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Cheers to you, persons who require interpersonal communication at your workplaces. Be engaged with the following - The Core Protocols, an attempt at open-sourcing best practices in groups and management. At first pass, some of these things seem needlessly formal and a bit odd, but with practice and good implementation, I can see where they will work pretty well in the small-group slash team exercises that comprise most of business and management-worker relations.
On a different facet of communication, a neuroatypical describes the difficulty of social interaction when questions are involved. It can fairly well be summed up in the idea of "Don't ask questions you don't want the answers to.", which creates social consernation because a lot of our conversational questions are not intended to elicit truth and information, but platitiudes.
Finally, one of the major players in the arming of Afghanistan against the Soviet Union, Charlie Wilson, died at 76.
When it comes to the international area, Pakistan suffered suicide attackers, as the big media buildup of United States troops attempting to take a Taliban stronghold continues. Have an account of someone tagging along with an air resupply mission.
Back in the domestic sphere, The American Family Association takes offense at an Armani ad that shows, gasp, two people of the same gender looking interested in each other. And the man-woman couple in the middle are clearly bisexuals, because they show up in the same sex couple pairings, too. Actually, according to the release, it's bis*xuals, a word they asterisk because it contains the word "SEX" in it. In their defense, they say without the asterisk, filters would divert their mail to spam. Considering their target audience, I think they might actually be right - they're trying to reach people who would tune their filters to be super-zealous in scrubbing out anything that might even be remotely related to sexuality. Of course, AFA is really hopping mad because these ads, which they consider porno, will appear in malls, where teeagers will see them and be immediately converted to the way of the gay, or at least become bi-curious after viewing the ads. Yet another sign that the AGA distrusts the very people it is trying to reach by constantly telling them despite all their upbringing and being raised in a good Christian household, it only takes looking at one ad for it all to be undone. That's a significant no-confidence vote in the parenting styles of thsoe Christian households.
Oh, and speaking of the AFA, A Bryan Fischer said on the air that homosexuality should be criminalized, because they present the same kind of HIV/AIDS risk that intravenous drug users present. If we believe that drug users need anti-drug therapy, says he, then we should be telling homosexuals to go through anti-gay therapy to reduce their HIV/AIDS risk. This he asserts, despite the overturning of anti-homosexual laws and the lack of a confirmed female-to-female transmission of HIV. His analogy is flawed - anti-drug therapy is about stopping the addictive action and finding substitutions for it, after taking care of the phsyical withdrawal reaction. In this case, a more effective analogy might be the need to stop the unsafe sex practice and find ways of having sex that doesn't put them at risk for HIV while still producing the happiness that was associated with the unsafe sex. As far as I know, there's no therapy that can reputably say "We cured someone of their drug usage, by making them repress all of their desires and providing no other help or treatment." That's ex-gay therapy in a nutshell - repress all of your desires and "fake it until you make it" on heterosexuality.
Anyway, even if he denies the reworking of his analogy, there's still a much easier, more effective, and cheaper way of reducing HIV/AIDS risk - condoms, the equivalent of clean needles. The government has set up needle exchanges for drug users in an attempt to stop the spread of HIV, so it should be a simple enough matter to set up places where one can receive appropriately-sized condoms (and other protective barriers, in case, you know, people are kinky in addition to being homosexual) to also help stop the spread of HIV.
To put the funny point on the matter, the General recounts his experience when a not-male infiltrated the naked Spartan wrestling exercise and penetrated him with a vibrator after getting his submission.
Speaking of religious overtones, a resident in Wisconsin repeatedly used a stun gun on a dance instructor, claiming that he was a "sinner" who "defiled married women" because the church he was instructing at did not approve of touching while dancing. Because dance is somehow not about intimate expression, whether by oneself for with a partner? Or some weird "one must dance only with Jesus" thing? As usual, the blurb leaves more questions than it answers.
For something with a bit more meat, although no less crazy, the Virginia House of Delegates is scheduled to vote on a bill that would make it illegal for employers or insurance companies to implant microchips in people against their will." Now, if this were a concernt about privacy or untested technology, there might be a reasonable argument. The bill's sponsor has said privacy is his primary concern, but also said he was doing this because some people think microchips are the mark of the Antichrist, and he wants to protect Virginians from being coerced into becoming servants of Satan.
