Darwin would be amazed

The Darwin Awards are a tongue-in-cheek honor, originating in Usenet newsgroup discussions around 1985. They recognize individuals who have supposedly contributed to human evolution by selecting themselves out of the gene pool via death or sterilization by their own actions.

The project became more formalized with the creation of a website in 1993, and followed up by a series of books starting in 2000, authored by Wendy Northcutt. The criterion for the awards states, "In the spirit of Charles Darwin, the Darwin Awards commemorate individuals who protect our gene pool by making the ultimate sacrifice of their own lives. Darwin Award winners eliminate themselves in an extraordinarily idiotic manner, thereby improving our species' chances of long-term survival.

This week, there were people flying INTO Florida. There were people choosing to travel to Florida.

We are not talking about First Responders, or Nurses, or Emergency Rescue personnel. We are talking about normal, every day people who made the choice to be in Florida - during Hurricane Irma. They choose to GO TO THE STATE with mandatory evacuations in place.

Folks, if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

Forget about the storm surge. Forget about days (weeks?) of no electricity, or fresh drinking water. And the lack of food, or supplies. It might take days for gasoline supply trucks to replenish the “out of gas” stations.

As I sit here writing this blog in New Jersey, I cannot help but remember Hurricane Sandy. Our town was without electricity for days. Gas lines were long for a week. It took a full month for some basic utilities to be restored.

People with little to no money were so desperate to evacuate Florida. If they could get out, they would have done so. Some people had no choice, they did not have the means to follow the mandatory evacuation orders.

To those of you who choose to travel TO Florida during such an event, I salute you. You were safe, and you choose to place yourself in harm’s way. You were out of danger, and you choose to place yourself in danger. You are selfish, as you will be just one more person that our already over-worked First Responders and Emergency Personnel now need to worry about.

OK, new topic:

Every 40 seconds, someone in the USA has a heart attack.

Why do more heart attacks and sudden deaths occur on Monday than on any other day of the week?

According to researchers, an "outpouring" of stress hormones, such as cortisol and adrenaline, occurs within working people on Mondays. These findings were substantiated in a study of 683 patients, predominantly middle-aged men with implanted defibrillators and a history of life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias. The data led researchers to conclude that Monday is the most stressful day of the week when it comes to risk factors for heart attack.

What I find provocative about the study is that its participants showed a prominent peak in arrhythmias on Mondays—21 percent of episodes—even if they were no longer working! That was followed by a mid-week decline in arrhythmias and a second peak on Fridays. Not surprisingly, Saturdays and Sundays saw a 50 percent lower arrhythmia rate than did Mondays.

Why do Mondays continue to be the peak day for arrhythmias? Your body always remembers and anticipates stressful events. So, even though the participants in the study were not working, the fact that their bodies anticipated going to work on Monday triggered the identical biochemical stress hormones, increasing the heart attack risk factors that led to potentially lethal ventricular arrhythmias.

So, let’s tie it all together.  Tomorrow is a Monday. And in Florida, tomorrow is a Monday - with a 100 year Hurricane. A Monday in Florida, with millions of people without electricity. Millions of people without the ability to travel. What a great time to have a heart attack (or any emergency medical condition).

Those of you who decided to travel TO Florida (from safety) to harm’s way, your Darwin Award will be waiting for you.  Or for your next of kin to pick up for you.

From CNN today:

"There is imminent danger of life-threatening storm surge flooding along much of the Florida's coastline. The threat of catastrophic storm surge flooding is highest along the southwest coast of Florida, where 10 to 15 feet of inundation above ground level is expected. This is a life-threatening situation."

Still, not everyone heeded orders to evacuate Florida. Wayne Ploghoft is hunkered down on the third floor of a building on Marco Island -- where catastrophic storm surges are imminent. Ploghoft said he wasn't able to evacuate because his flight plans didn't work out. Now Ploghoft and three others are holed up with stockpiles of water, canned food and battery power.

