
According to this year’s report, Washington, D.C. topped the list again.
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What makes D.C. so fit?
• Lower (than target) percent currently smoking
• Lower death rate for cardiovascular disease
• Higher percent of city land area as parkland
• Higher percent bicycling or walking to work
• More dog parks per capita
• More park units per capita
• More recreation centers per capita
And, my favorite: More farmers’ markets per capita
Say, what?
D.C.’s score got a couple of dings including a biggie: Fewer golf courses per capita
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Which of the 50 biggest metro areas scored the worst?
When we’re buying something on Amazon, we all glance at the user ratings, right?
5-stars, it’s a keeper … 1 star it’s a bummer.
Real reviews from real users.
What could be more accurate?
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Some researchers tried to answer that question.
Since Consumer Reports has been in the quality testing business for decades with a reputation for rigor, objectivity and impartiality … So, to test the reliability of user ratings, the researchers took the Consumer Reports’ scores for 1,272 products and compared them to more than 300,000 Amazon ratings for the same items.
Their findings may surprise you …
In an AP interview, Trump said that he “always thought that it (meaning data analytics) was overrated” and, accordingly, he’ll spend limited money on data operations to identify and track potential voters and to model various turnout scenarios that could give him the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency.
He’s moving away from the model Obama used successfully in his 2008 and 2012 wins, and the one that likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is trying to replicate, including hiring many of the staff that worked for Obama in his “Victory Lab”.
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A data-light strategy may sound very old-school in the era of big data … especially coming from Trump …. but it reminded me of an opinion piece that Peggy Noonan wrote in the WSJ soon after Obama’s 2012 election win.
Noonan had a riff about predictive analytics that caught my eye.
It pointed out one of the downsides of predictive analytics … the craft of crunching big data bases to ID people, their behaviors and their hot buttons.
Here’s what Noonan had to say …
“A permanent job with good benefits is (now) beyond reach for most American workers … only federal judges and tenured professors are insulated from the forces of workforce transformation”
That’s according to the authors of the book Working Scared (Or Not at All): The Lost Decade, Great Recession, and Restoring the Shattered American Dream
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The book Working Scared is focused on the ways that the American workplace has changed in the past 50 or so years … and the implications on American workers (and non-workers).
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The central premise of the book is that globalization (out-sourcing & off-shoring); de-industrialization (towards more services and knowledge-based); technology-intensity (computers, internet, robots); and de-unionization have shattered the American Dream for tens of millions of working adults who are struggling or poor … “despite working hard and playing by the rules.”
More specifically …
After last week’s employment numbers, Administration reps emphasized that over 12 million jobs have been added … recovering the number of jobs lost, plus a few to spare.
Predictably, conservative pundits countered that that the “mix” of jobs has deteriorated … well-paying full-time jobs have been replaced with lower paying full-time jobs and involuntary part-time jobs … with many of the added jobs going to immigrants – some legal, some not.
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Coincidentally, I started reading a book titled Working Scared (Or Not at All) … about the plight of the American worker … both old-timers who worked hard and played by the rules and newbies who are graduating with high college debt and disappointing career prospects.
The authors cut to the chase by researching the core issue: have the workers who lost their jobs bounced back?
Well, not actually Dilbert … rather Dilbert’s author Scott Adams.
On his Dilbert blog, Adams took aim at the current Presidential campaign …
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First, Hillary’s constant refrain that we can’t have a loose cannon in the White House.
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Adam’s observation on “Dangerous Trump”:
Trump’s opponents have started making the case that he is “a loose cannon” … a “dangerous man”
You know who likes dangerous men?
Answer: Everyone.
Seal Team Six is dangerous. George Washington was dangerous. Abraham Lincoln was dangerous. Women like dangerous men. Men want to be dangerous men.
“Dangerous” borders on being a compliment. When you need to thwart some enemies – such as a useless Congress, or ISIS – you want to send in your most dangerous fighter.
From other commentators:
(1) “Every other country with nukes has a wacko with his finger on the button. Why shouldn’t the U.S. — just to keep things even”.
(2) “Girls like bad boys, right? Maybe this will fix Trump’s polling with women.”
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Here are a couple more of Adam’s quips …
Busted: WaPo sleuths drop Trump bombshell
… outs him for posing as “John Miller”
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Last week, the Jeff Bezos owned Washington Post announced that it was dedicating a team of 20 “journalists” to dig dirt on Donald Trump.
Already, the commitment to truth-and-justice has hit paydirt.
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What Bezos’ Ninja investigators found may – in the words of some mainstream media echoheads — “spell the end of the Trump Presidential run”.
Here’s the scoop …
Over 200 ultra-successful people, including 7 billionaires, 13 Olympians, and a host of accomplished entrepreneurs were asked a simple open-ended question:
“What is your number one secret to productivity?”
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So, what were their answers?
A loyal reader alerted me to an iconic mural that towers over the intersection of New York’s Houston and Mott Streets.
It’s a 50-foot-tall piece produced in tandem with the Guggenheim’s exhibition Peter Fischli and David Weiss: How to Work Better.
