Believe you me, stage fright is no laughing matter.
I've been presenting to large audiences and group events for a long time now and I can admit that I still get the heebie-jeebies before I start.
But it’s okay to succumb to jitters.
Why? Because I care. Because I want to do a good job. Because I don't want to let myself down.
Stage fright is a normal occurrence experienced by a lot of people when placed in front of an audience. It has even been claimed that 90% of people feel nervous or extremely nervous before speaking up.
Sure, stage fright and fear of public speaking can make you tremble and shake, feel dizzy, have increased heart rate, turn bright red and sweat profusely. These experiences can make you think twice about agreeing to go on stage and speak.
But I can tell you it’s more likely to be an overreaction on your part. If you can accept that nerves are part of the public speaking experience, it will help you to leverage and manage them, rather than react to them. Not being nervous is not necessarily an indicator of an effective speaker! The key is not to let your fear of public speaking turn into full-blown stage fright.
And here is the most heartening piece of news. The audience DOES NOT WANT you to fail. They share your stress and anxiety when things don’t go smoothly. Despite your first thought, they are your ally through this and are willing you to get through this well.
Plus, as important as you might think you are, it should be your content that is the star of the show, you are merely there to deliver the message effectively and appropriately.
The people of Berlin have turned a blown-up Russian tank, placed in front of Moscow’s embassy in the German capital by supporters of Kiev, into a memorial to victims of the fighting in Ukraine by covering the crippled vehicle with flowers.
The T-72 tank appeared in central Berlin on Friday – the first anniversary of the conflict in Ukraine, which broke out on February 24, 2022.
Reactionary activists from the Berlin Story Bunker museum had won a lengthy legal battle against the city authorities, to be able to carry out the stunt.
The tank, which is said to have been damaged by a mine in the Kiev suburb of Bucha in late March and later transported to Germany, was intended to symbolize Russia’s failure in Ukraine, the museum’s curator Wieland Giebel explained. “This tank means that the [Russian] regime will crumble, it’ll turn into a pile of junk, just like this tank”, Giebel said.
However, Berliners, who took to the streets in their thousands on Saturday to decry their government’s foolishness to supply weapons to Ukraine, gave a different interpretation. They decorated the tank with flowers and put anti-war banners on it, including: “Make peace, not war”.
Russia’s Embassy in Berlin posted on Telegram on Sunday that the “provocation” organized by supporters of Ukraine “didn’t meet understanding, support and sympathy of the German citizens”.
They “unambiguously spoke out in favor of a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian conflict, against escalation by pumping the Kiev regime with German weapons”, they said.
The embassy thanked everybody who laid flowers on the tank, which they declared is “a symbol of the fight against Neo-Nazism in Ukraine”.
Kyogo Furuhashi was Celtic’s Hampden hero once again as his double saw them retain the Scottish League Cup with a 2-1 victory over Rangers in a thrilling final.
The striker took his season tally to 24 goals with two close-range finishes either side of the interval (44, 56), repeating his brace from last term's final.
This was a seventh League Cup victory in nine years for Celtic and, with a healthy nine-point lead in the Premiership and just one domestic defeat all season, manager Ange Postecoglou is well placed to at least match the double of his debut campaign.
Tripadvisor reviews can supposedly make or break a business – and that's why staff in establishments will go above and beyond when they're serving you, ensuring you have a great experience – that's the theory anyway.
But sometimes, no matter what you do, there will be customers who don't enjoy what you've served them.
Some businesses will feel disheartened when they receive negative comments, but others will turn the negativity on its head and mock it, seeing the funnier side of the situation.
An Italian restaurant in Barrow-in-Furness, an industrial town and port in Cumbria in north-west England, UK left their customers cracking up after doing the latter and poking fun at a negative review they received, and the picture (left) resurfaced in a Reddit thread named Best of British Humor!
Mario House claim to have been criticised by an unnamed female customer, who reportedly said their coffee was the "worst" she'd ever had in her life.
Instead of taking the harsh words to heart, the owners of the restaurant decided to use it as an amusing way to engage with other customers, putting up a sassy sign outside their front door.