Two business owners in Minnesota have taken out a billboard asking if the country missing George W. Bush. I suspect that the answer from many liberals and conservatives alike is "No.", although for different reasons.
That said, the billboard seems more newsworthy than Politico's attempt to make meaning out of the lack of laughter in press corps briefings. Slow day, or what?
In technology, pictures from above indicate urban areas may be a bigger cause of deforestation than slash and burn farming or logging roads. That doesn't sound very good - for one thing, that means clearing entire blocks of trees, instead of zones or patches, to grow crops and/or livestock to feed the growing urban populace.
Elsewhere, the use of bacteria-based water cleaning and filtration systems, a great idea for a place with little built-in infrastructure of whose infrastructure has been kicked over by an earthquake.
Beyond that, wireless antennas to transmit data, making for smaller and less bulky gadgets - also possibly more reliable as there are less wires that could become damaged, nanofiber lighting, achieving the same efficiencies of compact fluorescents but without the mercury, an attempt to generate wireless connections using infrared light, which would make for optical speed instead of radio speed, a simulation of what falling into a black hole would be like, and more evidence that the brain does influence our spirituality - a study that looked at people before and after they had brain surgery to remove tumors.
In the opinions, Mr. Fund comments on the ascendancy of Angela McGlowan, who wants to be a Mississippi Congresscritter. This would otherwise be unremarkable but for that she is black, running on the Republican ticket, and a tea-party darling, which puts her currently as the anti-establishment, anti-"victimhood" candidate. Considering what happened to Dede Scozzafava, this could make for an interesting GOP primary and general election should the tea-party darling capture the nomination.
Mr. Gingrich, fresh off his embarassment on national security, tries his hand at health care suggestions, which have some of the same Republican talking points about saving Medicare, engaging in tort reform, and selling across state lines, and others that are about making sure insurance is actually affordable and portable and patient-centered. If a plan came about that did what Mr. Gingrich outlined, it would probably be very effective - and would be voted against by just about every Republican and some Democrats in the Congress, by the current political climate. How do we know this? The Senate bill resembles a lot of what Mr. gingrich is talking about, yet said bill may or may not actually pass (because of all the other drek that was loaded onto it, I would guess.)
Mr. Bozell upts forward an argument that he contradicts two paragraphs later, namely that the Obama administration could have done all that it wanted to with the supermajority it had. Two paragraphs down, he notes that not all Democrats were doctrinaire liberals on board with the Obama plan. So the President really couldn't have rammed through his agenda - there was at least one conservative Democrat who would oppose him. Mr. Bozell also goes on standard talking points about arrogant liberals that talk about bipartisanship, civility, and cooperation while MSNBC blasts attack programming and Newsweek runs unflattering coverage of Sarah Palin and the teabaggers. His response to all of that is that conservatives should become more intransigent than ever, because They're Right, and their resurgence can only be good for the country. I think the best response may be a slightly modified quote of Mr. Rock and/or Mr. Chan: "Do you not understand the words coming out of your mouth?"
Mr. Bozell, however, is only the opening act for some seriously strange stuff. Mr. Stossel is convinced the Obama administration is making independent and self-sufficient Americans into government-dependent spineless serfs who will never question the government because it would mean their benefits disappear. Mr. Stossel does not provide any actual solutions on how to get out of this, other than the general "smaller government" marker taken by Republicans and teabaggers alike.
Climbing the pyramid is Michelle Malkin, who claims the stimulus program has only created jobs in government work, and that Son of Stimulus will only make things worse by encouraging the lazy jobless to stay that way and collect more unemployment, create more government jobs, and spending lots and lots of money on special interests, like roads and bridges. (It also might reauthorize USAPATRIOT, the still-unconstitutional bill that authorizes all sorts of extralegal things in the name of national security.) She does point out, correctly, that some part of what we find abhorrent about it will come about because one party in Congress is determined to obstruct anything that comes their way, and will hold a bill hostage until their demands are met. (In fairness, there are a lot of Democrats that will do that, too.) Ms. Malkin, though, would rather trash the already-effective stimulus bill and have the government bow at the altar of the Free Market (All Praise to Its Name) and say, "Here's a bunch of tax credits - do what you want with your money. If that means hundreds of millions more in bonuses for CEOs, that's fine We don't care if you decide to not hire people because you think they shouldn't be paid enough to live on."
