Tuesday, December 27, 2016

I'm-a-grant

poor georgie's almanack:

You and I are what we are because each of us benefits from an “I’m a grant” family.  


America grew because colonists, early soldiers, plantation owners, railroads, colleges, and infrastructure projects were awarded land grants.  Not all of the land and grants were shady.


Thursday, December 22, 2016

Friendship alert

poor georgie’s almanack

I just discovered a shockingly brilliant plan we all can agree upon to make small town America great again (and catch this), protect the USA from devastating all-out cyber attack, vastly improve basic education, upgrade training for the new-age workforce, give lagging entrepreneurial class a boost, create jobs and not cost a fortune … because it all has been done before.

My old friend, Harvey Meyerson, in his new book, “Jefferson, The Army and The Internet" (AMAZON) has found the sweet spot where history and modern common sense come together.  Tell everyone you know!

Like a five star Michelin chef, he concocts a recipe that relies on the amazingly successful and under-reported skills of the US Army in (believe it or not) nations like Afghanistan, and in America’s bad ass Wild West, and even during the Great Depression of the 1930s. 

I am the ultimate skeptic, up to now thinking there was no way the right, middle and left could work together.  Suddenly, I am convinced it is possible. 

Out of the haze of uncommonly bitter discourse, Harvey has charted a course, hidden in plain view, that relies on common values and successes we have forgotten.  Repeating … Tell everyone you know!


Thursday, December 15, 2016

Dark

poor georgie’s almanack:

I read that a group of astronomer/cosmologists created a map of Dark Matter, but I can’t find it.

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

oped york record 12/12/16 science and vote


Science knows why a Trump supporter has a different version of reality than a Clinton supporter.

oped by George Kroloff

That’s because there is no single reality.

Reality is now, but it lasts for less than an instant. Then it is a memory. The past is gone. The future is not here yet.

Each of us processes information that goes into our memory bank differently.

But, there is one constant that comes to my mind and it is from, of all things, Albert Einstein’s theories of relativity.

Einstein said to make sense of any thing it can only be described by how that particular thing is relative to something else. In politics, that helps explain different points of view.

Your eyes see any object or activity differently than I do, even if we are next to each other. You see it through a lens that is at a different angle than mine. Your lens might be panoramic, mine might be tightly focused.

Meanwhile, you and I may hear the same things during a political debate or a radio advertisement, but we process things differently. That’s because whatever enters our brains through our eyes and ears passes through a screen of past memories and beliefs. That is our intellectual baggage, which comes from what we assume we have seen, heard, read and felt.

Much of the politics and ideologies we process feeds into a collective consciousness, which is the set of shared ideas and attitudes that are a unifying force within society. It is, in large part, influenced by our tribes. I process Republicans and Democrats as two ancient tribes and independents as a leaderless, disorganized, chaotic wandering lost tribe.

One of the most accepted theories in science is the Chaos Theory. It says that even when everything around us appears to be in chaos, our pocket of turmoil actually is a small section of a bigger pattern. It is a pattern that only makes sense when seen from afar. Just like an isolated windstorm or a rain shower is part of a massive weather pattern.

In the big picture, chaotic issues that seem to be isolated in the U.S., such as the heightened fear of “the others,” also are thriving around the world. Fear still drives old bugaboos like anti-semitism and anti-immigration, rich vs. poor, and one color vs. another.

Weirdly enough, we also are affected by brain-like decisions made by things we do not think of as brains. Like all mammals, fish and birds, we react to those we feel close to – especially to their fears.

One evidence of that is how humans swarm, just like fish and birds swarm. Media swarm, or circle, around the surrogates for presidential candidates after a debate in the “spin room.”

Species often swarm to protect the strong in the middle and to sacrifice the weak on the fringe. Think of a school of mackerel, with no apparent leader, forming an almost solid mass when one fish spies a shark and gets agitated. Or think of a political platform that protects one section of society against another.

