She looks very innocent ….
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But, Team Trump had to raise the controversial question…
Is Princess Elsa an anti-Semite?
July 10, 2016Is Hillary a woman of destiny?
July 9, 2016First, let’s establish a basic point:
The killing of 5 police officers in Dallas is a horrific tragedy to their families, to the city and to the country,
The massacre may go down as a defining moment in American history.
Time will tell/
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That said, can you imagine the likely bipolar reaction at Hillary’s campaign headquarters?
One one hand, I’m sure that they shared the heartfelt shock and grief that most Americans felt.
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On the other hand …
Can you imagine the sigh of relief when there was nary a word about the Comey hearings on the news yesterday?
Nothing yesterday … probably won’t be anything today or tomorrow or the next day or the day after that.
A tragedy of monumental proportions has shifted the spotlight off of Hillary at a very opportune time.
I’ll skip the obvious tasteless cliche and just say:
For better or worse, maybe Hillary is a woman of destiny.
Think about it …
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Comey’s Testimony: Cutting to the chase ….
July 8, 2016I watched the bulk of the Comey hearings yesterday.
First, I commend the Comey for showing up, for his 5-hour mental-physical stamina, for his recall of specifics and, with a couple of exceptions, his apparent forthrightness.
Second, too bad that Chaffetz and Gowdy couldn’t have all the GOP time for questions. They provided the most revealing moments.
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Specifically, here are my takeaways.
I was wrong, very wrong … but somebody had it right.
July 7, 2016A very loyal reader sent me an email reminding me of a post from last December when the GOP Presidential primary race was heating up.
My nomination for President … experience, integrity, leadership.
Who was my pick?
You guessed it: James Comey.
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Among Comey’s qualities that I lauded were:
· High Integrity: Consistently praised by both ends of the political spectrum — not for being bi-partisan, but for being non-partisan
· Apolitical: He’s clearly “in the game” for the right reasons – to serve the country and its people.
· Independent: Earned enough FU-money in his real world jobs that he can’t be bought or swayed.
I thought that I was on safe ground since I had even fact-checked with somebody very, very close to Comey who assured me that the Director was the real deal.
Ouch.
I got it wrong … but somebody had the guy pegged right all along.
Why did Comey choke on the biggest decision of his career?
July 6, 2016Short answer: He didn’t have the stones to make a historic decision.
Image from The Drudge Report
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A weird turn of events put Comey under a particularly bright spotlight.
Before the events of the past week, the way I expected things to work out:
- Comey reads the 1st 14 minutes of his his speech laying out the body of evidence, concluding with a recommendation to indict.
- AG Lynch immediately puts the kabosh on the recommendation, refusing to indict.
- Or, AG Lynch green lights an indictment and President Obama quickly steps in to pardon Hillary “for the good of the country”.
- Hillary continues her campaign to become the first woman president.
Comey would have drawn the correct legal opinion based on the evidence, but the course of history wouldn’t have changed.
But, things didn’t work out that way, and Comey found himself in a much brighter spotlight … and, when the story ends, it won’t be pretty for Comey
Comey folds!
July 5, 2016FBI Director Comey spent 14 minutes laying out the case against Hillary Clinton:
Extremely careless handling of classified material (a felony) that in high likelihood has fallen into the hands of sophisticated enemies of the state.
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Then, he spent less than 1 minute explaining that since there was no direct evidence of wrongful intent, the FBI is recommending that no criminal charges be brought against Clinton.
A total non sequitur.
The last honest man just lost his title.
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Next time you’re stopped for doing 70 in a 55, jest tell the cop that you didn’t intend to speed.
Surely, he’ll let you off since he would have no direct evidence of your intent to speed.
Let me know how it goes.
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P.S. We called this one … See our prior post AG Lynch: “Depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is …”
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Click for a transcript of Comey’s remearks
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AG Lynch: “Depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is …”
July 5, 2016A lesson in word parsification.
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OK, AG Lynch didn’t parse the word “is” … Bill Clinton did.
