Authoring Tools and A Sadistic utility You'll probably try Anyway

Over the last couple of weeks I've been deep delving into linguistics and grammar parsing. Learned some great stuff about Sentiment Programming, and analysis strategy. In doing all of this I've gathered up a long list of software utilities which I'm now trying to catalog and comment on in case you would like to try some of these out. They were an amazing help, and I certainly would not have learned as much as I did  in the short time I gave myself to understand these areas of research.

What did I learn? Well I learned that the last couple of weeks was spent deep delving into areas of research about exactly the wrong areas. However, I never would have found the right area if I didn't go there.

I also learned some useful aspects of Sentiment, and Big Data, both of which I'll be posting on as well over the next couple of weeks.


Image result for favoriteThis first list is a collection of some Authoring software which I have enjoyed on various levels. Gir will show you the ones I find most useful.



To Really Mess Things Up Takes a SpreadSheet

Spreadsheets are essential tools for enterprises. Other financial and business intelligence applications have emerged over the years, but the spreadsheet remains the fundamental tool for financial reporting and analysis and for sharing numerical or tabular data. Spreadsheet applications have grown more powerful, and spreadsheets themselves have grown bigger and more complex, making it more difficult for spreadsheet users and internal auditors to identity risks and errors in spreadsheet data and formulas. If uncorrected, these risks and errors could lead to strategic missteps, erroneous financial reporting, regulatory fines, and other costly outcomes. To reduce risks and errors while keeping spreadsheet users productive, enterprises need a spreadsheet risk management solution that is:
  • Comprehensive 
  • Fast 
  • Accurate 
  • Scalable 
  • Easy to use 
  • Easy to learn 
  • Supportive of best practices 

A Look at Propaganda in the Ukraine

The New York Times has an interview with Mr. Pomerantsev  which is certainly worth looking into if you are interested in the use of Propaganda on the Cable News. The differences between the use of aggressive persuasion on the TV and in Text are of course different via the medium constraints. For example Guilt as a means of motivation can be evoked 17 ways (that I know of) through video, and only 4 ways through text. Text trumps in other directions.



Mr. Pomerantsev’s book, “Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible,” has particular resonance, describing a world where laws change at the whim of the powerful and where television provides an ever-present, entertaining and emotionally charged distortion of reality.

Mr. Pomerantsev’s area of study is propaganda, and he believes he saw many classic techniques at work in Moscow. He says one favorite trick was to put a credible expert next to a neo-Nazi, juxtaposing fact with fiction so as to encourage so much cynicism that viewers believed very little. Another was to give credence to conspiracy theories — by definition difficult to rebut because their proponents are immune to reasoned debate.



Debunk from F.E.E. on the Common Core Deniers


The Foundation for Excellence in Education, states --below in the Background area of their article -- that they respect much of the work of the American Principles Project and the work of Ms. Gallagher.

I don't.

First off, why is a 501.(c)(3) Non-Profit commenting on and campaigning against Government Policy in the first place?

So far every claim they have made against Common Core has been (dis)Information. There is a very important difference between "misinformation" and "disinformation".  Misinformation means that you didn't know what you were propagating was inaccurate. It means that you had no other agenda other than attempting to provide the best information you had available, and that what you knew was of importance.

DisInformation is something else entirely,

Republican Propaganda
Editing the State of the Nation Speech

Republicans Post Doctored Version Of State Of The Union, Censor Facts On Climate Change
BY EMILY ATKIN POSTED ON JANUARY 21, 2015 AT 10:42 AM



The official website for House Republicans has posted on YouTube a version of President Obama’s State of the Union address which cuts out comments where the President was critical of Republican rhetoric on climate change, ThinkProgress has learned.

Social Media Working Group Act of 2015

*there are reference and investigation tools listed in the sidebar if  you wish to investigate this further. I'm only posting it because I know many of my readers are interested in this area of activity
Current, and In the Senate:

Passed House without amendment (02/02/2015)
(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

Social Media Working Group Act of 2015

(Sec. 2) Amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) a social media working group (the Group) to provide guidance and best practices to the emergency preparedness and response community on the use of social media technologies before, during, and after a terrorist attack or other emergency.

