THINKER'S ALMANAC - December 23

How can the wording on a form be changed slightly to increase people’s willingness to become organ donors?

Subject: Default Effect - Organ Donation

Event: First organ transplant, 1954

If you want to encourage some activity, make it easy. -Richard Thaler

On this day in 1954, the first successful organ transplant operation was performed; it was a kidney transplant.  Today advances in medical technology have made transplant operations routine, including transplants of the heart, the liver, and the lungs.  Unfortunately, the supply of healthy organs for donation is much lower than the demand, and many people die each year before they can acquire a needed organ.

One possible solution to the problem can be found by examining how states acquire consent from potential donors.  Most people are familiar with checking a box to become an organ donor.  This is usually offered to people when they renew their driver’s license.  This method of signing up donors is called “explicit consent”: in order to become a donor, a person must take a specific action.  The problem here is that although roughly 97% of people support organ donation, only 43% take the explicit step of checking the box to sign up.  

An alternative method for signing up donors is called “presumed consent”: all citizens would be automatically signed up as organ donors; however, each would have the choice of opting out by checking a box when renewing their driver’s license.

                                                            Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

Based on research by Eric Johnson and Dan Goldstein in 2003, participants were offered the opportunity to become organ donors in both the explicit consent condition and the presumed consent condition. Under the explicit consent condition, only 42% opted in.  In contrast, under the presumed consent condition, where participants had to opt out, 82% agreed to become donors.

More than just an issue related to organ donation, explicit and presumed consent have something to teach us about the default effect, our human tendency to accept default options.  We are basically indecisive individuals, and most often select the easiest option.  For example, many people own an iPhone, but few take the time and effort to customize their phone’s settings; it’s much easier to just stay with the default options.

Economist Richard Thaler and law professor Cass Sunstein wrote a book analyzing how governments can use the default effect to guide the choices of citizens while at the same time not restricting their freedom.  The term they use is “nudge,” which also happens to be the title of their book.  An example of the difference a nudge can make comes from two European countries: Germany and Austria.  In Germany, organ donation is an opt in program that requires explicit consent; as a result, only 12% of citizens sign up.  In Austria, however, citizens must opt out because their program is based on presumed consent; in Austria, 99% of citizens are organ donors.

Of course, we should not always assume that governments will nudge their citizens towards the most benevolent options.  Therefore, we should be more alert when we are making decisions.  Consider not just what the default option is, but also why it might be the default option.  It’s more cognitive taxing to examine options besides just the default, but often it allows us to expand our perspective and to take advantage of opportunities we wouldn’t have considered otherwise.

 

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is the default effect, and how does a country like Austria use it to nudge citizens to become organ donors?

Challenge - Wink, Wink, Nudge, Nudge:  The example of how Australia nudges its citizens to become organ donors is just one example of how a government might influence its citizens towards positive action.  Do some research on nudges.  Write a paragraph defining the term for a reader who is unfamiliar with it and give a concrete example to illustrate it.

ALSO ON THIS DAY:  

December 23, 1923:  Today is the birthday of Leonard B. Stern (1923-2011), American screenwriter, producer, and director.  Stern will probably be best remembered, however, as the co-creator of the game Mad Libs, the classic game where players insert randomly generated words into a passage based on the words’ parts of speech. Speaking of parts of speech, the story of the creation of Mad Libs begins in 1953 with two simple adjectives:  “clumsy” and “naked.”  At the time Stern was working on a television script for Jackie Gleason’s pioneering television show The Honeymooners. One day Stern was sitting at his typewriter, searching his mind for a precise adjective to describe the nose of one of his characters.  When Stern’s best friend and fellow word-lover Roger Price showed up, Stern asked him for help, and as Stern explains, the rest is history:

I said, “I need an adjective that --” and before I could further define my need, Roger said, “Clumsy and naked.”  I laughed out loud.  Roger asked, “What’s so funny?”  I told him, thanks for his suggestions, [my character now had] a clumsy nose  -- or, if you will, a naked nose.  Roger seldom laughed, but he did that time, confirming we were onto something--but what it was, we didn’t know.  “Clumsy” and “naked” were appropriately inappropriate adjectives that had led us to an incorrect but intriguing, slightly bizarre juxtaposing of words.

