So Anyway by John Cleese

John Cleese's So, Anyway... covers his life from birth to his pre-Python days.  It offers insight into John's falling into comedy.  In the beginning of his career projects and opportunities would be handed to him.  He chose the BBC over a career in law because the pay was better. 

John offers excellent insights into methods of teaching children from his time as a student and his brief tenure as a school teacher.  Praising students for effort rather than praising them for creativity or intelligence promotes better learning.

John has David Frost to thank for his gradual growth and development in comedy.  John describes David as having Pronoia (the unflinching belief that everyone will do their best to help you).   In David's case it was true.

John gradually overcomes his very strong stage fright through repetition.  He also offers help in writing comedy.  Its OK to stress out early but it's best to be relaxed and playful when coming up with ideas.  Both he and his writing partner, Graham Chapman would need to respond physically to comedy often falling on the floor laughing while creating sketches. This was especially true during their partnership with Peter Sellers.   

John Cleese begins to get solid comedy footing in At Last the 1948 Show, A sketch comedy series staring Graham Chapman, Marty Feldman, John Cleese, Tim Brooke-Taylor and the lovely Ami McDonald.  Other future Pythons would also help with acting and script writing. 

At Last the 1948 Show - Burglers- 3 min.

At Last the 1948 Show - Quiz Show - 6 min.

The Lovely Ami McDonald - approx. 1 min.

Change Anything by Kerry Patterson

The Authors if Influencer - The Power to Change Anything are back with a personal help book  Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success  designed to make it much more likely that a person will succeed in making change if they use six sources of influence rather than just one or two.  If we really want to solve a problem use all of the tools in your Batman Utility Belt including the shark repellent bat spray.  

Shark Repellent Bat Spray - Approx. 1.5 min.

I've provided some charts that help explain the book's principles. I appreciated the author's suggestion that we don't beat ourselves up when we fail, We treat these as a science experiment determining what needs to be corrected in the future.  

sourcesofinsight.com

strategicwarrior.wordpress.com

http://strategicwarrior.wordpress.com - Click to enlarge

The videos below offer further explanation of the concepts in the book.   There is also a Facebook page devoted to helping people change: ChangeAnything.com

Six sources of influence - 3min

Al Switzler - Change Anything - 19 min.

First Family Detail - Ronald Kessler

Ronald Kessler's 20th book, The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of the Presidents, offers a behind the scenes look at the secret service detail guarding elected officials, candidates and their families.  The book also offers up a critique of the mismanagement of the secret service and the risks posed to the security of the people being protected.

The first family and the agents work together to balance security and freedom.  In the view of the line staff managers and directors of the secret service are too willing to compromise the security of the President to give in to personal favors or cover up incompetency.

After reading this book I hope the Democratic Party comes up with an alternative to Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden.  As detailed in the book, Hillary's public persona contrasts with her very nasty behavior with secret service agents and White House Staff.  The author's sources credit Hillary's public humiliation of Vince Foster as a contributing factor to his suicide.  She also fired an agent for helping former first lady Barbara Bush with a computer problem. Agents assigned to Hillary view it as a form of punishment.

Joe Biden is an affable person, but according to accounts does not take his responsibility for the nuclear football seriously.  His habit of swimming without clothes in front of female agents assigned to him does not earn him any respect.  His erratic personal schedule makes it very difficult for agents to plan for his protection.  This contrasted with Dick Cheney who planned out his life almost a year in advance.

Agents report excellent treatment by the Obama's.  This contrasted with the utter disdain the the Clinton's and Al Gore had for the secret service.  The agents were told to be invisible and they were told to hide from view.  Mr. Clinton has mellowed since leaving office and now has a good relationship with his agents.  John F. Kennedy was kind to the agents while being less than faithful to his wife.  As President, Jimmy Carter was a know it all faker who could not take instruction even from a ski instructor.  Lyndon Johnson probably was the worst of the lot being inconsiderate, profane and coarse to everyone.

The secret service had a good working relationship with the two Bush Administrations and with Ronald Reagan.  The Reagan's and Bush 41 would do there best stay in Washington over Christmas to allow agents to be with their families.  Richard Nixon was characterized as a man with a sharp political mind while being socially awkward and paranoid.

The first ladies are a mixed bag: Pat Nixon and Betty Ford were alcoholics. Nancy Reagan was controlling and protective. Rosalynn Carter was intellectually sharp and cordial.  Barbara Bush was everyone's mother and Laura Bush was uniformly loved by the secret service.

I appreciate the author providing details on the security breakdown's for each of the assassination attempts.  Peter Gabriel's song; Family Snapshot provides a good generic profile of these often mentally disturbed individuals listening to the wrong voices inside their heads. 

The office of the presidency reveals the true character of the person charged with leading the nation.  Are the people running the country completely self absorbed and inconsiderate of others, or do they treat others with respect without regard to a person's status?  Is there a huge disconnect between their public and private life?
.

Peter Gabriel - Snapshot - 5 min.

The Smell of Truthiness by N.G. Carlson

After about eight years of rewrites and a conversion from a screenplay my book is finished.  Originally titled The Singing Volcano the book describes events during 2028 US Presidential Election, widely regarded as the least important election of the 21st Century. 

Former high school classmates from Eden Prairie, Minnesota, now candidates for National Office are reunited and given the opportunity to change the world.  The book The Smell of Truthiness is available from Amazon.

The video below provides a guide for my dream cast for the work as a screen play.  I borrowed the speech patterns of Nathan Lane for President Gene Alidy.

Several songs referred to in the book add some depth to the reading experience.

