Headlines and alternative facts

Random Thoughts

- Trump just signed an order to with hold funding from foreign non-profits that offer abortion counseling.  This is typical of shallow Pro-Life thinking.  If they considered the consequences of their actions they might see that many of the babies that they insist must be born to live a life of poverty and strife will grow into the same adults that they want to throw in jail, keep out of the US, and off the welfare roles.

- It was reported that one of the last (classless) acts of the Obama administration was to authorize $220 Million to the terrorist Palestinian Authority, despite a GOP request to hold back those funds. Trump should claw-back those funds and give a refund to people like me who actually pay taxes.

- There has been a huge flap about how many people attended the Trump inauguration, and the subsequent handling of the "alternative facts" given to the press.  I think the Trump staff is right when they say that the liberal press taunted them with comparisons of the attendances at previous Obama inaugurations.  How could Trump not fire back with exaggerated claims of a million an and a half bodies as far as the eye could see?
   I chalk this up to "irrelevant information" designed by the TV news editors (on both sides) to fill time because they have nothing of substance to talk about.  These days every time I see a news show with more than two guests, I switch to Comedy Channel.  These goat rodeos with panels of 5 or 8 people are unwatchable and bereft of useful information.  Don Lemon is the worst.  He should be fired if for no other reason than being drunk on camera on New Years Eve.

- As he promised, Trump has acted to remove the block that Obama had put on the Keystone XL pipeline.  I think this is a bad idea.  Here are my reasons.

• The pipeline is intended to bring Canadian oil to Texas for export..  
• The shale oil that is being extracted is the least pure oil, accessed by fracking. 
• Fracking uses a lot of fossil fuel to power the extraction engines. Thus it is much less efficient than other *available* sources of oil.  
• Many of the involved private landowners and civil authorities in the path of the pipeline object for various reasons.
• America is already independent of foreign oil.  This oil will be exported at low/crude tax rate to foreign refineries.
• It is a short term jobs creator.  Admittedly, thousands will be employed to create the pipeline, but once finished less than a hundred permanent jobs will be created.  
• Does does not lower fuel prices in the US. May actually result in regional increases. 
• Accidents can and do happen.  This is a project that does not benefit 99.4% of Americans.
• The only real beneficiaries of this project will be the Oil companies and construction companies involved.  
• Check out my facts at:  https://www.nwf.org/pdf/Global-Warming/KXL_Myths_vs_Facts.pdf

      Who you gonna believe? The lying oil companies or the National Wildlife Federation?.

English Majors Need Not Apply?

There was an article in yesterday's Boston Globe  about the plans at  a small NH college (Colby-Sawyer) to discontinue two major concentrations which were once thought to be the cornerstones of a Liberal Arts education:  English and Philosophy.  

I suppose this is a reflection of the relative level of interest in these fields.  The college reports that currently there are only 18 students majoring in English, and no Philosophy majors.  I guess it makes logical sense that parents who are looking at annual tuition costs of $54,000 per academic year, are urging their kids to choose more practical degrees that will translate into career opportunities later on. 

I am disappointed by the general assumption that Liberal Arts degrees are inferior to Science and Technology sheepskins -- largely because of the higher salary levels that engineers enjoy upon graduation.  

On the other hand,  I am pleased to report that there is a sparse but growing body of information that disputes the knee-jerk assumption that STEM graduates will outperform Liberal Arts majors in some critical jobs.  

One CEO admits: "Looking back at the tech teams that I’ve built at my companies, it’s evident that individuals with liberal arts degrees are by far the sharpest, best­-performing software developers and technology leaders. Often these modern techies have degrees in philosophy, history, and music – even political science..."

In another Wall Street Journal piece entitled: "Good News Liberal Arts Majors, Your Peers Probably Won't Outearn You Forever" 
Points to numerous examples of Liberal Arts majors whose salaries tend to close the gap and their careers mature.   Click on the article and take a look at the lifetime earning chart.  You might be surprised.

I should admit here that I graduated Northeastern University as an English Major.  Despite my inability to spell or punctuate correctly, I managed to come away from NU with one great asset - my wife of 49 years.  We met in Creative Writing class.  

