Five Monkeys in a Cage
By Brian | October 2, 2009
[This story was related to me at a leadership seminar today. I don’t know if it’s true, but regardless, I found it very insightful]
A group of scientists put five monkeys in a cage. Hanging from the ceiling, in the middle of the cage, was a banana. Just under the banana was a wooden crate that the monkeys could use to climb up to the banana.
The first time the monkeys were put in the cage, they all naturally went for the banana. When they did this, the scientists turned an industrial strength fire hose on them and forced them down off the crate. They repeated this procedure for a period of time, until eventually, the monkeys would sit in the cage without attempting to take the banana.
At that point, the scientists replaced one of the monkeys with a another monkey who had not participated in the experiment up until this point. The first time this group of monkeys was put in the cage, four of them sat idly by, while the fifth monkey (the newcomer) went for the banana. Again, the scientists got out the fire hose, but they did not spray only the monkey who went for the banana, they sprayed all the monkeys in the cage. They repeated this procedure for a period of time as well (each time with four of the original monkeys, and one monkey who was brand new to the cage). Eventually, the fire hose became unnecessary, because when the newcomer went for the banana, the other four monkeys would forcibly prevent it from doing so. A few trials later, the scientists once again had five monkeys who would sit idly in the cage with the banana dangling from the ceiling.
The above process was repeated several more times, until eventually, the scientists had five monkeys who would sit in the cage and not take the banana, but had absolutely no idea why.
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Moral of the story: when someone tells you something has to be done a certain way because “that’s the way we’ve always done it,” challenge their logic. It’s quite possible that the real reason has long since vanished.
Categories: Random Acts of Blogging | 9 Comments »
Surfing the Video Web
By Brian | September 30, 2009
A whole slate of cool/funny/interesting videos made their way in front of my eyeballs today, so I thought I’d share:
First up, President Obama’s Amazingly Consistent Smile (Hat Tip: Scalzi)
Barack Obama’s amazingly consistent smile from Eric Spiegelman on Vimeo.
Next up, Christopher Reeve’s first appearance on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, promoting Superman: The Movie (Hat Tip: Bennion)
Next, Hugh Jackman on the Broadway Stage when a cellphone interrupts his performance (Hat Tip: E! Online)
[Editor’s Note: I’ve long held the unpopular opinion that receiving a cellphone call during a performance is not inherently evil. The phone should be on vibrate to avoid what happened here, but people sometimes get equally pissed when a person answers the (silent) phone – even if he/she quietly tells the caller to hold and then walks out of the theater. This is caused by two potentially inaccurate assumptions: first, that the ringing phone is the fault of the callee, not the caller, and second, that the subject of the call is, by default, less important than the brief interruption they had to endure while the person quietly excused himself/herself. Next time you see someone do it, consider that the caller might be a doctor in an emergency room, or a babysitter reporting a problem with the person’s child, etc.. OK, off my soapbox]
And finally, CNET’s Mailbag video, added here for its “Auto Incorrect” segment (Tip for everyone: don’t use your iPhone to text your boyfriend/girlfriend that you’re the “King of Sudoku”):
Categories: Random Acts of Blogging | Comments Off on Surfing the Video Web
Why Are We Still Arguing About Keyboards?
By Brian | September 29, 2009
Categories: Tech Talk | 3 Comments »
Teacher Abuses Student over Yankees/Red Sox Rivalry
By Brian | September 27, 2009
I know the Yankees have been beating up on the Red Sox lately, which can often lead to some harsh words in both ballparks, but you’d think we could keep the fourth grade classrooms in upstate New York peaceful, no?
Baldwinsville teacher, a Red Sox fan, makes student turn Yankees T-shirt inside out
Van Buren, NY — Van Buren Elementary fourth-grader Nathan Johns thought his teacher was kidding Wednesday when he instructed him to go to the bathroom and turn his Yankees T-shirt inside out.
Nate complied, and said he was later told to wear it that way until dismissal. At lunch, Nate said the fifth-graders made fun of him because he wearing his shirt inside out.