The name of the game and its publication didn’t happen until five years later.  Sitting in a New York restaurant one morning in 1958, Stern and Price overheard a conversation between an actor and his agent.  The actor said he wanted to “ad-lib” an interview; the agent responded, saying that he would be “mad” to do it.  Stern and Price now had a name, Mad Libs, but no publisher.  Unable to find anyone to print their game, they decided to do it themselves, paying to have fourteen thousand copies printed.  To publicize the game, the creators arranged for it to be used for introducing guests on Steve Allen’s Sunday night television show.  Within three days of the game’s appearance on television, stores were sold out.  Soon Stern and Price joined forces with their friend Larry Sloan to form a publishing company called Price Stern Sloan (or PSS!).  Before long Mad Libs became a bestseller, and PSS! became the largest publisher on the West Coast (1).

Sources:

1-Thaler, Richard H. and Cass R. Sunstein.  Nudge:  Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. New York:  Penguin Books, 2008.

2-Price, Roger and Leonard Stern.  The Best of Mad Libs:  50 Years of Mad Libs.  New York:  Price Stern Sloan, 2008.

THINKER'S ALMANAC - December 26

How did Washington’s strategy in the Revolutionary War include catching the enemy with a hangover?

Subject:  Call to Arms - Battle of Trenton

Event:  Washington crosses Delaware and surprises the British, 1776

On this day in 1776, George Washington crossed the Delaware, leading the soldiers of the Continental Army in a surprise attack on a Hessian outpost at Trenton, New Jersey.  

                                                    Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay 

After suffering defeat in the Battle of Long Island and losing New York City to the British, the Patriot forces were in danger of losing the Revolutionary War.  Hoping to mount a comeback and to surprise the Hessians who were celebrating Christmas, Washington planned a night crossing of the half-frozen waters of the Delaware River.

Washington had an unconventional attack planned, but another key element of his strategy was to employ some especially motivational words, words that would light a fire under an army that was freezing on the shores of the Delaware. On Christmas Eve, the day before the crossing, Washington ordered that Thomas Paine’s The American Crisis be read aloud to troops of the Continental Army.

In words that he had written just one day before, Paine frames the situation with stirring words that challenge the Patriots to move forward with courage and to seize this opportunity to transform the trials they face into a triumph:

THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to tax) but “to bind us in all cases whatsoever,” and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God. . . .

Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it.

After successfully crossing the Delaware, Washington and his men arrived at Trenton the next day.  Catching the Hessians off guard and hungover from their Christmas Day celebrations, the Americans won an easy victory.  

Victory in the Revolutionary War would not come for five more years, but the success of the Colonial Army at Trenton revived the spirits of the American colonists, showing them that victory was possible.

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What were the keys to the Colonial Army’s success at Trenton?

Challenge - Say It So You Can Make It So: What is something you feel so strongly about that you would advise everyone to do it?  As Paine’s writing demonstrates, words have the power to move people to action, the kind of action that can change the course of history.  Write a speech in which you argue for a specific call to action on the part of your audience.  As the title of your speech, finish the following:  Why everyone should . . .

The following are some examples of possible topics:

Why everyone should learn a second language.

Why everyone should meditate.

Why everyone should study abroad.

Why everyone should take a self-defense class.

Why everyone should sing in the shower.

Why everyone should read more fiction.

Why everyone should vote.

Why everyone should use the Oxford comma.

Provide clear reasons, evidence, and explanation.  In addition to logic, move your audience with emotion by showing how important your suggested activity is and how it will bring fulfillment to their lives. 

