Lynn Johnston writes:

Writing about the trials and tribulations of being a student brought memories flooding back. Here, I relived the anxiety of writing exams. Like everyone else, I hated them. There is an art to studying, which I didn’t learn until high school, and that is: there will always be questions asked about things which aren’t covered in class — studying your class notes is never enough. If you want to ace an exam, you have to thoroughly read your textbooks, take notes, and memorize anything you think might be relevant. Before I started to do this, I would study my notes, get an average mark, and feel cheated! I knew what was in my class notes…but exams proved that I didn’t know the subject.

This goes up in my classroom tomorrow.

It’s been a busy week in Wally World: the Universe’s source of cheap plastic crap from China. On The Writing On The Wal—the blog USA Today says should be on its readers’ radar—I continue my singular work dedicated to drawing back the curtain on the Bentonvile Behemoth’s corporate disinformation and other flackery.

WHAT WALMART WANTS, WALMART GETS… Savita Gill, Michelle Leung, and Annie Xu would like to give Walmart a pass when the matter of assigning culpability in the deaths of workers manufacturing products for the company’s shelves die while… Keep reading…

JUST WHAT MIGHT THE BRIEF SAY…? I first noted the story concerning the matter of Trinity Wall Street v. Walmart on 9 January. Today the next phase begins. “Wal-Mart Stores on Feb. 13 is scheduled to file a U.S. appeals court brief arguing that… Keep reading…”

WALMART SHOULD CARE FOR THEIR OWN FIRST… Considering the numbers of Walmart workers the company foists off on taxpayers to cover medical expenses through Medicaid, the story of Walmart’s tax-deductible donation to two Tulsa not-for-profits… Keep reading…

DUMP FEMA, WALMART HAS THIS… Like the other members of Faux Snoozes cadre of entertainers and comedian-wanna-bees, John Stossel is required to produce an ever spiraling stream of the absurd to keep viewers distracted. Who do you think Stossel… Keep reading…

CRUSHED BY LOW WAGES? DRINK UP… Alcohol is the official mind-numbness inducing drug of choice in America for those who need escape from their lives and do not wish to run afoul of law enforcement. Walmart wants to tap that corner the booze…. Keep reading…

MORE LIBERTARIAN WACKINESS: WAL-COIN… If names suggest destiny, then naming your son after Ayn Rand may be a subtle and tragic form of child abuse. Officially, Rand Paul (short for Randal) was not named after the infamous Objectivist—I like… Keep reading…

BENTONVILLE, WE HAVE A PROBLEM… Walmart is the master of inventory control. Legions of analysts have repeatedly told us so. Why then is there discontent? “Inventory issues continue to plague the nation’s larger retailer with some Wal-Mart stores…” Keep reading…

THE CATCH A SAVING… Talk to a dedicated coupon clipper and you’ll understand a bit about the force Walmart unleashed last year when the Bentonvile Behemoth introduced Savings Catcher. Like frequent flyer miles when airlines first introduced… Keep reading…

WALMART DOES REACT TO PUBLIC SCRUTINY… Shining bright lights into the corners of Walmart’s dark world does have positive effects as evidenced by the Bentonvile Behemoth’s reactions to the Los Angeles Times story Hardship on Mexico’s farms, a… Keep reading…

BANANAS ARE WALMART’S CANARY…? Walmart shoppers are smart and make smart choices when they buy food from the Bentonvile Behemoth. How do we know? Because Walmart says so. “Americans are smarter—and have the potential to be…” Keep reading…

LAST GASP IN LOUISVILLE…? Tonight may be the last gasp for opponents of a Walmart Supercenter in Louisville, Kentucky. “The sides are lining up for what may be the last battle over the design of a planned Wal-Mart superstore at Broadway and Dixie…” Keep reading…

$125,000 FOR GUBERNATORIAL PARTY… Walmart is big in Texas. So big that Walmart is not only the No. 1 private employer in the state, but the Bentonvile Behemoth was also the No. 1 contributor to the inaugural events for Texas Governor Gregg Abbot…. Keep reading…

REMEMBER WALMART’S FACEBOOK DEBACLE…? Back in 2007 Walmart tested the social media waters and all but drowned. Giving a public voice for people to express their frustrations with the Bentonvile Behemoth proved less than satisfying… Keep reading…

WHAT OF WALMART WORKER’S CHILDREN…? Caring for the children of employees by paying a living wage is a business expense. Caring for the children of non-employees is a business tax deduction. Yet again, Walmart makes the smart business…. Keep reading…

WALMART: 12 GAZILLION, PEOPLE: ZIP… You would think I would get tired of reporting about yet another triumph of a Walmart despoilment project over local businesses and private citizens desires to not have yet another Bentonvile Behemoth Big Box … Keep reading…

Previously on Walmart Wednesday…

Dilbert creator Scott Adams has a chapter in his book “How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big” titled “Passion is Bullshit.”