Categories: Sports Talk | 2 Comments »
Life Imitates Art – The Story of the Turkeys and the Frog
By Brian | September 24, 2009
OK, you’ve got to bear with me here, but trust me on this – the payoff is so worth it.
First, there’s this clip from the old WKRP in Cincinnati show:
Then, the hilarious conclusion (credits to the same show, different video clip):
And, finally, this from the Glen Beck show on Fox News Channel:
As God as my witness, I thought frogs jumped out of boiling water…
UPDATE: It’s possible that Glenn Beck did not actually throw a live frog into the water. See the comments below for more…
Categories: Primetime TV | 11 Comments »
Microsoft Tablet Looks Awesome…
By Brian | September 23, 2009
There’s a very cool video on the gizmodo site, but it doesn’t have an embedding option. Go check it out – trust me…
(Hat tip: Jeff Porten)
Categories: Tech Talk | Comments Off on Microsoft Tablet Looks Awesome…
Easy Come, Easy Go…
By Brian | September 16, 2009
Kind of makes you understand how Michael Jackson felt when he held his kid over the railing, huh?
Kidding people! I’M KIDDING!!!
(Hat tip: Pam Konde)
Categories: Sports Talk | 2 Comments »
Cold-War Era Search Service?
By Brian | September 14, 2009
There’s been a lot of political talk on my blog of late, and there’s sure to be more, so I thought I’d take a quick break and discuss something a little more frivolous – like Soviet intelligence agencies.
Seriously, who in their right minds decided to name a search service KGB? Were they assuming that they’d have absolutely zero customers over the age of 30? Makes me think the service is going to text me answers to questions before I even ask them…
And not only that, it’s entirely phone-based. I can’t even type a question into their website and get an answer on screen. I need to type in my 10-digit mobile telephone number and receive the answer on my phone. Even though they know I’m currently using a web browser. Really, folks? In an era where almost every phone can access Google almost as easily as a text message, and Google (especially with its excellent mobile version) can provide multiple responses (from multiple sources) to the same question at once? Why, this technology seems like something that was built when, well…when the original KGB was still around.
Congratulations, KGB! You’ve created an inferior product that inherently limits my interaction with it, and you expect to use it to compete with one of the largest and most successful technology companies in existence today. Oh, and you appear to be spending millions of dollars advertising it on television. How many TV ads do you see for Google? That’s right, none. You know why? Anyone who uses the web already knows about it.
Enjoy your fifteen minutes of fame, KGB…
Categories: Tech Talk | 5 Comments »
Derek Jeter – All-Time Yankee Hit Leader
By Brian | September 12, 2009
Been There. Seen That. Got the T-shirt.
No, seriously, I got the t-shirt. But more on that later.
First, I need to describe one of those Yankee Stadium moments. As I told a New York Post reporter earlier this week (who, by the way, never put it in an article…), every time you buy a ticket to a game in Yankee Stadium, there’s a chance that you’re going to see something magical. Over the years, I’ve seen milestones (including Derek Jeter’s 2,000th hit), special accomplishments (including A-Rod hitting three homeruns in a game) and other surprises (including Roger Clemmens’ announcement that he was returning to the Yankees). I’ve accidentally wound up at both Ron Guidry Day and Bob Sheppard Day. And that’s not to mention the special games I intentionally bought tickets for – Old Timers’ Day, playoff games, World Series games – you name it.
Last night was, literally, a perfect storm at Yankee Stadium. It was raining all day, to the point where I thought there was no way they were even going to play the game. As it turned out, they had a rain delay of roughly ninety minutes, which allowed the excited crowd to get, well…let’s call it “lubricated” before the game began. Then, there was an emotional tribute to the anniversary of 9/11/01, including the dedication of the USS New York, a ship that will be launched into military service in November, which contains 7.5 tons of steel recovered from the World Trade Center site. And then finally, the game began.
I’m told they were saying on television that the stadium had a playoff atmosphere that night. They were right. In the first inning, the rain was still falling pretty hard, and everyone was extremely pumped up. Derek Jeter came to bat in the bottom of the first and struck out, but everytime he swung the bat, ten thousand flashbulbs went off. And when he made contact (foul balls), the place collectively gasped.