And, he didn’t parse it during his private plane chat with AG Loretta Lynch.
After all, she said that their conversation was “primarily about grandchildren and golf.”
Hmmm.
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Today’s lesson is on how to say nothing by parsing your words ….
Digital amnesia: Is Google dulling your memory?
July 1, 2016First, some background …
The tests I give my students always include some questions that can reasonably be tagged “memorization”.
Some students are repulsed by them them and shout the cultural refrain: “Don’t memorize anything that you can look up.”
The apparent thinking: You’ve only got a limited amount of space in your brain, so don’t clog it with an overload of information … only store the stuff you can’t look-up.
What’s wrong with that argument?
Health: Get skinny by sleeping more …
June 30, 2016The Daily Mail reports that scientists have discovered that sleep deprivation increases cravings for junk food:
- Sleep deprivation impairs activity in the brain’s frontal lobe
- The frontal lobe is the part of the brain responsible for complex decision making
- Lack of sleep increases activity in the centers that respond to rewards
- This means sleep deprived people are more likely to choose junk food
Here’s the skinny on the study…
How to think like a rich guy …
June 29, 2016Steve Siebold, author of “How Rich People Think,” spent nearly three decades interviewing millionaires around the world to find out what separates them from everyone else.
“It had little to do with money itself, he told Business Insider. It was about their mentality.”
Here are my favorites from his 21 Ways that Rich People Think Differently ….
So, who Herman van Rompuy?
June 28, 2016I wish all of the talking-head bloviators had been forced to answer the question (correctly) before being allowed to pontificate about Brexit over the weekend.
Of course, Herman van Rompuy is the President of the European Union.
Everybody knows that, right?
Not!
Nigel Farage – a Brit member of the European Parliament and leader of the Brexit campaign – made that point colorfully clear in a classic takedown on the floor of the EP.
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Among the caustic jabs that Farage landed …
Google: “What is the EU?”
June 27, 2016Amid the Brexit hysteria over the weekend, Google reported that – in Britain – the most googled questions were:
(1) How will Brexit effect me?”, and
(2) “What is the EU?”
Worldwide – and, probably among pontificating blowhard pundits — it was simply “What is the EU?”.
As a service to loyal readers, here are some key EU statistics.
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Some facts worth noting:
Total GDP for the 28 EU countries is only about 10% more than the U.S. GDP ($18.5 trillion to $16.8)
The Top 5 EU economies – Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain – account for more than 70% of the EU’s GDP.
Together,, the UK and Germany account for almost 40% of EU GDP
Specifically, the UK’s GDP is roughly 16% …. but, the UK only got 8% of the votes in the EP (European Parliament)
And, there’s more …
Brexit in 2 charts …
June 24, 2016For sure, yesterday’s vote in the UK to leave the EU was a jolt to the Establishment – the world financiers, political elites and open border aficionados.
Cutting to the chase, the vote of the people appears to have swung on one issue: immigration.
According to Bloomberg, immigration surpassed the economy as voters’ major concern.
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And, since immigration into the UK is now essentially regulated (or unregulated) by EU whims, 75% of voters with immigration concerns logically opted to to pull the “Leave” lever.
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My take: Some implications for the U.S. election…
Obviously, the Establishment lost … and immigration emerged as a determining issue.
Hmmm …
The world economy is likely to take a short-term hit …. with some derived damage to the already weakening US economy … during the run-up to the election.
Double hmmm.
Imagine: what if Donald J. stops saying dumb stuff …
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Odds: I bet you’re a Democrat …
June 23, 2016… if your parents were Democrats.
And, I bet if your parents were Republicans, then you’re a Republican.
According to Smithsonian.com …
“The party affiliation of someone’s parents can predict the child’s political leanings about around 70 percent of the time.”
That’s pretty good, but “new research suggests ideological differences between partisans may reflect distinct neural processes.”
More specifically, researchers say that they can predict who’s right and who’s left of center politically with 82.9 % accuracy.
Here’s the study and its implications …
High tuitions … and “Baumol’s Cost Disease”
June 22, 2016Previously, we posted What do high healthcare costs and high tuitions have in common?