Wayne WANTED to get out of harm's way, but could not.

To those of you who traveled TO Florida, ignoring all of the warnings, congratulations. You are now part of the problem. You are now just one more person that our First Responders have to worry about. Thanks!

Mother, what have you done?

Pictured here is one of the better images yet recorded of a waterspout, a type of tornado that occurs over water. Waterspouts are spinning columns of rising moist air that typically form over warm water. Waterspouts can be as dangerous as tornadoes and can feature wind speeds over 200 kilometers per hour. Some waterspouts form away from thunderstorms and even during relatively fair weather. Waterspouts may be relatively transparent and initially visible only by an unusual pattern they create on the water. The featured image was taken in 2013 July near Tampa Bay, Florida. The Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida is arguably the most active area in the world for waterspouts, with hundreds forming each year.

Some people speculate that waterspouts are responsible for some of the ship losses recorded in the Bermuda Triangle.

As of the writing of this blog, the water is still rising in Texas from Hurricane Harvey. With the technology of the day, we can predict a Hurricane many days before it hits landfall. We can take pictures from space, monitoring the massive storms. We can prepare, we can warn the people. But there is nothing that we can do about the storms themselves.

Technology allows us to prepare for Mother Nature having a bad day, but never preventing her from reminding us who's boss.

It will be interesting to see the role that technology plays in the recovery and the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. 51.88 inches of rain. 27 trillion gallons of rain over 6 days - these are national records. Thousands of homes destroyed with only around 28% with flood insurance. 20,000 rescues reported. 37,000 living in shelters as of Friday night. Gas prices are up $0.23 in a week.

Total estimated costs of cleanup from this single storm: up to $180 Billion.

And the 2017 Hurricane Season has just begun.

To donate, Visit: www.RedCross.org 

That's news to me

HOUSTON, TX — After double-checking their math, scientists have announced that the total lunar eclipse predicted for August 21, 2017, will occur August 3, 2018.

“Due to a computational mishap, the eclipse we projected for later this month will actually take place late next year,” stated NASA astrophysicist Dr. Theodore Moneta at a hastily-planned press conference from Johnson Space Center in Houston. “We were a bit off.”

Dr. Moneta explained that in calculating the date of the eclipse, scientists utilized a complex formula involving geocentric ephemeris for the Sun and Moon, various parameters, constants, and the Besselian elements, but along the way an error went unnoticed.

“In layman’s terms, we forgot to carry the one,” explained Moneta, a mistake that has plagued 12-year-olds in 7th grade math for centuries.

“It’s disappointing,” stated Matt Mead, governor of Wyoming, upon hearing the news. “Obviously, the NASA nerds really dropped the ball on this one.”

[ The above, is what is known as “Fake News” ]

Fake news is a type of yellow journalism or propaganda that consists of deliberate misinformation or hoaxes spread via traditional print and broadcast news media or online social media. Fake news is written and published with the intent to mislead in order to gain financially or politically, often with sensationalist, exaggerated, or patently false headlines that grab attention. Intentionally misleading and deceptive fake news is different from obvious satire or parody which is intended to humor rather than mislead its audience. Fake news often employs eye-catching headlines or entirely fabricated news stories to increase readership, online sharing and Internet click revenue. In the latter case, it is similar to sensational online "clickbait" headlines and relies on advertising revenue generated from this activity, regardless of the veracity of the published stories. Fake news also undermines serious media coverage and makes it more difficult for journalists to cover significant news stories.

In the 1200s BC, Rameses the Great spread lies and propaganda portraying the Battle of Kadesh as a stunning victory for the Egyptians; he depicted scenes of him smiting his foes during the battle on the walls of nearly all his temples. The treaty between the Egyptians and the Hittites, however, reveals that the battle was actually a stalemate.