Last out, the headliners for our act of crazy, starting with Mr. Williams on how it is unfair to black students for their dialect to be allowed to continue in school, because letting poor oral skills slide in the name of cultural respect means they also will have poor writing skills and won't get the full tools they need to maximize their intelligence. And then he notes that black students "acting white" by using correct diction and grammar can find themselves at a social disadvantage with their peers. Reference Chan/Rock quote above. While doing X may improve their school lives, it also impacts their social lives. And with teenagers, social lives (or lack thereof) are most important, regardless of how much you try to impress on them the need to have good school lives. Mr. Williams will find support in Mr. Sowell's second diatribe against fairness, where Mr. Sowell insists that anything intended to equalize the playing field is actually a secret liberal plot to prevent anyone from achieving anything, distinguishing themselves, or being the gifted person they are. While I agree that cutting science teachers is a stupid idea, because science should be part of our core curriculum and taught a lot better than it is already, I also would like Mr. Sowell to take a look at why there's more of these resources devoted to what he calls "social work" - test taking, time management, and other skills that make learning stick. His insistence appears to be that results are a direct correlation of time spent studying and learning, with no other factors interfering with this. If he's really suggesting the kid studying in a neighborhood where Mom and Dad fight constantly, police sirens wail, and there's a worry that there won't be enough food on the table can still achieve the same results in the same amount of time as the kid who has none of those worries, then he's in the fantasy-land he claims fairness advocates are in. Does he believe the kid who has both parents work different shifts (or who have one parent work) is clearly going to be able to have the same amount of parental care and help in learning time management skills as the one with a parent at home when they are? If he does, blargh. Wouldn't the better solution be one that boosts funding for the people that have to overcome more impediments and for those who need new challenges to excel to? (And while you're at it, fully funding arts and music programs, if you don't mind.)
At the end of today's exercise, vintage posters of Japanese industrial expositions across the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, some of which make sense in the pictures, some of which look like someone was aiming for something artistic. That, and data-mining in Facebook to figure out the various connected regions of the country, or another application of Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics.
On a different facet of communication, a neuroatypical describes the difficulty of social interaction when questions are involved. It can fairly well be summed up in the idea of "Don't ask questions you don't want the answers to.", which creates social consernation because a lot of our conversational questions are not intended to elicit truth and information, but platitiudes.
Finally, one of the major players in the arming of Afghanistan against the Soviet Union, Charlie Wilson, died at 76.
When it comes to the international area, Pakistan suffered suicide attackers, as the big media buildup of United States troops attempting to take a Taliban stronghold continues. Have an account of someone tagging along with an air resupply mission.
Back in the domestic sphere, The American Family Association takes offense at an Armani ad that shows, gasp, two people of the same gender looking interested in each other. And the man-woman couple in the middle are clearly bisexuals, because they show up in the same sex couple pairings, too. Actually, according to the release, it's bis*xuals, a word they asterisk because it contains the word "SEX" in it. In their defense, they say without the asterisk, filters would divert their mail to spam. Considering their target audience, I think they might actually be right - they're trying to reach people who would tune their filters to be super-zealous in scrubbing out anything that might even be remotely related to sexuality. Of course, AFA is really hopping mad because these ads, which they consider porno, will appear in malls, where teeagers will see them and be immediately converted to the way of the gay, or at least become bi-curious after viewing the ads. Yet another sign that the AGA distrusts the very people it is trying to reach by constantly telling them despite all their upbringing and being raised in a good Christian household, it only takes looking at one ad for it all to be undone. That's a significant no-confidence vote in the parenting styles of thsoe Christian households.