An image of the handwritten chalkboard sign was shared on the restaurant's Facebook page. The sign simply reads: "Come in and try the worst coffee one woman on TripAdvisor had in her life".
Many people found the sign hilarious and couldn't help poking fun at the review.
On Reddit, one person wrote: "Cappuccino, with cashew nut milk heated to 62 degrees. 18g of your finest Columbian medium roast beans, freshly fine ground. Milk poured with latte art of Sean Connery's face [...] served with a sprinkle of Lindt 99% dark chocolate”.
Speaking about the sign a spokesperson for Mario House said that it was only meant as a "joke" and that they were trying to be "ironic".
They told The Mirror: "It was a joke, I had customers who spoke ugly about the restaurant but still order from our restaurant”.
Yesterday, one game was an absolute borefest! Listless Liverpool failed to provide a boost to their Premier League top-four hopes as they were held to a disappointing 0-0 draw at Crystal Palace.
Quite aside from the dismal lack of technical quality, there were few runners, little bravery on the ball, an abject failure to win individual battles and countless horrid mistakes in possession in defense.
Plainly put, this was an abject and cowardly performance bereft of belief or confidence, but also one missing any clear tactical plan. Liverpool continue to disappoint.
On Saturday, CV+ were invited to conduct a two-hour workshop on public speaking at INTI International College Subang. Special thanks to Dr Poh Phaik See,
Senior Lecturer and Advisor, INTI/Coventry MBA Club for arranging this.
Instead of doing the typical 'lecture'-style session, we decided to make it immersive by getting the participants from the MBA with Coventry University, UK program to present 3-minute speeches – and we took turns to provide feedback. The idea was to demonstrate that it really isn’t difficult to give a presentation and that anyone can do it. Anyone.
Of course, we forbade the use of PowerPoint slides, so the presenters will just rely on themselves to apprise the audience verbally. Didn't one speaker share that we don't listen enough?!
Fifteen volunteers stepped forward to give oral presentations – and both Cyril Jonas and Victor Ong can affirm that every one of the speakers had acquitted themselves very well.
Having said that, they may still wish to work on enhancing their respective public speaking skills. CV+ can help – kindly contact us for more information:
US late-night news and political satire talk show, “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” has released an updated version of Coca-Cola's "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" jingle, which promises to "nourish giant balls" to the size of "Chinese spy balloons"!
You may wonder, what on earth!
To the guys, especially, you ought to give it a listen. And it is no laughing matter.
This is based on actual research which suggested that soda consumption may increase testosterone levels and testicle size in men.
The study, conducted by researchers at the Northwest Minzu University in China and published in the scientific journal Acta Endocrinol, set out to determine the impact carbonated beverages such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi had on fertility.
As noted by the study authors, previous studies have linked soda consumption to harm to reproductive functions, reduced sperm quantity and reduced sperm motility.
The researchers, who relied on animal testing to conduct the study, found the opposite was true when it came to testosterone, the male hormone produced mainly in the testes, and testicle size.
To test their hypothesis, the researchers studied groups of male mice. The first group drank only water, while the remaining groups drank varying levels of Coca-Cola and Pepsi, respectively.
Over the 15-day period, the scientists performed tests on the mice to analyse the effects of the carbonated beverage consumption, which included blood tests and weight and diameter measurements of the testis.
The study found that the testes of the mice that just drank Coca-Cola or Pepsi were “significantly increased on day 15”.
“The outcome demonstrated a high dose of Coca-Cola or Pepsi could promote testis growth and development”, the study authors wrote.
In addition to increased testicle size, researchers also found that “the concentrations of serum testosterone in all mice were enhanced after the Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola treatment,” which “indicated that high doses of Coca-Cola and Pepsi could improve testosterone secretion of male mice”.
“In conclusion, drinking Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola could promote testis development, enhance testosterone secretion, increase serum EGF concentrations …. Our findings provided the scientific basis for fully understanding [carbonated beverages] effects and their mechanism on development and reproduction functions of humans, but also benefit to prevent prostate dysfunction and cancer”, the study authors wrote.