The Yankees put a few hits together, so he led off the third inning as well. And that was when it happened. A line-drive single down the right field line, past the Orioles’ diving first baseman and into history.
The Yankees, having obviously discussed this ahead of time, poured out of the dugout and hugged him, one at a time. Not a single handshake in the bunch – all hugs. He is their teammate and their captain, and you could see the respect and admiration they all have for him personally. You could also tell that they recognized the enormity of what he had just accomplished. After all, Lou Gehrig held this record for more than seventy years, and given the way players jump between teams today, Jeter may well hold it forever.
I could go on and on, but it’s probably easier just to show you the video I shot of the whole thing:
Congratulations to Derek Jeter, the all-time Yankee hit leader. Glad I was there to see it happen!
Oh, yeah – about that T-shirt…
Minutes after he broke the record, the Yankees were running advertisements on the stadium scoreboard that T-shirts and pennants commemorating the event were now available in the Yankee Stadium stores. My friend and I laughed about it at first, but two innings later, decided to go check it out. I was going to buy a T-shirt for myself and a pennant for each of my kids, but when we got there, I found that they were almost out of extra-large T-shirts (they had plenty of small and 2XL shirts, but neither of those would fit me) and they were completely out of pennants. I picked up a couple of commemorative 8×10 photos of Jeter for the kids and set out to find the end of a very, very long line to pay for it all (it took a full inning to finally pay). During my search for the end of the line, I passed a guy who was holding at least fifty pennants, at which point I realized that the Yankees had not put any kind of “maximum – 5 items per person” limit on these items, so people were scooping them up for sale on eBay or whatever after the game. Shame on that guy and others like him, and shame on the Yankees for not taking the steps necessary to ensure everyone who wanted one of these items could get one.
Categories: Sports Talk | 3 Comments »
New York City Sights – 9/11/09
By Brian | September 11, 2009
It’s time for a very special edition of New York City Sights which, of course, coincides with my annual tradition of posting some thoughts about the anniversary of September 11, 2001 (others can be found here: 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008)
We start with a sight that few people see on television. It’s one of the last beams that was removed from the World Trade Center site (“Ground Zero”) when the massive clean-up effort ended in early November, 2001. These two beams, which the attacks left in the shape of a cross, were ceremoniously removed from the pit by the rescue workers and mounted outside the city courthouse a few blocks away.
Next, a view of downtown Manhattan, as it looks today:
Now that they’ve been gone for eight years, I think we forget just how massive and skyline-defining those towers were. Here’s a feeble attempt to draw them into the above picture (this isn’t accurate in any real sense, although I did look at about a dozen pictures taken from the Hudson river to approximate size and position, so it’s pretty close):
And now, if you’ll permit me, a few thoughts:
This is the first anniversary of the 9/11 attacks under a new President. Barack Obama is nothing if not eloquent, and I’m sure his words will be heartfelt and bring comfort to those who need it. Still, it is just now occurring to me for the first time that the President of the United States addressed a joint session of Congress on September 9, 2009 and didn’t as much as mention the upcoming anniversary. I’m not saying that it’s a good thing or a bad thing, mind you, just noting how different it is. It’s inconceivable that George W. Bush would give a speech in that chamber on September 9th of any year without at least noting the upcoming anniversary.
Again, without casting any aspersions on Barack Obama whatsoever, I get the feeling that no president will ever take 9/11/01 as personally as George W. Bush did. And this gives me pause, because quite frankly, it’s just as personal to me this year as it was last year. The local TV stations will cover the reading of the names as they always do, but I note on the TV listings that the Today show’s planned programming is “Today’s Pets, real estate, personally tailored diets, and ambush makeovers.”
The nation is truly moving on. Re-reading some of my older posts, I realize that I am moving on as well. It’s the signs that point it out so explicitly that bother me, I think. If you’re reading this, I hope that you are moving on as well, and that my words haven’t interrupted that process. But as we move on, I think it’s healthy to take a moment, especially today, and look back.
God Bless America.
Categories: New York, New York | 8 Comments »