“When a successful person is interviewed, and you say, ‘What was the secret to your success?’ what they can’t say, because society won’t let them, is: ‘I was smarter, I worked harder, I had better connections, and I got really lucky,'” Adams tells Business Insider. “Instead, they go with a democratic trait: passion.”

Adams falls into the camp, which notably includes author Cal Newport, that believes pursuing something you love is not enough. Drawing from his own career, in which he became a successful cartoonist in 1995 after a string of failures, Adams says that finding a “system” is what’s necessary to get ahead.

Adams comments:

Over at Business Insider they are running my Slideshare presentation (based on my book) about systems versus goals, and passion being overrated. But here’s the interesting part.

Most of you remember a year ago when I was pimping my book on success like crazy and failing to get many people interested. I tried a lot of approaches to get attention, but none made a dent in the public’s consciousness. In other words, the artist in me that has instincts and intuitions and other arty feelings was a failure at marketing.

So I tried science to see how that would compare. I hired Rexi Media to help me put together the Slideshare using science to make my message more powerful and memorable. It turns out that there are plenty of studies suggesting how to do this sort of thing, so with Rexi Media’s help I wrapped my message in a science-approved formula and put it out in the world.

The science-driven Slideshare outperformed everything else I tried, by a wide margin. And now, many months later, Business Insider took an interest in it and turned it into one of the hottest items on their page. See the “heat” indicator on each item below it.

I’ll have to read the book—how clever of Adams—to determine just what he means by systems.

Previously…

Stay aware. Next time you’re trying to solve a problem, remember to check that the problem you’re solving is the problem you’ve actually got.

Oliver Burkeman writing in Asked a tricky question? Answer an easier one for The Guardian.

Mayor Frank Jackson took the right and crucial action vetoing the special tax authority Council voted to give the Flats East Bank project developers.

The gift to the Wolstein developers set just about the worst precedent that could be set for the city and its residents—special and exclusive taxing powers.

This was a gift of Joe Cimperman. He’s called the downtown Councilman. However, he’s the Cleveland Corporate servant.

The move would have given developers—who already enjoy vast subsidies—the right to enact and collect new taxes.

The concept is that these taxes would be used to provide public services in the development area.

What happens if more and more isolated districts can collect their own public taxes, including extra sales taxes, leaving the rest of the city to continue its precipitous decline with fewer and fewer sources of new revenue for services?

That precedent creates the very worst of public policy.

That Council members such as Mike Polensek, Brian Cummins and Jeff Johnson—usually pro-public—voted for this precedent-setting legislation without a Continue Reading »

An economist walks into a bar. This is a true story; it’s 2002, the bar is the Lava Lounge in LA, and the economist is an academic named Glen Whitman. He gets chatting to a fellow patron and mentions his line of work. “So,” asks the stranger, “what are the Two Things about economics?” “Huh?” Whitman replies, confused. “You know, the Two Things. For every subject, there are only two things you need to know. Everything else is the application of those two things, or just not important.” Whitman thinks, then replies: “One: incentives matter. Two: there’s no such thing as a free lunch.” Which is arguably a pretty good summation of the whole of economics.

“Ever since that evening,” Whitman wrote later, “I’ve been playing the Two Things game. Whenever I meet someone who belongs to a different profession [or] knows something about a subject I’m unfamiliar with, I pose the Two Things question.”

There are a number of listing for writing, none of which I agree—Burkeman writes this is likely—with.

The Two Things about English Literature:
1. The text is really about writing.
2. Writing is really about sex.

The Two Things about Writing:
1. Write what you know.
2. Be as short and simple as possible.

The Two Things about Writing:
1. Include what’s necessary.
2. Leave everything else out.

The Two Things about Editing:
1. Know the rules.
2. Pay attention.

I am in full agreement, as was Burkeman, on the subject of Journalism:

The Two Things about Being a Reporter:
1. There is no such thing as objectivity.
2. The end of the story is based on your deadline.

