My thoughts these past few weeks have been occupied with the US political process, as the democrats and then the republicans hold their respective conventions. I always wonder how people outside of the US perceive our political system – what do you make of the posturing and posing that American candidates exhibit (some more than others)? Can you see through it to the real issues?

An enterprising political science graduate student should collect anecdotes from democrats and republicans about campaign and convention events and do a VTA analysis. This may tell us - when it comes to voting, will big issues like war and the environment guide votes, or will voters more influenced by a candidate’s gender, ethnicity, or stance on gay marriage? (or do we already know the answer to that question?)

Actually, my best takes on the conventions come from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart “fake news” coverage. He managed to mock the Democratic National Convention pretty thoroughly and will no doubt do the same to the Republican National Convention this week. (You can probably figure out which side of the debate I’m on once you know I live in the SF Bay Area, got my PhD at UC Berkeley, and teach at a campus whose history includes a 1960’s student/faculty strike…)

Last week I was pleased to make connections with two members of the Cognitive Edge network: Julian Still and Gloria Fox. Julian was in California to meet with coordinators of an MBA in Sustainable Enterprise program – a wonderful new and green slant on organizational social responsibility that is growing quickly on the US west coast. He visited my lab, met my students, and very generously gave them an overview of the work he does using the Cog-Edge framework. The students were very intrigued by the framework, which makes me excited about teaching it in my graduate seminar next semester.
Gloria Fox is a Knowledge Manager in an east coast law firm, and is also a psychologist. We share an interest in aviation as well as a previous career as a flight attendant! What a small world…with many coincidences… It’s great to know that the Cog Edge network is active and is populated by interesting people. I look forward to continued communication with these and other practitioners.

Just got back from the Human Factors & Ergonomics Society conference in New York City. The conference hotel was in Times Square, and it was hopping! New York is an amazing place. I think most of the tourists were from other countries – taking advantage of the de-valued dollar as it tanks even more after the current financial fiasco…
I was very surprised to hear Dave say that any area of the US has better public transit than the UK. Usually we are worse than anyone else in that respect. The SF Bay Area (including San Jose) is an exception, as is New York City, and maybe Boston and Washington DC. I take BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to campus and love it. What we need in the US is more rail transport – our train system is very old and most passenger trains share tracks with freight trains. Maybe now that gas prices are becoming comparable to European prices we will see more people demanding better rail transportation.
I got several comments on the ‘signifying political rhetoric’ entry and they made me realize that having a good story is essential for candidates. Ronald Reagan was a master of this – although he didn’t always make clear (if he himself knew for sure) whether the story was part of his life or one of his movie roles! A colleague did a study in the 1980’s looking at the cognitive complexity of US Presidents’ speeches, and found that Reagan was the least complex of all that he analyzed. And he was known as the ‘Great Communicator.’ Ironic.