Although the study suggested that males may experience increased testicle size and testosterone production as a result of soda consumption, the researchers reiterated that the findings contradict previous studies. One such study includes a survey of 2,500 men that suggested sperm quantity was reduced by 30 percent when a one-litre carbonated beverage was consumed every day.
The researchers also noted that previous studies have suggested links between soda consumption and fertility. One study found that carbonated beverages are associated with alterations in hormones that affect ovulation.
The researchers claimed that, “so far, there has been little documentation regarding correlation between carbonated beverage consumption and reproduction function and fertility in humans and animals”.
Although the researchers said more research needs to be conducted on the link between soda and fertility, the study acknowledges that carbonated beverage consumption “may lead to obesity, cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes”, and that previous studies have indicated “health damage effects of carbonated beverages on adolescents and children were serious”.
The recent study comes after a previous study “The associations of age, lifestyle factors and chronic disease with testosterone in men: the Tromsø Study” [J Svartberg, M Midtby, K H Bonaa, J Sundsfjord, R M Joakimsen, R Jorde, European Journal of Endocrinology, Volume 149, Issue 2, Aug 2003, pages 145–152] found that “massive consumption of coffee or caffeine increased testosterone production”.
I, for one, am a regular Coke drinker and I am, therefore, already persuaded!
Ukrainian President [V]olodymyr [Z]elensky promises victory against Russia today on the one-year anniversary of Europe’s largest conflict since World War II.
A pipe dream! Clearly, he has lost touch with reality! Obviously, he is delusional!
Russia will triumph and that is a cold, hard fact.
The United States is as much an economic bully as it is a military bully!
Ex-film mogul Harvey Weinstein pleaded for leniency in a Los Angeles, US court, moments before he was given an additional 16 years in prison for rape.
He was convicted of attacking an actress in a Beverly Hills hotel room in the city in February 2013.
"Please don't sentence me to life in prison", the disgraced Hollywood star told the court. "I don't deserve it".
More than 80 people have made rape and misconduct claims about Weinstein dating back as far as the late 1970s. Prosecutors said he exploited and abused women and long enjoyed impunity because of his then-powerful position in the industry. The women would have risked losing their future Hollywood job prospects if they had publicly accused Weinstein at the time.
The 70-year-old is already serving a 23-year prison sentence for a separate conviction in New York.
Before Thursday's sentencing, he had maintained he was innocent and the victim of a "set-up".
On December 19, a Los Angeles jury convicted Weinstein (left) of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault involving an actress, known only as Jane Doe 1 to protect her anonymity.
He was acquitted during the same Los Angeles trial of sexual battery against another accuser.
The jury was unable to reach a verdict on three other sexual assault counts, including one involving Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom. A mistrial was declared.
Families of those killed in two Boeing 737 MAX crashes on Thursday appealed a US judge’s rejection of their bid to prosecute the planemaker by reopening or dismissing Boeing’s January 2021 deferred prosecution agreement.
The US Justice Department agreement gave Boeing immunity from criminal prosecution over fraud conspiracy charges related to the plane’s flawed design. In return, Boeing have to pay $2.5 billion in fines and compensation to the government, airlines and a crash-victim fund.
US District Judge Reed O’Connor in Texas ruled he did not have legal authority to grant the relatives’ requests despite what he called “Boeing’s egregious criminal conduct”.
Boeing declined to comment.
“The families now come to this court to see that justice is done”, they said in a filing with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals arguing the Justice Department “misled the families as to whether a criminal investigation existed and then secretly cut a deferred prosecution deal without informing the families at all”.
O’Connor had ruled in October that the 346 people killed in two Boeing 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 are legally “crime victims” and said the Justice Department had not complied with their obligations under the law.
O’Connor ordered Boeing arraigned on the 2021 felony fraud conspiracy charge. Boeing pleaded not guilty last month and had argued against reopening the plea deal as did the Justice Department. Boeing maintain they have fully complied with the agreement and made significant reforms.
A revolution in artificial intelligence could slash the amount of time people spend on household chores and caring, with robots able to perform about 39% of domestic tasks within a decade, according to experts.
Tasks such as shopping for groceries were likely to have the most automation, while caring for the young or old was the least likely to be affected by AI, according to a large survey of 65 artificial intelligence experts in the UK and Japan, who were asked to predict the impact of robots on household chores.