Requires the Group to submit an annual report that includes: (1) a review of current and emerging social media technologies being used to support preparedness and response activities related to terrorist attacks and other emergencies; (2) a review of best practices and lessons learned on the use of social media during the response to terrorist attacks and other emergencies that occurred during the period covered by the report; (3) recommendations to improve DHS's use of social media for emergency management purposes, to improve public awareness of the type of information disseminated through social media and how to access such information during a terrorist attack or other emergency, and to improve information sharing among DHS and its components and among state and local governments; (4) a review of available training for government officials on the use of social media in response to a terrorist attack or other emergency; and (5) a summary of coordination efforts with the private sector to discuss and resolve legal, operational, technical, privacy, and security concerns.

ref:H.R.623
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/623/text



Eight Traits of the (dis)Informationalist

The author of this has a few other lists which make for interesting reading but not exactly scientific level of analysis. Still, since the web site that they were originally written for no longer exists and I can't seem to find contact for him right now, I felt they were too good as "points of interest" to let slip away completely. Also, the observations were interesting to me on other levels, and I'll be referring to these posts when I get around to indulging in those interest areas.

So, again, I didn't write these, nor is their posting on this blog a sign of condoning or agreeing with the body of information presented.



Student Data Accessibility, Transparency, and Accountability Act -- All Student Data to be Accessable



Student Data Accessibility, Transparency, and Accountability Act
Summary
The Student Data Accessibility, Transparency, and Accountability Act would require the [State Board of Education/State Department of Education] to make publicly available an inventory and index of all data elements with definitions of individual student data fields currently in the statewide longitudinal data system

Discovering Mood and Feel through Grammar

Words fascinate me. They always have. If I never sold a article, or novel, I would still be a writer. What amazes me more, is the words we have to describe modes of speech/text.  Like when the restaurant host has reached the point that -- he doesn't care that this is your first date with the love of your life anymore, and comes to your table an hour and a half after he locked the door, to say "You need to leave in ten minutes, we have to close." That has a name. It's called a "boulomaic modality."
boulomaic modality
Definition - A type of modality that expresses what is possible or necessary given someone's desires.
And my recent interest:
Hendiadys: express a single idea by two nouns instead of a noun and its qualifier. The effect of this method is an amplification that adds force.

"He came despite the rain and weather."
-- Instead of --


"He came despite the rainy weather"

The first has a stronger sound. You don't want to use Adjectives anyway. Adjectives, especially the -ly words drag the story down. The sounds actually build up inside the mind like backwash, bogging everything to a dead crawl after a while. Though, to be honest that example has the draw back of sounding a little clunky, so the right words need to be found, and I advise reading your phrase out loud a few times so you can hear the tonality.

"The distinction and presence of the dignitary moved his audience."



By separating the term “distinctive presence” into “distinction and presence” we accentuate the adjective by transforming it into a noun, and giving the 'dignitary' a feeling of greater stature by the amplified feel of the hendiady -- kind of cool huh?

I began my career as a Copywriter under the rules:
  1. The Theme: Should be based on two principles -- a man's interest in himself and his interest in other people. 
  2. Headlines: "Wife fires cannon off Hitler's Bow" -- make it more interesting than that.
  3. The Visualization: Visual yes, Emotional - a must. 
  4. The Copy: The introduction can almost always be eliminated. Copy should fit space. It starts In-Action, and moves to the Call to Action without pause or distraction.
  5. Adjectives: Once finish, go back and cut all the adjectives. 
  6. A Purpose: Never write without knowing who you are selling to and why. No one buys nails. Ever. They buy a smile from their daughter when her picture is on the wall. Who the hell wants a nail?
But like the propaganda I've been discussing, Copy too has become stronger, more challenging and sexier than it was when I started 35 years ago. Details are the dwellings of devils, but we have to go in there none the less.

There are skills you simply have to acquire in today's massive text and content world of Internet and Social Media. Framing is one of them. We never thought about framing thirty-five years ago, but you have to catch your reader, and keep her attention. She's not easy to keep either. She's trained herself to scan thousands of words an evening. For a hesitant breath she will hover over your copy if it looks like you are interesting -- and within that hesitation you either catch her completely, or become invisible.
"Be bloody, bold, and resolute" (Macbeth)
Have to keep up with her expectations
Have to keep up with her expectations


orcid.org/0000-0001-7495-5377

Some thoughts on Political Details

Details, they say, are the dwellings of devils.

