President George H.W. Bush famously quipped, “Read my lips: No new taxes.” He went on to raise taxes and many believed this contributed to the reason he did not serve a second term. Another famous saying, in 1971 an automobile engine oil filter manufacturer heavily advertised their product using the threat, “You can pay me
Today, those of us in the United States and indeed many other parts of the world celebrate the 247th year of Freedom. Generally, freedom is seen as a function of speech, religion, lifestyle choices and even entrepreneurship. In 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt proposed Four Fundamental Freedoms: Freedom of Speech Freedom of Worship Freedom from Want
According to Cambridge Dictionary the title term is defined as, Not real, or existing only in order to deceive people.” We live in a world when lies are tossed around with impunity. Politician lie, school boards withhold from parents and the news is decried as fake by both sides of the political isle. How does
The current president of the United States is 80 years old. He has indicated that that he will run for a second term. If reelected, at the end of that terminus he will be 86! Is that too old to run a country? The Speaker of the House is 80, and her peers include a number of
Attributed to the late Martha Mitchell, wife of the then Attorney General Oxford defines it as “A misinterpretation of a person’s justified belief as a delusion, often by a psychiatrist, clinical psychologist, or general practitioner.” Climate deniers, election deniers, COVID vaccine deniers, The Science deniers and all kind of deniers. Treated as delusional and even
One newscaster recently used the metaphor of the sun setting in the west as settled science so contrary views were not newsworthy. His argument–Fairness is Over Rated! What? One wonders whether this is true for those who believe the world is round or for those in the Flat Earth Society? Yet most political commentary and
Our often called, ‘Best Friend’ has and continues to teach us all manner of life lessons. While the Dog Days of Summer will soon be upon those who live in the northern hemisphere, not all dogs choose to stay on the porch. Most dogs are action oriented. Throw a ball or a stick and some
In a recent online discussion, this pundit put forth the thought that fiberglass wind turbine blades can pose an environmental problem when decommissioned. This position was quickly challenged with the rebuttal that burning coal ‘kills’ kids so it did not matter if discarded blades litter the countryside as it is worth it. According to research
Attributed to former US Senator and Governor Rhode Island, Lincoln Chafee, “Trust is built with consistency.” Moreover, from statistics we know that Internal Consistency, “measures whether several items that propose to measure the same general construct produce similar scores.” The follow on definition statistical reliability, “is the consistency of a set of measurements or measuring
What Are We Doing? An interesting sign of the times. Individuals on social media who identify themselves by name, photo, job (even senior) title, organization etc. are taking controversial positions on a variety of often emotional subjects. In the old days discussions about , sex, politics and religion were off limits in the corporate
I Need a Book Deal! With the change of the US federal administration, previous key individuals are now coming out and writing books regarding their former boss. This all the while with plenty of video evidence where these individuals pontificated a position and even changed their position dramatically while in the employ and in
A Year of Leadership–Or Not! On March 2, 2021 the Governor of Texas announced its 100% reopening–effectively proclaiming an end of the Covid-19 crisis. Needless to say in our hyper-partisan world, many widely decried the decision and even accused him or bringing physical death to the state population. Mississippi announced a similar rollback of virus
Recently, my team and I were tasked with a delicate decision making process. Due to its nature and signatory level, team members were only authorized to explore and present options. The final decision was mine alone. Our project governance model clearly defined this decision making process. One day I received a call from remote members
Salute Ladies and Gentlemen! December 7, 1941 was 79 years ago. A twenty-year-old at the time would be 99 today, almost a centenarian. My father is 98 and not likely to see 2021. We live in a technological age, and despite the pandemic it is relatively easy living for many. No one is asking our
Crisis Drives Change In 2001 this writer approached the Houston medical community, post tropical storm Allison which flooded many basements in the Houston Medical Center with the loss of experimental data and other records. We proposed the development of an Internet based solution to hold and manage medical records of all types. The response to
A friend of mine sent me this uncited picture, so my apologies to the originator as I cannot give you the rightful credit deserved. If you see this, let me know and I will update this blog. We are all enduring 2020 in our own way. Sometimes positive but often negative. Battling my own 2020
Lessons in Leadership—how dare you put young people in jeopardy for loss of life or failures they will live with the rest of their life? As we end Veteran’s Week, we are reminded of President Herbert Hoover’s comment, “Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die.” Hoover was president
Not as Easy as it Seems When transforming this website to the Word Press platform, this author accepted the “wisdom” of various online sources and used a so called up and coming new Page Builder. A huge mistake! After many failures and indeed public page lockups, I changed to a more established solution—the one used
The battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944 with over 200,000 individuals involved is possibly the largest naval battle in history. Hopefully, one of the last ones. In that battle, the submarine USS Darter initially detected (on radar) the Japanese task force early on October 23. Other US naval vessels spotted that armada shortly thereafter on
In a recent Harvard Business Review, I was struck by an article about Best Practices for small businesses. From that piece, “To successfully navigate Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) challenges like Covid-19, family business leaders can look to best practices from another organization that specializes in VUCA situations—the U.S. military’s Special Operations Forces (SOF)”
Let me understate, ‘working in the petroleum sector has always been challenging.’ Now we find ourselves in a major economic downturn caused by a Covid-19 pandemic and aided and abetted by an international crude oil price war. Once again, many thousands have lost their livelihood and possibly not return to a similar job as the
April 20, 2020 marks the tenth anniversary of one of the most horrific incidents in the upstream oil and gas sector—Deepwater Horizon. In addition to the tragic loss of eleven lives, the sector forever changed. Immediate restructuring of federal oversight resulted in the establishment of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and their
The anecdote, ‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to’ wherever manifests itself for a number of paths. One interpretation; we often end up somewhere other than expected. We find ourselves at another historical precipice. Some suggest Armageddon, the end of life as we know it and the emergence of a new normal. This writer
According to legend, the term KISS or ‘Keep It Simple, Stupid’ was coined by Kelly Johnson, lead engineer at the Lockheed Skunk Works and noted by the US Navy as early as 1960. Subsequent phrases such as ‘Less is More’ followed. At first glance, it makes sense not to overly complicate a product, process or
The advent of 5 G so soon after 4 G—Humm. What’s next? How many G’s are there? In 1965, Gordon Moore put forth the construct that the density of transistors in integrated circuits doubled each year. The so-called Moore’s Law has governed technology growth ever since. However; over 50 years later, some argue that we
Generally, this time of year humans are wont to look back on the closing year and assess the good and the bad, and dare I say the ugly? We celebrate successes, review the not so successes, and what is left undone. This process prepares us for the New Year’s resolutions that are often then broken.
A year ago, it was the pleasure of this blogger to report that Santa Clause completed yet another successful global fulfillment process AND importantly, the process was in compliance with the US Federal Aviation Authority’s (FAA) regulations. A great deal of progress since the advent of one red light on the nose of the lead
Watch almost any media talk show and the interviewer will often interrupt the guest trying to answer the question just posed. This is such a common phenomenon that it is accepted behavior perhaps driven by ratings that come from on-air confrontation. It is part of the culture! Why ask the question if you’re only going
Several weeks ago, as an amateur history buff, I was watching a documentary about World War I. During one segment the commentator discussed the apparent fact that if soldiers refused to charge out of their trenches across an open field into the teeth of waiting machine guns they would be shot. The brutality of such
At lunch the other day and for whatever reason, the history of the 3M Post It Note became a subject of our conversation. This technological marvel unveiled in the 1970s is still widely used today. As with other new or disruptive technologies, the ‘sticky note’ was panned at first and for some time. According to
