Wil Wheaton on how to respond to being called a nerd

I was fortunate to attend a school, growing up, where not only were “nerd” qualities valued and nurtured but so were humanistic values.

I feel for any child who is bullied at school for shining brightly. To be honest, I’m not much of a Wil Wheaton fangirl but his response to a little girl, who asked how to handle being treated poorly, is laudable.

TEDx Talk: The happy secret to better work

One of my friends who used to live here in Santa Fe shared this with me today. Besides having good advice, Sean Achor of GoodThink Inc is highly entertaining. I have seen some pretty dry TED talks but this was really captivating. It’s been a while since I was involved in Wisdom 2.0 or the Happiness movement but it is a passion of mine and increasingly important, as I traverse the Fortune 100 world.

America’s Mood Map: An Interactive Guide to the United States of Attitude

I got southern states both times I tried this. Neither of those states suits me at all. Give the full OCEAN test a try – I think it’s a little better and the link is in the pop-up when you click to take this test.

Therapy Dogs Visit Fire Camp: 7 & 8 August, 2013

Go therapy dogs! @TheRealVOSTCat would go too but he hates riding in the car 🙂

Whiskey Complex, OR 2013

Night security staff with owner/trainer of Boo, a Therapy Dog

photo: Tom Bergland

photo: Tom Bergland

photo: Tom Bergland

photo: Char Rouse

photo: Char Rouse

photo: ALXSw

Wednesday, 7 August, 2013

Today several Therapy Dogs visited the Whiskey Complex ICP: two Bernese Mountain dogs and a Belgian Malinoise. Owners Glenda and Greg Pierce, and Connie Lane drove from Central Oregon to bring some canine cheer to fire camp.

Firefighters and fire support staff welcomed the loveable dogs as they prepare to complete the 14 day fire detail this weekend. As is standard, incident management teams rotate after two weeks to mitigate fatigue from the long hours and continuous work shifts required in incident management.

Therapy dogs are trained and certified to visit with a variety of people and to not react to strange scents and loud noises, among other attributes. The dogs frequently visit community care facilities and hospitals. However…

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CISM Resources

Image courtesy of digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

@wildfirediva tweeted out this past week that she was taking a 3-day workshop on CISM (Critical Incident Stress Management). I asked a colleague over a NMDSHEM if they had such a class in New Mexico and she said they do not but that there is a conference and she would let me know when it comes up. I will pass that information along when it comes around to me.

In the meantime, it’s a topic that I really want to know more about, so I’ve been asking around social media for resources and @ArchangelEM (who is awesomesauce, by the way) gave me four links already, so I decided it’s better to put them here and hope that others have suggestions to add.

I only want to add things here that people will endorse. We all can Google things but that doesn’t indicate quality, so if you’ve read something useful or taken a course, that’s what I’m after.

• Traumatic Incident Reduction and Critical Incident Stress Management: A Synergistic Approach (TIR Applications… by Victor R. Volkman (Jun 7, 2010) – Kindle eBook
  • GoogleBook link from @ArchangelEM
• 13th Annual Emergency Management Higher Education Conference – Tuesday, June 8, 2010 Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Powerpoint Slide Deck [HT @ArchangelEM]
• Critical Incident Stress Debriefing: An Operations Manual for Cisd, Defusing and Other Group Crisis Intervention Services (Print only) [HT @ArchangelEM]
• Search of Homeland Security Digital Library [HT @ArchangelEM]. I’m making an exception to the search results rule here because the source is targeted.
• A Road Less Traveled – a piece by Leesa Astredo, of Info4Disasters.org & EMsafespace.org, specifically addressing digital responder stress
• Digital Volunteers and Disaster Stress, by Rakesh Bharania, of CISCO Systems. Note, also, the embedded slide deck from his presentation to CISCO disaster responders.
• Technically not CISM but still possibly useful…. EMDR (eye-movement, desensitization, and reprocessing) was put to use after the Yarnell fire in Arizona. It can be used to treat PTSD long after the event occurs. More information on EMDR is available at the EMDR Trauma Response and Recovery Network.

