Archive for category ideas
Edgar Guest
I’ve just discovered Edgar Guest. Where has he been all these years?
It Couldn’t Be Done
Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,
But he with a chuckle replied
That “maybe it couldnt,” but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;
At least no one ever has done it”;
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing
That “cannot be done,” and you’Il do it.
That’s just plain wonderful. Of all things, I saw an old, old episode of “All in the Family” today where Edith Bunker quoted Edgar Guest talking about failure coming from within — so I had to look him up. Delights!
Success and Failure
I do not think all failure’s undeserved,
And all success is merely someone’s luck;
Some men are down because they were unnerved,
And some are up because they kept their pluck.
Some men are down because they chose to shirk;
Some men are high because they did their work.I do not think that all the poor are good,
That riches are the uniform of shame;
The beggar might have conquered if he would,
And that he begs, the world is not to blame.
Misfortune is not all that comes to mar;
Most men, themselves, have shaped the things they are
Just one more, for good measure:
Equipment
Figure it out for yourself, my lad,
You’ve all that the greatest of men have had,
Two arms, two hands, two legs, two eyes,
And a brain to use if you would be wise.
With this equipment they all began,
So start for the top and say “I can.”Look them over, the wise and great,
They take their food from a common plate
And similar knives and forks they use,
With similar laces they tie their shoes,
The world considers them brave and smart.
But you’ve all they had when they made their start.You can triumph and come to skill,
You can be great if only you will,
You’re well equipped for what fight you choose,
You have legs and arms and a brain to use,
And the man who has risen, great deeds to do
Began his life with no more than you.You are the handicap you must face,
You are the one who must choose your place,
You must say where you want to go.
How much you will study the truth to know,
God has equipped you for life, But He
Lets you decide what you want to be.Courage must come from the soul within,
The man must furnish the will to win,
So figure it out for yourself, my lad,
You were born with all that the great have had,
With your equipment they all began.
Get hold of yourself, and say: “I can.”
How about that? Encourage self-sufficiency. It’s the original “American Way” which has long since been replaced with “Safety First” (and lots of government assistance).
The Incredible Bread Machine
Here’s one of the keystones to my high school curriculum. It’s The Incredible Bread Machine, a video by Karl Keating, Susan Love Brown, Patrea Post and Stuart Smith — inspired by Richard Grant’s epic poem of the same name. (An abbreviated rendition of the poem starts at 30:34 into the film — we would recite parts of the poem during graduation ceremonies, and for some reason I was chosen to portray The Lawyer.)
Here are some memorable quotes from the film:
- I shouldn’t be able to force you to finance something you don’t believe in — but if I don’t have that right, why is it legally/morally right for the government to have it?
- No one gets it if there ain’t none
- You don’t solve problems by violating people’s rights
- If the government didn’t have favors to sell, the consumer would be king
- Governments don’t produce anything, people produce things
During the follow-up, Milton Friedman lets loose some great insights, too:
- Social Security is presented as if it were an insurance scheme… what it really is is a combination of a very bad tax system with a very bad welfare program
- The law which would have the greatest value in curbing monopoly and promoting competition would be one which abolishes tariffs and enact free trade
- It’s a mystery how it’s better to be unemployed at $2.40 an hour, than being employed at $2.00 an hour
There are still some voices in the wilderness that understand what Mr. Friedman was trying to convey, but none as clearly nor as loudly as he did.
Munchkins and the choices they make
So there we were — a nine-year old, arms folded, brow scrunched up in anger and teeth clenched… and an eight-year-old, dealing out a little silent treatment and holding a grudge while digging up worms in the dirt. I didn’t even ask what the problem was, it wouldn’t have furthered anybody’s cause.
“You should see yourself,” I told the angry 9.y.o. “You’re packing lots of angry all over the place like someone owes you something.” I would have taken a picture of her just for fun, but I didn’t have a camera handy, so — next best thing — I laughed at her.
Her angry eyes got angrier and even moistened up a bit. She pointed at the silent 8.y.o. and said”Well she’s the one who…”
I interrupted her. “It doesn’t matter. I’m guessing you would rather be playing with her, and not all angry in a huff, right?” No need to put me in the middle or have me take sides, I’m not going to play that game today, this is something she needs to work out for herself.
“Yeah, but I didn’t do anything wrong. She’s the one who…”
I interrupted again: “Five minutes ago doesn’t matter. How would you prefer to be interacting with her five minutes from now?”
The angry 9.y.o. thought a bit, and her brow softened a bit. “I’d rather be playing with her but she won’t talk to me. I didn’t do any–”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said, “who did what or to whom. What does matter is you don’t want to be angry with her, you want to be playing with her, instead. In the past, do you remember that she apologized to you when you’d been fighting about something? Remember how quickly you both got over the anger? Why don’t you take a turn apologizing this time?” I suggested.