Also on this day:

December 26 (Each Year):  Today is the Feast of Saint Stephen, celebrated each year on the first day after Christmas because Stephen is recognized by the Christian church as its first martyr. The New Testament Book of Acts provides an account of Stephen being brought before Jewish authorities and accused of blasphemy.  After giving an impassioned speech to the assembly of judges, in which he denounced his audience for its long history of persecuting the prophets, Stephen was dragged from the city and stoned to death. Saint Stephen’s Day is a traditional day for giving food or money to the poor.  The lyrics of the Christmas carol “Good King Wenceslas” reflect this tradition:

Good King Wenceslas looked out

On the feast of Stephen

When the snow lay round about

Deep and crisp and even

The carol tells the story of Wenceslas, the 10th century Duke of Bohemia.  Seeing a peasant gathering wood in the snow, the King is moved to help him and puts together a parcel of food, wine, and pine logs. Accompanied by his page, the King then trudges through the blinding snow and the dark night to deliver his gift to the peasant’s door. Boxing Day, an English holiday celebrated on December 26th, reflects the example of giving we see in the Christmas carol. Traditionally on this day, household servants were given a box of presents to take home and share with their families, an early version of what we know today as the “Christmas bonus” (2).

December 26, 1982 and 1791:  On this day, the computer was named “Machine of the Year” on the cover of Time magazine.  Since 1927, Time had nominate one influential person as the “Man of the Year.”  The writer, ironically, wrote the cover story on a typewriter; Time’s newsroom finally got computers the following year.  The honor for the computer is especially appropriate since the father of the computer, British inventor Charles Babbage was also born on December 26 in 1791.  In the 1830s Babbage envisioned an Analytical Engine, the forerunner of today’s digital computer.  He never complete the construction of his computer, but his design was recorded in his unpublished notebooks, which were discovered in 1937.

Sources:

1- Paine, Thomas. The American Crisis. 23 Dec. 1776. Public Domain. 

2-Rufus, Anneli.  The World Holiday Book.  New York:  HarperCollins, 1994.

THINKER'S ALMANAC - December 23

Subject: Default Effect - Organ Donation

Event: First organ transplant, 1954

If you want to encourage some activity, make it easy. -Richard Thaler

On this day in 1954, the first successful organ transplant operation was performed; it was a kidney transplant.  Today advances in medical technology have made transplant operations routine, including transplants of the heart, the liver, and the lungs.  Unfortunately, the supply of healthy organs for donation is much lower than the demand, and many people die each year before they can acquire a needed organ.

One possible solution to the problem can be found by examining how states acquire consent from potential donors.  Most people are familiar with checking a box to become an organ donor.  This is usually offered to people when they renew their driver’s license.  This method of signing up donors is called “explicit consent”: in order to become a donor, a person must take a specific action.  The problem here is that although roughly 97% of people support organ donation, only 43% take the explicit step of checking the box to sign up.  

An alternative method for signing up donors is called “presumed consent”: all citizens would be automatically signed up as organ donors; however, each would have the choice of opting out by checking a box when renewing their driver’s license.

Based on research by Eric Johnson and Dan Goldstein in 2003, participants were offered the opportunity to become organ donors in both the explicit consent condition and the presumed consent condition. Under the explicit consent condition, only 42% opted in.  In contrast, under the presumed consent condition, where participants had to opt out, 82% agreed to become donors.

More than just an issue related to organ donation, explicit and presumed consent have something to teach us about the default effect, our human tendency to accept default options.  We are basically indecisive individuals, and most often select the easiest option.  For example, many people own an iPhone, but few take the time and effort to customize their phone’s settings; it’s much easier to just stay with the default options.

Economist Richard Thaler and law professor Cass Sunstein wrote a book analyzing how governments can use the default effect to guide the choices of citizens while at the same time not restricting their freedom.  The term they use is “nudge,” which also happens to be the title of their book.  An example of the difference a nudge can make comes from two European countries: Germany and Austria.  In Germany, organ donation is an opt-in program that requires explicit consent; as a result, only 12% of citizens sign up.  In Austria, however, citizens must opt out because their program is based on presumed consent; in Austria, 99% of citizens are organ donors.