A loyal reader reminded me of the connection between high tuitions and “Baumol’s cost disease”
To that point …
The NY Times ran a piece by Harvard Prof Greg Mankiew summarizing his views re: high and increasing college tuitions.
One of Mankiw’s identified causes is “Baumol’s Cost Disease”
Many years ago, the economist William Baumol noted that for many services — haircuts as well as string quartet performances — productivity barely advances over time.
Yet as overall productivity rises in the economy, wages increase, so the cost of producing these services increases as well.
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Education is a case in point …
IQ scores are rising … here’s why.
June 21, 2016Simple hypothesis: more folks are reading the Homa Files.
A more complex answer is offered by James Flynn is his book “Are We Getting Smarter? Rising IQ in the 21st Century”.
What’s his explanation?
Shocker: Women are brighter and more clever than men …
June 20, 2016According to UK’s Daily Mail …
Recent IQ research indicates that women are brighter than men … more clever … and better at multi-tasking.
Since IQ testing began a century ago, women have been as much as five points behind.
But that gap has been narrowing in recent years and this year women have moved ahead.
‘In the last 100 years the IQ scores of both men and women have risen but women’s have risen faster.’
Women are cleverer than men.
One indication: they’re better at multi-tasking.
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I’ve often said that the Lord shouldn’t have taken that 7th day off … she still had some work to do designing us guys.
Howard Stern’s rant … a turning point in the gun control debate?
June 17, 2016Let the sheep defend themselves from the wolves …
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Talk about contrasts.
Yesterday, President Obama gave an uninspiring blah-blah speech to Orlando survivors and their families.
His focus wasn’t on the terrorist threat or Islamic homophobia.
Nope, he flashed his favorite shiny object: gun control.
Suffice it to say that I was unconvinced by his rhetoric.
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In contrast, Howard Stern went off on gun control with a compelling riff that has started to go viral.
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Here’s the essence of Stern’s commentary …
Stop right there, professor … proof of citizenship, please !
June 16, 2016Unfortunately, this has become an annual event. A summer initiation of sorts.
Once again, I was detained for questioning by government officials.
This year was unusually unnerving.
No, it wasn’t by rogue TSA agents targeting an alleged conservative blogger.
Once again. I was suspected of crossing a border to illegally access government-provided services.
Here’s the story …
Yes, your (usually) mild-mannered man of the classroom … stood up on suspicion of unlawful conduct.
An intimidating officer of the state demanded to see a photo ID — proof of citizenship – and my car’s registration.
Really !
OK, it wasn’t the U.S.- Mexico border … it was the Maryland-Virginia border.
The services that I was allegedly attempting to use illegally: use of the “Anne Arundel County landfill and recycling center” (a.k.a. the local dump).
That’s right. In order to throw an old desk chair into the landfill dumpster, I had to show my driver’s license and to produce proof of Anne Arundel County, Maryland residency. Fortunately, I may be the only person in Maryland driving around with paid real estate tax bills in my glove compartment.
Think about it.
Maryland is a state that – for example – reportedly looks the other way when it comes to admitting illegal immigrants into public schools and allows them to pay in-state tuitions at colleges. No harm, no foul.
Photo ID to vote in Maryland?
No way !!!
Discriminatory.
But, the line gets drawn in the sand at the local dump.
I didn’t really mind showing my ID docs, but the situation certainly did make me scratch my head (again) …
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Flashback: Remember when Target caused a stir by ID’ing moms-to-be?
June 15, 2016Now, researchers are trolling your web searches to auto-detect diseases.
The Washington Post recently channeled a study done by Microsoft — published in the Journal of Oncology Practice …
The essence: Microsoft’s big data analysts ID’ed folks who were querying questions like “how to treat pancreatic cancer” — hypothesizing that they might have been diagnosed with the disease.
Then, the researchers backtracked thru the prior searches done by those folks and detected a pattern of precedent queries that revolved around symptoms, e.g. abdominal swelling.