I'm always a little amazed at the "vital" particle -- and its slight stature compared to the body of work it brings to life. I have spent days in furious and obsessive search for that "detail" -- which once turned out to be a date:
It was 1987 when Eric discovered the nation was insane. 

and once, a flowering herb:
"Hemlock water dropwort" (Oenanthe crocata) the plant responsible for producing the sardonic grin. The candidate for the "sardonic herb," a neurotoxic plant used for the ritual killing of elderly people in pre-Roman Sardinia. When these people were unable to support themselves, the herb was given to them as an intoxicant and once in the grip of the poison, they were dropped from a high rock or beaten to death. It was also said to cause rictus laughter from the victim before death.
-- that was such a cool find though.

Details. It is so little we need, but what we need is absolute.

Razor Ready to Parse and Diagnose A Propaganda Message

This article that we are going to take apart and explore is a good sample of the propaganda currently being pushed out into the Internet. It was published back in October, and it is in reference to the College Board Advanced Placement US History course.

The AP History course has had a consistent single complaint. Every year the teachers have voiced this complaint. For the last 20 years, History teachers across the nation told the College Board that the course was too stringently defined. There was no room in the AP Course for "Teaching." 

The course was laid out completely, with nearly an hour-by-hour description. The teacher's felt that they were unable to explore or contribute. "You didn't even need to be a teacher. A recording would have done," said one teacher.

In 2013 the crew at the College Board working on the AP US History, came up with an idea to solve this problem. They defined a Framework, which had in it the main ideas, the concepts and levels of expectation needed for the students in order to take the test with a reasonable chance of passing. 
There was no curriculum
The teacher would choose the material, and events of history to cover, as well the people of that era to explore. Everything would be covered by the teacher. Obviously, in order to explain this "building of curriculum" some "sample" data was required as "place holders" in the course manual. Larry Krieger saw his chance, claimed that the Sample Data was the True data, and began a Big Lie campaign in an attempt to get the AP to return to the previous format. 
Since this campaign is now mute, and everyone now understands the swindle by Larry Krieger, Jane Robins, Sandra Stotsky and James Milgram we can explore without controversy.
So, before you go further into this, please read this Overview.
To Verify the overview the College Board has published this document to clearly debunk the confusion spread by Larry Krieger, Jane Robins, Sandra Stotsky and James Milgram.
Once done, let's get into one of the Articles, which was posted as an Editorial on the AP History Problem. Oct 4, 2014

ALEC wants our Schools


I discovered a copy of ALEC's Report Card book v18

The general academic feeling is the report card fails.  I think they missed the point of the publication. That happens when you are an academic and still believe order and reason are viable goals.

It is fitting that ALEC begins the v17 version with this paragraph:
In World War II, Great Britain suffered a series of crushing defeats. From the conquest of her continental allies and an ignominious evacuation at Dunkirk to the loss of Singapore in the east, Great Britain was under attack. Germany stood as a colossus with its boot on the throat of Europe. Under the assumption there was no way to win, “realistic” members of the British aristocracy advised reaching an accommodation with Germany. Winston Churchill refused to surrender while the Royal Air Force successfully fought off the German Luftwaffe over the skies of England, deterring a German invasion.
Yeah, WWII, the days of Hitler and the Big Lie. Perfect.
"All this was inspired by the principle—which is quite true within itself—that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying."
—Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, vol. I, ch. X[1]
All too true. It never occurs to us regular folk that someone would actually -- and on purpose -- tell moutain size lies which fabricate whole political systems. Not only tell them. but then go to the trouble of making several web sites and then writing a full book on the subject. It boggles the mind.

And then we see what Larry Krieger did last year with AP History. The whole thing was a swindle -- so he could get his book business back. Not a single thing he said had an ounce of truth to it, except when he would admit that there was nothing wrong with the AP History course.

As I went through the pages of this ALEC "report card", I found myself making little notes in the margins about the Aggressive Persuasion tactics that were both being described, and being used by the manual. It is a marvelous example of how to acquire people to spread your propaganda, and train them at the same time. It is poetry in motion to be honest.

ALEC has an Education Task Force. They have nine of these "task forces" that are staffed with Think Tanks, such as the American Principles Project, and the Heartland Institute (both highly recommended propaganda outfits by the way. The cigarette companies give them great reviews) who hire people like James Milgram, Sandra Stotsky and Jane Robbins. You'll recall the three of them from the Math Wars days and also how the created the turmoil around Larry Krieger's  AP History swindle last year. They didn't really care about Larry, or the AP. They were after David Coleman, the main guy with Common Core. ALEC doesn't like Common Core. It stands in the way of taking apart the Education System and then making a profit off the parents.

