“Species Egalitarianism” is a philosophical term for the belief that all species have equal moral status.  It’s an ethic, as it turns out, that may come back to bite you.  Timothy Treadwell was an environmentalist and animal rights activist that spent 13 summers studying, photographing and advocating for bears.  In October 2003, during his pro-bear project, he and his girlfriend were killed and eaten by one. The idea that “Humans are just grownup germs” or that “We are just descendants from monkeys” represent a worldview that, carried to its logical end, must ..read more

There’s a website for everything so it’s no surprise that there are some dedicated to providing tips on how to appear busy at work.  Suggestions include spreading documents across your desk, conspicuously posting a few sticky notes and setting out an open binder.  Other recommendations involve manufacturing movement, like writing (just for the sake of writing) or rapping noisily on a keyboard. You might scoff at the amount of effort some people expend to avoid real work, but how much worse is it when it is religiously institutionalized?  False religions create routines ..read more

One of the most significant cash heists in history took place last week.  A crew breached the wall of a money storage facility in Los Angeles and, in Hollywood fashion, cracked the safe and escaped undetected with $30 million of untraceable cash.  The denominations of the stolen currency is unknown, but it’s estimated that even if it was all $100 bills the haul would weigh about 660 pounds.  If they were a mix of $5s, $10s and $20s then it would measure closer to 3.5 tons!  You can imagine the humiliation that fact adds to the security company responsibl ..read more

“Step into my office” are words no employee wants to hear.  Like being called to the principal’s office or worse, hearing your father sternly say, “We need to talk,” they’re moments that instantly put a pit in your stomach.  Even when deserved, no one enjoys receiving correction.  But the question is, how do you respond to it? During my police career I served as a motor officer (a traffic cop on a motorcycle) for several years.  My entire day, every workday, was to alter driving behavior by issuing citations.  Like the examples above, I was awa ..read more

Conversations about money effectively reveal the immaturity of children.  One minute they ask if you can buy a car with a “million-trillion dollars” and the next confidently assert that one hundred dollars will buy a house.  Children have to be taught both, the nominal value of a dollar (100 cents), and the real value of that dollar (i.e., it’s purchasing power).  They must be familiarized with bank accounts and the dangers of credit cards.  Ideally a child learns to practice simple budgeting techniques.  The hope is that th ..read more

Studies to determine if multitasking is actually possible have been taking place since the 60s and they say it’s still debatable.  Apparently, there is a “processing bottleneck” that some scientists say prevents a person from simultaneously completing more than one task at a time equally well.  One doctor called it a “mythical activity.”  Be that as it may, everyone can attest to the need to perform multiple objectives concurrently.  Try telling a teacher, a nurse or a mom that there’s no such thing as multitasking! A cognitive neuroscientist may theoriz ..read more

Confidence is a funny and fickle thing.  A person characterized by a lack of confidence is thought to have low self-esteem.  It describes a person that worries a lot, struggles to accept a compliment and has marked people-pleasing tendencies.  While that may be true of some, what is not widely understood is that, at times, everyone struggles with confidence.  There are some who appear to lack the burden of insecurity, but it’s not true.  It’s there.  Everyone asks themselves questions like, “Am I good enough?” or “What if I ..read more

Charles Dickens masterfully describes the penny-pinching disposition of the main character in his classic book, A Christmas Carol. “Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating ..read more

My wife and I hung up a few minutes ago from video chatting our niece and nephew in Idaho.  We laughed at two of their four young children floating in and out of the picture.  Our nephew is 29 years old and, excluding his moustache, was sporting a bald head and a cleanly shaven face for the first time ever.  He’s showcased a masterfully groomed beard for many years, but recently things have changed.  Not long ago he received the news that he has stage four cancer and is now engaged in treatment that took his hair.  He gently tugged on one end of his moustache and ..read more

For several years I served as a SWAT team commander for a municipal police department.  As you might imagine, pre-planned operations, namely serving high-risk search warrants, required a considerable amount coordination.  The plan detailed the driving route to the target, the order in which the entry team was stacked, what weapon or tool each person was responsible for and a multitude of other particulars. In preparation for one search warrant operation I assigned a breacher (the guy that hits the door) the responsibility of wearing a digital audio recorder.  (This pre ..read more