Oh, and speaking of the AFA, A Bryan Fischer said on the air that homosexuality should be criminalized, because they present the same kind of HIV/AIDS risk that intravenous drug users present. If we believe that drug users need anti-drug therapy, says he, then we should be telling homosexuals to go through anti-gay therapy to reduce their HIV/AIDS risk. This he asserts, despite the overturning of anti-homosexual laws and the lack of a confirmed female-to-female transmission of HIV. His analogy is flawed - anti-drug therapy is about stopping the addictive action and finding substitutions for it, after taking care of the phsyical withdrawal reaction. In this case, a more effective analogy might be the need to stop the unsafe sex practice and find ways of having sex that doesn't put them at risk for HIV while still producing the happiness that was associated with the unsafe sex. As far as I know, there's no therapy that can reputably say "We cured someone of their drug usage, by making them repress all of their desires and providing no other help or treatment." That's ex-gay therapy in a nutshell - repress all of your desires and "fake it until you make it" on heterosexuality.
Anyway, even if he denies the reworking of his analogy, there's still a much easier, more effective, and cheaper way of reducing HIV/AIDS risk - condoms, the equivalent of clean needles. The government has set up needle exchanges for drug users in an attempt to stop the spread of HIV, so it should be a simple enough matter to set up places where one can receive appropriately-sized condoms (and other protective barriers, in case, you know, people are kinky in addition to being homosexual) to also help stop the spread of HIV.
To put the funny point on the matter, the General recounts his experience when a not-male infiltrated the naked Spartan wrestling exercise and penetrated him with a vibrator after getting his submission.
Speaking of religious overtones, a resident in Wisconsin repeatedly used a stun gun on a dance instructor, claiming that he was a "sinner" who "defiled married women" because the church he was instructing at did not approve of touching while dancing. Because dance is somehow not about intimate expression, whether by oneself for with a partner? Or some weird "one must dance only with Jesus" thing? As usual, the blurb leaves more questions than it answers.
For something with a bit more meat, although no less crazy, the Virginia House of Delegates is scheduled to vote on a bill that would make it illegal for employers or insurance companies to implant microchips in people against their will." Now, if this were a concernt about privacy or untested technology, there might be a reasonable argument. The bill's sponsor has said privacy is his primary concern, but also said he was doing this because some people think microchips are the mark of the Antichrist, and he wants to protect Virginians from being coerced into becoming servants of Satan.
Two business owners in Minnesota have taken out a billboard asking if the country missing George W. Bush. I suspect that the answer from many liberals and conservatives alike is "No.", although for different reasons.
That said, the billboard seems more newsworthy than Politico's attempt to make meaning out of the lack of laughter in press corps briefings. Slow day, or what?
In technology, pictures from above indicate urban areas may be a bigger cause of deforestation than slash and burn farming or logging roads. That doesn't sound very good - for one thing, that means clearing entire blocks of trees, instead of zones or patches, to grow crops and/or livestock to feed the growing urban populace.
Elsewhere, the use of bacteria-based water cleaning and filtration systems, a great idea for a place with little built-in infrastructure of whose infrastructure has been kicked over by an earthquake.
Beyond that, wireless antennas to transmit data, making for smaller and less bulky gadgets - also possibly more reliable as there are less wires that could become damaged, nanofiber lighting, achieving the same efficiencies of compact fluorescents but without the mercury, an attempt to generate wireless connections using infrared light, which would make for optical speed instead of radio speed, a simulation of what falling into a black hole would be like, and more evidence that the brain does influence our spirituality - a study that looked at people before and after they had brain surgery to remove tumors.
In the opinions, Mr. Fund comments on the ascendancy of Angela McGlowan, who wants to be a Mississippi Congresscritter. This would otherwise be unremarkable but for that she is black, running on the Republican ticket, and a tea-party darling, which puts her currently as the anti-establishment, anti-"victimhood" candidate. Considering what happened to Dede Scozzafava, this could make for an interesting GOP primary and general election should the tea-party darling capture the nomination.
Mr. Gingrich, fresh off his embarassment on national security, tries his hand at health care suggestions, which have some of the same Republican talking points about saving Medicare, engaging in tort reform, and selling across state lines, and others that are about making sure insurance is actually affordable and portable and patient-centered. If a plan came about that did what Mr. Gingrich outlined, it would probably be very effective - and would be voted against by just about every Republican and some Democrats in the Congress, by the current political climate. How do we know this? The Senate bill resembles a lot of what Mr. gingrich is talking about, yet said bill may or may not actually pass (because of all the other drek that was loaded onto it, I would guess.)