During the first century BC, Octavian ran a campaign of misinformation against his rival Mark Antony, portraying him as a drunkard and a womanizer and a mere puppet of the Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII. He published a document purporting to be Marc Antony's will, which claimed that Marc Antony, upon his death, wished to be entombed in the mausoleum of the Ptolemaic pharaohs. Although the document may have been forged, it invoked outrage from the Roman populace. Marc Antony ultimately killed himself after his defeat in the Battle of Actium upon hearing false rumors propagated by Cleopatra herself claiming that she had committed suicide.

During the second and third centuries AD, false rumors were spread about Christians claiming that they engaged in ritual cannibalism and incest. In the late third century AD, the Christian apologist Lactantius invented and exaggerated stories about pagans engaging in acts of immorality and cruelty, while the anti-Christian writer Porphyry invented similar stories about Christians.

*****

I just made this all up.

Or did I? Or, did I simply “cut and paste” these accounts of history from the Internet, from a website that someone else “cut and pasted” from another website?

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) published a summary in diagram form to assist people to recognize fake news. Its main points are:

1. Consider the source (to understand its mission and purpose)
2. Read beyond the headline (to understand the whole story)
3. Check the authors (to see if they are real and credible)
4. Assess the supporting sources (to ensure they support the claims)
5. Check the date of publication (to see if the story is relevant and up to date)
6. Ask if it is a joke (to determine if it is meant to be satire)
7. Review your own biases (to see if they are affecting your judgement)
8. Ask experts (to get confirmation from independent people with knowledge).

So, unless you were there and unless you saw it with your own eyes, then it is all fake news, right?

Google: Why Science Tells Us Not to Rely on Eyewitness Accounts

Google: The Invisible Gorilla  http://www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/videos.html

All news is fake, just as all eyewitness testimony is fake. All history books are fake, because the author was not there. What you read on Wikipedia today, can be edited and updated tomorrow.




So before we act (or react) based on ANYTHING that we read or hear, remember this: all news is fake, to some degree.

One of the earliest instances of fake news was the Great Moon Hoax of 1835. The New York Sun published articles about a real-life astronomer and a made-up colleague who, according to the hoax, had observed bizarre life on the moon. The fictionalized articles successfully attracted thousands of new subscribers, and the paper suffered very little backlash after it had been disclosed as a hoax. 

Somebody made that

This is going to be a long-winded blog, so if you need to visit the restroom first, I’ll wait.

So…….yesterday my wife and I took an Uber from Boonton Township, NJ to NYC. Specifically, to “The Frying Pan” restaurant on the Hudson River. We splurged a little. My logic: taking an Uber round-trip allowed us to avoid parking, tolls, and I could have an adult beverage (or two) at dinner. So I convinced myself that taking an Uber from home to “the city” was justified.

So here is where it gets interesting. I could not remember the last time that I rode in the back seat of a car (or a bus) where my head was not buried in an electronic device. I actually looked out…...the window.

And then I started to notice things.

Wow. Look at that house. Big. And the landscaping. Someone built that house. Someone did that amazing landscaping. Hey, they resurfaced the road. Cool.

When you ride in the backseat, without a laptop or an iPad, you have nothing to do but look out the window. We live around 30 miles west of New York City.  And then, it slowly starts to build.

Wow. Look at all the cars on the road. Someone…….built all of those cars. Look at those traffic signs, someone got paid to install those signs. And the streetlights. Someone installed those lights.

More…….cars. Roads. Buildings. Oh man, when you sit in the back of a car……..and just have nothing better to do than just look out the window…….and count the cars. Count the buildings. Count the things that “someone” built, count the things that someone installed or created or made with their hands.

And then, the New York City skyline starts to come into view. How are we crossing the river? The GWB? The Lincoln Tunnel? The Holland Tunnel?

Someone built……….that bridge.  Someone built that tunnel. And THAT tunnel, and THAT one, and THAT one………

And then………..the buildings. The Skyscrapers. For miles and miles……..one building bigger than the next. And my mind started to think about all the “things” INSIDE these massive buildings. The furniture. The elevators. Everything inside all of these massive buildings….the desks, the chairs, the machines.  Someone built……..someone made…….all of these things.

