Wow, Alex, thank you for sharing that Feel Good News video of Josh Paler Lin giving a homeless man $100 –it certainly brought tears to my eyes! Wishing you a relaxing few days while I take the News Roundup hand-off… Happy New Year.
$1.3 Billion. 15 Years. No Answers.
Hello to all in this New Year –hoping it has taken off with a bang! We start our News Roundup with a story that makes me a bit sad, and yet hopeful as we, here at Golden Age of Gaia continue to shine light on systems that no longer are effective. Of course, we do this in our tireless efforts toward grand change for our world highlighting what’s broken and no longer works. It seems our beloved and ever-so responsible government has spent $1.3 billion on a study which they’ve had to withdraw from and in turn, forfeit all the money taxpayers have thus far spent.
It began most admirably: Entitled the National Children’s Study, assessing 100,000 children from birth to 21 years old, intended to get a handle on the rising cases of asthma and autism of the late 1990s. “In the 14 subsequent years, the government has spent $1.3 billion, working with hundreds of scientists at dozens of sites around the country. There’s little to show for the effort. While some 5,700 children have been enrolled in pilot studies since 2009, researchers stopped collecting data on Dec. 12, when the NIH concluded that the project could not be salvaged and moved to shut it down. Families that had signed up received letters saying their contributions would no longer be needed.”
It seems there is no single answer to why it went south and could not be saved –on some level. One explanation is that science and technology superseded the program, and the developers were unable to effectively incorporate the latest advances into their study. And personally, being a science student in undergrad and grad school, scientists understand that is naturally going to happen, and certainly that is not grounds to vacate the study forfeiting over $1 billion! It’s up to the researchers to expect such advances and to be prepared to somehow retro fit them into the study or simply finish the work as is and enter said developments into the conclusion or “next steps” for fellow scientists.
Again, I bring this silliness of our current systems to the forefront of our conscience in an effort to raise undeniable awareness where the majority of us are saying “enough’s enough.” We need a drastic change in how things are run and we need them now. Oh by the way, we also have many suggestions and proposals on ways of doing it differently –just ask us, Congress, the people who voted you in and who you’re supposed to be serving.
Be sure to always know your audience, personally or professionally
Now this article tickles me through and through, being a psychology grad! I’m always fascinated by what makes people tick and also by how unaware some people are –especially if presenting information that’s clear and easily received is paramount to their job success. In psychology, like most industries, we have our own language, which allows us to say for example “codependent personality.” My colleagues would then immediately understand the dynamics of said patient without me having to review each and every character trait. In this sense, it serves as a most helpful tool in saving valuable time in both communication and in psychological assessment.
Naturally, there are issues we discuss that are either confidential and/or sensitive for a patient to not hear bluntly, rather some news needs to be edited and softened to help our client swallow such info, in order to efficiently incorporate it and move forward. With this in mind, I greatly appreciate this next story, giving three reasons why it’s inappropriate speaking office jargon to your potential customers.
“Clarity: Is that ‘cancer’ or ‘a malignancy’? If I were a patient, or a loved one trying to manage that patient’s care, the simpler word with half the syllables conveys a clearer story to me. Often, this obfuscation is delivered with the best intentions, but it causes problems nonetheless: When a grand luxury hotel confuses a would-be guest by saying ‘we’re fully committed tonight’ when what they mean, in English, is ‘we’re all booked up,’ they’re not trying to confuse that guest or would-be guest. They’re speaking a language that was developed to sound less harsh, to cast a gentle light of luxury. But it just creates highfalutin confusion.”
Another reason to know your audience is understanding who’s in the “in crowd” and who’s not, keeping privy info with the right crowd. Finally, recognizing when you’re “onstage” speaking to clients should be a different dialogue than when speaking to your co-workers.
Don’t Sabotage The Customer Experience Speaking Jargon To Your Customers by Micah Solomon. Forbes.
How is this even possible? Police are permitted to violate our constitutional rights if they do not know the law.
Oh my goodness, what is this all about? This is so ludicrous that it’s laughable. Former SNL star Molly Shannon portrayed a character named Jeannie Darcy who would make a big stink about disrespectful situations saying, “Don’t get me started. Don’t even get me started!” Of course, that’s exactly how I feel regarding this next story.
“Acting contrary to the venerable principle that ‘ignorance of the law is no excuse,’ the Supreme Court ruled that evidence obtained by police during a traffic stop that was not legally justified can be used to prosecute the person if police were reasonably mistaken that the person had violated the law.” I am thoroughly appalled, embarrassed, and dumbfounded with the judges of our Supreme Court. Most likely, if one of us somehow claimed that we “didn’t know it was illegal,” then we would still be arrested and charged –no excuse or pardons for the average citizen.
“By refusing to hold police accountable to knowing and abiding by the rule of law, the Supreme Court has given government officials a green light to routinely violate the law,” said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. “This case may have started out with an improper traffic stop, but where it will end—given the turbulence of our age, with its police overreach, military training drills on American soil, domestic surveillance, SWAT team raids, asset forfeiture, wrongful convictions, and corporate corruption—is not hard to predict. This ruling is what I would call a one-way, non-refundable ticket to the police state.”
Two of today’s stories highlighted the absurdity of how our systems are running, specifically our government… don’t even get me started! It is my hope that all of you also continue to do what you can in your everyday reality to either highlight such discrepancies, or even better, to do something about it that encourages change from these upside decisions which do not support progress.
Given the frequency of hard-to-believe events in our world, there’s a possibility that you too are experiencing a challenging situation. For this, I ask you to do the best you can staying grounded and emotionally balanced within a society that seems regularly “unfair.” We can only take care of ourSelves, and then spend our energy focusing on a specific aspect of our world that we’d like to change.
One step at a time, we shall get there!
Be the change you desire in our world …to paraphrase Ghandi.
We Are All One
Gavin