Information is Beautiful: “Rhetological” Fallacies
Reading the introduction to Animal Farm by Christopher Hitchens a few years ago, I was stunned to learn that George Orwell, then a struggling writer in London, worked by letter with a group of refugees to publish the novel in Ukrainian in the displaced persons camps of postwar Europe.
The story of Orwell and the refugees was an incredible triumph of life amidst so much death and destruction. Between Stalin’s terror famine and the Gulag, Hitler’s concentration camps, the clash of Soviet and Nazi armies in World War II, it was as though hell had opened up across Eastern Europe. Sixty-five years ago this March, Orwell wrote a heartfelt letter to a group of Ukrainian refugees sharing in their solidarity of wanting to expose the incomprehensible evil of totalitarian regimes. The refugees turned the letter into Orwell’s only published introduction to Animal Farm, and the only known personal account of how he developed the book that would be considered his masterpiece.
“Television audiences are no longer limited to one blaring screen. In fact, audiences are interacting with a second or even third screen while watching shows with help from their tablets, smart phones and laptops. These electronics now compete with the flat-screen for viewer attention, which for a medium based on impressions is an major issue.”
(Source: blogs.forbes.com)
I guess this is the French edition of my first book. Believe it or not, I’ve never seen it until now.
(Source: amazon.com)
Can facing a roomful of rambunctious, hormone-ravaged 7th and 8th graders day after day traumatize a teacher? What might be a joke in the staff break room is now getting serious research attention, thanks to a $1.6 million study to be launched this fall by the Institute of Education Sciences.
Researchers led by Teresa McIntyre, a psychology research professor at the University of Houston, will track 200 7th or 8th grade social studies, science and math teachers at 20 middle schools in the Houston Independent School District. The teachers and their students will be studied for three years, using a combination of teacher stress diaries and observational assessments, blood pressure and heart-rate monitors, school records and class observations.
Spector is surprised that many people do consider Chuck Norris to be the ultimate badass based on the jokes he’s helped propagate.
“A lot of people only became aware of him after the jokes became popular,” he said.
He may have a point, says Los Angeles-based branding expert Grant Powell.
“The jokes may have been the best thing that’s ever happened to Chuck Norris’ career,” Powell said. “They’re so over-the-top. They wouldn’t work for, say, Steven Seagal because Norris takes himself so seriously that he doesn’t take himself seriously.”
“While the language of the law can be intimidating, the concepts are usually quite straightforward,” she says. “Lawyers tend to be risk averse, and if you delegate to them you will usually stay out of legal trouble but can often compromise your business objectives. My goal for the course—and for the coaching I give entrepreneurs—is to give them sufficient comfort with the legal concepts to feel confident in driving the process, to understand the ways in which the law is a constraint, but also the ways in which it is a tool that can help you create and capture value.”
There was probably a courtship ritual among dinosaurs, involving signature body features. Last year, a group of paleontologists showed that the enormous fins on the back of pterosaurs and pelycosaurs were most likely there to attract mates, because they seem to have grown larger and larger through the generations. Similarly, some researchers think sauropods like the apatosaurus (which was once called the brontosaurus) grew long necks for mating displays rather than to reach the high leaves. Male triceratops may have locked their massive horns for the right to mate.
There is a stigma to mental health like no other illness in this nation. We talk about cancer. We talk about acne. We even talk about AIDS. We clearly have no problem talking about “erectile dysfunction.” But as a society, mental health is rarely discussed. Think about it: Most people see a dentist 1-2 times a year. Ideally, they see their primary doctor for a physical once a year. Yet, going to see a mental health specialist (a therapist, psychologist or psychiatrist) isn’t something that we do regularly. It isn’t something that is standard on all health plans. It isn’t something that begins as children. Why? Why doesn’t it make sense that you would see someone (at least as much as we see our dentists) that can ask you, impartially, about your thoughts, stresses, growth, relationships, job life, etc?
Read the full story here.
This is an awesome piece.
“People don’t make purely rational decisions based on careful analysis of cost and expected utility, despite what classical economics taught us. Research findings confirm that our decisions are driven more by our emotions than logical and conscious thinking.
However, our irrationality is predictable. Good designers, therefore, can learn about human decision making and go beyond usability to create products that effectively influence our behavior.”
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Entrepreneur, Bestselling author/creator of Chuck Norris Facts, Digital experience strategist with a passion for media using science + storytelling to make technology + business + life better.
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