Bottom line: the researchers were able to use the inferred pattern of symptoms to early-predict a disease diagnosis for a statistically significant number people who queried symptoms.
That’s potentially big news in disease diagnosis, though doctors caution that for many diseases, the onset of patient-queried symptoms may be too late-stage for effective treatment.
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The Microsoft query- disease analysis reminded me of how Target created some Big Data buzz for analyzing purchase patterns to ID moms-to-be.
Buy now (at list price) or you may regret it … say, what?
June 14, 2016There are two basic retailer pricing strategies:
· Everyday Low Prices. Think Walmart with relatively constant prices and few sales
· High-Low Prices. Think Kohl’s with very high “regular” prices and frequent deep discounts.
Which strategy works better?
What do high healthcare costs and high tuitions have in common?
June 13, 2016Let’s connect a couple of dots today …
A recent NY Times article explored “Why the Economic Payoff From Technology Is So Elusive”.
One example:
Look at this disconnect is in the doctor’s office.
Dr. Peter Sutherland, a family physician in Tennessee, made the shift to computerized patient records from paper in the last few years.
There are benefits to using electronic health records, Dr. Sutherland says, but grappling with the software and new reporting requirements has slowed him down.
Dr. Sutherland bemoans the countless data fields he must fill in to comply with government-mandated reporting rules…
He sees fewer patients, and his income has slipped.
The bottom line: over the years, due legal compliance and technology complexity, administrators (think: bureaucrats) have been added at a far faster rate than healthcare providers (think: doctors and nurses) …
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Hmmm.
Wonder why healthcare costs are so high …
What’s the link to college tuitions?
Newsflash: Virgin brides are less likely to get divorced … but, are an endangered species.
June 10, 2016Yep, that’s one conclusion reported in a recent Family Studies research brief.
Focusing on the most current data – the yellow line — only about 1 in 20 virgin brides end up getting divorced … rates are substantially higher for non-virgin brides.
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The interpretation of the rest of the data reported by Family Studies is downright wacky, so let’s dig a little deeper…
Are you a “producer” or a performer?
June 9, 2016Prior posts have channeled some work by PwC identifying traits that mark self-made billionaires.
Broadly speaking, the PwC study sorts business folks as “producers” or “performers”.
Producers are skilled at conceiving new ideas and bringing them to market.
Performers: They know how to optimize the known systems and products of an organization, and how to make the most of existing practices.
Which are you, a producer or a performer?
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Here’s a 9-question categorization quiz from Strategy + Business:
Click to take the producer-performer quiz
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S+B observes:
You might have to fill both roles at different times.
“After all, anyone who can launch a new product must have some ability as a performer. Similarly, most skilled performers also have some producer talent.”
But it’s rare for one person to excel as both a producer and a performer.
So if you’re aware of what you do best, you can more easily establish yourself in the most suitable environment, with the right complementary people, and map out your ideal role.
You’ll also know when to ask for help.
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How do self-made billionaires self-make their billions?
June 8, 2016Yesterday, we posted that there are about 1,800 billionaires in the world and that about 2/3s of them are self-made … not just born lucky.
According to a PwC study, the self-made billionaires usually started at a big company, some were fired from the big companies, and most became serial entrepreneurs.
Usually they got on the map with their first or second venture, but built their wealth through a series of successive (and highly successful) ventures.
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The PwC study also identified 5 traits that were relatively common across the self-made billionaires.
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Broadly speaking, PwC says concludes that most business managers are “performers” – linear logicians who are good at execution .
The self-made billionaires are “producers” who look at the world from different angles — allowing them to spot opportunities and to turn good ideas into great businesses.
More specifically, the PxC team concluded that “most self-made billionaires – the “producers” –practice five habits of mind — ways of thinking and acting that generate uncommonly effective ideas and approaches to leadership.”
The 5 traits:
1. Ideas: Empathetic Imagination
The producers typically worked in their field long enough to have an awareness of critical trends, empathy for customers, and knowledge of existing practices. Then, they added a healthy dose of imagination to change the game.
