Roy W. Smolens Jr.

strategic communications | cross-cultural psych | global bridge-builder | #storyteller | #SciComm | #AV #ADAS | polyglot | Sun Devil | #RevealingAwesomeness

[Roy W. Smolens Jr. @RWSmolensJr]

". . .a warrior is worthless unless he rises above others and stands strong in the midst of a storm." [excerpted from Hagakure]

[Dominic Meagher @dom_ma]

An amazing glimpse into the CCP’s attitude toward foreigners:

“The dashboard gave an overview of the number of foreigners registered in the… prefecture and their nationalities, and broadly pinned their locations at a district level on a map of the area.
But, more significantly, it had been pre-filled with several datasets with what appeared to be profiles of hundreds of real people.
This included profiles on the approximately 350 journalists based in Beijing in 2021…
Foreign residents in the area get more or less tracked 24/7 by the looks of it…

The dashboard also had a “relationship modelling” function, which appeared like a web, with lines connecting profiles so that authorities could see how a target was linked to other people. One landing page had a “top 10” of foreigners who travelled together, with two Ukrainians recorded as having done so 314 times.
It seems to be set up for seeing who knows each other, who is affiliated with each other, and to have this information at their fingertips. By visually mapping them, you could see how often someone would meet up for coffee, or how often they would be seen walking with each other through town…
It further categorised certain people of interest as “key personnel”, those with “penalties”, and those deemed “fugitives”…
One graph kept statistics on the number of foreigners in Zhangjiakou from “Five-Eyes” countries…

Over the past decade, the Chinese government has expanded its massive urban video surveillance network called Skynet…”
https://t.co/aYOAZlzLeA

[Charles Duhigg @cduhigg]

Communication isn’t just about exchanging information it’s about creating connection, trust, and emotional alignment through something neuroscientists call neural entrainment.

[Roy W. Smolens Jr. @RWSmolensJr]

@BobPickard @PAcumbria 🤭. . . true dat!

[MLB @MLB]

Yoshinobu Yamamoto retired the final 22 batters he faced!

[MTS @MTSlive]

SITUATION DETECTED: For the first time in internet history, agentic traffic has surpassed human traffic online, per Cloudflare Radar.

[Jen Heemstra @jenheemstra]

Becoming a great leader or mentor is a lifelong pursuit, but it’s also something that we achieve in small steps by:

-Setting an intention to grow in a skill or behavior
-Deciding on an action or practice to achieve that outcome
-Repeating until the change becomes a habit

[Roy W. Smolens Jr. @RWSmolensJr]

@jenheemstra 🎯 ~ agreed, Doc Heemstra, failing forwards (backwards, sideways, diagonally… 😅) is fundamental to our ability to grow, to seek out consul from others, and step out of comfort zones.

[Jen Heemstra @jenheemstra]

In sharing my career story, I’m realizing that the conversations that were transformative for me were probably routine for my mentors:

-asking what I want to do
-saying I should go to grad school
-advising me to find a good PhD advisor

Simple conversations can have big impacts.

[Geoff Bennett @GeoffRBennett]

NEW: Former 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft says Scott Pelley spoke up "not just for himself ... I think he was doing that for Sharyn Alfonsi, who was fired. And for Cecilia Vega, who was fired. And for Tanya Simon, who was fired. And for Draggan Mihailovich, who was fired. All of these people are incredibly good journalists, and the kind of people you would need if you wanted to continue to put a program like 60 Minutes on the air, and now they are gone." More tonight on the @NewsHour

[BaseballHistoryNut @nut_history]

This is Ami Inamura. She’s is a Japanese sportscaster, television personality, and model. She threw the most beautiful ceremonial first pitch I’ve ever seen and it even clocked at 64 MPH. Completely fool the batter.

Legit serious when I say this will be the best thing you’ll see today.

[William Shatner @WilliamShatner]

And another.

[Geoff Bennett @GeoffRBennett]

NEW: Former 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft calls the changes under Bari Weiss "disastrous." He adds: "This is journalistic interference. It makes no business sense whatsoever. It's the highest rated news program on television, and it has been that way for more than 50 years. The audience was up about 9% last year. Why would you mess with that?" Our conversation airs tonight on the @newshour .

[Roy W. Smolens Jr. @RWSmolensJr]

@BobPickard …where there is will, there’s a way 😬

[Ohazassu Japan @ohazassu]

View of Osaka Station the other night...

[Dr. M.F. Khan @Dr_TheHistories]

Nearly 40 years after his snub by FDR, President Gerald Ford invited legendary Olympian Jesse Owens to the White House in August 1976. To Owens' shock, Ford proceeded to not only honor him, but present him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

It was a long-overdue recognition for a man whose triumphs had transcended sport. Owens, son of a sharecropper and grandson of enslaved Americans, had stunned the world at 1936 Berlin Olympics by winning four gold medals in the face of Adolf Hitler’s white supremacist propaganda.

His dominance on the world stage not only shattered Nazi racial ideology but also made him a global icon of resilience, excellence, and dignity.

Yet when he returned home to the U.S., Owens received no call from the White House, no ticker-tape parade. President Franklin D. Roosevelt never sent a letter, made a phone call, or invited him for a visit, reportedly fearing backlash from Southern voters.

Owens would later say, “I wasn’t invited to shake hands with Hitler, but I wasn’t invited to the White House to shake hands with the President either.”

Ford’s invitation in 1976, at the nation’s bicentennial, served as a symbolic correction to that wrong.

In presenting the Medal of Freedom, Ford called Owens “a young man who possibly didn’t realize the greatness of his own accomplishments” and acknowledged the profound impact Owens had on the world. For Owens, it was more than a medal, it was long-delayed validation from the country he had so proudly represented.

© Historical Photos

#drthehistories

[Masterpieces of Japan @JapanTraCul]

Morning Sun from the Views of Mount Fuji, Yoshida Hiroshi, 1926

[Dan Castellano @ninja_padrino]

Minimum wage in Tokyo is apparently ¥1,226 (in New York City it’s $17)

[The Nobel Prize @NobelPrize]

"Find your own way of functioning... I struggled for the first year and a half as an undergraduate... but I developed my own ways of learning things.

So I advise students, find your own way and your own directions that you can be successful in."

- Physics laureate Kip Thorne

[Dodgers Nation @DodgersNation]

Incredible standing ovation from Dodger Stadium for Yoshinobu Yamamoto as he exits the mound in the 6th inning.

He struck out 10 batters today and the Dodgers lead the Phillies 6-0.

That’ll play 🔥

[Roy W. Smolens Jr. @RWSmolensJr]

@BobPickard @NiemanLab P.S. @BobPickard, I had no idea that was why I wasn’t seeing any of the @NiemanLab content…had been going on long enough that it slipped out of my consciousness that I was following them! Thanks for bringing that to my attention, sir.

[Roy W. Smolens Jr. @RWSmolensJr]

@BobPickard @NiemanLab 🧐😠