The Review of 2013's Version had this to say:
The 18th edition of the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) Report Card on American Education: Ranking State K-12 Performance, Progress, and Reform draws on ratings from market-oriented advocacy groups to grade states in areas such as support for charter schools, availability of vouchers, and permissiveness for homeschooling. The authors contend that these grades are based on “high quality” research demonstrating that the policies for which they award high grades will improve education for all students. This review finds that, contrary to these claims, ALEC’s grades draw selectively from these advocacy groups to make claims that are not supported in the wider, peer-reviewed literature. In fact, the research ALEC highlights is quite shoddy and is unsuitable for supporting its recommendations. The authors’ claims of “a growing body of research” lacks citations; their grading system contradicts the testing data that they report; and their data on alternative teacher research is simply wrong. Overall, ALEC’s Report Card is grounded less in research than in ideological tenets, as reflected in the high grades it assigns to states with unproven and even disproven market-based policies. The report’s purpose appears to be more about shifting control of education to private interests than in improving education.
Sigh. Of course it is moving control over to the private interests. There is money to be made there, and we got to get rid of Common Core as well. A system that will give any lame, poor, backwater school system better educational materials than private schools can afford has to go.

Also, the teachers have to actually be teachers if the CCSS is in place and ALEC wants anyone "who feels the calling" to be able to be a teacher -- at minimum wage -- with no union of course.

I've been looking for versions 19 and 20. The propaganda resources alone are worth any purchase price. This is a whole National level disinformation and confusion campaign -- all planned and explained for you. I have some good tactics myself but ... I guess when you have a team of "think tanks" and a million to put into the effort, you can get more done.




Follow up on the Wage Gap With Obama

Before I get started, a great deal of the information I've been able to gather and process for the last few days is due to a programmer who created a very cool little program to transform JSON data base files into CSV data tables.  But... since he is Secret Squirrel on his website, I don't know his name. However, if you are using JSON files check him out. He's got an editor on there as well.



Since I have not heard anything about this, I decided to ask the source at BarackObama.com and I encourage you to do the same.


Selling compliance to the unwilling requires Inovation

You might believe that that Corporate use of Aggressive Persuasion is something you don't need to be concerned about -- and that belief might be yours, or painstakingly inserted into your decision matrix for you. After all, you do want to be compliant, right? So you were eventually going arrive at that belief anyway, right? So, no problem then.
Corporations -- All about Convenience

From the strategy page of a Corporate Marketing Agency:
Compliant behaviour is associated with conformity to institutional rules, and so, when people choose not to comply they stand answerable to consequences, which in an institutional or legal framework, could result in penalties such as fines, community service or legal action  (cf. Harvey and McCrohan, 1988; May, 2005). Thus, the word voluntary must be used with some caution in the context of social marketing frameworks. 
Social marketers should encourage compliance by using message appeals (in this context not simply message framing) to link the socially desired behaviour to something that is of value to the individual. These appeals must be packaged or presented in a way that enables the individual to see the direct benefit (value) of their action.  
This value could be something which avoids negative consequences or which are positive incentives to behave in a certain way (Staub, 1997; Atkin, 2001). It could also be an empathetic motive rather than a personal one (Taute and McQuitty, 2004; Sturmer, Snyder and Omoto, 2005). Message appeals can be either positive or negative in nature, and they can additionally be divided into informational (or rational) appeals versus emotional appeals.   

These are not unique strategy descriptions, but I was a little surprised to find them stated with such brazen openness.


46 And 2 Just Ahead of Me

Sweet Cover - This is one of my favorite songs. The 'shadow' refers to Carl Jung's theories on the development of "shadow" selves which build up inside of us -- the ideals we believe ourselves to be - the guilt and shame that we believe ourselves to be because we didn't live up to those ideals

46 and 2 is Carl Jung's thoughts concerning (and later expounded upon by Drunvalo Melchizedek) the possibility of reaching a state of evolution at which the body would have two more than the normal 46 total chromosomes and leave a currently disharmonious state. The premise is that humans would deviate from the current state of human DNA which contains 44 autosomes and 2 sex chromosomes. The next step of evolution would likely result in human DNA being reorganized into 46 and 2 chromosomes

Ha! You thought you were going to get through the day without learning something... Sucker!