So, what do I think are the two things about Writing? How about:

1. All writing is autobiographical.
2. There is no capital “T” truth.

Previously…

I think that those who commit murder ought to be swiftly and permanently removed from society in the least expensive way possible. Our criminal justice system is so deeply flawed, however, I simply do not have sufficient faith that convicted murderers are guilty to accept such an irrevocable sentence.

Rodney Reed, slated for execution in Texas on 5 March, is a case in point.

It was October 2014 and [retired New York Police Department detective sergeant Kevin] Gannon was working as part of a three-cop team featured on the A&E channel true-crime show Dead Again. The program follows the trio of veteran detectives as they reinvestigate old murder cases. The team approaches the cases cold, not knowing what original police investigators concluded — or who was arrested and prosecuted in the end. Sometimes, Gannon says, he and his colleagues end up agreeing with the official outcome. Sometimes, they do not.

In this case, the investigators were probing the 1996 murder of 19-year-old Stacey Stites in a rural town in Central Texas. Gannon was given the autopsy report, crime scene photos and video, and police reports. “The first thing I remember [thinking] is, ‘oh my god, this is way off,’” he told The Intercept. “I knew it was wrong.” He went to talk to his producer and, by 7 p.m. that night, was sitting across from Reed’s Innocence Project lawyer, Bryce Benjet. Today, Gannon is among a number of people who are convinced the state of Texas is preparing to execute an innocent man.

Gannon’s reinvestigation of the Reed case will be shown in Monday night’s episode of Dead Again. (Full disclosure: I was interviewed about my reporting by A&E.) At the same time, Gannon’s conclusions, along with that of three of the country’s leading forensic pathologists who have studied the case, are at the heart of a new appeal on Reed’s behalf, filed on Thursday, February 12. The appeal argues that new scientific evidence proves conclusively that the state’s theory of the murder is “medically and scientifically impossible,” and that Reed is, in fact, innocent.

That this case has become a matter of Reality Television also disturbs me. The production values of justice and entertainment might intersect, but when the choice is made between what will attract viewers and what is true, the imperative to win viewers will triumphs every time. We ought not decide a man’s life that way.

Yet, there is more supporting Reed’s innocence than a television show and this kind of program might win Reed precious time.

[Police] attention eventually turned to a 29-year-old black man named Rodney Reed. Reed had been accused of a number of sexual assaults; he was tried in one case but ultimately acquitted. On a hunch, in April 1997, police compared DNA from semen found inside [Stacy] Stites with DNA collected from an unrelated case in which Reed had been accused of assaulting a woman. It was a match.

The DNA was all the state needed. The theory of the case came together quickly—if illogically—after that. Sometime after 3 a.m., authorities concluded, as Stites was on her way to work, Reed—who by the prosection’s account was alone and on foot without a vehicle —somehow overtook her as she drove along in Fennell’s truck. He kidnapped, assaulted, and strangled her, then dumped her body by the side of the road. He then abandoned the truck in the school parking lot, running off to the home nearby that he shared with his parents while leaving no physical trace of himself behind aside from his semen.

However far-fetched the state’s version of events sounded, Reed initially refused to explain how his DNA had been found in Stites. When questioned by police, he denied knowing Stites at all, apart from “what was on the news.” But by the time he went on trial in May 1998, Reed had admitted that this was a lie: He had known Stites. In fact, he says, he was having an affair with her, he was just afraid to admit it. In a small southern town like Bastrop, an affair between a black man and a young white woman engaged to a white police officer was not only scandalous, it could be extremely dangerous if it was revealed.

Reed’s defense at trial was that the semen found inside Stites had been the result of an ongoing, secret, illicit, and consensual sexual relationship. The couple’s last encounter was nearly two days before she was found murdered, Reed has said. While it might sound like a convenient, outlandish claim concocted to explain the presence of his DNA, numerous witnesses have said that they knew about the relationship. There was a local bail bond agent, a bar owner, and a neighbor of the Reed family who each claimed to have seen the couple together around the small town. And there were also Reed’s friends and relatives who told similar stories of seeing Reed and Stites together, behaving affectionately. But those sightings were the only evidence of the affair and there was nothing more concrete to back them up—no existing phone records, for example, because the Reed family did not have a phone in the mid-90s.

Small-town America is a very dangerous place to live.