• Great Gig in the Sky - Pink Floyd - Clare Tory singing
• Cold As Ice - Foreigner
• The Future Soon - Jonathan Coulton 
• Baby It's Cold Outside - Dean Martin

The Great Gig in the Sky - Pink Floyd with Clare Tory

Cold as Ice - Foreigner - lyrics 3 min.

The Future Soon - Jonathan Coulton 4 min. 

Baby It's Cold Outside - Dean Martin

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

Charles Duhigg: The Power of Habit

Charles Duhigg describes how habits are developed in The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business . Positive habits create benefit.  If groups or corporations develop habits to work around unresolved conflicts the results can be deadly as in an increase in surgery and doctor errors and emergency management.

Strictly defined areas of job responsibility and poor training slowed the response to the Kings Cross subway fire in England on November, 18 1987.  A match dropped under an escalator, slow response in investigating the source of the fire and a flash explosion resulted in the deaths of 31 people and injuries to 100 people. Unwritten rules kept employees from stepping out of their narrowly defined roles making them reticent about contacting anyone outside their specific department.

A toxic work environment between surgeons and nurses in a Rhode Island hospital made it difficult for nurses to bring up patient safety concerns to physicians.  Nurses developed informal coding systems on charts to alert other nurses about tyrannical physicians.  As a result of the unequal truce a series of several brain surgeries on the wrong side of peoples heads or other body parts occurred in less than a year.  The resignation of the chief neurosurgeon and staff training specifically empowering employees to bring up problems finally turned the hospital around.

At Alcoa, Paul O'Neil turned the company around by focusing on a culture of safety.  Previous failure to address safety concerns resulted in unscheduled plant shut downs and worker injuries.  The change in this keystone behavior resulted in an number of other positive changes in the company with an increase in corporate profits.

Professional athletes benefit from focusing on specific behavioral clues and specific training routines.  Tony Dungy taught his players to focus on a few simple cues to allow his players to be successful in football.  Ultimate success only occurred after the players rallied around the coach after the death of his son. 

The best success comes specifically identifying behaviors to change and changing the definition of a person or a groups character giving them a large sense of purpose or mission. Student's classroom behavior improves more when they develop a group identity.  We are people who care about keeping the classroom clean, as opposed to specific constant direction on how to cleanup and why taking care of the environment is a good thing.

http://getthepicture.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/oct-13.png click to enlarge

For further reading online: The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg - PDF

Book summary - Main takeaway - 10 minutes

The Triumph of the Fungi by Nicholas P. Money

Nicholas P. Money in the The Triumph of the Fungi: A Rotten History covers the often futile attempts by humans to prevent plant pathogens from destroying trees, potatoes, cereal grains, coffee plants and rubber plants.

For non mycologists the discussions can be very steeped in the terms of mycology.  The author balances this with biting social commentary such as the benefits and downside of colonialism and slave labor.

For public policy experts the implications for ignoring the concerns of plant pathologists are dire.  The Japanese near monopoly on natural rubber production in WWII spurred the development of petroleum based polymers that did not work as well and the failed experiment by a US company to establish rubber trees back in South America. A local endemic pathogen killed the plants thwarting the best efforts to establish the plants.

Gold colored Urediniospores - Outside air air sample from Texas 10/2012 - N. Carlson

For mycologists the author describes the many ways the fungal organisms reproduce.  These have implications for control as some types of spores travel very short distances while the urediniospores produced in some cases by the same organism can travel across the Pacific Ocean. 

The chapter titles reflect the dark humor of the author "Cereal Killers," "The Decaffinator" and "Rubber eraser."  There are very few notes of optimism in this grimly realistic tome. After offering an uncharacteristically optimistic paragraph the author points out why this may be just wishful thinking.

The last chapter focuses on the future of fungal plant pathology and the concern for bioterrorism.  It is important to do our best to control the spread of fungal pathogens.  At a minimum the controls allow us to feed our addition to coffee and chocolate.  Lack of control results in death and deforestation. The book explores the current limits on the ability of humans to control our environment.

Nicholas P. Money -Who are the invisible rulers of the Planet?  The microbial world dwarfs the macrobiotic world - 3min.

Mushroom reproduction - 2min.

The Amoeba in the room- 30 min.  - We still can't categorize all the organisms in his pond.

Redirect by Timothy D. Wilson

Timothy D. Wilson PhD. covers the science of changing and helping people cope with difficult circumstances using a technique known as story editing in his book, Redirect: The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change . 

Mr. Wilson points to research from Association for Psychological Science and others showing that CISD (Critical Incident Stress Debriefing) that occurs after a traumatic event does not reduce the incidence of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and may in fact make it harder for people to move on and recover if they are forced to recount the event against their will.  Waiting several weeks after an event and writing down thoughts for 15 minutes on three consecutive days works much better as does cognitive behavior therapy.  This allows people time to make sense of an event.

Mr. Wilson mocks the premise of the book, The Secret, pointing out the stupidity of attracting good things while sitting at home eating snacks.  He finds it ludicrous to blame the Secret-challenged people of Darfur for their inability to attract wealth and prosperity.

He devotes considerable attention to case control research on effective ways to promote healthy behaviors by helping college students realize the actual rates of binge drinking are lower than they thought.  He also points out activities that he finds are similar to blood letting.  It is a very bad idea to bring at risk teens together for activities.  They reinforce each others bad behaviors.  It is better to have the teens mentored through a program like Big Brothers Big Sisters.  

He offers some health parenting tips backed by case control studies on ways to coax the best behavior out of your kids.  Use the minimum reward/punishment necessary to accomplish a goal.  Change in behavior sticks when it becomes a part of who a person or groups identity.  We are a class that does not litter works much better than lectures telling kids to do the right thing.  Praise kids for doing hard work studying for a test not for being smart. 

RSA talk with Timothy Wilson - 18 minutes

Social Psychology - 40 minutes