Don't diet

If you have experience with diets that require deprivation and a lot of discipline, you will appreciate the observations of this neuro-scientist.  She explains why diets don't usually work and may do more harm than good.

Weight can come back after dieting even if you are able to keep it off for . . . what, seven years?  That's what she says.

Her information is both encouraging and discouraging:

Rwandan survivors

Rwanda has worked hard (see this blog Dec. 11-13 posts) at recovering and moving on from the calamity of 1994, where up to one million people of the group called "Tutsi" were killed in masses by extremists in the other group called "Hutu."

Forgiveness has been urged on the few Tutsi who remain, but it's not easy.   Some Hutus have confessed, others not.  But apparently they are intermixed to the point where some people are living among murderers of their family members.

It's remarkable.  Go here for The Guardian's contemporary story of this effort to leave the past behind, but only if you are prepared to endure some grisly details.

Gas wells froze

Last Monday, January 6, was so cold that gas wells froze shut in the Marcellus shale region of Pennsylvania.  Inconveniently, it was also the day a new record was hit in demand for natural gas.

Prices went up as companies used their reserves.  Coal and nuclear power made up a bigger part of the supply of power this week as companies struggled to provide for their customers.

Shale gas fracking is producing near-record supplies of natural gas to meet record demand.

Walter Mitty

You may have read the short story by James Thurber, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," in high school. The movie doesn't totally stick with that plot, but it is a terrific movie - just understand that there are no explosions or car chases.

Walter admires and envies his friend's adventurous life, but his own life has been one of quiet, consistent craftsmanship. So should we queue up the plot where he gets brave, goes wild, and becomes someone else?  No.  It's better than that.

"It’s true that at the end of the film, Walter has changed and grown: he is braver, bolder. .  But his character, which was always constant and good, is still the same.  . 

"His strengths, once hidden in the dark as negative assets, were revealed as he stopped [just] imagining, started doing, and began living in the light."

Yay for character revealed and appreciated.  

Not marijuana

All those reasons to not smoke marijuana given in yesterday's post are pretty good.  But the next reason David Brooks gives as to why they eventually quit is really interesting.

Other things in their lives, "higher pleasures," took its place:  "a state of going somewhere, becoming better at something, learning more about something, overcoming difficulty and experiencing a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment."

"One close friend devoted himself to track. Others fell deeply in love and got thrills from the enlargements of the heart. A few developed passions for science or literature."

He says that, like most of us, they were "trying to become more integrated, coherent and responsible people. This process usually involves using the powers of reason, temperance and self-control — not qualities one associates with being high."

Elevate your life; choose the higher pleasures.

Marijuana

David Brooks, columnist at the NY Times, smoked marijuana with some friends as a teenager.  They did it for fun - of course - but it just petered out for most of them after a while. 

It wasn't that health reasons motivated them to quit (driving under the influence can get you killed, it can be addictive, you can suffer I.Q. loss).

On the contrary, they just had some unpleasant experiences.

"I smoked one day during lunch and then had to give a presentation in English class. I stumbled through it, incapable of putting together simple phrases, feeling like a total loser. It is still one of those embarrassing memories that pop up unbidden at 4 in the morning.

"We gave it up, second, I think, because one member of our clique became a full-on stoner. He may have been the smartest of us, but something sad happened to him as he sunk deeper into pothead life."

A third factor in giving it up is the most interesting to me:  tomorrow's post.

From:  NY Times article, "Weed - Been There. Done That."

Fast growth

Joe K. Mensah, Country General Manager, IBM Ghana, has a good platform from which to observe development issues in Ghana and Africa in general.  

  

"According to the International Monetary Fund, Ghana is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, driven by an emerging oil and gas industry, a growing base of consumers and significant foreign investment."

Fast growth brings challenges, like an urgent need for more infrastructure.

Rich scammer

Jesse Willms might be an entrepreneurial genius, still one more of those teenagers who built a muti-million dollar online business before he was twenty.  But intelligence and aptitude are not enough.