And then…..you think about the airports. JFK. Newark. LaGuardia. Someone built those airports. And the planes (that someone built) that fly people to OTHER AIRPORTS (that someone also built). Chicago. Los Angeles. Someone……...built……...all…...of that….stuff. In all of those cities and towns. In all fifty states.

Someone built the smartphone, that holds the app, that summons an Uber, which delivers a car, that someone built. The smartphone that is connected to the Internet, which is connected to servers, that are housed in Data Centers, that someone…..built. Someone wrote the code, someone made the website. Someone made... all of this.

Dinner last night was on “The Frying Pan” which was a Lightship that sunk, and was raised, and converted into a floating restaurant. Someone built that boat. And then someone built that restaurant on that salvaged boat.

Now when I say “someone” that usually means someone(s) plural. TEAMS of people built those buildings. Crews of people built those bridges, tunnels and roads. So, in the Uber from New Jersey to New York City……...I experienced a chain reaction of epiphanies.

How is this possible? How did any of this……….how did all of this……..happen?

Exactly how old is the United States of America anyway?

If you “Google it” (yeah, somebody built Google, too) you find this: 241 years, 20 days.

Under description: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for film making.

How is this possible?  All of this, all of this....all of this...in just 241 years, 20 days?

All of the roads, all of the tunnels, all of the bridges.  All of the buildings, all of the computers, the cars. Disneyland. And then, Disneyworld. The football stadiums. All of the planes, the ships, the hospitals, the schools. The International Space Station…..!!!

Everything. In 241 years, 20 days…….somebody did…...all of this.

Is your heart beating just a little bit faster after reading this? How does reading this blog, how does pondering this little “thought experiment” make you feel?

The United States of America: 241 years, 20 days. Yeah, somebody built all of this.

We did.

Our parents, our grandparents and their parents before them. Our next door neighbors and their families - we built all of this. We are all “the somebody” that created everything you see, built everything that you touch - from sea to shining sea.

And tomorrow is Monday. Rest up everyone, please enjoy the rest of your weekend. Tomorrow is a work day. And remember, none of us is as smart as all of us.

WE are the somebody that built it all, and we are still building. WE (all of us) are THE UNITED States of America.

There is NO PROBLEM before us that we cannot address and solve. But only if we work together. So, let’s work together. Simple. Will it be hard? YES, of course. But, it is still simple.

Are you pumped up? Are you excited that tomorrow is Monday?

I am.

But first I will take my wife to a movie tonight, “The Big Sick”. It has very good ratings. We shall see this movie in a theater that someone built. A movie “born” via the hard work of very talented screenwriters, and actors, and cameramen, and studios, and executives, and…..

Director: Michael Showalter

Screenplay: Kumail Nanjiani, Emily V. Gordon

Production companies: FilmNation Entertainment, Apatow Productions

Producers: Judd Apatow, Barry Mendel

I'm smiling because my friend grabbed the check!

May I have your attention please.....

I just returned home from Comic Fest 2017. It was fun. It is supposed to be fun, so that’s a good thing! I did, however, feel like I was in a dream sequence from “The Big Bang Theory” television show.

I learned of Comic Fest via my son’s old college roommate who is destined to be the next “Stan Lee” and it was cool to see him again.

What I REALLY wanted to do, was meet as many artists, animators and creative people as possible. Via the NYDLA.org we have constant, ongoing demand for creative talent. Things like whiteboard explainer videos, animated websites, and all things “UX/UI” need creative people to make things online to... come alive. We cannot hire creative people fast enough.

While User Experience is a conglomeration of tasks focused on optimization of a product for effective and enjoyable use; User Interface Design is its complement, the look and feel, the presentation and interactivity of a product. But like UX, it is easily and often confused by the industries that employ UI Designers.

