Graphics tell a story. Sometimes, it's a story that amazes you and yet there's virtually no words tied to a graphic.
This week....Verdant Labs did a graphic of occupations and political leanings.
They asked a bunch of folks questions and came to some odd conclusions.
Most pilots are Republican, while most stewardesses are Democrat. Why? Unknown. Maybe it's the social occasions of each where a few drinks works some magic.
The vast number of bartenders are Democrat, but the vast number of beer distributors are Republican. You might figure that the bartender sits and talks a lot to people and is part of some social scene.....while the beer distributor is a business guy.
Most truckers are Republican, while most taxi drivers are Democrat. Again, the social setting for the taxi guy invites conversation. For the trucker......he's a loner for the most part.
Most floral arrangers are Democrat, while most exterminators are Republican. Most exterminators work alone.....while the floral arrangers work in a heavily social setting.
The vast number of yoga instructors are Democrat.....while the vast number of car salesmen are Republican.
Most park rangers are Democrat, while most sheriffs are Republican. This might be the law and order scenario where sheriffs tend to enforce daily.....while the park rangers mostly stand around and talk to people and act friendly.
Most farmers are Republican, while most gardeners are Democrat. Farmers are intensive businessmen at heart.....while a gardener is much lesser the businessman.
Oddly, most train engineers are Democrat. The vast majority of people in the publishing trade....are Democrat, which is just as odd.
There's a five-hundred page list of questions that a person might have.....after reading over the whole listing. Why do certain people in certain occupations lean as drastic as shown? What makes most farmers Republicans? What about the folks who walk around for three decades as a Democrat and then suddenly come to some life moment where they flip in a short period of time to being a Republican? How would they figure into this graphic?
Questions, questions, questions.
Saturday, 6 June 2015
Wednesday, 3 June 2015
Simply Observations
First, this Bruce Jenner trans-to-something story? Well....around five percent of society runs around and tries to be something DIFFERENT. If they could transform themselves into a Klingon or Cyborg creature.....a thousand guys would line up tomorrow and lay down $15,000 to make it possible. In the end.....it's a story about.....nothing. Sorry, if I don't get excited.
Second, some smart guys did a chimp study and found out that if you had a chance to heat up or cook a dish....the chimps would prefer heated food. Now.....not that it really makes much difference but it shows they'd like to enhance their lifestyle and do something other than plain old regular room-temperature bananas or pudding.
Third, someone came up this week and asked a stupid question and got a stupid answer. The question is....is there anyone in Washington DC....who counts or knows the true number of Americans in existence? The answer? No.....no one counts such people. Nor does it appear that the US government cares if there is such a number or if they should know it. This revolves around a case going to the Supreme Court and accepted by them. The case.....Evenwel v. Abbott, asks if the Constitution's general understanding of “one person, one vote” principle requires equal numbers of voters per district....rather than of numbers of citizen and non-citizen people. It'll put a strange on things if the Supreme Court says all people count and future Census counts would just go full-throttle on counting people.
Naturally, you'd think that someone knows each guy, his citizenship situation and his address. Well.....no, no one has such data and I don't think the government even wants to open this door and start collecting such data.
Second, some smart guys did a chimp study and found out that if you had a chance to heat up or cook a dish....the chimps would prefer heated food. Now.....not that it really makes much difference but it shows they'd like to enhance their lifestyle and do something other than plain old regular room-temperature bananas or pudding.
Third, someone came up this week and asked a stupid question and got a stupid answer. The question is....is there anyone in Washington DC....who counts or knows the true number of Americans in existence? The answer? No.....no one counts such people. Nor does it appear that the US government cares if there is such a number or if they should know it. This revolves around a case going to the Supreme Court and accepted by them. The case.....Evenwel v. Abbott, asks if the Constitution's general understanding of “one person, one vote” principle requires equal numbers of voters per district....rather than of numbers of citizen and non-citizen people. It'll put a strange on things if the Supreme Court says all people count and future Census counts would just go full-throttle on counting people.
Naturally, you'd think that someone knows each guy, his citizenship situation and his address. Well.....no, no one has such data and I don't think the government even wants to open this door and start collecting such data.
The Chocolate Story
Years ago....I had to skip lunch to make some appointment.....so I grabbed a candy bar and put it inside my jacket. Ten minutes into this drive....I pulled the chocolate bar out, and of course.....it was all melted up. You ate what you could and just skipped the rest.
Chocolate has this tendency....with any kind of heat....it melts.
So I noticed in international news today....the Swiss guys (they basically run the developmental side of chocolate) have come to a new recipe of sorts....a chocolate that they claim.....WILL NOT melt.