Role of the Federal Government in Public Education

I was asked some questions about the Federal Involvement with local schools. through the form I have. This was a few days ago, but there was a lot of ground to cover. First off, after checking through pile after pile of data, the Common Core has absolutely no effect on the Federal involvement with the schools except to give them "less" reason for interacting. This report about Oklahoma (a news report) gave the indication that since they dropped CCSS, the Federal Government had more reason to be involved. I have a letter to a few to state school board members asking for a clarification on that statement, and I'll post that here as soon as I get an answer.



That's a messed up story. Everyone wanted the CCSS after experiencing it, and the state law makers took it anyway. Now they have no standards, the state is out a huge amount of money, plus the money they have to expend to create their own standards. And are any of those people who talked the state gov in to giving them up around to help out Nope. What a pointless waist of money and opportunity.

I did find plenty involvement from Federal with the states and the school systems however, and it is likely that what OK was talking about in that vid is within these laws, but as I explained in the email, I'm not sure I found all of them.

Never as New as You Think



Special Message to the Congress Proposing a Comprehensive Health Insurance PlanFebruary 6, 1974
To the Congress of the United States:One of the most cherished goals of our democracy is to assure every American an equal opportunity to lead a full and productive life.
In the last quarter century, we have made remarkable progress toward that goal, opening the doors to millions of our fellow countrymen who were seeking equal opportunities in education, jobs and voting.
Now it is time that we move forward again in still another critical area: health care.
Without adequate health care, no one can make full use of his or her talents and opportunities. It is thus just as important that economic, racial and social barriers not stand in the way of good health care as it is to eliminate those barriers to a good education and a good job.
Three years ago, I proposed a major health insurance program to the Congress, seeking to guarantee adequate financing of health care on a nationwide basis. That proposal generated widespread discussion and useful debate. But no legisla ...read full document
.....today is still the 6th, yes?

The good ideas are never original, but this explains why no one wanted to get behind this idea. Anything from Nixon, couldn't be good -- right? 

A Brief but Relevant  History of Propaganda 

Excuse Me?
Check this Box?
Are you Six?

Dear Democratic Party whose email list I would like to leave....


So, your Opt-Out page, instead of being just a click, like professionals do it, is asking me why I'm leaving. Fine.

You don't engage me. I dont' know. Maybe its because I'm countering propaganda from these activists against CCSS or the research I do, ... maybe I'm jaded. But I really get the impression that you don't care about what you are doing, or why. I get this mental image of a blue/gray office and half-hearted interests. I get the vision of "screw this.." blasting off the emails. But seriously...I was close to shutting down on this one...


Do you believe that we should give middle-class families a tax break by closing corporate tax loopholes?

And then two buttons? Yes? No?

This is the political version of "Do you like me? Check the box if you do." from grade school.

To the members of the meeting you had, who dedicated all of their skill to produce a  message, designed to make an emotional connection, and be convincing -- I must say, well done. I am deffinity feeling an emotion. And It is convincing.

It convinces me that if you do care about what you are doing, you certainly don't give a damn about what I'm doing. Because, despite the fact that what I'm doing is actually directly affecting the chances of the Democrats doing better in the next election... you have interrupted my work to look at a childish note displaying a brazen declaration of insecurity.


I can't take this message seriously -- especially the question. So there is no way I can take you seriously. If I take that question, as it is presented, seriously, I'll stop what I'm doing and tell you to "F-off you are on your own". If you are so far out of touch with the democratic voters of this nation that you have to ask that question in that manner, then you are not a party I want any where near the house of congress or the white house. This email, and that ad you did about education... my god.

This -- right here, this email, is the reason the Republicans, who had a 9% approval rating, swept with a 94% success in November. Yes, I'm basically democrat, but ... how can I take you seriously?

Now... I'm trying to do a diagnostic on these, rather sophisticated propaganda messages I discovered last week, which from every source are militarized words designed to insure you lose even more in a couple years -- with the public's blessing. I feel it is important for people to be able to think. -- But honestly, judging by the messages I'm getting and the actions I'm seeing  (or actually NOT seeing) whoever is making these is wasting their money. They won't need them.

So, grow a spine, get someone who can create a real message or ask me a real question which demonstrates that you might give a &%( about this country, and maybe I'll join back up.