The Internet is a perfect example of a leaderless but brain-like thing that motivates humans to react collectively. Remember the huge Ice Bucket Challenge to raise funds for ALS research? There was no leader, it just happened.
So, science can give us insight into why we think like we think, or do what we do. But it still can’t sort out all our biases based on what we each think we have experienced – our individual concept of reality.

That’s one reason why your well-reasoned argument, backed up by what you believe to be the facts, is less likely to change the mind of someone’s equally well-reasoned argument, backed up with a different version of the same facts.
Thus, if you thought a candidate was not trustworthy or just made you uncomfortable, you probably are reflecting the fears and reactions of those you trust.

You are like the middle bird in a flock of starlings swirling through the air.

Yep, science says “birds of a feather do flock together.”

###############

George Kroloff was head of public relations for The Washington Post during the Pentagon Papers through Watergate period, held senior staff positions on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in the office of the Postmaster General and later became counselor to science, business, nonprofit and government organizations. Some of his work is in the Newseum and Smithsonian collections.
YDR-CD-110816-election-york-democrats

################

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Monday, December 12, 2016

Friday, December 9, 2016

Lost Tribe

poor georgie’s almanack

American political tribes:

Reds (mad), mostly in midsection. 

Blues (sad), mostly on coasts.

My tribe, the Purples, (mad and sad), lost in an uncharted desert, listless, leaderless, hopeless, our SUVs out of gas.
















 









http://lh3.ggpht.com/-refSxGuVLjs/UowBRi5QvII/AAAAAAAAHi4/jRSBBxz1kMg/deflation.jpg?imgmax=2000

Monday, December 5, 2016

Thursday, December 1, 2016

The adventure continues

poor georgie’s almanack:

The adventure continues.

Coming up next! 

Week five of America’s Presidential Transition.


Saturday, November 26, 2016

In praise of beauracacy

poor georgie’s almanack:

In praise of the bureaucracy.

While being strapped onto an operating table earlier this week, I casually mentioned, how convenient it would be if something went wrong that Suburban Hospital is very close to the campus shared by Navy Medical-Walter Reed hospital and the Uniformed Services Medical School. 

The med-school’s cadaver room is where my body, ultimately, is headed.

Sorry, someone yelled.  Not on my watch. 

Why?, I asked. 

Too much paperwork, he replied.

This really happened.


So far the pacemaker seems to be working. 

Previously, I thought it was a good thing when my heart skipped a beat (like when Susan walked into a room).

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Fake News

poor georgie’s almanack:
It is hard to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.  Credit: Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the first book of a trilogy in five parts.

Sunday, November 13, 2016

Political earthquakes


poor georgie’s almanac:

After shocks: 9/11/2001 vs. 11/8/2016.  

Both big ones (8 on Richter Scale).  

9/11 united US - 11/8 divided US.


Friday, November 11, 2016

Smart People

poor georgie’s almanack:

Irony: The 1919 peace treaty that ended WW1 led to WW2 and the MidEast mess and is commemorated today as Veterans Day.

It was signed at Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors by pretty smart leaders worrying about their own constituencies and their individual perceptions of a future that could not possibly exist.  

Alas, if different decisions had been made in that real and virtual Hall of Mirrors, there would be fewer noble veterans to commemorate today.



Thursday, November 10, 2016

The new American Gothic

poor georgie’s almanack:

God Bless America

Election 2016 rewrite:

From the mountains, to the prairies to the white men filled with scorn…


Monday, November 7, 2016

Ballot

poor georgie’s almanack:
While pondering your ballot choices, consider that potatoes have two more chromosomes than humans.

Will it never end?


poor georgie’s almanack:
Sometimes I just hope one thing will not lead to another.


Sunday, October 30, 2016

HOW SCIENCE HELPS EXPLAIN YOUR VOTE

poor georgie’s almanack
10.30.2016 … feel free to share

HOW SCIENCE HELPS EXPLAIN YOUR VOTE
by George Kroloff

Science can explain why a Trump supporter has a different version of reality than a Clinton supporter.

That’s because there is no single reality.

Reality is now, but it lasts for less than an instant.  Then it is a memory.  The past is gone.  The future is not here yet.

