On September 22, I'm going to be giving a lecture at the Ipswich Historical Society

September 22 - Evening Lecture, 7:30 pm: "How to Mix Historic Cocktails" with Ian Osmond. Samples for sale!

I'm still working out what I'm going to be doing. I have lots of ideas, and narrowing it down to merely one hour is the difficult part. At least they gave me the title, which gives me an idea of what to focus on.

It's in Ipswich, MA, and I'd love to see people there if you're available. Also, given that title, what sorts of things would you like to see me focus on? I'm also looking into the history of alcohol in general in Ipswich, who had the first distilleries, who had the first malting houses, and so forth.

Also, check out the rest of the events:
http://www.ipswichmuseum.org/calendar

There's going to be a lecture on lampworking glass, and one on hand-weaving rugs.

A quick note on creating effective arguments.

In order to convince people of things, you have to associate basic things with other basic things. When you're creating arguments, you need to equate things -- actions you want people to do or avoid, people you wish to support or oppose -- with concepts that have strong emotional values.

Note that word: "equate". When you are making arguments, you can make arguments about what people or things ARE -- but you can't effectively make arguments about what people or things ARE NOT.

For instance, "Obama" is a person, and a concept. "A Muslim" is also a concept.

"Not a Muslim" is NOT a simple, basic concept. You can't argue effectively that "Obama" = "Not a Muslim", because "Not a Muslim" isn't a concept that has any real emotional heft to it.

So, if you state the true statement that "Obama is not a Muslim," it gets parsed as "OBAMA" "EQUALS" "not A MUSLIM"

The "not" gets lost. Or it gets moved around a bit, to the level that the hearer might remember, "Xiphias doesn't believe that Obama is a Muslim."

Which is a true statement, but the emotional heft gets moved to "disagreeing with Xiphias" rather than changing one's mind.

Similarly: "MUSLIMS" "ARE" not "TERRORISTS".

A new online ad is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DImb7jvSbaw

The first ten seconds or so -- are not going to help. People don't hear the "don't" in those statements.

However, I have some hope that the "I am an American, I am a Muslim" parts will help.