Unfortunately, it looks like Willms built his empire on morally questionable and downright unethical practices - looks like he made a fortune tricking and scamming customers.  He has some very big organizations trying to sue him.

The story is at The Atlantic.

Aspiration

Here's what I think about my life:  there's probably nothing that I can't improve if I make the effort to practice it.  So, I can be optimistic about getting better at something that I really want to be better at.  Yes, the word is "better," not perfect.   "Better" is good enough to improve our lives.

What about fitness?  If you would welcome a kick to get yourself on track to better health,  this article might help:
 "New Year's Resolution Motivation From a Quadriplegic"
Wishing you a good new year!

Rwanda's future

When advisor Malik Fal went to Rwanda, he says he found a determination to develop their own economy and improve the lives of their people (see posts December 10-13).  Much of the drive to achieve that goal comes from their president, Paul Kagame.

His essay in the book, In the River They Swim, explains his vision.

"Rwanda is a nation with high goals and a sense of purpose.  Our vision is to create prosperity for the average Rwandan citizen.  We are attempting to increase our gross domestic product (GDP) by seven times over a generation, which increases per capita incomes by almost four times.  This in turn will create the basis for further innovation, creative thinking, and a host of progressive human values:  interpersonal trust, tolerance, and civic-mindedness.  All this together will strengthen our society . . 

"In all people, you find different kinds of talents, and entrepreneurship is about harnessing those talents and making sure that it takes people to another level in their personal development . . . 

"[I]t gives people a feeling that they are valued and have meaning, that they are as capable, as competent, as gifted and as talented as anyone else. "

I wish them great success!

Impact $tudents

Chinese college students in the U.S. have become an important segment of the car business.  In the 22 months ending October 2013, this group bought over $15 billion worth of cars.

About half of them were new "with an average purchase price of $52,796; and 32 percent of buyers paid cash."

How does this compare to U.S. students?  "About 40 percent of their U.S. counterparts purchased new vehicles, with an average price of $19,472."

Dealerships around some universities now say Chinese students amount to as much as 15% of their sales, and some have hired employees who speak Mandarin and Cantonese. There are about three times the Chinese students in this country now as there were in 2003.

From: Bloomberg Businessweek.com

Massive data

Last week, December 19, I posted about the search for the Higgs Boson particle.  It was conducted at CERN ( European Council for Nuclear Research), founded in 1952 to do "world-class fundamental physics research."

It involved immense data gathering:

They used the large hadron collider to create 600,000,000 collisions among 3,000,000,000,000,000 protons every second.  Huawei supplied the data storage system to analyze 50,000,000,000,000 bytes of data.

"Merry" Christmas

We say "happy" holidays, Easter, Thanksgiving, etc., but Merry Christmas is the greeting we use rather than Happy Christmas.  

At First Things, it is suggested that there might be a reason to be Merry rather than just Happy at Christmas.  It has to do with joyous delight in undeserved blessing:

"To certain ears, then, “Happy Christmas” conveys a sober, well-earned enjoyment, the satisfaction resulting from hard work and virtuous living. “Merry Christmas” stirs in us an impulse more primitive and unrestrained: The childlike giddiness of Christmas morning, the rush down the stairs and tearing at paper, the intemperate delight in gifts long hoped-for and wholly undeserved.

"Which phrase conveys a more fitting response to the overwhelming, unearned gift of Christ’s birth? Suffice it to say that when our Lord comes I hope I do not greet him with dignified reserve but instead rush at him with the unguarded, unembarrassed joy of a child at play or man at his cups. Merry Christmas to all!"

Agreed!  Hope your Christmas was merry!

"Hark the Herald Angels Sing"

1. Hark! The herald angels sing,
   “Glory to the newborn King;
   Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
   God and sinners reconciled!”
   Joyful, all ye nations rise,
   Join the triumph of the skies;
   With th’angelic host proclaim,
   “Christ is born in Bethlehem!”