“I HAVEN’T DONE ANYTHING WRONG. She’s the one who should apologize…”
“So I can see you’re not going to try an apology. How about this: what if you just ACT like you’re not angry and maybe you two will start getting along? Imagine how you want things to be five minutes from now, and make that happen.”
The angry 9.y.o. didn’t think about this very long. Arms folded again, brow furrowed, eyes flashing. “She won’t talk to me!” The 8.y.o. sat in the dirt, digging up worms, still dealing out the silent treatment.
I thought I’d try to paint a simpler picture. “Okay,” I told the angry 9.y.o., “How about this: If you just now came outside and saw her digging up worms for the first time, what would you do?”
“I’d ask if I could join her,” said the 9.y.o. with a lot less anger than before.
I then whispered to her: “Try that.”
Five minutes later they were playing in the leaf pile as if nothing had ever been wrong.
So here I’ve got an idea. The evening before, the 9.y.o. mentioned that she is realizing that her being the way she is tends to put people off, similar to what happened the following morning with the 8.y.o. Once she drops the anger and pouting, everything gets better again. She thinks she’s doomed, since she doesn’t know what to do about it.
She just doesn’t realize that she can choose to respond with something besides anger.
I’m thinking I could recruit her 18-year-old sister to help. I might ask “How about you stress out your little sister as much as you possibly can? Push her buttons, make her scream in frustration, put obstacles in her way, make life inconvenient for her in every way. That’s your job, if you choose to accept it.”
Then I’d turn to the nine-year-old and say “and YOUR job is to learn that you can choose to respond with something besides anger…”
Not sure if their mom would appreciate having that environment at home, though.
Wolfram Alpha is really AMAZING.
Posted by will in ideas, science, technology on January 9th, 2010
If you haven’t seen Wolfram Alpha, you’re missing out. It’s not just a search engine — is answers simple questions with an amazing array of analytics and diagrams and graphs and history and statistics and more. You can see trends, explore patterns, drilling into many layers of detail. Pick a subject, if there’s information to be had, Wolfram Alpha can help you dive in:
Want some eclipse info?
previous eclipse
solar eclipse
lunar eclipseHow about some weather:
evansville weather in 1976
(differentiates rain and snow for short term, bunches them together as ‘precipitation’ for longer term)
precipitation in evanston il in january 1968
climate in bostonHealth info:
male, 5′9″, 155lbs, body mass index
2 eggs with apple juiceSome investment info:
apple microsoft googleWas the name “Wanda” ever more popular than “Edna”?:
wanda, edna, beulah
karen, faith, madisonIf you had 20/50 vision…
20/50 visionGot music?
D major 7th chord <= click ‘play chord’!Crossword fanatic?
pu__l_
anagram roster
Sheesh, this is amazing!
Tips on being a better communicator
Consider one of the greatest speeches of all time, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. It’s short, and it packs a whallop. Abe had something to say, and he found a concise way to say it.
So when I find an article that’s concise and meaningful, and — better yet — focuses on communicating, well, I’ve got to encourage them in their efforts.
To ensure we’re becoming better communicators, not just older communicators, consider following these 10 tips.
- Know our intent, including what outcomes we want.
- Put ourselves in others’ shoes to help us shape our message.
- Rehearse what we’ll say and edit what we write.
- Listen better.
- Acknowledge what people tell us.
- Question ourselves and others; be curious.
- Tell more stories.
- Work with a coach.
- Match our words and actions.
- Practice humility.
The original post is from ConnectITnews.com entitled “Ten tips to becoming a better communicator” and it’s concise. It should take less than three minutes to read.
So all this paranoia about global warming…?
First note — “all” in the above title is just a colloquialism, as in “all this nonsense”.
So it turns out that the scientists, you know, the folks who published all the alarming hoo-hah about global warming? Well, they selected which data to include in (and exclude from) their study, which makes the scientificity very suspect.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/01/EDV01ASHN5.DTL
Note that the SFGATE article only shows that, like the rest of us, even high-caliber scientists can have their own agenda and can fall prey to picking-and-choosing the data that support their pet causes. This is called confirmation bias, when we try to figure that we’re already right, instead of trying to find out what the actual data is telling us.
Second Note — This article does not mean that global warming is a fraud. Likely? Possible? Probable? Maybe, but not conclusive. Don’t fall into the trap of swinging the blindness pendulum to the other side of the argument.
Just because the little boy cried wolf… it doesn’t mean there isn’t a wolf.