We already know that will never stop paying the bills of overly wealthy pro-sports owners and players but you may not have known that Cuyahoga County on Jan. 15 paid Gateway bondholders $8,898,896.

A hefty $5,315,970 of the total is listed as “A county [general fund] contribution.” Isn’t that nice?

That makes the County general fund payments thus far on Gateway runovers and Quicken (Gund) Arena $88,701,131.

And another $3,582,926 came from city admission taxes and bed tax revenues.

IN TOTAL WE TAXPAYERS HAVE SHELLED OUT $154,852,113! extra costs on the arena. And charlatan Dan Gilbert has his hand out for more.

Better than winning a Powerball.

And guess what: WE WILL CONTINUE TO PAY IN THESE SUMS UNTIL DECEMBER 1, 2023. Every January 15.

ANOTHER 17 YEARS.

I warned back in 1992 when these bonds were issued—by the three commissioners that never went to jail—that the cost would be some $300 million Continue Reading »

I’ve written before about being an introvert—here, here and here—but this morning I came to yet another Oliver Burkeman essay on the subject where he references what he describes as the magazine’s most popular piece online: the Jonathan Rauch essay Caring For Your Introvert. There Rauch writes:

In its modern sense, the concept [of introversion] goes back to the 1920s and the psychologist Carl Jung. Today it is a mainstay of personality tests, including the widely used Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Introverts are not necessarily shy. Shy people are anxious or frightened or self-excoriating in social settings; introverts generally are not. Introverts are also not misanthropic, though some of us do go along with Sartre as far as to say “Hell is other people at breakfast.” Rather, introverts are people who find other people tiring.

Extroverts are energized by people, and wilt or fade when alone. They often seem bored by themselves, in both senses of the expression. Leave an extrovert alone for two minutes and he will reach for his cell phone. In contrast, after an hour or two of being socially “on,” we introverts need to turn off and recharge. My own formula is roughly two hours alone for every hour of socializing. This isn’t antisocial. It isn’t a sign of depression. It does not call for medication. For introverts, to be alone with our thoughts is as restorative as sleeping, as nourishing as eating. Our motto: “I’m okay, you’re okay—in small doses.”

Frankly, the only time I’m comfortable with a group of people for more than 30 minutes or is when alcohol is involved.

As an introvert, Rauch tells me, I am in a minority of the general population, but a majority in the gifted population (actually, that’s not Rauch’s claim, but one he found via Google and attributed to education experts Jill D. Burruss and Lisa Kaenzig).

Finally, I like the close of Rauch’s piece where he offers this advice to anyone wishing to let the introvert in their life know that they are supportive and respectful:

Ruffian, Scalawag, Knave, Rapscallion, Reprobate, Cad, Scapegrace, Hooligan, Scamp and Wretch.

Which would you prefer to be called? Which would you prefer to be?

I had a very similar conversation with a student this past week…

The best thing we can offer to the world is our insight. To live our life in mindfulness and with concentration is to continue to produce insight—for our own liberation, healing and nourishment, and for the liberation, healing and nourishment of the world. p. 99

From Good Citizens: Creating Enlightened Society by Thich Nhat Hanh

Previously…

Found in my electronic chapbook.

This Malley’s…

That any of us can speak American (see comment No. 1 below), let alone read and write the horrible mess, however improperly, is a miracle.

Luba Vangelova—against what I know will be a tsunami of I speak, read and write American just fine, thank you very much language apologists—makes the case that our convoluted spelling has become a global competitive handicap.

Johnny in Topeka can’t read, but Janne in Helsinki is effortlessly finishing his storybooks. Such a disparity may be expected by now, but the reason might come as a surprise: It probably has much less to do with teaching style and quality than with language. Simply put, written English is great for puns but terrible for learning to read or write. It’s like making children from around the world complete an obstacle course to fully participate in society but requiring the English-speaking participants to wear blindfolds.

Adults who have already mastered written English tend to forget about its many quirks. But consider this: English has 205 ways to spell 44 sounds. And not only can the same sounds be represented in different ways, but the same letter or letter combinations can also correspond to different sounds. For example, “cat,” “kangaroo,” “chrome,” and “queue” all start with the same sound, and “eight” and “ate” sound identical. Meanwhile, “it” doesn’t sound like the first syllable of “item,” for instance, and “cough” doesn’t rhyme with either “enough,” “through,” “furlough” or “bough.” Even some identically spelled words, such as “tear,” can be pronounced differently and mean different things.