1. Christ, by highest Heav’n adored;
   Christ the everlasting Lord;
   Late in time, behold Him come,
   Offspring of a virgin’s womb.
   Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
   Hail th’incarnate Deity,
   Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
   Jesus our Emmanuel.
2. Hail the heav’nly Prince of Peace!
   Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
   Light and life to all He brings,
   Ris’n with healing in His wings.
   Mild He lays His glory by,
   Born that man no more may die;
   Born to raise the sons of earth,
   Born to give them second birth.

"O Little Town of Bethlehem"

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie!

Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by.

Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light;

The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

For Christ is born of Mary, and gathered all above,

While mortals sleep, the angels keep their watch of wondering love.

O morning stars together, proclaim the holy birth,

And praises sing to God the King, and peace to men on earth.

How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is giv'n;

So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heav'n.

No ear may his His coming, but in this world of sin,

Where meek souls will receive him still, the dear Christ enters in.

O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;

Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today.

We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;

O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!

"Carol of the Drum"

The "little drummer boy" honored the newly born King with the finest thing he had, his own gifting and passion - the very thing the rest of us bring to God when we choose to line up our lives with Him.

Recommends Scrooge

Eric Metaxas, author of Bonhoeffer and Amazing Grace,  says his favorite "A Christmas Carol" movie version is the 1970 "Scrooge," starring Albert Finney. His early memories and adult insights on the movie are here.

Higgs boson

You may know that a particle called the "Higgs boson" was finally identified this year.  An atomic collider was used to "find" the mysterious cosmic particle which was only theorized to exist back in 1964.

If you want to understand its significance in general terms, there's a pretty good explanation here along with a connection to Christian theology.

“As one goes deeper and deeper into the workings of the physical world, to more fundamental levels of the laws of nature, one encounters not ever less structure and symmetry but ever more. The deeper one goes the more orderly nature looks, the more subtle and intricate its designs.” (from Modern Physics and Ancient Faith)

Mentally strong

In the experience of this licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist, some people are more successful at managing their thoughts in order to act positively despite circumstances.

The people who can rise above their circumstances avoid:

• feeling sorry for themselves
• resenting others' success
• wasting energy on things they can't control

 . . and a number of other self-defeating things.

The social worker is Amy Morin, and you can read all the 13 things mentally strong people avoid here.  There's also a link to a followup article on exercises which help to develop mental strength.

The article has been unexpectedly popular with over 10,000,000 readers. Amy plans to write a book.

Youth unemployment

This article was written almost two years ago about the high unemployment rate among those under 25 in Spain.  At that time it had gone above 50% and some were thinking that to leave the country would be their only hope for a promising career.

Now, almost two years later, Spain's unemployment rate is 57.4% for those under 25 .

According to an economics professor in Madrid, "This is the generation that will be paying for the welfare state and pensions in the future. If they can't get started with relatively secure, well-paying jobs, start to put away some savings, start to accumulate assets, start paying into the welfare system, where does that leave the rest of us?"

Rwanda growing

(cont'd from In The River They Swim)

Advisor Malik Fal found that Rwandan national leaders were very determined to improve conditions for the nation's people.    Like other African countries, they have received all forms of aid - but their goal is to grow out of the need for it by creating their own wealth.

(This should sound familiar if you read about economist Dambisa Moyo in my posts a month ago, Nov. 11-14.  She's been advocating this kind of change and sees Rwanda as a good example.  "Following President Kagame’s lead, Rwanda is already obsessed with turning the “no-aid” development theory into a reality.")

One of their strategies was to focus limited resources on industries that had high potential for competitive advantage.  Coffee growers worked hard to produce a better quality product with its better revenues.  Tourism focused on primate safaris and upscale accomodations, triggering infrastructure and service upgrades.

All of this with less foreign aid.  As the World Bank reported (see "Rwanda Changing" post two days ago),  "The domestic economy remained strong despite an estimated 20 percent reduction in Official Donor Assistance (ODA) in 2012."