Now, I admit....I'm skeptical of this.
Sometimes.....you can do things with chocolate that probably isn't a positive thing.....like when the military invented that funny fudge bar for the MRE's. It's the bar you can eat and get constipated to the maximum degree (you might actually go three days without a bowel movement if you ate two of these bars).
A chocolate bar that won't melt? It has to have some strange ingredients within it and I'd question what they were. So far....the Swiss guys aren't saying what it's got or such.
Chocolate has this tendency....with any kind of heat....it melts.
So I noticed in international news today....the Swiss guys (they basically run the developmental side of chocolate) have come to a new recipe of sorts....a chocolate that they claim.....WILL NOT melt.
Now, I admit....I'm skeptical of this.
Sometimes.....you can do things with chocolate that probably isn't a positive thing.....like when the military invented that funny fudge bar for the MRE's. It's the bar you can eat and get constipated to the maximum degree (you might actually go three days without a bowel movement if you ate two of these bars).
A chocolate bar that won't melt? It has to have some strange ingredients within it and I'd question what they were. So far....the Swiss guys aren't saying what it's got or such.
Sunday, 31 May 2015
Drinking and Legislating
Over in California this week.....it got out that the California state legislature has hired up two part-time guys to provide ground transportation for Senate members. The cost? Each guy is paid around $2,500 a month.....for this part-time work. No one says the hours per week, or a limit to the hours.
The deal? Well....over the past couple of years....some California state senators have been caught drunk-driving. So, the two guys hired.....are supposed to get a call from a senator when he thinks he's too drunk to drive home.
Naturally, a Bama guy would sit and ponder about this.
If you end up calling these guys.....it means you are too drunk to drive. But doesn't it also mean you ought to be too drunk to legislate?
No state, as far as I know.....has ever instituted a no-drinking policy with each capital building. So you can imagine these guys....standing around and swapping stories in the afternoon....sipping a whiskey here and there.....maybe sneaking out to the back and gulping down two beers.....then doing a rum-and-Coke before taking a vital vote.
It would be curious if someone would force the issue of no drinking while in a legislative setting. After you take the vote and go over to the local pub to celebrate your bill-passing abilities.....ok, I don't see a problem then.
How many bills get passed yearly by drunk legislative folks? Unknown. But maybe it's time to ask about this.
The deal? Well....over the past couple of years....some California state senators have been caught drunk-driving. So, the two guys hired.....are supposed to get a call from a senator when he thinks he's too drunk to drive home.
Naturally, a Bama guy would sit and ponder about this.
If you end up calling these guys.....it means you are too drunk to drive. But doesn't it also mean you ought to be too drunk to legislate?
No state, as far as I know.....has ever instituted a no-drinking policy with each capital building. So you can imagine these guys....standing around and swapping stories in the afternoon....sipping a whiskey here and there.....maybe sneaking out to the back and gulping down two beers.....then doing a rum-and-Coke before taking a vital vote.
It would be curious if someone would force the issue of no drinking while in a legislative setting. After you take the vote and go over to the local pub to celebrate your bill-passing abilities.....ok, I don't see a problem then.
How many bills get passed yearly by drunk legislative folks? Unknown. But maybe it's time to ask about this.
Thursday, 28 May 2015
Erasers
The British paper.....The Guardian.....put an interesting article over a noted scientist at King's College in London. Guy Claxton spoke out in a public statement: "Erasers are an 'instrument of the devil' and, as such, they should be banished from our classrooms. Children should be encouraged to learn from their mistakes, rather than feel ashamed of them, he explains. They shouldn’t feel the need to pretend to have got things right the first time, but should be encouraged to try things out, take wrong turns and see what they can learn in the process".
Yeah, it's kind of a radical statement.
To be honest....since around 1975....I've been a pen guy....refusing to carry or use a pencil. If I made a mistake in writing.....I crossed through it and continued on. I didn't see my work being worthy of being reviewed later like Einstein, Charles Darwin, or Micheal Faraday. Notes in my opinion....were simply notes.
Now, I realize some guys are different and have maintained their 10th grade science notebook or their 2nd year engineering class notebook from college.....thirty years ago no less. But generally.....notes are worthless at the end of the semester and the test cycle.
What Claxton is suggesting is that we simply readjust our perception of material we've written and not feel ashamed by mistakes. Take a side-step.....admit imperfection......learn while in the progress of things.
We might as well admit that half the things we have today....came from mistakes.