Mr. Bozell upts forward an argument that he contradicts two paragraphs later, namely that the Obama administration could have done all that it wanted to with the supermajority it had. Two paragraphs down, he notes that not all Democrats were doctrinaire liberals on board with the Obama plan. So the President really couldn't have rammed through his agenda - there was at least one conservative Democrat who would oppose him. Mr. Bozell also goes on standard talking points about arrogant liberals that talk about bipartisanship, civility, and cooperation while MSNBC blasts attack programming and Newsweek runs unflattering coverage of Sarah Palin and the teabaggers. His response to all of that is that conservatives should become more intransigent than ever, because They're Right, and their resurgence can only be good for the country. I think the best response may be a slightly modified quote of Mr. Rock and/or Mr. Chan: "Do you not understand the words coming out of your mouth?"
Mr. Bozell, however, is only the opening act for some seriously strange stuff. Mr. Stossel is convinced the Obama administration is making independent and self-sufficient Americans into government-dependent spineless serfs who will never question the government because it would mean their benefits disappear. Mr. Stossel does not provide any actual solutions on how to get out of this, other than the general "smaller government" marker taken by Republicans and teabaggers alike.
Climbing the pyramid is Michelle Malkin, who claims the stimulus program has only created jobs in government work, and that Son of Stimulus will only make things worse by encouraging the lazy jobless to stay that way and collect more unemployment, create more government jobs, and spending lots and lots of money on special interests, like roads and bridges. (It also might reauthorize USAPATRIOT, the still-unconstitutional bill that authorizes all sorts of extralegal things in the name of national security.) She does point out, correctly, that some part of what we find abhorrent about it will come about because one party in Congress is determined to obstruct anything that comes their way, and will hold a bill hostage until their demands are met. (In fairness, there are a lot of Democrats that will do that, too.) Ms. Malkin, though, would rather trash the already-effective stimulus bill and have the government bow at the altar of the Free Market (All Praise to Its Name) and say, "Here's a bunch of tax credits - do what you want with your money. If that means hundreds of millions more in bonuses for CEOs, that's fine We don't care if you decide to not hire people because you think they shouldn't be paid enough to live on."
Last out, the headliners for our act of crazy, starting with Mr. Williams on how it is unfair to black students for their dialect to be allowed to continue in school, because letting poor oral skills slide in the name of cultural respect means they also will have poor writing skills and won't get the full tools they need to maximize their intelligence. And then he notes that black students "acting white" by using correct diction and grammar can find themselves at a social disadvantage with their peers. Reference Chan/Rock quote above. While doing X may improve their school lives, it also impacts their social lives. And with teenagers, social lives (or lack thereof) are most important, regardless of how much you try to impress on them the need to have good school lives. Mr. Williams will find support in Mr. Sowell's second diatribe against fairness, where Mr. Sowell insists that anything intended to equalize the playing field is actually a secret liberal plot to prevent anyone from achieving anything, distinguishing themselves, or being the gifted person they are. While I agree that cutting science teachers is a stupid idea, because science should be part of our core curriculum and taught a lot better than it is already, I also would like Mr. Sowell to take a look at why there's more of these resources devoted to what he calls "social work" - test taking, time management, and other skills that make learning stick. His insistence appears to be that results are a direct correlation of time spent studying and learning, with no other factors interfering with this. If he's really suggesting the kid studying in a neighborhood where Mom and Dad fight constantly, police sirens wail, and there's a worry that there won't be enough food on the table can still achieve the same results in the same amount of time as the kid who has none of those worries, then he's in the fantasy-land he claims fairness advocates are in. Does he believe the kid who has both parents work different shifts (or who have one parent work) is clearly going to be able to have the same amount of parental care and help in learning time management skills as the one with a parent at home when they are? If he does, blargh. Wouldn't the better solution be one that boosts funding for the people that have to overcome more impediments and for those who need new challenges to excel to? (And while you're at it, fully funding arts and music programs, if you don't mind.)
At the end of today's exercise, vintage posters of Japanese industrial expositions across the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, some of which make sense in the pictures, some of which look like someone was aiming for something artistic. That, and data-mining in Facebook to figure out the various connected regions of the country, or another application of Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics.
