the essence of the law is that once a social or economic indicator or other surrogate measure is made a target for the purpose of conducting social or economic policy, then it will lose the information content that would qualify it to play such a role.

Arthur C. Clarke three “laws” of prediction:

• When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
• The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
• Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Three Laws of robotics

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law

Mr. Yamaguchi survived the dropping of the atomic bomb by the US with burns, temporary blindness and temporary loss of hearing. Two day he finally was able to get home where he received treated for his injuries. The next day he went into work (!). The date was August 9 in the city of Nagasaki.

Mr, Yamaguchi is the only person to hold double survivor status recognized by the Japanese government. He finally died of stomach cancer in January 2010. Later in life he became an outspoken advocate of nuclear war.

Read the a more complete story on Wikipedia

Interesting read. I can’t believe how many people missed the boat on Pixar. It could almost be made in to an animated movie…

Magic and language are practically the same thing, they would at least have been regarded as such in our distant past. I think it is wisest and safest to treat them as if they are the same thing. This stuff that you are dealing with – words, language, writing – this is dangerous, it is magical, treat it as if it was radioactive.

If you want to expand people’s consciousness, give them better language, wider language, new words. Learn to love words, learn to delight over a new word that you’ve found.

The T-I-S Formula for Introductions
Like a well-prepared speech, an introduction should be natural, smooth and free of grammatical errors and oral stammers. An ideal method is the T-I-S formula taught by Dale Carnegie in his public speak classes: T-I-S stands for Topic, Importance, and Speaker. When making an introduction, remember to maintain eye contact with the audience, not the speaker.

• Topic. This is the title and purpose of the speech.
• Importance. This explains the relavance of the speech to the audience. It can specify what the audience will gain or learn from listening.
• Speaker. This tells the audience why the speaker is qualified to speak on the topic, but includes only qualifications pertinent to the topic and the audience.

To see how this works, let’s pretend we are going to introduce John Doe who will speak on automotive safety to a group of driver education students. Using the T-I-S method, an introduction might sound something like this:
“Good evening and welcome to tonight’s symposium, titled ‘Arrive Alive.’ We all need to know how to operate a motor vehicle safely, because statistically out of the 40 people here tonight, 10 of us will be involved in as serious accident during our life. By reducing the number of accidents we not only save lives, but we lower the cost of insurance premiums.

“Our speaker is the former director of the National Transportation Council. He designed and patented the first three-point safety belt and was instrumental in developing the airbag, now a mandatory requirement for all passenger cars. He has been a licensed driver since age 11 and has never been involved in an accident. Please help me welcome John Doe!”

Great suggestion and well worth remembering,

This is a video of a John Zimmer, a toastmaster in Europe, on his site he’s broken down the contents of his speech and his thought process behind why he did certain things. His commentary is just fascinating as his speech.

Show up early
Something good is bound to happen—if there’s no need to fix a mechanical problem or resolve a room conflict, you can always mingle with the audience.

How to start

• Clearly tell the audience: What the problem is, who cares, and what your solution is.
• Write out your own introduction.

Never apologize
Most people wouldn’t have noticed the issues for which you’re apologizing—and it just sounds lame.

For complex information use: Particular, General, Particular
Give a particular specific example, then a general overview, followed by a repeat of the particular to reinforce the point.

Always provide a handout
Text on paper can provide more information than verbal communication (e.g. it takes 22 minutes to read the top half of the New York Times aloud).

• This allows them to become engaged.
• Assures that each point is covered (even if you forget something).

Match your presentation to the level of The New York Times or Wall Street Journal
Audiences don’t suddenly become dumber when they sit down to hear you speak—no reason to
“dumb down” anything!

Audiences are precious: respect them
Be clear—not simpleminded.

Humor—make sure it’s on point, not nasty or gratuitous
It’s preferable to leave humor out if you risk alienating anyone—let alone the possibility of not being funny.

Do not use masculine pronouns—use plurals
Even though it may not always be grammatically correct, you should say “they” instead of “him or her”
and it will sound better—both because it’s shorter and because no one can be alienated. Why risk not communicating simply because someone may be sensitive?

Questions need to be treated very carefully

• People’s opinion may be based more on how you answer their question than on how you present. People are often really saying “What about me?” when they ask a question.
• Right after you call for questions, count to 10 before assuming no one will ask.
• To assure questions are asked, plant a person in the audience and give them a question. This also gets others motivated.

There must be a better way than using the overhead projector
Tufte refers to it as “a trapezoid strip show” because the shape of the projected image is distorted, and people often use the technique of revealing only one line of the image at a time. Two other problems are that you have to turn off the lights (some people will fall asleep) and overheads only provide a fraction of information that can fit on a handout.

Show your enthusiasm!
Don’t hide behind a lectern. Use gestures. Walk around, directly engaging the audience. (If you’re not enthusiastic, why are you presenting on that topic?)

Finish early
You never hear someone say “I really wish they had talked on and on for another 10 minutes.”

Work hard

• Prepare and practice for a critical audience.
• Practice in front of a video camera to spot flaws, mannerisms, and idiosyncrasies.
• In addition to using notes for content, make “metanotes” reminding you to use techniques; like making eye contact, not to mumble, not to keep sipping the water.

Innovate
Don’t be trapped by the conventional forms of the presentation. Be creative: find ways to take the presentation beyond a linear presentation of facts, and instead make it become something like a dialogue with your colleagues.

Drink enormous amounts of water
If you’re flying to a presentation this is particularly important as air travel really dehydrates you. And never drink alcohol.

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