Each of us processes information that goes into our memory bank differently.  But, there is one constant that comes to my mind and it is from, of all things, Albert Einstein’s theories of relativity.

Einstein said … to make sense of any thing it can only be described by how that thing is relative to something else.  In politics, that helps explain different points of view.

Your eyes see any object or activity differently than I do, even if we are next to each other.  You see it through a lens that is at a different angle than mine.  Your lens might be panoramic, mine might be tightly focused.

Meanwhile, you and I may hear the same things during a political debate or a radio advertisement, but we process them differently.  That’s because whatever enters our brains through our eyes and ears passes through a screen of past memories and beliefs.  That is our intellectual baggage, which comes from what we assume we have seen, heard, read, and felt.

Much of the politics and ideologies we process, feeds into a collective consciousness, which is the set of shared ideas and attitudes that are a unifying force within society.  It is, in large part, influenced by our tribes.  I process Republicans and Democrats as two ancient tribes and Independents are like a leaderless, disorganized, chaotic wandering lost tribe.

One of the most accepted theories in Science is the Chaos Theory.  It says that even when everything around us appears to be in chaos, our pocket of turmoil actually is a small section of a bigger pattern.  It is a pattern that only makes sense when seen from afar.  Just like an isolated windstorm or a rain shower is part of a massive weather pattern. 

In the big picture, chaotic issues that seem to be isolated in the US, such as the heightened fear of “the others,” also are thriving around the world.  Fear still drives old bug-a-boos like anti-Semitism and anti-immigration, rich vs. poor, and one color vs. another.

Weirdly enough, we also are affected by brain-like decisions made by things we do not think of as brains.  Mammals, fish and birds react to those they feel close to.  They especially react to their fears.

One evidence of that is how humans swarm, just like fish and birds swarm.  Media swarm, or circle, around the surrogates for presidential candidates after a debate in the “spin room.”

Species often swarm to protect the strong in the middle and to sacrifice the weak on the fringe.  Think of a school of mackerel, with no apparent leader, forming an almost solid mass when one fish spies a shark and gets agitated.  Or think of a political platform that protects one section of society against another.

The internet is a perfect example of a leaderless, but brain-like thing, that motivates humans to react collectively.  Remember the huge Ice Bucket Challenge to raise funds for ALS research?  There was no leader, it just happened.

So, Science can give us insight into why we think like we think, or do what we do.  But it still can’t sort out all our biases based on what we each think we have experienced … our individual realities. 

That’s one reason why your well reasoned argument, backed up by what you believe to be the facts, is less likely to change the mind of someone’s equally well reasoned argument, backed up with a different version of the same facts.

Thus, if you thought a candidate was not trustworthy or just made you uncomfortable you probably are reflecting the fears and reactions of those you trust.

You are like the the middle bird in a flock of starlings swirling through the air.

Yep, Science says “birds of a feather do flock together.”

###

George Kroloff was head of public relations for The Washington Post during the Pentagon Papers through Watergate period, held senior staff positions on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in the office of the Postmaster General and later became counselor to science, business, nonprofit and government organizations.  Some of his work is in the Newseum and Smithsonian collections.



Saturday, October 29, 2016

Pain or Penance

poor georgics almanack:

If Hillary or Donald are impeached, will the following administration be headed by Pain or Penance?

Friday, October 21, 2016

poor georgie's almanack. Cheers!
Every 4 years the Commission on Presidential Debates#, under intense conflicting pressures, produces world's most important reality series.

photo from politico

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

poor georgie’s almanack … Oct. 19.  

BAD HAIR DAY?

Wind patterns over the continental U.S. not long before the second Presidential Debate Oct. 10 … based on real-time data from the National Digital Forecast Database. MAP BY FERNANDA VIÉGAS AND MARTIN WATTENBERG, (NY Times)


Monday, June 20, 2016

Seeking science's holy grail

poor georgie’s almanack:

NERD PUN ALERT!

Science sometimes stumbles because its big TOE has yet to fully evolve.