I'm one of those folks who has to live around Germans. In German culture.....the eraser mentality is a big deal. Every single kid and student carries around a hefty eraser, and pencil.....along with six color-type pens/markers, a ruler, and various tools of marking a paper in a special way. In some ways....it's fanatical in the behavior thing. I'm presently in the middle of a German language class (3rd day) and the teacher ripped me up for not having a pencil today (yesterday came the criticism of not having a yellow and green marker on my person).
The odds that Claxton will have any success? Zero. The eraser cartel and control freaks will go berserk when this comes up in class. You are dissolving thousands of eraser jobs.....if you got rid of this standard in society.
Yeah, it's kind of a radical statement.
To be honest....since around 1975....I've been a pen guy....refusing to carry or use a pencil. If I made a mistake in writing.....I crossed through it and continued on. I didn't see my work being worthy of being reviewed later like Einstein, Charles Darwin, or Micheal Faraday. Notes in my opinion....were simply notes.
Now, I realize some guys are different and have maintained their 10th grade science notebook or their 2nd year engineering class notebook from college.....thirty years ago no less. But generally.....notes are worthless at the end of the semester and the test cycle.
What Claxton is suggesting is that we simply readjust our perception of material we've written and not feel ashamed by mistakes. Take a side-step.....admit imperfection......learn while in the progress of things.
We might as well admit that half the things we have today....came from mistakes.
I'm one of those folks who has to live around Germans. In German culture.....the eraser mentality is a big deal. Every single kid and student carries around a hefty eraser, and pencil.....along with six color-type pens/markers, a ruler, and various tools of marking a paper in a special way. In some ways....it's fanatical in the behavior thing. I'm presently in the middle of a German language class (3rd day) and the teacher ripped me up for not having a pencil today (yesterday came the criticism of not having a yellow and green marker on my person).
The odds that Claxton will have any success? Zero. The eraser cartel and control freaks will go berserk when this comes up in class. You are dissolving thousands of eraser jobs.....if you got rid of this standard in society.
Wednesday, 27 May 2015
The Six-Percent Problem
If a volcano started building up around a hundred miles from your house.....with smoke pouring out.....some eruption factor being predicted.....and chaos possibly in the works.....six-percent of your neighbors or friends (maybe even your wife)....would want to go and get within a mile of the volcano to see it up-close and personal.
If you had a 'mad-elephant' who'd stomped and killed a dozen folks.....that had escaped from the circus and cornered in some woods on the other side of the county, then six-percent of your friends, neighbors or relatives (maybe even your husband).....would want to go and walk out in this woods to find the mad-elephant.
If you had a dam that was failing and everyone was warning folks to get out of the downward area.....six-percent of your friends, neighbors and relatives....would want to get into the truck and go about a half-mile down from the dam to watch the potential results.
I call this the six-percent problem with society. We are this stupid.
You could write a forty-page users manual for chain-saws, and six-percent of folks who'd buy the chainsaw would totally avoid reading the users manual, and get injured in the first week of use.
You could buy a pretty angry and hostile bull....whose previous owner had said he was terribly disturbed, and you told every neighbor to avoid your pasture area where he roamed......and six-percent of the folks warned would immediately come over and want to see the hostile bull.
It is our natural reaction....to test fate. We simply don't believe some words of caution or wisdom.
For some reason, I actually believe that this group of people are hard-wired to be this way.
The same group of people will see the speed limit set at 75-mph and drive 90-mph....even when it's lightly raining. The same group of people will hear about a tornado being observed twelve miles over and want to jump in the truck to go and watch it. The same group of people will hear about some crazy gal who hangs out at the local bar and is absolutely toxic and nuts....but go right up and test her reaction to their offer of a drink.
For some reason, I think there's a reaction by some of us.....to hold back the six-percent.....to emphasize they are doing the wrong thing or risking themselves over stupidity. But here's the thing.....wisdom, judgement and advice don't work. Let nature do what it's been doing for a ten-thousand years.
Just some humble advice.
If you had a 'mad-elephant' who'd stomped and killed a dozen folks.....that had escaped from the circus and cornered in some woods on the other side of the county, then six-percent of your friends, neighbors or relatives (maybe even your husband).....would want to go and walk out in this woods to find the mad-elephant.
If you had a dam that was failing and everyone was warning folks to get out of the downward area.....six-percent of your friends, neighbors and relatives....would want to get into the truck and go about a half-mile down from the dam to watch the potential results.
I call this the six-percent problem with society. We are this stupid.
You could write a forty-page users manual for chain-saws, and six-percent of folks who'd buy the chainsaw would totally avoid reading the users manual, and get injured in the first week of use.
