As the week winds down, we wind down with some tidbits for your information, education, health, and enjoyment.
Quote of the Week: “For 13 to be unlucky would require there to be some kind of cosmic intelligence that counts things that humans count and that also makes certain things happen on certain dates or in certain places according to whether the number 13 ‘is involved’ or not (whatever ‘is involved’ might mean).” Douglas Hofstadter
Humor Break:
“I busted a mirror and got seven years bad luck, but my lawyer thinks he can get me five.†Steven Wright
Stat of the Week: 13 … as in Friday the 13th. Welcome to the most feared day in the United States … unless it is an election Tuesday in November. According to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute based in North Carolina, there are an estimated 17 to 21 million people in the United States affected by a fear of this day. So much so that some people are so paralyzed by fear that they avoid their normal routines in doing business, taking flights or even getting out of bed. The Institute estimates that $800 or $900 million is lost in business on this day”. Turns out that F-13 is a safer day than most. Less accidents on the highways. Even burglaries are down.
Action Tip: In regard to Friday the 13th, we recommend you not follow the lead of Lily Pons, Mickey Spillane, Hubert Humphrey, Benny Goodman, Tupac Shakur, Julia Child, Tim Russert, Edwin Newman or Richard D. Zanuck, among many celebrities, who all joined the ranks of the dearly departed on this fateful day.
Self-Development Corner:Â Friday the 13th is your lucky day: Someone once wrote words to the effect that the harder I work, the luckier I get. One could speculate that we can measure knowledge similarly. The more I know the luckier I get. And next week we all get lucky with a whole host of new and stimulating free online courses:
It is a very lucky week for our many French readers: Physique générale – mécanique (September 13, 12 weeks, l’École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) and, okay, in English with a French accent, Functional Programming Principles in Scala (September 16, 7 weeks, l’École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne).
Learn the language of business and improve your career prospects with An Introduction to Financial Accounting (September 16, 10 weeks, Wharton – University of Pennsylvania). Another entry level course is The Power of Macroeconomics: Economic Principles in the Real World (September 16, 11 weeks, UC Irvine).
Join with me in taking Understanding Media by Understanding Google (September 16, 6 weeks, Northwestern University).
For those of you pursuing a management track, you can find good background material (or discover why things aren’t working at work) in Organizational Analysis (September 17, 10 weeks, Stanford University).
For our friends in healthcare, this week you can indulge in Data Management for Clinical Research (September 16, 5 weeks, Vanderbilt University) or Health for All Through Primary Health Care (September 18, 5 weeks, Johns Hopkins).
Happy learning.
Bill Bradley
Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.
I forgot that it was Friday the 13th…interesting post…thanks.