(The holy grail is called TOE, the Theory Of Everything)

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Saturday, June 18, 2016

Left handed molecules

poor georgie’s almanack:
Molecules can be left- or right-handed. 
Scientists don't know why but almost all of the life on Earth is made up of the left-handed ones.

Friday, June 17, 2016

organs

poor georgie’s almanack:
Eerie unintended consequence.
Spurt in drug overdose deaths eases shortage of donated organs.


Friday, June 10, 2016

shorts

poor georgie’s almanack:
today’s favorite curse:
May the fleas of 1,000 camels infest your shorts!


Monday, May 16, 2016

Vibes

poor georgie’s almanack:

A philosopher contemplates his navel when thinking about human life and the universe.
A physicist contemplates her G String when thinking about human life and the universe.

Explanation:
According to string theory, absolutely everything in the universe as we know it, including each atom in your body, is comprised of tiny vibrating identical strings. 

The only difference between strings is how they vibrate. 

String theory is all the rage in a wide range of the sciences, and among thinking musicians.


file:///Users/georgekroloff/Desktop/poor%20g%20clip%20art/body%20vibrations%20string%20theory%20%20%20c644934453cd5411d39315dfce19d451.jpg

Thursday, April 28, 2016

Refugees

poor georgie’s almanack:

Millions of refugee families flee death, herded into camps, as money for food and water dries up and predators abound. 

Young females forced to take long walks to toilets at night are prime targets.



Sunday, April 17, 2016

Tomorrow is 2016 Tax Day

poor georgie’s almanack:

Monday is last day to file your personal tax form with IRS this year.

Thus, poor georgie suggests a voice mail for any CPA with antsy clients.

“The sum will come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar there’ll be a sum.”

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Laws of nature

poor georgie’s almanack:

Just for the record. Laws of Nature do not respect national boundaries.




Sunday, April 10, 2016

Bubbles and bows


poor georgie’s almanack

Bubbles and bows: 

As a young show business press agent in Chicago around 1960 I promoted an interesting “B List” of world-renowned performers visiting The Windy City.  Bernstein, Belafonte and a bunch of  others. 

Last night’s powerful performance at Strathmore Music Center of “Porgy and Bess” brought back memories of John W. Bubbles.  He was Sportin’ Life in the original Broadway production of the Gershwin classic opera.

Bubbles had appeared in Chicago on a bill with Judy Garland and the comic Alan King.  I was hired late in the game, after it already was clear the show’s run would be standing-room-only.

Irv Kupcinet, the leading local gossip columnist, invited me to a private dinner at the Chez Paree nightclub, a couple days before the show opened.  About ten of us sat around a table and listened to a clearly disturbed Garland swearing up a storm.  That was a bit uncomfortable, but even more unsettling were the futile attempts by her husband, Sidney Luft, to calm her down.  I didn’t want to get involved in that.  But, I needed someone to promote, because I was being paid to do press agentry.

King was equally obnoxious.  He didn’t need me and I not only didn’t need him, I didn’t want to be around him.  He seemed to be mean and disdainful of everyone but himself.

Bubbles, meanwhile, came across as quiet, introspective and a genuinely warm human being.  I only knew about him as a famous vaudeville performer where he partnered with a fellow who’s nickname was “Buck.”  Their act was “Buck and Bubbles.”  The name had intrigued me as much as another star team on the Negro Vaudeville Circuit, “Butterbeans and Susie.”

I arranged for Studs Terkel to interview Bubbles in a small WFMT radio studio.  Terkel, probably the best interviewer ever, didn’t dwell on the obvious, like how Bubbles had taught Fred Astaire to tap dance.

Terkel zeroed in on Bubbles’ climb to stardom in Jim Crow America.  Jim Crow was a popular 19th-century minstrel song and dance that negatively stereotyped African Americans  It was performed by White men in blackface makeup.  The mythical Jim Crow morphed into shorthand for a system of government-sanctioned wide-spread racial oppression and segregation, which fully captured Bubbles wildly successful career.  Yet, successful as his career was, during most of it, he couldn’t walk into millions of front or side doors,or stay at most hotels, because of his skin color. 