Of course, we should not always assume that governments will nudge their citizens towards the most benevolent options.  Therefore, we should be more alert when we are making decisions.  Consider not just what the default option is, but also why it might be the default option.  It’s more cognitive taxing to examine options besides just the default, but often it allows us to expand our perspective and to take advantage of opportunities we wouldn’t have considered otherwise.

 

Challenge - Wink, Wink, Nudge, Nudge:  The example of how Australia nudges its citizens to become organ donors is just one example of how a government might influence its citizens towards positive action.  Do some research on nudges.  Write a paragraph defining the term for a reader who is unfamiliar with it and give a concrete example to illustrate it.

Sources:

1-Thaler, Richard H. and Cass R. Sunstein.  Nudge:  Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. New York:  Penguin Books, 2008.

THINKER'S ALMANAC - December 26

Subject:  Call to Arms - Battle of Trenton

Event:  Washington crosses Delaware and surprises the British, 1776

On this day in 1776, George Washington crossed the Delaware, leading the soldiers of the Continental Army in a surprise attack on a Hessian outpost at Trenton, New Jersey.  

After suffering defeat in the Battle of Long Island and losing New York City to the British, the Patriot forces were in danger of losing the Revolutionary War.  Hoping to mount a comeback and to surprise the Hessians who were celebrating Christmas, Washington planned a night crossing of the half-frozen waters of the Delaware River.

Washington had an unconventional attack planned, but another key element of his strategy was to employ some especially motivational words, words that would light a fire under an army that was freezing on the shores of the Delaware. On Christmas Eve, the day before the crossing, Washington ordered that Thomas Paine’s The American Crisis be read aloud to troops of the Continental Army.

In words that he had written just one day before, Paine frames the situation with stirring words that challenge the Patriots to move forward with courage and to seize this opportunity to transform the trials they face into a triumph:

THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to tax) but “to bind us in all cases whatsoever,” and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God. . . .

Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it.

After successfully crossing the Delaware, Washington and his men arrived at Trenton the next day.  Catching the Hessians off guard and hungover from their Christmas Day celebrations, the Americans won an easy victory.  

Victory in the Revolutionary War would not come for five more years, but the success of the Colonial Army at Trenton revived the spirits of the American colonists, showing them that victory was possible.

Challenge - Say It So You Can Make It So: What is something you feel so strongly about that you would advise everyone to do it?  As Paine’s writing demonstrates, words have the power to move people to action, the kind of action that can change the course of history.  Write a speech in which you argue for a specific call to action on the part of your audience.  As the title of your speech, finish the following:  Why everyone should . . .

The following are some examples of possible topics:

Why everyone should learn a second language.

Why everyone should meditate.

Why everyone should study abroad.

Why everyone should take a self-defense class.

Why everyone should sing in the shower.

Why everyone should read more fiction.

Why everyone should vote.

Why everyone should use the Oxford comma.

Provide clear reasons, evidence, and explanation.  In addition to logic, move your audience with emotion by showing how important your suggested activity is and how it will bring fulfillment to their lives. 

Sources:

1- Paine, Thomas. The American Crisis. 23 Dec. 1776. Public Domain. 

THINKER'S ALMANAC - February 15

How can the slogan “Remember the Maine” help us to remember how to avoid sinking into sloppy thinking habits?

Subject:  Confirmation Bias - “Remember the Maine!”

Event:  Explosion of the USS Maine, 1889

It is a habit of mankind to entrust to careless hope what they long for, and to use sovereign reason to thrust aside what they do not fancy. -Thucydides

On this day in 1889, the United States battleship Maine exploded while harbored in Havana, Cuba, killing 260 of the 400 sailors aboard.  The Maine had been sent to protect American interests when a Cuban revolt broke out against Spanish rule.  Although no clear cause for the explosion was proven definitively, a U.S. Naval Court of inquiry at the time placed the blame on a Spanish mine.  

Although he was initially against war with Spain, U.S. President William McKinley faced enormous public pressure to go to war.  The yellow journalism of William Randolph Hearst inflamed American resentment against Spain, and cries of “Remember the Maine” increased tensions.  Finally, in April 1889, the U.S. declared war on Spain. 

