In This Edition:
1.
A Mild March
2.
Buried by Information
3.
Skepticism is a Virtue
4.
Spleling: A Crzay Thnig
A Mild March
March in North Carolina this winter is as mild as I've ever
witnessed! Here's hoping we'll just waltz into spring, and that my
cherished Eastwood Lake will be ready for swimming (as in warm enough) by
the end of April!
Buried by Information
New technology spawns greater expectations and information overload!
Have you ever noticed, as soon as greater technological capabilities come
along, BAM, so do expectations. In 1827, the Erie Canal became functional
for the passage of horse drawn canal ships -- at the blazing speed of four
miles per hour. So many vendors wanted to transport their goods from the
west through the Canal, and to the Hudson River down to New York City, that
the Canal immediately became clogged. And so, it was enlarged, then again
dramatically enlarged, and then yet again.
At every junction expectations about the traffic volume that the
Canal could handle rose and then, almost instantly, existing Canal capacity
was never enough. Soon the railroads became popular and for many the Canal
fell into disuse until it became a recreational and tourist attraction in
the 20th century. It went from expectation to over expectation to
abandonment within a generation. How cold!
In the typical office, before electric typewriters, and certainly
before PCs, getting 25 or 30 original business letters out the door in a day
once represented an impressive achievement, all that an employer could
expect from a worker in one day. Now, anyone, and I mean anyone including
some ten year-olds, can generate 500 to 1,000 letters in a day if one
chooses, and that wouldn't even be news.
On any given day the aggregate of emails sent by individuals, and
we're not talking about spam here, is 500 to 600 times greater than the
entire aggregation of web pages accessible on the Internet.
Enhanced communication technology spawns information overload. In 1905, the
typical person generated only a tiny amount of information in his or her
entire life. Whereas notable people wrote dozens and dozens of letters, the
typical person wrote only a handful. Today, by some estimates, career
professionals write 80% to 85% of all original documents.
Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley in the
Department of Information Sciences concluded that if the total amount of
unique information annually generated in the world were to be parceled out
to every man woman and child on earth, each person be given a personal
library equivalent to 250 books. Be careful about how you employ new
technology because it holds the potential to both improve and decrease the
quality of your life.
Skepticism is a Virtue
Michael Gartner, a journalist, lawyer and former head of NBC News
believes that when it comes to ingesting new information, particularly
information derived from the medai, it makes sense to be skeptical. He
advised that you ask the following ten questions as you read, watch, and
surf:
1. Is the guest expert being paid?
2. Who posted the information? Unless this is clear, it's useless.
3. Who stated the information? Anonymous quotes don't count.
4. What was the question? In any poll, stop reading or listening if the
reporter doesn't give the wording of the question, the sample size, and the
date of the poll.
5. What is the answer? If an allegation is made in a story, is the reply
included in the story as well? If not, it's one-sided.
6. Why should I believe you? Any opinion piece is simply that, an opinion
unless the writer has incontestable facts.
7. How can I believe you? If the reporter's on a talk show, touting
partisan politics, how can he/she be writing a column next week that
supposed to be straight news?
8. Does anyone believe this? Absolutely ignore person-on-the-street
interviews or focus group stories that purport to speak for the state or for
the nation.
9. Are the words loaded? I "say," you, "allege." My friends are
"associates," yours are "cronies," etc.
10. Do I really care? Because the headline is large doesn't mean the issue
is important.
Spleling: A Crzay Thnig
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was
rdgnieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch
at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a
wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in
the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it
wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter
by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas thought
slpeling was ipmorantt!