Masha Bell, the vice chair of the English Spelling Society and author of the book Understanding English Spelling, analyzed the 7,000 most common English words and found that 60 percent of them had one or more unpredictably used letters. No one knows for sure, but the Spelling Society speculates that English may just be the world’s most irregularly spelled language.

All attempts to correct the problem have, predictably, failed miserably.

So why adopt error-hunting mindset? Simply because “it feels more authentic when we condemn error and enforce a rule… what good is learning a rule if all we can do is obey it?” Anger delivers ego-enhancing pleasure; so does strengthening the boundaries of group membership—and carping about language is far more socially acceptable than explicit class snobbery or nationalism (not to mention less bother than confronting actual atrocities). Still, can we get, sorry, “may we have”, a bit of perspective, please?

Oliver Burkeman writing in The language police for The Guardian.

Isn’t it wonderful that Cleveland Indians boss Paul Dolan—member of one of our billionaire sports/cable families—has taken on the burden of pushing a tax on cigarettes to finance the arts.

Steve Litt, of course, applauds loudly in the Plain Dealer Dolan’s heading a drive for passage of another cigarette tax.

Neither Litt nor Dolan apparently has ever has known a regressive tax they couldn’t embrace and love.

And one can expect the bought and paid for “REFORM” County Council to bow to its masters in the corporate community. Put the tax on the ballot, boys and girls!

Why not a tax on sporting events on the facilities so generously financed, maintained and owned by taxpayers to the benefit of Mr. Dolan, Mr. Gilbert and Mr. Haslam? And partially already subsidized with a cigarette tax. How about $5 on all sports Continue Reading »

It’s been a busy week in Wally World: the Universe’s source of cheap plastic crap from China. On The Writing On The Wal—the blog USA Today says should be on its readers’ radar—I continue my singular work dedicated to drawing back the curtain on the Bentonvile Behemoth’s corporate disinformation and other flackery.

HOPE FOR YET ANOTHER ABANDONED WALMART… We’ve written before about the dismal trail of abandoned Walmarts left in the wake of the Bentonvile Behemoth’s relentless quest to dominate ever corner of the United States and every other country where… Keep reading…

WALMART PROFITS TRUMP PUBLIC SAFETY… In my home state, Ohio, Walmart is the largest private-sector employer. That carries clout with politicians. I don’t know the numbers for Maryland, but if the governor’s actions are any indication, he knows on… Keep reading…

INNOVATION MEANS WHAT EXACTLY…? So, does anyone else interpret simplifying and improving day-to-day store operations and processes while helping develop new and innovative ways to improve business in any other way than squeeze more… Keep reading…

WILL WAL-TERMS ENTER THE OED…? I am reminded of how Dan Savage ran a contest several years ago for a new definition for santorum. The winning selection was as unflattering to the former U.S. Senator and failed presidential hopeful as any could… Keep reading…

IN EXCESS OF $3.6 MILLION… That would be: how much does Walmart think operating pharmacies in North Dakota is worth? Alex. That represents a tiny fraction of operating expenses for the Bentonvile Behemoth–the company spends nearly a half-… Keep reading…

A MATTER OF FALSE DICHOTOMY… Quora is a question-and-answer website where questions are created, answered, edited and organized by its community of users. The company was founded in June 2009 by Adam D’Angelo and Charlie… Keep reading…

ALASKA TO CHINA TO THE UNITED STATES…? I’ve always known that much of the oil from Alaska’s North Slope is tanked to foreign markets, but this morning, buried in a story about Walmart dumping the London-based Marine Stewardship Council… Keep reading…

PETS OVER PEOPLE WORKERS… I love my four dogs and one cat. I get very upset about stories of abused animals. I know that people down on their luck will sacrifice their own health to feed their pets. When the Bentonvile Behemoth makes a donation of pet… Keep reading…

WALMART TELLS HOW TO BLOCK A WALMART… This is serious. We now know how to keep a Walmart from opening in our neighborhood. Alex Barron, regional general manager for Wal-Mart U.S., writes: For almost three years, Wal-Mart has worked… Keep reading…

CUSTOMER SHAREHOLDER SAFETY FIRST… Back on 22 January, I wrote a bit about Walmart’s food safety concerns. Now, here’s a followup. By all accounts, Walmart’s Vice President of Food Safety Frank Yiannas is a man dedicated to his work… Keep reading…

Previously on Walmart Wednesday…