Rwanda advisor

Malik Fal, educated in Africa and the U.S., has worked in global industry (Pepsi-Co) and most recently as Managing Director, Omidyar Network Africa.  

He's seen big changes since growing up in Senegal, which was formerly a French colony and is now independent.  From his point of view, "Political independence without economic independence is meaningless. This is the struggle of our lifetime."   

His mission has been to help Africans create wealth through what he calls "competitiveness" which he describes as:  "the ability to produce and sell good-quality, high-margin products and services to demanding clients both at home and abroad".  Business strategy in emerging markets is his specialty.

So he became an economic advisor to the Rwandan leadership.  Of that experience he says, "I love Rwanda because modern Rwanda is a story of resilience, integrity, and hope." (page 83)

As a co-author of In the River They Swim, he writes, "Wealth creation is the only sustainable way out of poverty, and nations whose leaders do not believe this are nations in danger of remaining poor." (page 93)

Rwanda changing

Next April will be the twenty-year anniversary of something horrific, the mass murder/genocide of 800,000 people in Rwanda.  It's hard to even imagine such a thing, but a web search will turn up the details.  Under colonial rule in the mid-1900's, everyone had to identify with a group.  Extremist Hutus in 1994 located and exterminated the Tutsi and anyone sympathetic to them.

Order was eventually restored, and Rwanda has been putting the past behind them as fast as they can.  Like many sub-Saharan countries, there's a high percentage of extreme poverty.  But a World Bank report says that things have been getting better:

"Rwanda's economy is estimated to have grown by a robust 8 percent in 2012, continuing a decade-long period of strong economic growth. The economic expansion was driven by buoyant private sector activity, particularly in the services sector, where growth exceeded expectations. This strong economic performance has allowed Rwanda to claim for the third year in a row, the title of the fastest growing economy in the East African Community. The domestic economy remained strong despite an estimated 20 percent reduction in Official Donor Assistance (ODA) in 2012."

Rwanda is on track to economic independence.  Next two days:  how that happened.

EV Tesla

Elon Musk's strategy for his electric vehicle Tesla is now moving into phase two.  First phase was to make and sell a small number of high priced vehicles, which he did, the Roadster (2500).  

The new Model S is the second phase, a less pricey car in bigger numbers.  It does seem to set itself apart from other EV's in performance and in range (how far it can go before re-charging).

The next phase - if things go well - will be for the masss market.  Fastcompany.com has an intriguing analysis of the Tesla and the business strategy behind it  here.

Driverless car

Sebastian Thrun, founder of Udacity (see last Friday's post "Online learning"), has another grand concern - cars, like many of his fellow Germans.  Head of AI (artificial intelligence) at Stanford University, he led the development of the Google driverless car.

He explains here that most deaths among young people are due to car accidents, and most of them are from driver error - not mechanical error.  This means that most accidents and accompanying injury/death are preventable if the car can do the driving.

When will they be widely available?  Last week on radio I heard him say that the cars, while mostly error-free, yet will make an error that could lead to an accident every 50,000 miles or so.  They're trying to fix that.

Online students

So, KIPP schools (yesterday's post) take students who have not been very successful and help them become good students using intense engagement - with teachers, with administrators, with parents, with concepts.

"Udacity" is sort of the opposite.  When Sebastian Thrun started his online education company, where there's little interaction between teacher and student, tens of thousands signed up but only a fraction saw the courses through.  It is thought (by an angry-sounding teacher) that this demonstrates:  1) the need for teacher/student engagement to make learning happen, and 2) that only students who are extremely self-motivated and self-controlled can make online education work for themselves (the opposite of the KIPP student).

There's nothing wrong with providing types of education that help all sorts of different students.  That's what a free market does:  it supplies a product if someone wants it.  KIPP serves people, Udacity serves people.

Thrun explains what he wanted to accomplish with Udacity and how it is changing to meet the primarily STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) needs of business here.