                                                                     Image by Ira Gorelick from Pixabay 

The Spanish-American war lasted just five months.  Spain was not prepared to fight a distant war and was easily routed by the U.S.  As a result of the brief war, the U.S. acquired Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, as well as temporary control of Cuba (1).

In 1976 an investigation into the explosion of the Maine by U.S. Navy Admiral Hyman Rickover cleared the Spanish.  Rickover concluded that the explosion was caused by spontaneous combustion in the ship’s coal bins (2).

Today, the mast of the Maine stands in Arlington National Cemetery as a memorial to the American sailors who lost their lives in Cuba.  We might also consider the Maine’s mast as a memorial to confirmation bias, the pervasive and dangerous cognitive bias that allows us to see what we want to see instead of the truth.  It blinds us to evidence that runs contrary to the truth we want to see but makes more prominent anything that will confirm the claim we want to support.  The feeling of being correct is more important to us than actually being correct. As author David McRaney says, “We basically had to invent science to stop ourselves from trying to solve problems by thinking in this way” (3).

The U.S. might have learned a powerful lesson about confirmation bias in 1889; however, it clearly did not.  More than a hundred years later, in 2003, the U.S. again fell prey to confirmation bias by going to war with Iraq.  The U.S. discounted evidence that indicated that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction, instead it focused exclusively on any evidence that supported the theory that Iraq did have WMDs. 

“Remember the Maine” is one of the more memorable slogans of history.  Like “Remember the Alamo” before it and “Remember Pearl Harbor” after it, these bumper-sticker sized sentences remind us that slogans are not just about advertising a product; instead, they are about getting people to do something:  buy a product, vote for a candidate, or take arms against an enemy in war.  In fact, the etymology of the word “slogan” is from the Gaelic sluagh-ghairm, meaning “army-shout” or “battle cry” (4).

“Remember the Maine” features two principles that make it stick in the mind.  First, it is stated as an imperative sentence; second, it is clear and concise.  Nothing arrests the attention like a short imperative sentence.  Stated as a command, an imperative sentence like “Remember the Maine” doesn’t need to waste time stating a subject; instead, the slogan begins with a verb that acts like the blast of a starting gun telling us to “Go!”  In addition to being a call to action or a call to arms, great slogans make every word count.  They are micro-messages, and the fewer the words, the greater they stick.

 

For more proof the effectiveness of the concise imperative slogan, read the examples below — each one with no more than six words:

Eat fresh

Make believe

Think Small

Think different

Challenge everything

Just Do It!

Obey your thirst

Dig for Victory

Spread the happy

Ban the Bomb

Have it your way

Say it with Flowers

Fly the friendly skies

Save Money. Live Better

Don’t Leave Home Without It

Twist the cap to refreshment

Reach Out and touch someone

Buy it. Sell it. Love it.

Put a Tiger in Your Tank

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  How can the slogan “Remember The Maine!” help us remember how to avoid the cognitive bias known as confirmation bias?

Today’s Challenge - Build a Better Battle Cry:  What is an existing product or cause that you would be willing to promote?  Brainstorm some products, causes, and some original imperative slogans.  When you have found one that works, write a brief letter to the company or to someone representing the cause, and make your pitch for your slogan.  Why do you think it works and should be used to promote the product/cause?  Make your case. 

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

-February 15:  Nirvana Day

Parinirvana is a Mahayana Buddhist festival that marks the death of the Buddha. It is also known as Nirvana Day and is celebrated on February 15th.  (See THINKER’S ALMANAC - December 8 Bodhi Day

-February 15:  The Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was born on this day in 1564.  He said, “I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.”  For more on Galileo, see Thinker’s Almanac - January 7.

Sources:

1-Cavendish, Richard. “The Sinking of the Maine.” History Today Volume 48 Issue 2, 2 Feb. 1998.

2-”Better Late Than Never?: Rickover Clears Spain of the Maine Explosion”  History Matters.