The simple, ten-point list is often prominent in artists’ studios and business offices “tacked up as a reminder of effective work patterns and collaboration.”
Even observed without the history of the mural, the piece speaks to the modern notion of always being busy, a reminder to slow down rather than rush through each subsequent task … and, oh yeah, to SMILE.
Source: ThisIs Collosal.com via RM
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Tommorrow: “More Rules for Working Smarter”
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Chick-fil-A opened it’s first NYC outlet a couple of weeks ago.
It didn’t take long for uber-liberal Mayor Bill de Blasio to tell residents to boycott the restaurant.
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What’s his beef? (<= pun intended)
No, it’s not because of unsavory chicken or excessive customer service or Sunday closures (though the latter hints at the “problem”).
It’s because the company’s deeply religious President is a fan of traditional family values.
How are New Yorkers responding to the Mayor’s urging?
You bet “Make America Great Again” is trademarked.
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And, no surprise, the trademark registration reads …
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OK, that’s to be expected.
But, here are a couple of wrinkles that may surprise you …
Everybody multitasks. Some more than others.
You know, simultaneously several things (like talking on the phone when cooking) … or, switching back-and-forth among tasks.
Hard core multitaskers swear that their modus operandi makes them more productive … that it gives them a competitive advantage.
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But, research suggests that while multitasking may help us feel productive, it may actually be paring our productivity.
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According to the Washington Post, a group called Common Sense Media did a study that takes aim at multitasking.
Michael Robb, the group’s director of research, concludes that multitasking should no longer be seen as “some desirable trait that makes you the best 21st-century worker.”
He says that multitasking is a problem in a couple of ways:
Constant reorientation (i.e. bouncing back-and-forth among tasks) causes cognitive fatigue.
Cognitive fatigue can decrease your ability to get things done well, and can actually slow the rate of work.
When you’re multitasking, you’re not you’re not fully encoding memories.
If you’re browsing on Facebook while someone is talking, you’re not fully embedding memories that you may need to retrieve later.
Heavy multitaskers have a hard time filtering out irrelevant information.
In other words, they subconsciously treat all information they came across with equal weight instead of allotting more attention to the most credible and important.
Bottom line: Don’t confuse activity with results.
Sometimes, it makes more sense to “focus & complete” than to just keep a bunch of plates spinning.
As a former boss repeatedly told me “I pay you for finished goods, not work-in-process.”
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Charles Murray, a political scientist and author observed – long before Campaign 2016 started – that there exists a new upper class that’s completely disconnected from the average American and American culture at large.
In his 2012 book Coming Apart, Murray presented a 25 question self-diagnostic to determine how connected or disconnected you are from average Americans … that is, whether or not you live in a bubble.
Now that Trump is presumptive, pundits are imagining his cabinet …
As usual, the HomaFiles was months ahead of the paid pundits.
Timing seems right for a flashback.
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December 10, 2015
Let’s build a cabinet
During this week’s GOP debate, the obvious became clear to me.
Like many (most?) people, I have trouble envisioning any of the candidates sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office (or standing at a podium in front of the desk).
But, there’s premium lemonade that can be squeezed from the cast of characters.
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Specifically, if these boys and girl can modify their behavior to swallow their egos and play nice-nice with one another, I think a powerful cabinet can be put together .
Here’s the team I’d put on the field …
My students are likely to cringe at this post which kinda legitimizes my teaching style.
Uh-oh …
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According to a recent WSJ article:
The latest findings in fields from music to math to medicine lead to a single, startling conclusion: It’s time to revive old-fashioned education.
Not just traditional but old-fashioned in the sense that so many of us knew as kids, with strict discipline and unyielding demands.
Why?
Because here’s the thing: It works.
Of course, that conclusion flies in the face of the kinder, gentler philosophy that has dominated American education over the past few decades.
The conventional wisdom holds that teachers are supposed to tease knowledge out of students, rather than pound it into their heads.
Projects and collaborative learning are applauded; traditional methods like lecturing and memorization — derided as “drill and kill” — are frowned upon, dismissed as a surefire way to suck young minds dry of creativity and motivation.
But the conventional wisdom is wrong.
And the following eight principles explain why …
I teach problem-solving in my courses and preach that intuition is a good thing – not flying by the seat of your pants — but rather, sub-consciously tapping into your cognitive storehouse of education, experiences and emotions.
The more you learn, the more you practice and the more you discipline yourself mentally … the better you get as a problem-solver.
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Digging deeper, I came across an interesting article in Inc., positing that intuition is evident in 4 distinct types of “thinking preferences” which are naturally intuitive in different ways…
Flashback to many years ago …
We drove around, spotted a “free puppies” sign … said “we’ll take that one” … guy hands us a puppy … dog & adopters lived happily ever after.
Fast forward to the process for our recent adoption of cute little Daisy…
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After 13 years, we had to say good-by to our family dog Skipper … though he’s irreplaceable, we decided to get a puppy.
Things have sure changed. Here are some highlights of what to expect if you plan to adopt a dog …
The Homa Files 