Become an Expert at Anything in Just Hours

Sure, it seems like there are 1000's and 1000's of folks who hold themselves out as experts in various fields. And for some, it really takes years of education and experience to qualify as an expert.

On the other hand, I think you would be surprised how quickly you can become an expert on some topic where few care to compete for the title. For instance, at age 24, I was hired to speak and write articles as an expert on small security hardware devices. There might have been five people in the whole country who would have cared to have the title of padlock expert. If you wanted the title today, you could probably become as expert as I was in 80 hours or less.

Most of the time, I'm not interested in becoming an "expert" in order to sell my services, but rather to provide answers to life's daily issues. Someone calls and says they are experiencing pain of a specific type in an certain location on their body. Within 15 minutes or so on the web, it is possible to be pretty sure you know what the problem is. Now you are on the way to becoming an "expert" on bunions or AC arthritis or heartburn.

If you want to dig deeper, you can get about all you need on the web today. But as you surf and pick up the terms of art and the main issues, you will also find reviews of books that can take you to another level. You may also learn of others who are "experts" in the field. Some of those will have websites, blogs, or articles published that you can read. You will be amazed at how often those individuals will answer a well thought out e-mail or even pick up the phone if you call.

Now that you know how easy it is to become an expert, please keep that in mind when you hear someone giving their expert advice in the news or on a tv special. Their title may not be the result of any unique research or a lifetime of training and experience. In fact, the odds are against it.

The Whole Clan

The four on the left are daughter Brandy, son-in-law Casey, and grandsons, Micah and Aslan. The four on the right are daughter Christian, son-in-law Nathan, and grandaughter Maddie (hard to see is grandson Grant who will be born in May. The two boys in the center are sons Brian behind yours truly and Robert behind the matriarch of this brood, Pam. And, lest I forget, our 15 year old cocka/terri/poo, binky, is in his normal spot.

Based on current projections and statements from the various children, this picture should roughly double before we're done.

Top 50 Gadgets of Last 50 Years

PC World has listed their picks for the gadgets that changed everything. You can see their list here.

The limitation on their list was that it had to be a gadget that PC World would have written about.

What about the most important breakthrough products of any kind in last 50 years.

#1. E-mail
#2. WWW
#3. Ball Point Pens
#4. Commercial jets
#5. Personal computers
#6. Digital Cameras
#7. Electronic Games
#8. Home washers, dryers
#9. Microwave ovens
#10. Copiers (commercial and consumer)
#11. Cell Phones
#12. Sonograms
#13. Medical and pharmacological too numerous to list
#14. Wireless technology
#15. Freeways
#16. Containerization of shipping
#17. Overnight shipping
#18. Credit/Debit cards
#19. Online banking and bill paying
#20. Bicycle Water Bottles

Science Giving Reasons for Skepticism

I admit to being a science skeptic. It isn't fun, because I truly like scientific inquirey, enjoy the fruits of science, and desire science to continue to build on its body of knowledge and give us great new inventions.

However, two recent stories give reasons to question what is going on with the scientific community. One article was brought to my attention by Michael Williams, friend and fellow blogger.

On global warming this horrific story. Here is the lead from Michael:

It's very unfortunate that scientists as a class don't live up to the image of objectivity they try to project, but it isn't surprising considering that every scientist I've met is a regular human being, with all the accompanying flaws. Still, many people seem shocked to discover that scientists are often more concerned with advancing their personal careers and agendas than with advancing the state of human knowledge.

http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

The other is the widely reported deceit by the South Korean Scientist regarding cloning. He just made stuff up.

The Truth About Aspartame (NutraSweet)

I drink about 4 Diet Pepsi's per day. So when folks I trust tell me that the Aspartame in the drink can cause brain tumors, dizziness, and other such problems, I hit the internet to get the latest. I first did this about 5 years ago. My finding was that every site I visited which made such claims used anecdoatal evidence and unnamed studies. The few studies that purported to find problems with Aspartame seemed to have problems with causality. It is not the same thing to say something is linked as it is to say one thing causes another.

Anyway, the subject came up again today. I hit the web to see if anything had changed. The anit-apartame sites were still primarily over-the-top sites that made claims which were far from scientific. Two neutral sites you might want to visit if you're interested:

First study

# (MIT News):

Even daily large doses of the high-intensity sweetener aspartame, also known as NutraSweet, had no adverse effect on study subjects' health and well-being, a visiting scientist at MIT reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition last week.

"We conclude that aspartame is safe for the general population," said Paul A. Spiers, visiting scientist in the Clinical Research Center (CRC).

The other study

Sure, where there's smoke maybe there's fire. The problem is that people tend to blame aspartame for everything. The sweetener has been associated with something like 90 different symptoms, including vision problems, dizziness, drowsiness, abdominal pain, anxiety attacks, depression, confusion, memory loss, ringing in the ears, chest palpitations, personality changes, convulsions, and irritability. It's also been linked to conditions ranging from brain tumors, epilepsy, and multiple sclerosis to chronic fatigue syndrome.