Glenn Hefley
www.ghefley.com






Moments to Cherish
Where is The Line?

It was Oct 30th, 1938, and young Orson Wells came through the doors of his studio with a grin on his face. It wasn't exactly a grin born of humor, or good will. It wasn't the kind of grin you would reciprocate. In fact, anyone could tell just by looking at him he was up to no good. Unfortunately, this was radio, and none of his listeners would be able to see that grin.

The Mercury Theater on The Air began right on time. Yes it did. A time when families would gather around the radio in the evening to enjoy their favorite shows. And they were gathering, They were getting popcorn and drinks. They were getting pillows and hushing each other because the show was starting. And even though they were all aware that the show was beginning, many people (a few hundred thousand), didn't hear, the little tag line at the end of the announcer's introduction. "H.G. Wells, the War Of The Worlds"


Apart from his admittedly imperfect methods of estimating the audience and assessing the authenticity of their response, Pooley and Socolow found, Cantril made another error in typing audience reaction. Respondents had indicated a variety of reactions to the program, among them "excited", "disturbed," and "frightened". Yet he included all of them with "panicked," failing to account for the possibility that despite their reaction they were still aware the broadcast was staged. "Those who did hear it, looked at it as a prank and accepted the performance in that manner," recalled researcher Frank Stanton.
… In order to take advantage of the accepted convention, we had to slide swiftly and imperceptibly out of the 'real' time of a news report into the 'dramatic' time of a fictional broadcast. Once that was achieved — without losing the audience's attention or arousing their skepticism — once they were sufficiently absorbed and bewitched not to notice the transitions any more, there was no extreme of fantasy through which they would not follow us.

Bartholomew grants that hundreds of thousands were frightened but calls evidence of people taking action based on their fear "scant" and "anecdotal". Indeed, contemporary news articles indicate that police were swamped with hundreds of calls in numerous locations, but stories of people doing anything more than calling authorities mostly involve only small groups. Such stories were often reported by people who were panicking themselves.

Later investigations found much of the alleged panicked responses to have been exaggerated or mistaken. Cantril's researchers found that, contrary to what had been claimed, there were no admissions for shock at a Newark hospital during the broadcast; hospitals in New York City similarly reported no spike in admissions that night. A few suicide attempts seem to have been prevented when friends or family intervened, but there was no record of a successful one. A Washington Post claim that a man died of a heart attack brought on by listening to the program could not be verified. One woman filed a lawsuit against CBS, but it was soon dismissed.



What You Know
And the Pain It Causes
Cognitive dissonance

"Before we try to explain something, we should be sure it actually happened."--Ray Hyman


My son mentioned today that everyone dies of the same thing, a  loss of homeostasis. Which is true. Our bodies rely on many variables to remain within strict parameters, which maintain our homeostasis. Any one of them: body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, breathing capacity and activity -- any of them losing their required value and we are dead. The rest is merely details.

Cognitive dissonance arises when external information contradicts an already held belief.

The way all of us normally deal with this is NOT to rationally compare two competing theses and resolve conflicts using reason and available evidence. Rather, we react in the same way we react to a physical threat. We instinctively fight against information that threatens our beliefs, inventing any means of defense possible.

Aggressive Persuasion
Time Distortion. Technique

Name: Time Distortion. / Engage the Future

Type:  Perception Alteration
Medium: In Person or Voice Call - Text is possible but challenging
Chance of Encounter: Med/Low
Typical Target: One-to-One though Mass Media is Possible -- Challenging though
Setup, Conditions, or Environment: Framing highly suggested prior to engagement. 
If campaign requires text, framing requirement becomes even more advised. 
Description of Handling: The handling means an act of influencing public opinion through specific action so manipulated people will have the impression that they are acting according to their own ideas and interests. In fact, they take an idea, or an opinion that does not belong to them, but has been induced by various means. .One of the simplest is the technique of Time Distortion. Researchers today, call this False Memory or Memory Distortion. This technique refers to a decision that the client is trying to take. Speaking (Communicating) to them as if the decision is already made and that it was a pleasant experience and now everything is going to work out, adds to the experience. Also combining the session with pleasing images made with the use of "past tense" makes the new belief seat into memory with less disturbance, and begin to inscribe into the long term memory.  