3-McRaney, David. “Confirmation Bias.”  You Are Not So Smart.  June 23, 2010.

  4-”Slogan” Etymology Online.

Reading Check:

-What are two wars that happened because of confirmation bias?

-What is NOT an example of an imperative sentence?

THINKER'S ALMANAC - November 27

How did a journalistic error lead to the establishment of the Nobel Prizes?

Subject: Credibility - Nobel Prizes and The Sinatra Test

Event:  Nobel Prizes established, 1895

As was the case for Nobel's own invention of dynamite, the uses that are made of increased knowledge can serve both beneficial and potentially harmful ends. Increased knowledge clearly implies increased responsibility. -Nicolaas Bloembergen, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, 1981

On this day in 1895, approximately one year before his death, Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, signed his will, which left most of his wealth to the establishment of the Nobel Prizes.

Image by WikiImages from Pixabay

The inspiration for Nobel’s will came seven years earlier when a French newspaper mistakenly reported his death.  In truth, it was Alfred’s brother Ludvig who had died.  Obviously reports of Alfred’s death had been greatly exaggerated; however, it was one stinging line in the obituary that made Alfred ponder his legacy:  “Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.”

After his death on December 10, 1896, many were surprised to learn that Alfred had left the bulk of his fortune to establish an annual prize in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace.  Nobel’s family contested the will, but the will’s executors nevertheless went to work to form the Nobel Foundation, which would manage the financial assets and coordinate the process for awarding the prizes.

As a new century dawned in 1901, the prizes were first awarded in Stockholm, Sweden; the Peace Prize ceremony was held in Oslo, Norway.

Initially the awards drew attention because of the enormous cash prize which was awarded to winners, an amount that was equivalent to about twenty times the salary of a typical scientist.  Overtime, however, the Nobel Prizes became the most universally recognized, most prestigious award in the world for scientists, writers, doctors, politicians, and economists (A Nobel Prize in Economics was added in 1968) (1).

There is no Nobel Prize awarded for singing, but if there were, no doubt, Frank Sinatra would have won it long ago.  In the classic song, “New York, New York,” Sinatra sings about the Big Apple:  “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.”  In other words, the litmus test for any performer is to make it in New York City.

In the world of persuasion, this idea has become known as the Sinatra Test:  one powerfully, compelling, and detailed example that awards its author instant credibility.  We might also call it the Nobel Test, for there is no higher standard that a speaker or writer can appeal to for credibility than a reference to a Nobel Prize winner in science, medicine, literature, finance, or politics.  To pass the Sinatra Test, think about the claim you are making; then, think about your audience.  Is there some reference, association, or example that you can give that would cover your claim with unimpeachable credibility?

For example, in the 1960s one common marketing tactic was to tie a product to the NASA space program, the gold standard for adventurous exploration.

Omega Speedmaster watches passed the Sinatra Test with flying colors by being the watch that travelled to the moon and back on the wrists of NASA astronauts.   And even when the watch didn’t make it to the moon, as in the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission, the Speedmaster watch still gained prestige by being the watch that astronauts used to time a 14-second engine burn, which allowed the lunar module to align itself on the correct trajectory for returning to Earth  (See  THINKER’S ALMANAC - April 13).

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  When searching for persuasive evidence, why should writers or speakers consider the Nobel Prize and the Sinatra Test?

Challenge - How I Won The Prize:  Do some research on individuals who have won the Nobel Prize. Identify one who you find interesting.  Summarize the background of how they earned the Nobel Prize.

November 27, 1890:  British engineer John Alexander Brodie receives a patent for soccer nets, which make it easier for spectators to spot scored goals.  -see Action Bias

Sources:

1-Alfred Nobel – his life and work. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2021. Sun. 11 Jul 2021.

2-Heath, Chip and Dan Heath.  Made To Stick:  Why Some Ideas Die and Others Survive.  New York:  Random House, 2007.

3 -Olson, Alexandra, “50 years later, the moon is still great for business.” ABC News 23 June, 2019.