Successful schools

Work Hard. Be Nice. was written by Jay Matthews to tell the story of  "How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America."

Schools in neighborhoods of poverty have a poor track record.  The "two inspired teachers" joined Teach for America to go to these tough schools and make a difference, but they failed.

Huge passion for their task led to huge effort, and  finally they found methods that produced successful students.  Those methods include working closely with parents as well as investing extraordinary time and enthusiasm.  They formed a new organization of charter public schools.

"Work hard. Be nice," it became the defining slogan of KIPP Schools.  Their goal is that every student learn and then go to on to a successful college career.

College is conceived of as the best route to empowered lives, and character is considered the key.  Just as in How Children Succeed (the subject of the last three days' posts), character is important at KIPP.  They focus on:  zest, grit, self control, optimism, gratitude, social intelligence, and curiosity.

Success factors

(cont'd, How Children Succeed)

Fully living life means that you overcome problems and obstacles, that you choose between possibilities, that you imagine better things and you build something. Stress is involved.

Stress happens to everybody including children, and that's a good thing.  If a child has a parent who helps him recover from failure and adversity, he/she will be resilient and braver for life.  

But disadvantaged children by definition grow up in a chronically stressed home that may  include abandonment, abuse, alcohol, poverty, etc.  Living like this means that the child's chemical stress response system does lifelong damage if, as is often the case, no one trains him/her to recover from stress and adversity.

The emphasis to help children succeed at school has lifted off of flashcards and educational toys - to an effort to help parents be supportive.  Non-profits often coach parents now to build character qualities into their kids, something they don't know how to do if they haven't had it from their own parents.

The KIPP organization is one effort to work with parents to build successful behavior and thinking into the lives of poor children.  KIPP schools combine intense academic training with equally intense training in character qualities like self-control and optimism.  

Children succeed

(cont'd, How Children Succeed)

A number of studies now show that IQ is not the best predictor of success in school.  The key seems rather to be a set of character qualities.  High GPA may occur all along the intelligence range if the student is able to delay gratification, stick to a goal, ignore distractions, control fear, pursue curiosity, and many more.

The strongest predictor of perseverance and social skills in students is not IQ but rather . . how their parents took care of them.  Really?  Yes.  Here are some summary statements of the findings of a number of studies:

"Babies whose parents responded readily and fully to their cries were, at one year, more independent and intrepid than babies whose parents had ignored their cries."

"Early parental care predicted which students would graduate even more reliably than IQ or achievement test scores."

"Children with secure attachment [to mother] early on were more socially competent throughout their lives."

"Children whose parents had been judged disengaged or emotionally unavailable in early assessments of their parenting style did the worst in preschool,"  that is, they were more often mean, antisocial, and insecure.

"Counselors rated campers who had had secure attachment in infancy as more self-confident, more curious, and better able to deal with setbacks."

"The early nurturing attention from their mothers had fostered in them a resilience that acted as a protective buffer against stress."

"High quality mothering  . . can act as a powerful buffer against the damage that adversity inflicts on a child's stress-response system."

(Un)successful kids

It's incredibly sad to see kids fail in school who then go on to under-perform in later life.  It's a tragedy for the child/adult who can't manage to succeed at anything, and it's a tragedy of loss for his/her society.  The good this person would have contributed to other people goes un-done, and the fulfillment it would have given him/her never happens.

Conventional wisdom since about 1994 has said that children succeed at school as a direct result of the cognitive training they've had.  Some researchers narrowed it down to the number of words a child has heard by age three:  "children raised by professional parents had heard thirty million words spoken to them; the children with parents on welfare had heard just ten million."

Out of this philosophy came the industry of brain-building learning aids for children 0-3 so that concerned parents can offer more books, more flash cards, more educational videos to their young before pre-school.  

But new research seems to indicate that different factors help children succeed, not only in school but in every way.  This may mean that more at-risk kids can be helped to change their lives.

From How Children Succeed, by Paul Tough, published 2012