There. Was that nerdy enough for you?

So, I walked serpentine, up and down all the rows of the trade show, collecting business cards from as many animators, artists and “creative folk” as I could find. I might have handed out a few of my business cards as well. Well, more than a few of my business cards. Well, maybe a few hundred.

But then it hit me.

All the people in the building...all the people dressed up as characters...all the people who paid for a booth...all the people who were displaying their talents, displaying their skills, displaying their body of work:

They all wanted my…….. attention.

Nothing happens until I have your attention.  It does not matter how good my product or service might be. It does matter the price, or the size or shape or color. It does not matter if you need it or not; if I do not have “your attention” for 30 or 60 seconds (or more) nothing is going to happen. Nothing good, and probably nothing bad. But it will be…..nothing.

We are all in the “attention business” whether we realize it or not. Once I have EARNED your attention, I maybe (maybe) have a shot at winning your business. But until I indeed have your focus, your attention, everything is just a big waste of time and money.

Why did I stop at THIS booth and not that booth? Why did I stop to take a picture of THIS person and not that person? Why did I GO BACK to a busy booth to talk to the person later, making a mental note that this person has “earned my attention” they just don’t know it yet.

Yeah, that was my lesson for the day.  We are all in the attention business. If you read today’s blog this far, then I earned yours.

And, if you did not read this far…….then you won’t be able click here, right?

Oh, you know you want to click it.  Go ahead. Nothing bad will happen, right? Don't worry, there are enough Superheroes around today if you need any help.

Your ideas are all wet

Several years ago, I met “The Famous River Hot Dog Man” Gregory Crance via Facebook.

Living in Northern New Jersey (not far from the Delaware Water Gap) we would often see “tubers” floating down the river in the summer. “Hey, look at the tubers! Look, rafters! Wow, that looks like fun. We should do that one day…..”

And that is where it ended, the Capone Family “we should do that one day” list.

As time went by, the thought of sitting in a tube, drifting down the river with minimal caloric effort became more and more attractive.

Is there anything more “low tech” than sitting in a tube, and letting Mother Nature do all the work? Last year was our first year floating down the river. Today shall be our first trip of many “floating family meetings” for the season.

One day while on Gregory’s “Jet Boat” on the river, I told my new waterlogged entrepreneurial  friend about some ideas that I had for his river business.

• You can update your website so that people can “book their events” online, similar to an Eventbrite experience.
• You can make “an app” so that people can buy their tickets online, organize their own groups, and check weather/river conditions.
• You can create “alerts” for last minute specials, “friends and family” on the river alerts. Something like MeetUps on the river. “Hey, the Smith Family is going to be on the river today, let’s join them!”
• You can use Uber “pool” service to have small groups of people dropped off / picked up at the river launch points. Maximum savings and convenience.
• Lashing the tubes together makes for a perfect “floating meeting” for corporate teams.
• Birthday parties, team building, family outings, the list is endless.
• Leave your wallets in the car - your Smartphone app lets you buy anything you need - including food at the halfway point on the river.
• Waze is the world's largest community-based traffic and navigation app. Join other drivers in your area who share real-time traffic and road info, saving everyone time and gas money on their daily commute. So now our app does that... for the river.
• Of course, we shall supply waterproof cases for Smartphones, water shoes, sunscreen, and other river gear at the launch point.
• And let’s not forget the “tube for the cooler” - bring your own goodies or fill your floating cooler from our marketplace.

Know what my friend said? “If you think these are such good ideas, why don’t you do them with me?” You know what happened next, right?

How many people living in North New Jersey know about this amazing hidden gem of a summertime day trip? There is an old saying in marketing: “Don’t keep your light under a barrel” which means don’t keep your strengths a secret.

Other old sayings: “Your ideas are all wet…….or…..You are still wet behind the ears......or....Don't be a wet blanket.”

See you on the river……...and don’t forget your sunscreen.