Scientists say real toxins don't work that way--they produce a specific cluster of symptoms. One chemical can't possibly be causing all this stuff.

For the most part researchers have been unable to replicate adverse aspartame reactions in the lab. In numerous studies investigators recruited individuals who said aspartame triggered headaches, epileptic seizures, or what have you. Typically they fed half the subjects aspartame and the other half a placebo. In most cases there was no observable difference.

I like Diet Pepsi. I'll continue to indulge.

The Truth About The Terror Threat

It would appear that some pretty smart folks honestly believe that the terror threat is not very substantial. They would argue that the very substantial acts of terror that have killed hundreds or even thousands in various places around the world are pulled off by rogue gangs of really bad guys. One friend compared them to the drug gangs in East Los Angeles or Chicago's South Side. To oustiders the motivation of these thugs might appear to be Islamic fundamentalism, but if we were to take a close look at the individuals you might find the same kind of social and psychological profiles that induce young men into inner city gangs: Need for strong leadership, desire for action, need to belong, low sense of self worth, even self loathing.

Others would point to pictures of cheering mobs in various Middle Eastern Cities after 911 or Sharon's stroke. This viewpoint would hold that that a substantial part of the Islamic population (especially in some countries) would be easily induced to participate in the Jihad if they thought it was succeeding. Thus, any evidence of weakness on our part would result in big gains for Al Qaeda, first in prestige, then in money and actual participating soldiers, and ultimately in nations under their control. We might call this the tipping point theory.

The vast majority of experts seem to believe that Al Qaeda already has, or at least did have, and will have again the assets in place to do real mahem. They also believe that there is an almost limitless supply of antisocial shock troops that can be employed to carry out actions against Jewish and Western culture and people.

If the threat is lower today than it was from 1992-2002, it could only be because of the efforts of the Bush administration with help from Blair and a few others. If that is true, then it would seem we should stay the course, and not become complacent until the job is done. Otherwise we will likely have to go spend money and lives a second time, which would be sad indeed.

Count Your Words - They Might Matter

According to Dan Kennedy, whose marketing CD's I'm currently listening to, there is an Indian legend which claims that we are each "given" a set number of words to speak in our life. When we use them up, we die. Then, we are judged based on the content of our speech. This idea, were it true, creates a number of interesting issues.

It would certainly cause us to think more carefully about how much we said. Folks like me might be looking for cures to diarrhea of the mouth.

We would also be more careful to be kind and not mean in our utterances.

Having shared this idea with a couple of people, they have immediately asked the implications for women. I'll leave it there.

What Are YOU Afraid Of? It May Be The Determinant in Your Political Views

Are you afraid of Islamic Terrorist striking the US or US interests? Are you afraid that human caused global warming is going to result in a global catastrophe? Are you afraid that some kind of illness (AID's, Bird Flu) is going to wipe out big chunks of population? Are you afraid that the Chinese, or the Indians, or the Europeans are going to take over our position as economic engine of the world, resulting in a lowered standard of living for us? Are you afraid that the Bush administration is desiring some kind of extra level of authority that might result in truly reducing freedoms in America? Are you afraid that licentious behavior with roots in Hollywood and branches in San Francisco, Seattle, New York City, and Miami is going to destroy the family as we know it and undermine the entire culture? Are you afraid that Walmart or Google or Bill Gates or Time Warner/HBO are trying to take over the world? Are you afraid that Indian, Chinese, and Mexican workers are going to take away your job. Or, if not your job, your brother-in-laws job?

Depending on what you are truly afraid of, you will likely vote for the folks that are fighting on that front. Or at least seem to be. Personally, I'm much more afraid of the potential for cultural decline and foreign mischief by tyrants than I am by anything else on the list. Why, because I have witnessed the results of both many times in my lifetime, and read the history of the world until now. I'm a bit concerned, for the same reasons, about our economy and how it will compete in the future, but not even to the level of being alarmed.

That's why I'm a Republican. The R's are very interested in those three things. The D's aren't. They are more interested in things that have never happened, but might. It makes no sense to me.

Randy's Five Rules For Math Excellence

If your child is not doing very well in math, I promise you these techniques will create improvement.

Rule # 1. Fundamentals. Your young student must know how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Adding and subtracting any single numbers should be as fast as counting to ten. Even better if your kid can add any two digit number to any other two digit number in their head. Multiplication up to 12 X 12 should be memorized and automatic. Division - any number that divides evenly up to 144/12 also memorized and automatic. Schools do not push this idea any more, and I believe it is the key reason why scores are down. Use this rule for a student of any age, including high school and college.

Rule # 2. Real Life. What does your kid care about that relates to math. Your boys will very likely care about baseball averages and other sports statistics. They might also be interested in measuring things they are building.

Your girls will likely be interested in what things cost, how to do discounts, and measuring for cooking. Clearly your child might have vastly different interest than those listed. But math has applications to almost everything we do. How can you make math real?