Studs delicately brought out the pain, suffering, and sorrow of Bubbles’ journey to greatness.  Several poignant sounds of silence spoke volumes, as the three of us around the table and the sound engineer in a cramped “booth” behind a large glass window, gathered our thoughts and quietly reflected upon the discomfort pent up in Bubbles’ story.   It was a story of simultaneously living the American dream and the American nightmare. 

The temperature in the room began to heat up. 

And suddenly I noticed. The four of us.  Suspended in a tiny time capsule.  In a soundproofed safe high above the hustle and bustle of “The Second City.”  And each of us with tears in our eyes.

All of this flashed before me last night.  A night with little if any silence and a totally different experience.  Not at all like Studs’ studio.  Not even like sitting near the orchestra pit during the early 1950’s revival of Porgy, where I was a teenaged usher in Chicago’s cavernous, classic, Civic Opera House.

As the lights dimmed, in the sleek and nearly perfectly-tuned modern Strathmore Music Hall, just 15 minutes from our apartment door, Susan and I focused on the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s pleasing full, fluid sound. It was a sharp contrast to what I remembered as an equally pleasing, but brassy, Broadway-born Porgy pit orchestra.

But, the voices.  Oh, those voices.  Behind the orchestra in the loft, were the 60-or-so members of the highly acclaimed choir from Morgan State University a historically black college.  In front, performing in an imaginary Catfish Row, were the lead performers.  Some professional opera singers, some students.  They deservedly took their standing ovation bows.  And I thought.

Oh those voices.  Oh, those emotions.  Oh, those memories.

Monday, April 4, 2016

std

poor georgie’s almanack:
To them, and there are so many “thems,” our culture is a socially transmitted disease.


Sunday, April 3, 2016

On another note

April 3 2016
poor georgie’s almanack:
On another note.
When the Big Band era died, new owners of Chicago’s fabled Aragon Ballroom renamed it “The Cheetah.” Of course, we knew it also would fail, because our mothers always warned us that “Cheetahs never prosper.”                     




















Saturday, April 2, 2016

hate

poor georgie’s almanack:
Pay attention to people who hate, they really mean it.


Friday, April 1, 2016

gloves

April 1, 2016
poor georgie’s almanack:
And the answer is …
Last night along with 2000 of our closest friends Susan and I witnessed a polished performance by four award winning “Broadway Divas” cavorting in front of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.  The women exhibited a slew of stunning sequined gowns, great lungs and pipes, and a variety of long sexy gloves that reached halfway between the Divas’ elbows and their often-exposed, smoothly shaven, arm pits.  “Why,” I asked Susan, “don’t you wear gloves like that?”  She answered with her usual pristine logic … “I can’t sing.” 

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Wall

poor georgie’s almanack:

Relevant today:

A long time ago in a frosty galaxy far far away was found an inscription ...

Something there is that doesn't love a wall: Yoda


Monday, March 28, 2016

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Migrations

poor georgie’s almanack:

Migrations. Like today, some were miles long and miles high.



Tuesday, March 22, 2016

thumbs up

poor georgie’s almanack:

Why do we want them to be like us, rather than just simply like us?


Monday, March 21, 2016

ADD

poor georgie’s almanack:
 
George:  Why can’t I finish anything today? 
 
Do you think it's ADD?
 
Susan:  Nope, I think it's AGE.
 
 

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Pinot Evil

poor georgie's almanack;
Thinking of you today.
Found a wine for all our seasons and all our reasons.


Monday, March 14, 2016

First

poor georgie's almanack:

.First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

This entire quote by Protestant pastor Martin Niem̦ller (14 January 1892 Р6 March 1984) can be found on the internet.

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Choices

poor georgie’s almanack:

Sometimes there are just too many choices.


Friday, February 26, 2016

None vs Some

poor georgie’s almanack:

Today, Nobodies want some of what the Somebodies have and are not willing to give any of it up.

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Will we go back to minor miners?

poor georgie’s almanack:

By 62-36 vote, Iowa House approved 2-yr-olds’ use of real guns.

Will sending kids back to the mines be next?








Wednesday, February 24, 2016