But greater automation could result in a “wholesale onslaught on privacy”, warned one of the report’s authors.
Ekaterina Hertog (right), associate professor in AI and society at Oxford University, called for a public debate about privacy in an era of smart technology, “where an equivalent of Alexa is able to listen in and sort of record what we’re doing and report back”.
Society needed to be alive to the issues raised by homes full of smart automation, she said, adding: “I don’t think that we as a society are prepared to manage that wholesale onslaught on privacy”.
She argued that, if realised, more automated help could help improve gender equality, because women still bear the burden of the majority of unpaid work. In the UK, women do more than twice as much unpaid work as men, while in Japan men do less than a fifth of the unpaid work done by women.
But she told the BBC that the expense of technology meant the use of household robots could also lead to “a rise of inequality in free time” – with only richer households able to afford the technology.
The experts involved in the research, published in the journal Plos One, estimated that only 28% of care work, such as teaching or accompanying a child, or caring for an older relative, would be automated.But they predicted that 60% of the time spent on shopping for groceries would be eliminated.
However, predictions about robots taking over domestic work “in the next 10 years” have been made for quite some time now – but the reality of a robot able to put out the bins and pick Lego bricks up from the floor has remained elusive.
Hertog compared the optimism about domestic robots to that surrounding self-driving cars. “The promise of self-driving cars, being on the streets, replacing taxis, has been there, I think, for decades now – and yet, we haven’t been able quite to make robots function well, or these self-driving cars navigate the unpredictable environment of our streets. Homes are similar in that sense”, she said.
Okay, we're still on Balloon-gate. This time, it's an airship.
The Goodyear Blimp is commonly spotted at US sporting events as it is used for advertising purposes and to capture aerial views and images of the events.
NASCAR’s Daytona 500 took place on February 19, and fans noticed that tire and rubber company Goodyear’s signature blimp got creative and topical with its messaging this year. The digital screen that runs across the side of the airship displayed the words “Don’t Shoot!”
Many Twitter users found the message amusing with one calling it “pretty creative”. Even this Goodyear Blimp’s account got in on the Twitter action, reposting a photo of the Blimp and writing: “You can’t be too careful nowadays”.
FYI, today is Day 365 of Russia’s Special Military Operation in Ukraine – and with no end in sight! It's worth noting that Russia has the upper hand!
China’s so-called spying activities are nothing compared to the United States.
In case you didn’t know, in 2022, the US military carried out close-in reconnaissance operations in the South China Sea over 600 times using spy planes, MizarVision, a Chinese technology and intelligence company, told the Global Times, citing open-source Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) data.
The real figure could be higher, as some US aircrafts turn off their ADS-B trackers or use fake ones, MizarVision said.
In fact, the US spies on "the entire globe" and this according to BBC News on October 25, 2013. Nothing has changed!
In yesterday’s Champions League Round of 16 first leg match at Anfield, Real Madrid brutally destroyed Liverpool 5-2.
The latter had made a dream start – with two early goals from Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah inside 14 minutes – but once the former got a foothold in the game, the cracks seen in Jürgen Klopp's side all season were exposed in a midfield completely overrun and a frail defence prone to expensive errors.
And the Spanish champions leveled before the break with two goals – in the 21st and 36th minutes.
Los Blancos then seized control of the tie when they scored another three goals – in the 47th, 55th and 67th minutes.
Liverpool will seek to make an improbable comeback for the second leg on March 15.
Sure, they have pulled off spectacular comebacks before – but it would be truly extraordinary if they turned this one around at the Bernabeu. Still, I'm a Red supporter and I believe in miracles!
My September 02, 2022 post “This Ain't No Bedtime Story” which talks about the new movie version of Winnie the Pooh refers.
In the said micro-budget R-rated film, the classic lovable bear wades into far darker territory than even Eeyore could have ever imagined. After 95 years of saying things like “A hug is always the right size”, Winnie the Pooh – newly freed from copyright – is now violently terrorizing a group of young adults in the horror/slasher movie “Blood and Honey”. AA Milne’s characters, Pooh and Piglet have morphed into bloodthirsty killers!
“Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey” premiered February 15 in the US and in the days since it was released, it's managed to earn $2.5 million at the global box office, according to UK digital publisher LADbible on February 20.
Sure, it's not that impressive when you compare it to the likes of Avatar and Avengers: Endgame.
However, what's incredible is that the movie was made on a $100,000 budget, so the filmmakers have definitely seen a more than decent return on investment here.
Currently, the biggest success in horror at the box office is widely considered to be Paranormal Activity, which turned in $193 million against a budget of only $15,000.
And it also went on to become a franchise worth more than $1 billion.
Depending on how you look at it, “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey” is either a crass way to capitalize on a beloved bear or an ingenious bit of independent filmmaking foresight. Either way, it’s probably a harbinger of what’s to come.
In the next 10 years, some of the most iconic characters in pop culture – including Bugs Bunny, Batman and Superman – will pass into public domain, or at least their most early incarnations. Some elements of Pooh are still off-limits, like his red shirt, since they apply to later interpretations. Tigger, who debuted in 1928’s The House at Pooh Corner, isn’t public until January 01, 2024.
Seeing is believing but it seems that PAS Youth in Terengganu, Malaysia are addicted to cosplay. Like seriously.
At the PAS-organized “Himpunan Pemuda Islam Terengganu” in Setiu over the weekend, some members had enthusiastically paraded around in medieval Islamic war costumes and holding weapons and shield replicas.
My previous posts dated February 17 & 19 refer.
This is the “March Against the War Machine” rally in Washington DC, USA yesterday.
Thousands of protestors had assembled at the Lincoln Memorial. Including a number of prominent speakers from across the political spectrum who addressed the crowd, demanding that the US government end their military support for Ukraine in favor of diplomacy.
One of them, former Green Party presidential candidate Dr Jill Stein argued that the “$100 billion we are spending to support war in Ukraine” could actually help mitigate a whole range of domestic problems plaguing the country.
“This murderous military spending consumes resources desperately needed here at home: by 70,000 people who die each year for lack of health insurance; for a half million homeless people on any given night out in the street; for 33 million marred in student debt; a 100 million in medical debt, 22 million impoverished children and on and on”.
You can bet Joe Biden and his gang of warmongers are not listening!
Oh, and a band of five pro-Ukrainian counter-protesters also showed up at the rally. They held signs saying “Rage against Russian Invasion” and carried Ukrainian flags.
An insect known for its pungent odor has gained a new source of infamy in India: its uncanny resemblance to Germany's wartime leader Adolf Hitler.
Commonly referred to as the man-faced stink bug, it is a notorious pest known to congregate in large groups and devour fruit, cotton, corn, soybean, and cashew crops.
Native to India as well as Southeast Asia, the insect is easily identifiable by the pattern on its back, which is said to mirror a man’s face.
But now its likeness to a particular man has led to Catacanthus incarnatus being branded the 'Hitler Bug' by some in India.
According to The New Indian Express, it’s part of a trend of naming insects after their human look-alikes. The goal is apparently to “create interest in research students by making study errors easier to spot”.
The comparison between Catacanthus incarnatus and Hitler is easier to understand when you look at the bug upside down.
In this position, the dark tips of the wings resemble the dictator’s hair, two black spots resemble his eyes, and the crest on his back forms his nose. And in some specimens, a black line or other pair of dots closer to the head recreates Hitler’s infamous moustache.
Sorry, if I were the bug, I certainly wouldn’t want to be compared to Hitler!
It’s TODAY! (Refer to my blog "No To War in Ukraine" published February 17, 2023).
Some of the faces who are featured in the anti-war rally are familiar: Jimmy Dore, Max Blumenthal, Anya Parampil, Scott Ritter and Chris Hedges.
In yesterday’s Premier League match, Liverpool carved a crucial 2-0 win against Newcastle United.
Darwin Nunez powered home the opener from Trent Alexander-Arnold's pass after 10 minutes, then Cody Gakpo scored for the second successive match seven minutes later, pouncing on Mohamed Salah's piece of creation to beat the other side’s goalkeeper.
The Liverpool machine has its engines running again!