2. Time: Patient Urgency
“The creation of massive value in an industry does not happen overnight. The billion-dollar idea often comes after years, even decades, of commitment to a market space. Skilled producers learn to be patient. They know how to wait for the right idea at the right time. But once they hit on a compelling idea, they have a bias toward action that compels them to take urgent steps.
3. Action: Inventive Execution
Many executives take product design and go-to-market strategies as givens. “The business model, pricing, functions, sales pitch, and deal structure are treated as inherited, predefined by the models, costs, and pricing that already exist in the company and industry.“
Producers redesign opportunities everywhere – both in the product – broadly defined – and the implementation.
4. Risk: Relative, Not Absolute
“Producers, in general, are distinguished not by the level of risk they take, but by their attitude about risk. Most people measure risk in absolute terms: Will this business succeed or fail? Producers view risk in relative terms: Which option presents the greatest opportunity? If the opportunity is right in a risky venture, they’ll look for ways to mitigate risk”
5. Leadership: Teaming with Performers
“The idea of the solo genius is so pervasive in the way people talk about and think about extraordinary success that it obscures the real story of how good ideas become great businesses. Self-made billionaires are not alone. Producers have the ability to see beyond the parameters of what exists today to imagine new opportunities. Performers, in turn, have the ability to optimize and achieve within known parameters. Value creation requires both.”
Producers surround themselves with producers …
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Bottom line:
Yeah, wealth distribution is skewed. No argument there.
But, it’s wildly misleading to characterize the richest of the rich as folks who were just born lucky.
The majority of the made their own luck … and earned their wealth.
Sorry, if the facts don’t match the popular narrative …
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Tomorrow, take the Producer Quiz …
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How many billionaires are there? How many are self-made?
June 7, 2016With all of the vitriol now being cast at rich people, and with all of the broad-brush policy proposals to redistribute their wealth … you’re probably guessing a pretty big number, right?
Well, Forbes reports about 1,800 billionaires worldwide … holding $7 trillion… or roughly 7% of the total global gross domestic product.
1.800 isn’t a particularly big number, right?
But, even I concede, they skew the distribution of wealth.
The billionaires always seem to get caricatured as Saudi princes, one of Sam Walton’s descendants or Paris Hilton – all just lucky by birth and clearly undeserving.
Well, PwC’s think tank dug deeper into the numbers and uncovered some facts that tend to disrupt the popular narrative …
The Challenger disaster: A tragic lesson in data analysis …
June 6, 2016Well-intended engineers correctly interpreted the wrong data.
Excerpted from Everydata: The Misinformation Hidden in the Little Data You Consume Every Day
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I’m sure all baby-boomers have a vivid recollection, but for younger readers, here’s some background …
“On the morning of 28 January 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger, mission 51– L, rose into the cold blue sky over the Cape. To exuberant spectators and breathless flight controllers, the launch appeared normal. Within 73 seconds after liftoff, however, the external tank ruptured, its liquid fuel exploded, and Challenger broke apart.”
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What happened?
“The specific failure,” noted the Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, “was the destruction of the seals that are intended to prevent hot gases from leaking.…”
Investigators quickly focused their attention on a key part of the seals— the rubber O-rings that went in between two sections of the solid rocket motor— the “tang” and the “clevis.”
The O-rings on the Challenger needed to be flexible enough to compress and expand, sometimes within milliseconds.
But O-ring resiliency “is directly related to its temperature… a warm O-ring will follow the opening of the tang-to-clevis gap. A cold O-ring may not.”
In fact, investigators found that a compressed O-ring is five times more responsive at 75 degrees Fahrenheit than at 30 degrees Fahrenheit.
The air temperature at launch was 36 degrees Fahrenheit.
The commission’s report found “it is probable” that the O-rings were not compressing and expanding as needed.
The resulting gap allowed the gases to escape, destroying the Challenger.
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So why didn’t engineers stop the launch, given the cold temperatures?
Remember the Russian “reset” button?