I've also heard this one referred to as, "It's Just Tense, that's All"
But that was described as more of a Trope than an engagement.
I remember when it happened. I remember when we got the news. The news that 913 people killed themselves in Jonestown. It was so stunning. The anchor man said it deadpan. Nine hundred men, and women, with their children, in a mass suicide during a church service. It really didn't hit. I don't think anyone who heard it that day, got the message. I don't believe we process after a certain degree of atrocity. It's not a shock, really. It's a dumbing. What you hear -- it just doesn't make any sense to you. The words, individually, as each was said, were recognized as words, sure, but they weren't recognizable in that order. I guess, when that sort of limitation is breached, you focus on the banal. So, yeah, this guy who is condemning the jokes about the Kool-aid, this college kid. Sure, I understand the rebuke, but i don't accept it. Even now, it is difficult to grasp - -and there are so many living people who are crushed by tragedy to focus on. I do not accept the reproach of the dead while the living cry out.
Was there something that could have been done about Jonestown?

Mainstream - Hank Green
Derision - Propaganda

Robert Earll, who I called Bobby, like everyone else we hung out with, was one of the writers for Ironsides, and then Starsky & Hutch. You know the episode where Starsky's wife dies of cancer? The one that got all those awards? He wrote that -- after his wife died of cancer. That's how writers deal with things like that, we write about them. 

So, anyway, Bobby never felt like he really belonged in Hollywood, making a ton of money and writing for a living. He didn't have a degree. Hell, his only serious schooling was through a correspondence course while he lived in Las Vegas. Nope, not joking at all. It was sort of a strange assemblage of accidents that got one of his assignments into the hands of the producer of Ironsides as well. 

About ten years into a solid career he took a young man to work with him, who wanted to get into to writing TV shows as well. 

Bobby told me that this guy was absolutely insatiable the whole day. 

"He just wouldn't stop! He talked to all the stars, the directors, he even spent more than an hour bugging the stunts guys, asking how they did things. I was so frustrated I could have screamed and whacked him with something blunt!"  Then Bobby looked at me sideways, "You know why I was really mad though?"

"I'll bite, why?" 


"Because that kid had more fun at my job in an afternoon, than I've had there in the last ten years." 

Hank Green, my son tells me, is still getting razed by the mainstream news media about his visit to the Whitehouse. When my son told me about this I thought of that story Bobby told me. I would be willing to bet a royalty check that not one of those CNN reporters has a selfie with the president. 

That and they're scared shitless. 

a Touch of Aristotle - You Tweet - I Tweet

Do I know more than You? Maybe. Probably not. I'm so focused into narrow areas of attention that I might know more about a narrow segment of a topic than you do, but current events? Like, what is happening on my front lawn? Eh... not so much. Perfect example is that I ordered speakers for my laptop two weeks ago. Just this morning I realized that they didn't arrive. So I got on to the website to check it out. They were delivered ten days ago to the address I lived at 15 years ago.

However, there are a few places I probably have more fun. Well. My kind of fun. For example, this is probably close to how you Tweet.
The Twitter of Every Day Use



And this is more my style (see how they are all running around in a circle chasing tweets that upset them?... ah.. the teas are fun).
This image is created using NodeXL
Which is a plugin for Excel which connects to
Twitter, and then allows you to create functionality


The Malleable Variance of What We Call Time

In his Rhetoric, Aristotle acknowledges that it would be better if we could make our case without either browbeating or flattering the audience; nothing should matter except "the bare facts." He laments, "other things affect the result considerably, owing to the defects of our hearers."

Your perception of time does not adhere to "world time." You might have the opinion that I should have said, 'does not always adhere to world time', but that's a lie. Your sense of time is as easily disturbed as a puddle of mud, and just as transparent.

If a man with a bass voice reads a script at exactly the same speed as a man with a tenor voice, the bass voice feels slower, by a notable degree.

When your body temperature is high, your sense of time is also slowed. In one experiment, subjects with fevers were asked to count to 60 at one number per second. Without exception, they counted much faster.

Having a low body temperature  you would count slower, as the sense of time moves much faster.

Under the influence of blue light, time is underestimated -- which is why nightclubs use it, to give you the sense that you really haven't been there that long.

Under the long wavelengths of red light, time is overestimated and every thing feels like it is in slow motion.

Where the Wild Things Are...

Chess is a Wild game I've only been playing for a short time, but I've gained enough understanding to realize that the angles of ...