Third note — where’s the hue and cry about defrauding the public? It’s not there! Could big-lobbying-dollars have anything to do with it? (Just because I’m paranoid, doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get me…)
For a much more reasonable take on Global Warming, whether it’s true or not, check out Greg Cravens’s “How It All Ends” video at Youtube.com (Greg Cravens talks about “Confirmation Bias” in chapter 3 of his book).
Napoleon Hill
The chances of someone like you, who can read and comprehend English sentence structure, NOT having heard of Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich“, is slim.
The book was originally published in 1938, at the end of America’s Great Depression. Andrew Carnegie had commissioned Hill to interview hundreds of movers-and-shakers, from Ford and Edison to Wrigley and Eastman to Bell and Darrow. From these interviews he spent 20 years distilling the common patterns among these folks and determined that they all exhibited similar behaviors. Moreover, he determined that anybody else who exhibited those behaviors couls also succeed, regardless of circumstance.
The book is packed with wisdom and insight. Here are some examples:
No more effort is required to aim high in life, to demand abundance and prosperity, than is required to accept misery and poverty.
Why shoot for mediocre when you can shoot for exemplary?
I bargained my Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty score.For Life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.I worked for a menial’s hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have willingly paid.
In other words, if you settle for misery, you’ll get it. Or, if you believe you can succeed, or not, you’re right.
Another:
If you think you are beaten, you are,
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you like to win, but think you can’t,
It is almost certain you won’t.If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost,
For out of the world we find,
Success begins with a fellow’s will–
It’s all in the state of mind.If you think you’re outclassed, you are,
You’ve got to think high to rise,
You’ve got to be sure of your self before
You can ever win a prize.Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can!
It’s not speed or force that does the trick — it’s persistence and relentless determination that wins the day.
There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge. Both poverty and riches are the offspring of thought!
When you were a kid you often talked about your hopes and aspirations, and at some point someone started making you feel stupid for having them, and you quietly surrendered. Carpe diem! Sieze your destiny again and pursue it with wild abandon — unless you expect to “drift” into success…
We rise to high positions or remain at the bottom because of conditions that we can control if we desire to control them.
Learn to distinguish what you can control vs. what you can complain about. Focus on what you truly do have the opportunity to do something about — and then take action! Position yourself to where “opportunity can find you!”
Above all, DO NOT STOP.
Hear hear! Persistence and determination are omnipotent.
Now for a bit of change-of-pace, as here Napoleon is talking about the blast of creative energy available when people get their heads working:
Steam ships and railroads do not spring up from the earth and function automatically. They come in response to the call of civilization, through the labor and ingenuity and organizing ability of men who have imagination, faith, enthusiasm, decision, persistence! These men are known as capitalists.
He also talks a bit about how “radicals and self-seeking politicians” who “offered to deliver voters in return for legislation designed to permit men to take riches away from industry by organized force of numbers, instead of the better method of giving a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay.” Ouch!
Millions of men and women throughout the nation are still engaged in this popular pastime of trying to GET without GIVING. Some of them are lined up with labor unions, where they demand shorter hours and more pay! Others do not take the trouble to work at all. They demand government relief and are getting it.
Further, Napoleon Hill recognizes:
There is but one dependable method of accumulating, and legally holding, riches, and that is by rendering useful service.
Wonder how many votes Napoleon Hill would get in today’s America… 
The *cough* purity of the English Language
Posted by will in Uncategorized, ideas on October 23rd, 2009
Wonderful perspective on how English will survive the ages:
The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that the English language is as pure as a crib-house whore. It not only borrows words from other languages; it has on occasion chased other languages down dark alley-ways, clubbed them unconscious and rifled their pockets for new vocabulary.
James Nicoll (b. 1961), “The King’s English”, rec.arts.sf-lovers, 15 May 1990
French authorities scurry about looking to keep their language pure by forbidding alien terms such as “le hotdog” and “le weekend” and “le sweater”. In English, we use whatever new term or turn of phrase conveys the thought best. Consider “Pretty” (Saxon), “Bouquet” (French), “Quota” (Latin), “Algebra” (Arabic). It’s part of why we English-speakers have a ridiculously rich vocabulary, and also why English will survive.
English purists who have icebergs up their butt will rail at the progress English makes organically and make themselves obsolete… you ain’t gonna keep folks from using the terms they want to, in the way they want to — it ain’t gonna happen, no siree.
Still, there are some constructs that just aren’t right, no matter how organic you want to get.