Stuff in the news 6/27/2013 – Communication

Image courtesy of Daniel St. Pierre / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

• I don’t know about this article. Maybe a better idea would be to have a vacation or concentrate on your business trip. We seemed to manage just fine before all this “connectedness”. DO have a plan in place, in case of emergency, of course – but we should all keep the immediate gratification aspects of technology in check: Ways Technology Keeps You Connected to Your Significant Other While Away
• How often do you talk about something you’re passionate about (whether work, volunteer, or hobby) to someone who is completely outside your field? Or what about newcomers to what you do? I am terribly guilty at times of using acronyms or terminology that a newbie might not have been exposed to. At work, I have a policy on my team that if I explain something to a new team member, that person gets to explain it to someone else the next time.  The following article was written about science communication but applies to all of us who have to get across complex ideas to the public.  What is science communication?
• Only the abstract is at this link – the full article is $30 but might be worth it if you have the change on hand… Technology and Collective Action: The Effect of Cell Phone Coverage on Political Violence in Africa
• This may draw more attention to you than not doing it, by virtue of the notion that if you’re encrypting your info, you might have something interesting to spy on. Personally, that whole notion may be over the top but PRISM-proof your phone with these encrypted apps and services
• … because we need another social network.  Potluck, A New Social Network Based on Link Sharing and Discussion
• I love analogies. This author took a 1946 US Forestry Service document about being lost and compared it to what you should do if you’ve lost your bearings in handling your social media. It is true that I take an approach of “all who wander are not lost” but if I see no traction, I’ll try another route – e.g. breaking down these news posts by topics). At any rate, the poster is worth sharing and may even help you, should you get lost in the woods, literally!

• “Monitoring electronic conversations just got a lot more powerful with the alliance of Digital Reasoning and OP3Nvoice, announced at SIFMA today.

  Digital Reasoning, with roots in defense and intelligence, can search and understand structured and unstructured data and use it to build a view of underlying entities, facts, relationships and discover geospatial and temporal patterns. OP3Nvoice can monitor audio, video and text conversations across channels including fixed lines, mobile and Skype and search and locate conversations very fast.”

• What’s The Difference Between A Social Media Crisis And A Bonehead Move?
• This is one of those “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” sorts of stories.  The confidence of Speech-Language Pathology students regarding communicating with people with aphasia. When I was an undergrad in speech & language pathology, I had the astoundingly fortunate opportunity to work in the U of M – Ann Arbor residential aphasia clinic. At that time, it was the only such residential facility in the country. One day, I was facilitating a group reading session and could not get a point across to one of the members. Apparently, I was saying the same thing as previous attempts but increasing my volume because one of the patients looked at me and said, “We’re aphasic, not deaf.” Oops! The point here is that it’s not something you really pick up in the myriad of classes you might take, it’s practical experience that really teaches you how to do things. This is true of the work world, as well as the world of clinical therapy – practice, practice, practice!
• Webinar: Social Media Performance Metrics: Measuring Depth – Tuesday, July 2, 2013 2:00 PM – 2:30 PM EDT

Stuff in the news 6/21/2013 – Science

Image courtesy of digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

• “Though it might not fit with New Age dolphin lore, the reality is that dolphins, even those born in captivity, are wild. There’s absolutely no evidence to support the burgeoning practice of dolphin-assisted therapy. Here’s why dolphins are not healers — and why this practice needs to stop.”:  No, dolphins are not your ‘therapists.’ So just stop it.
• Hey! Bill Nye the Science Guy has come to your mobile device. How awesome is that?

  Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

• From  U of M – Ann Arbor New Service: “Some people feel so “creeped out” that they would decline an organ or blood that came from a murderer or thief, according to a new University of Michigan study.In addition, they express concern that their personality or behavior may change to become more like that of the donor, as a result of the donation.”  For some, it matters who’s donating an organ, blood
• You might want to take that next animal crossing sign just a little more seriously… “In spite of considerable human development, the southeastern United States region could provide some of the Western Hemisphere’s more heavily used thoroughfares for mammals, birds and amphibians on their way to cooler environments in a warming world, according to new research led by the University of Washington.” Detour Ahead: Cities, Farms Reroute Animals Seeking Cooler Climes
• Do you really want to know what your cat thinks? Will Translation Devices Soon Allow Us To Talk With Animals? 
• The Natural Resources Defense Council has launched a tool to let you check what impact climate change may have on you, by zip code.
• “An entire Maya city full of pyramids and palatial complexes has been discovered in a remote jungle in southeastern Mexico, archaeologists report.” Ruins of Maya City Discovered in Remote Jungle
• Summer officially begins this week as the summer solstice marks the longest day of the year. For Americans, summer will begin either on Thursday or Friday—depending on which time zone you live in.

  That’s because the timing of the summer solstice depends on when the sun reaches its farthest point north of the equator, and that varies from year to year.

  This year’s summer solstice falls on Friday, June 21, at 1:04 a.m. ET, but it will start on Thursday night for places in North America west of the Central Time Zone.  Read more about Solstice at National Geographic

• Fruits and Veggies Are Alive, Can Defend Against Herbivores. A new study finds that produce can be “trained” to specific circadian cycles, boosting their natural defenses against pests. And, in related news…
  

Stuff in the news 6/18/2013 – Wildfires

• Repeating from yesterday because it’s important…. From our friends at incidentinfo.org: Luke Sheehy was a California Smokejumper. On June 10, 2013 he made his last jump into a fire on the Modoc National Forest. He was killed when a piece of a tree fell on him. He was 28 years old. Here’s how you can help. Please share out this page when you click through.
• Following up on yesterday’s wildfire post, in which there was piece on people building in fire zones, the state of Colorado has a task force to address the issue. Colorado wildfire task force tackles building in burn zones
• In 2012, more than 20 wildfires in Utah were caused by target shooting. With a bad fire season upon us again this year in the West, Utah officials have set out restrictions on activity to mitigate risk. The restrictions include a ban on target shooting of exploding targets. Other restrictions are listed in the same source. According to BLM in Salt Lake City, target shooting in dry rocks or vegetation can also spark fires but that doesn’t seem to be included in the restrictions just set out.
• Mother Nature Network released a listing of 10 of the Worst Wildfires in U.S. History. While the rankings aren’t actually consistent – some are based on dollar figures, sone on acreage, and some on the most important factor in my opinion, loss of life – it’s interesting reading.
• More of a fire science piece than a wildfire thing but did you ever wonder how fire works in space? Here’s What Happens When You Light a Fire in Space
• Generally, I’m skeptical of studies done by pharma companies, large or small. That said, this is a frightening statistic: Three quarters (75 percent) of the surveyed firefighters/EMTs are more concerned about dying of a heart attack than in the line of duty. This is International Fire/EMS Health & Safety Week. Why is it harder to accomplish our personal health goals than a work-related task or project? Here’s a great story on a Delaware teen who’s trying to help. Be sure to also  click-through to the Heart Healthy Firefighter program!

• Resources to Cover Wildfire Season: Tips for Homeowners to Prepare Homes, Evacuate
• Check out these pretty amazing data maps on US disaster dangers: The most dangerous places to live in America: Spectacular maps show the devastating effects of Mother Nature
• Waldo Canyon fire survivors are helping Black Forest fire survivors to cope. Colorado wildfire survivors mentor Black Forest Fire victims
• The reason that last post caught my eye is that I found an intriguing book at Unabridged Books in Chicago over the weekend. It’s Surviving Survival: The Art and Science of Resilience by Laurence Gonzales. The book deals not so much with surviving the tragedies that happen in rare circumstances (I say this because there was an alligator attack and a crocodile attack in the first few chapters – how often does that happen?). Rather, the focus of the book is the PTSD that besets survivors when they re-enter society. This is a highly recommended read.

Stuff in the news 6/12/2013 – Communication

Image courtesy of Daniel St. Pierre / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I was going to make this topic social media but I want to keep it out there that social media is just a mode of communication, like the telephone or the megaphone or messages in bottles. Sure, you may have to modify your message to fit it into allotted space but that was true if your dime ran out in a phone booth, too (Remember phone booths?).