Rule # 3. Paper is Cheap. Many math errors are made by making numbers too small, scrunching them at the bottom of the page, scratching things out, or not lining things up well. Tell your child that paper is cheap. It is ok to use more of it if it will keep the numbers neat.

Rule # 4. Memorize the definitions of all terms. We memorize for English, but no teacher I know is pushing kids to memorize definitions of math terms. If we don't know the definition when the word is used in a word problem, how can we possibly work it out?

Rule # 5. Is the answer stupid? If the answer you get is the car was traveling 387 miles per hour, or the temperature outside was 712 degrees, it may require rechecking the math. This doesn't just apply to word problems. Use estimates of regular problems to see if the resulting answer is in the ball park.

If you use these methods and have success or not, let me know.

Husband Wife Role Assignments

Pam and I have established different responsibilities within our home. The primary split is that I am the one who makes the money. She is the one who spends it.

We concluded the other day that she is far better at her job than I am, and she wishes I would catch up!!!

Media Bias - The Truth - Again

This is not the first study, but maybe the most thorough and most dedicated to insuring that the study was not itself biased. The results: The media is extremely biased to the left. WOW! What a shock! Here's the good news.

Five news outlets — "NewsHour With Jim Lehrer," ABC's "Good Morning America," CNN's "NewsNight With Aaron Brown," Fox News' "Special Report With Brit Hume" and the Drudge Report — were in a statistical dead heat in the race for the most centrist news outlet. Of the print media, USA Today was the most centrist.

The study comes from UCLA, which is a bit of a shock in itself. For the leftist faculty of this school (my alma mater) to admit these results is amazing.

Changing Your Mate

I don't put a lot of stock in this study, so I won't even site it. However, when women and men were each asked what they would change about their mates, the answers were:

Women want their men to be better listeners.

Men want their wives to be more available for sex.

By the way, it was the method of the study, not the results, that I question.

Two Most Important Parenting Tips

Talking to my daughter, Christian, today about parenting her daughter, Maddie. It reminded me that after 4 kids and years of studying parenting, I have two tips that reduce stress and improve relations with your kids.

1. Distraction. When the child is acting up or creating a scene, and correction isn't working I usually try ignoring next. If both of those don't seem to be getting the job done, I like to try distraction. That has a very high degree of success with most kids.

2. Friends. I love playing with my kids and grandkids...for a while. My favorite humans, in general, are those under 10. But a hour or so of being their pal is enough for me. So when I'm in charge, I'm looking for friends for them to play with.

Some parents seem to feel that they only get a break when their kid goes to the friend's house. I'm not particular. I will always offer to have the friend or friends come over to our house. Either way, I get some time to get other things done. And I prefer the interaction of friends to using the tv as a babysitter.

Who Kills More - Atheists or Christians

20th Century War Deaths were exceeded by Communist governments killing of their own people--democide.

"Overall, the best estimate of those killed after the Vietnam War by the victorious communists in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia is 2,270,000. Now totaling almost twice as many as died in the Vietnam War, this communist killing still continues.

To view this double standard from another perspective, both World Wars cost twenty-four million battle deaths. But from 1918 to 1953, the Soviet government executed, slaughtered, starved, beat or tortured to death, or otherwise killed 39,500,000 of its own people (my best estimate among figures ranging from a minimum of twenty million killed by Stalin to a total over the whole communist period of eighty-three million). For China under Mao Tse-tung, the communist government eliminated, as an average figure between estimates, 45,000,000 Chinese. The number killed for just these two [Communist] nations is about 84,500,000 human beings, or a lethality of 252 percent more than both World Wars together. Yet, have the world community and intellectuals generally shown anything like the same horror, the same outrage, the same out pouring of anti-killing literature, over these Soviet and Chinese megakillings as has been directed at the much less deadly World Wars?" War versus Genocide and Mass Murder

Atheistic Communism has no close competitor when it comes to murder and mahem, expecially against their own people. Those who suggest that Christianity or those professing to be Christ followers havae been responsible for substantial genocide have a point, but there is no comparison.

HT to my daily read, Collecting My Thoughts

Christmas and Chocolate Gifts

My dark chocolate journey began a couple of years ago. I've preferred the dark stuff for as long as I can remember, but it started getting press for being good for you. Never one to pass up the great combination of liking something and having it be good for you, I became a choclatier.

Now I can count on at least a few of my Christmas, birthday, and Father's Day presents being some new variation on the dark chocolate them. So here are a few ideas for someone whose health and well being you care about. Trader Joe's Pound Plus looks like $10 or more worth of Chocolate, but it's only about $3. Hershey's Extra Dark is hard to find, so your friend or loved one probably hasn't tried it yet. And it's package just looks expensive.

Of course, you can hit the web and find all kinds of really expensive chocolates in various forms and in beautiful containers. Just Google Dark Chocolate.

No, contrary to how it may look, I don't make any money from these recommendations. I do it because I like you.