- “It’s” vs “Its” — With an apostrophe, it’s a contraction for two words. Without the apostrophe, it represents ownership, just like his or hers. So try using “him” or “her” instead and you’ll get it right:
- That’s its main flaw <= That’s her main flaw
- It’s been grand <= She’s been grand
- It’s its own worst enemy <= He’s his own worst enemy
- “You’re” vs “Your” — Here the apostrophe version is most definitely a contraction for the two words “you are”. If you can replace the contraction with those two words and the sentence still makes sense, you’ve got it right; if not, use “your” which means ir belongs to you.
- Your house is on fire.
- You’re almost too late. (You are almost too late)
- “They’re” vs “Their” vs “There” — the first is a contraction for “they are”, period. The second means it belongs to them. The third means it’s somewhere besides here.
- They’re screwing it up again. (They are screwing it up again)
- Their car is in the shop. (The car belongs to them and it’s being repaired.)
- There is the one we were looking for. (It’s not here, it’s there.)
For this last one, just remember you’re starting with the word “HERE” and adding another letter “T” to get somewhere else that’s not HERE — it’s THERE.
Cause and Effect, the Best Educators
I stole a french fry right from the hands of my eight-year-old niece, and she said “You’re so cool.”
Is that the reaction you’d expect? Let me complete the picture:
So there I was, minding my own business, digesting some fast food we’d bought on the way to Chicago; I had already polished off my whole supper. My eight-year-old niece was sitting in the vehicle right across from me, still working on hers. She takes out a french fry, waves it around at me taunting me with “I’ve got a french fry, you don’t have any, I have a french fry…” Singing, of course. You get the picture.
She’s waving it at me, don’t forget. So I snatch it out of her hand, chew it up and swallow it, enjoying every morsel along the way. Gloating, even. I then ask her “Did you learn anything?”
She thinks for a moment — a bit of a pause, here — and takes out another french fry, and starts to wave it again, with the same song: “I’ve got a french fry, you don’t have any, I have a french fry…” but this time it’s well out of my reach. I say “Very good,” with a large grin.
She says “You’re so cool!”
I say “For stealing a french fry from you?”
She says “For teaching me stuff.”
Apparently she understands that I’m not going to steal all of her food. And here I thought I had her snowed.
Part of the context here is that most adults treat kids like they’re fragile, or should be fragile. Me stealing her french fry was a refreshing, bracing stimulus bringing her in direct contact with the “real world”. Most adults talk to kids, they don’t interact with kids. (I expect I’ll never understand how an adult can forget what it was like being a kid, and the types of interaction a kid hungers for. Zut alors!)
This probably would have induced emotional trauma if she was age three. But an eight-year-old is at the Age of Reason where she can start to make lots of conceptual connections. Valuable lesson, and it only cost a french fry.
So here are the rules:
- Establish a relationship of trust with the kid
- Let them experience a real loss (you should pick and choose, here — if you start with small losses early on, you might be able to avoid really big losses later)
- Get them to examine the situation and encourage them to consider what they would do differently next time
- Lather, rinse, repeat
It’s the sense of loss (or pain) that sets the stage for real learning. Skin your knee in a bicycle accident? You’ll work hard to never do it that way again. Lose your favorite watch? Once you find it or replace it you’ll pay much closer attention to where you set it down from now on. Say something really stupid and tick off a best friend? You’ll learn to either pay more attention to how you say things, or figure out how to get along without your ex-best friend.
But having them reflect on step 2 — this reflection itself is actually step 3 — is where the educating really happens. Get them to look at cause and effect, to reflect on their choices, and consider alternatives.
It’s that second step where most adults prefer to be efficient, or act the hero, rather than let their children learn. “My precious widdiw snookums needs his glasses, I’ll go get them for you, you silly forgettery-goose!” “Ickle duddykins must wear knee pads and only use the trampoline with the net around it, we don’t want any accidents!” “I’ll bail you out of jail, son, I’m on my way with the cash right now!”
Plus, you might wind up being late to the occasional baseball practice or the play or the party, if you let them panic about not being able to find something while you wait. Sure, it’s more efficient on time if you find it for them… but only in the short term is more efficient on time — just this afternoon, but not long term! You’ll be finding their stuff for them from now through when they return home from college!
When you separate consequence from action as a kid grows up — separating effect from cause — you’re likely to wind up with a totally irresponsible adult.
Completely unlike the U.S. Congress. I don’t know why you even brought that up.
Excellent Eclipse for Karen’s Birthday
For me, here in the American midwest, it’s July 21 at 8pm. This means it’s already tomorrow everywhere from Greenwich UK to Japan. In fact, the big solar eclipse of 2009 has already begun!
The animated image you see here is a great representation of where the moon’s shadow is (and was, and will be) during this eclipse.
For more specifics, check out the original web page at http://www.eclipse.org.uk/eclipse/0412009/.