Even in 1968, (unless you could write like Papa Hemingway)  there were few career paths for graduating English Majors.  You could go on for a degree in fine arts (MFA) and go into the publishing industry as an editor or proofreader. Or go to grad school for an MED so you could teach.  Or you could go out into the scary world of commerce as an administrative flunky.

Following a short stint in academic administration for my alma mater, I chose the latter road.  I worked for eight different companies in my career.  When applying for a job I always fibbed a bit on my resume/application.  Instead of English as my major, I would write English-Journalism because I thought it would make me seem more practical.  After all, I had taken a course in Investigative Reporting.   I guess it worked, because most of my working life I've been a Systems Analyst, Project Manager, Managed a Product Admin group, and was a even Program Manager for New Products Manufacturing, for goodness sake!  

You may ask how my degree in Liberal Arts/English prepared me for a career in High Tech companies.  Beats me!   I like to think that my Liberal Arts courses helped me to hone my analytical skills and communications abilities.  Luck plays a huge role in anyone's life.   (As a side note, I wish more people who present themselves as journalists on TV and in print could take a few courses in investigative journalism.  I often find myself reading a so-called News item and thinking "This sounds like an editorial."  But I digress.)    My wife also found gainful employment in Sales (Mfg Rep, Payroll Software, Insurance) and retired as Training Manager at a Bank.  Not bad for a couple of English Majors with BA's.

So I am one who still believes in a Liberal Arts education, as a foundation for developing critical thinking skills and understanding the cultural richness of our civilization.  

The Job is only one facet of life, after all.  Most of the joys in life are experienced in leisure time.   Far and away the most important characteristic of successful people is the ability to relate to others. Science and Math do not teach you that.


  
   

Breaking News

"Breaking News"  The other day CNN breathlessly announced that they had exclusive leaked information about a security briefing where it was revealed that intelligence sources had unverified accusations about Donald Trump.  Unverified salacious accusations.  Black mail worthy videos that the Russians had in their possession.  CNN announcers were careful to stipulate that these murky allegations were unverified, but the tone and urgency of the announcement was the same as if reporting a plane crash.
  Soon, other news stations were picking-up this story.  Before you could say "WTF?" speculation on the likelihood of Trump's carnal misdeeds while in Moscow being caught on camera were the fodder for talk shows and pundit programs.  In a press conference this week, Trump denied everything, of course.  He also refused to take any questions from the CNN reporter because he "worked for a fake news organization."

On this issue, I agree with The President-elect.  Unverified allegations are not "Breaking News." They are not "News" at all.  CNN editors, Wolf Blitzer and the other talking heads who promulgated this story should be fired.

This raises another raft of annoyances about the so-called News industry.

Weather fatigue.  Why is ordinary winter weather covered as News?  I can understand why local stations might want to cover weather-related human interest stories,(bloody crashes, families burned-out of their homes in icy weather with firemen frozen to their hoses, etc.)   and local storm warnings can be useful to viewers especially fishermen and people looking for information about school closings.  But if you watch TV news on an ordinary winter day, at least a third of the time is spent watching a weatherperson standing in front of a map, yakking about isobars and windchills. Sorry, but seasonal weather is not news and it is certainly not entertaining.  Most annoying are the clever interactions of the news readers and the weather person as they try to fill time.    Worse, on the evening news programs we are forced to waste time watching footage weather related highway accidents in South Dakota. Yup, roads get slippery in winter.

What happened to the Weather Channel, where you could go and check to see if your upcoming trip or event would be affected by the weather?

The Crawl.  Another annoying feature of cable news is that stupid linear crawl of information that runs at the bottom of the screen while you are listening to other Breaking News, trying to read the captions and also seeing loops of  old file footage  of Osam Bin Laden brandishing an Uzi because they have no relevant new video.

"A story you heard first on our station."  For some reason, news editors think that we care who broke the story.  99% of the time, the exclusive story could easily be covered by this script: "We are first on the scene here in ______ where police are investigating something.  We don't know what happened and  in fact cannot answer any of the who what when where questions of traditional journalism.  But we wanted to show you some video of us standing in front of a building.  Complete story at nine when everyone will be reporting the same story.."