June 3, 2016Yesterday, Secretary Clinton delivered a major foreign policy speech.
Of course, it prompted flashbacks of the infamous Russian Reset …
Back in March 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with a small green box with a ribbon.
Inside was a red button with the Russian word “peregruzka” printed on it.
Clinton offered that pushing it would “reset our relationship” … ostensibly, for the better.
So, how did that all work out?
No grades below C and no written exams … say, what?
June 2, 2016Those are the student demands at Ohio’s Oberlin College
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Students at Oberlin College are asking the school to put academics on the back burner so they can put more time and energy into political activism.
No kidding …
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According to The Week, channeling a New Yorker article:
“More than 1,300 students at the Midwestern liberal arts college signed a petition asking that the college get rid of any grade below a C … and some students are requesting alternatives to the standard written examinations, such as a conversation with a professor in lieu of an essay.”
The students say that between their activism work and their heavy course load, “A lot of us are suffering academically … finding success within the usual grading parameters is increasingly difficult.”
So, just forget about Ds and Fs and Incompletes … just go with As, Bs and Cs.
Might work …
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“You know, we’re paying for a service. We’re paying for our attendance here. We need to be able to get what we need in a way that we can actually consume it.”
“Because I’m dealing with other stuff, I can’t produce the work that they want me to do. But I understand the material, and I can give it to you in different ways.”
Like, one-on-one “conversations” with professors in lieu of written exams.
Really?
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Sounds pretty preposterous, right?
But, students point out that there are historical precedents.
Remember how healthcare costs were going to drop by $2,500 for every family?
June 1, 2016In 2016, employees will pay $11,000 out-of-pocket … up $2,500 since 2012.
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Milliman – a well-regarded actuarial consulting” firm – has published an annual recap of healthcare spending since 2001.
The Milliman Medical Index tracks the total costs of providing health care to an average family of four covered by an employer-sponsored “preferred provider plan” … that’s about 155 million employees and their dependents.
The total includes the health insurance premiums paid by both the employer and the employee, as well as the actual expenditures for health care paid by the insurance plan and out of pocket by the insured family.
The big news: In 2016, the average healthcare costs for a family of 4 surpassed $25,000 for the first time … the $25,826 is triple the cost to provide health care for the same family in 2001 … and up about $5,000 since 2012.
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The bad(est) news is the increased proportion of the healthcare costs being shouldered by individual employees …
Name game: Some names are deadlier than others
May 31, 2016Female-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”.
In praise of math, logic, and Latin … say, what?
May 27, 2016Classical 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.”
Why Hillary won’t pick Warren for V.P.
May 26, 2016Elizabeth 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 …
Yum, those burgers looks good …
May 25, 2016Adding visuals to menus (and reports) creates interest and boosts credibility.
+++++++
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?
Is financial stress making Americans dumber?
May 24, 2016Connecting 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.
How physically fit are folks in your city?
May 23, 2016Washington, 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?
Star gazing … how reliable are online user ratings?
May 20, 2016When 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 …
Trump : “Data analytics is overrated” … could he be right?
May 19, 2016In 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 …
What do tenured profs & Federal judges have in common?
May 18, 2016“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 …
What has happened to workers who lost their jobs during the recession?
May 17, 2016After 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?
Dilbert asks: “Who wants a dangerous man in the White House?”
May 16, 2016Well, 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 …
John Miller for President !
May 15, 2016Busted: 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 …
More rules for working smarter …
May 13, 2016Over 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?
10 ‘towering’ rules for working smarter …
May 12, 2016A 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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“Don’t eat at Chick-fil-A” … say, what?
May 11, 2016Chick-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?
Is “Make America Great Again” trademarked?
May 10, 2016You 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 …
“Multitasking makes me more productive” … oh, really?
May 9, 2016Everybody 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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If you don’t understand Trump’s broad appeal, take the “bubble quiz” ….
May 6, 2016Charles 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.
Let’s build a cabinet ….
May 5, 2016Now 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 …
In praise of tough teachers …
May 4, 2016My 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 …
The Homa Files 