You could buy a pretty angry and hostile bull....whose previous owner had said he was terribly disturbed, and you told every neighbor to avoid your pasture area where he roamed......and six-percent of the folks warned would immediately come over and want to see the hostile bull.
It is our natural reaction....to test fate. We simply don't believe some words of caution or wisdom.
For some reason, I actually believe that this group of people are hard-wired to be this way.
The same group of people will see the speed limit set at 75-mph and drive 90-mph....even when it's lightly raining. The same group of people will hear about a tornado being observed twelve miles over and want to jump in the truck to go and watch it. The same group of people will hear about some crazy gal who hangs out at the local bar and is absolutely toxic and nuts....but go right up and test her reaction to their offer of a drink.
For some reason, I think there's a reaction by some of us.....to hold back the six-percent.....to emphasize they are doing the wrong thing or risking themselves over stupidity. But here's the thing.....wisdom, judgement and advice don't work. Let nature do what it's been doing for a ten-thousand years.
Just some humble advice.
Saturday, 23 May 2015
The Problem with Meditation
I read a fair amount of newspapers from across the globe. This morning, I went over a piece on the Daily Mail (a British daily).
There's this piece over how meditation can trigger mental issues.
Basically, some science folks did some analysis and studies.....then they did the statistical average.....roughly sixty percent of people who've been on some type of meditation retreat/trip.....end up with at least one negative aspect (confusion, panic, or depression).
Oddly, the way it works is that the early part of this meditation was positive and gave you some inspiration or positive thrust in life. Then for some reason.....there's a 'rush' as you fall to the ground. You probably could make up for this 'fallen and can't get up' episode by having another mediation moment, then just keep repeating this to avoid the confusion factor or panic attacks or depressive moments.
Relating to 'aholic' moments? Over the years, I've encountered a few folks who were addicted to meditation-type situations. Several times a day....they needed to retreat and have a couple of minutes of self-meditation....to reach a positive state of mind. I didn't think much of it....just that they seemed to be like smokers and needed a 'nicotine-type' fix for their mental state.
How many people meditate? Unknown. Psychology Today, back in 2010.....said there were around ten million Americans who did at least one meditation moment per day. How they reached this conclusion was not precise and had some rough estimation involved. If true, then it means that you likely bump into three or four people a day as a minimum who are stuck on meditation. Higher in urban areas than rural areas? I might tend to agree on that.
Will this trigger anything? Well....I'm guessing some TV dimwits will say it's a national problem and want to confuse people with anti-meditation talk and have anti-meditation gurus appear to chat on frustrations of meditation. Eventually, some folks will wonder if they ought to flip over and become enthusiasts of mediation to fix some other issue in their life.
Bottom line? Just get with your life and don't worry about rights or wrongs. Sip some Mountain Dew, watch an episode of Gilligan's Island, get a haircut, or chat over septic tank knowledge.....just live a bit on the edge and be happy over that.
There's this piece over how meditation can trigger mental issues.
Basically, some science folks did some analysis and studies.....then they did the statistical average.....roughly sixty percent of people who've been on some type of meditation retreat/trip.....end up with at least one negative aspect (confusion, panic, or depression).
Oddly, the way it works is that the early part of this meditation was positive and gave you some inspiration or positive thrust in life. Then for some reason.....there's a 'rush' as you fall to the ground. You probably could make up for this 'fallen and can't get up' episode by having another mediation moment, then just keep repeating this to avoid the confusion factor or panic attacks or depressive moments.
Relating to 'aholic' moments? Over the years, I've encountered a few folks who were addicted to meditation-type situations. Several times a day....they needed to retreat and have a couple of minutes of self-meditation....to reach a positive state of mind. I didn't think much of it....just that they seemed to be like smokers and needed a 'nicotine-type' fix for their mental state.
How many people meditate? Unknown. Psychology Today, back in 2010.....said there were around ten million Americans who did at least one meditation moment per day. How they reached this conclusion was not precise and had some rough estimation involved. If true, then it means that you likely bump into three or four people a day as a minimum who are stuck on meditation. Higher in urban areas than rural areas? I might tend to agree on that.
Will this trigger anything? Well....I'm guessing some TV dimwits will say it's a national problem and want to confuse people with anti-meditation talk and have anti-meditation gurus appear to chat on frustrations of meditation. Eventually, some folks will wonder if they ought to flip over and become enthusiasts of mediation to fix some other issue in their life.
Bottom line? Just get with your life and don't worry about rights or wrongs. Sip some Mountain Dew, watch an episode of Gilligan's Island, get a haircut, or chat over septic tank knowledge.....just live a bit on the edge and be happy over that.
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