• Former FCC Head: In times of crisis, open WiFi can keep us connected (6/6)
• Another great use of #Skype –> Fordham Notes: Using Skype to Bridge the Gap Between Cultures – http://bit.ly/13F0taX
• “What matters more than the goal of language learning is its motivation. Instead of regarding “foreign” language instruction as a means for preserving academic privilege or meeting the demands of a global marketplace, we need to embrace the acquisition of languages as a preparation for one of the most fundamental experiences we share as human beings—the encounter with difference. We should all learn how to become translators so we can appreciate and negotiate the inherent challenges and promises of traversing gaps in meaning between languages and people. Inter-human understanding lies somewhere between the puzzling incommensurability of languages and the utopian desire to achieve the seemingly impossible—a common language.” Source: Patrick M. Erben: Learning Foreign Languages Increases Inter-Human Understanding
• Interesting…. A quoted statement by Facebook powers-that-be says that they have long allowed scientific photos of the human body and photos of women breast-feeding. Yet friends are still protesting removals of such photos. Who’s right? Old protest, as sometimes happens? What is it that makes some people not want to talk about such things? How can a mother feeding her child be obscene? Strange, that.  Facebook Announces It Will Now Allow Post-Mastectomy Photos

• Nothing new here, in my opinion. I’ve long put hashtags on my page for searchability and archiving during fires and other disasters. Use of hashtags is perfectly fine. Using Facebook as if it were Twitter and posting blow by blow accounts of an event, not so much. How hashtags will change Facebook | Digital Trends

• Another book for the queue… Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection [Kindle Edition] It turns out I actually agree with the author of the essay that he is reviewing on his blog here…

“Dobelli asks, “Out of the approximately 10,000 news stories you have read in the last 12 months, name one that – because you consumed it – allowed you to make a better decision about a serious matter affecting your life, your career or your business.” Most stories, he argues, “are overwhelmingly about things you cannot influence. The daily repetition of news about things we can’t act upon makes us passive. It grinds us down until we adopt a worldview that is pessimistic, desensitised, sarcastic and fatalistic.”

But I’m interested to see Ethan Zuckerman’s arguments to the contrary. – See more at: http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2013/06/12/linking-news-and-action/#sthash.0Lh2e1td.dpuf

Stuff in the news 6/12/2013 – Wildfires

• “The New Mexico Environment Department and the U.S. Forest Service operate air quality monitors at multiple locations around the state. The monitors gather information about air quality conditions and help to keep the public informed. Data from the Environment Department and Forest Service air monitors can be found at http://air.nmenv.state.nm.us and https://www.airsis.com/usfs/… For guidance on distances and visibility, please visit www.nmtracking.org/fire, which includes three maps with examples.” Source from a June 4th article.
• Things may kinda suck in New Mexico but consider that our Type 1 fire, Jaroso, is not presently threatening structures or causing evacs. Black Forest fire in Colorado, on the other hand, has smoke bad enough to trigger an evacuation of an evacuation site: Heavy Smoke Forces Red Cross To Close Evacuation Shelter
• The Silver Fire has an official site now from US Dept of Forestry. It joins the already existing Thompson Ridge page for NM fires. Hopefully, as the Type 1 team activates for the Jaroso fire, they will be able to stand up an official page, as well. In the meantime, look for Facebook updates from NM Fire Info
• “A recent study in the Journal of Forestry now offers managers a tool to help them identify regions exposed to multiple forest threats. The tool uses a novel 15-mile radius neighborhood analysis to highlight locations where threats are more concentrated relative to other areas, and identifies where multiple threats may intersect. It is a technique that may have never been used before to describe forest threats, according to the researchers.”  Study helps managers identify regions with multiple threat potential, including wildfires

• Post-Fire Watershed Protection Added to National Stormwater Conference

• Got bedbugs? Call an exterminator. Don’t do this:  Man Sets Home on Fire While Trying to Kill Bed Bugs