Three Sides (At Least) To Every Story

I liked this saying:

There are at least three sides to every story:

Yours
Mine
And the truth

Everyone sees the world through their personal filter. 

And they present their side of things in a distorted way to make themselves look right and righteous. 

Calls it what you will:  a slant, bias, twist, falsification, or a distortion or perversion of the truth. 

Sure, sometimes one person is right and the other is clearly wrong. 

But more often than not, there are elements of truth and of lies in each person’s story to greater and lessor degrees. 

Hence, the truth often is it’s own entity and exists independent of those presenting it. 

It’s not a bad mission to seek out and promote the truth in this world of many falsehoods. 😉

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Measurement And Standards Are Our Friends

So I learned that Metrology is the science of measurement. 

And measurement is the foundation of scientific research and creating standards. 

Scientific research and measurement are about exploration, discovery, and innovation.

Further, it is about finding the facts; it is objective; it is truth; it is essential to maintaining integrity. 

Standards also help to ensure dependability, because there is a common reference and you know what you are getting. 

A great true story that demonstrates the importance of measurements and standards is the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904.

This was the third worst urban inferno in American history. 

It destroyed over 1,500 building across 140 acres. 

Fire engines responded from as far as New York and Virginia. 

But the problem was that they invariably could not help. 

Why?  

Because their fire hose couplings could not fit on the Baltimore fire hydrants–they were not standardized.

Without standards, we don’t have interoperability. 

We don’t have a reference that everyone can go by. 

It’s as if we’re all working on our own desert islands. 

This defeats the power in numbers that make us together greater than the sum of our individual parts. 

Science and technology help us advance beyond just ourselves and today. 

Measurement and standardization help us to build a better and stronger society. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

10 Vegas Fun Facts

(A lot of poverty in Vegas too, but this guy had a sense of humor about it.)

10. Vegas has 2 million residents, but 40 million visitors a year.
9. MGM Grand is the 2nd largest hotel in the world with almost 7,000 rooms.
8. The Bellagio hotel (with the amazing fountain in front choreographed to music) cost $8.5 billion and is one of the top 10 hotels in the world.
7. The light from the top of the Pyramid at the Luxor Hotel can be seen from the moon.
6. A church on the way to the Grand Canyon from Vegas in painted in Mary Kay pink.
5. There are a pair of mountains called the Dolly Parton Mountains (at least that what our “wise-guy” tour guide called them)
4. A range of mountains looks like the face of Abraham Lincoln lying down.
3. The Hoover Dam, one of the largest government projects of the time was completed nearly two years early and a few million under budget (can you believe that?)
2. There are 600 Elvis impersonators, including a midget and a 450 pound man.
1. You can get married at the Say I Do Drive Thru for only $45!

And one for good luck…prostitution is illegal. 😉

Last one…The Democrats and Republican fought over naming the “Hoover Dam” after President Hoover, a Republican (what a surprise?)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)