Sunset Cliff Photographs-Oceanside Light Show

Sunset Cliffs is located in the Ocean Beach district of San Diego. As an underdeveloped strip it maintains its charm as an attraction during the early evenings. Locals line up on the rocks and watch the sun make its way into the ocean providing a spectacular view.  Photographers make their way to the area to catch some of the most spectacular sunsets in the country.  

Because it is underdeveloped people can get hurt on the rocks. Stay away from the cliffs and stay within the roped areas. There is a nice spot to climb down to the waterfront but this does take a little agility. The rock that leads over a small crevice can be slippery when many people have traversed it in a short period.  On the waterfront, there are plenty of places to sit and many pools of water to jump over.

1253 Sunset Cliffs Blvd
San Diego, CA 92107

Measuring Personality and Intelligence in Gifted College Students

The identification of gifted individuals is important in order to maximize their contributions to society and create a healthy understanding of others. The current identification methods may be inadequate as the far majority of gifted members are undiscovered and their talents unrealized for the greater good.  A paper by Carol Carman (2011) discusses the academic evaluation methods and the need to include behavioral aspects in the overall evaluation process. 

The far majority of gifted individuals have not been identified. This problem becomes more acute in minority populations and those who live in poverty who do not have access to elite education. When their special talents are not enhanced it can lead to intellectual loss for a nation. Furthermore, such individuals are left to suffer the consequences of greater awareness in a population focused on the here and now.  

Myers-Briggs evaluates giftedness as heightened intuition, introversion, thinking and perceiving dimensions when compared to the general population.  Their feelings, perceptions, and insights lead to greater understanding that are put to better use in science, arts, and other areas. Some of the world’s greatest scientific breakthroughs have come from gifted individuals and their constant search for truth. 

Gifted adults have greater responsiveness and intensified sensitivities to sensory stimuli. The greater and wider the intensities to stimuli the higher the potential for development. These sensitivities push the organism to overcome challenges, develop greater awareness, and adapt to challenges. Psychomotor, intellectual and emotional over excitabilities in combination clearly differentiated between gifted and non-gifted individuals. 

The authors used 249 students in undergraduate and graduate students to determine potential measurements of gifted students. The far majority of students have not been previously identified with these abilities.  Measurements include intelligence-based evaluations such as SILS and achievement latent variable but also personality-based evaluations such as OEQII latent variable and Sensory Profile latent variable. 

The study helps highlight that even college students are often regularly evaluated and identified for high potential. This is even more of an acute problem among minority populations. Current tests focus on standard intelligence tests but these may not always be accurate as they are culturally dependent, based on standard learning, and are dependent on motivation. Personality based evaluations help round out the differences and provide an additional criteria for accurate assessment. 

Carman, C. (2011). Adding personality to gifted identification: relationships among traditional and personality-based constructs. Journal of Advanced Academics, 22 (3).

The Cozy Atmosphere at Whisknladle

Outside View

The Whisknladle in La Jolla known for its cozy atmosphere and great selection of beverages that provides a lively place for sitting with friends. It has an upscale bar atmosphere with just a touch of country western theme. The lighting is low but not so low as to obscure conversation. In the winter, their outdoor dining is covered with plastic to retain the warmth making a unique servicescape.

The restaurant prides themselves on the quality and freshness of their food. This was also my experience as the food was simple, appeared to be handmade, and generally tasty. You may want to try the warm Brussels Sprout salad. It was the first time I tried such a dish and it was impressive. The cutting board was not to my personal liking. Try it for yourself.  Their offerings fall in line with higher end Bistros. 

According to Yelp the average ranking for the restaurant is 4 out of 5. The atmosphere is warm and inviting and is a big draw for the establishment. The location near downtown La Jolla also makes it an attractive place to frequent. The food is higher than average price and appears to be more of an appetizer and drink type restaurant. Service was quick and friendly. 

1044 Wall St

(between Herschel Ave & Girard Ave) La Jolla, CA 92037

http://whisknladle.com/about

Supportive and Humanistic Leaders are More Effective

Both style and communication intertwine tightly around the effectiveness of leaders.  Reinout de Vries and Angelique Bakker-Pieper conducted research on 279 employees in government agencies to understand the communication styles on human-oriented and leadership outcomes  (2010). They used the six main communication styles of verbal aggressiveness, expressiveness, preciseness and assuredness, supportiveness and argumentativeness. 

Leadership communication style bases its effectiveness on the need to maximize hierarchical relationships to reach goals (Daft, 2003). Communication has a purpose and is goal oriented. Communication seeks to enhance and influence the environment in one form or another. The ultimate goal is often dependent on the leader who seeks either collective or self-gain. 

Communication is about knowledge sharing. It is a process where individuals exchange tacit and explicit information to create new knowledge (Van den Hoof and De Ridder, 2004). Communication helps participants bring forward new information and connect them together in ways that have more meaning for them. The more someone communicates with others the more they understand both the issues at hand and the potential solutions. 

Charismatic and human-oriented leadership correlated with perceived leadership performance, satisfaction with that leader, and employee’s commitment. Likewise, Leadership supportiveness had a strong correlation with knowledge sharing. Both styles were stronger than correlations with task-oriented leadership. 

The authors contend that leadership supportiveness appears to be the strongest communication approach and has positive associations with leadership styles and outcome.  This find makes sense if we consider that leadership is about influence and drawing people in through supportive, humanistic, and knowledge sharing behaviors that helps others solve their own problems and sets higher expectations.  Leaders who excessively focus on tasks may be less successful if their subordinates do not understand the greater purpose of the tasks, do not feel connected to it, and do not know how to achieve it. 

De Vries & Bakker-Pieper, W. (2010). Leadership=communication? The relations of leaders’ communication styles with leadership styles, knowledge sharing and leadership outcomes. Journal of Business & Psychology, 25 (3). 

Daft, R. (2003). Management (6^th Edition). Cincinnati, Oh: South-West.

Van den Hoof & Hendrix, (2004). Eagerness and willingness to hare: the relevance of different attitudes towards knowledge sharing. Paper presented at the Fifth European Conference on Organizational Knowledge, Learning and Capabilities: Innsbruck, Australia.

Point Loma-Lighthouses and History

The Old Point Loma Lighthouse was only in operation for about 36 years starting in 1855. It had a great location way above the sea and on a clear night, the light can be seen from 25 miles away. The problem was that during fog storms the light was nearly imperceptible.  This created a problem and a new lighthouse was built down the cliff that still operates today. 

The best lens technology from France shipped to California, the walls constructed from local stone, and the boards brought over from a Spanish fort created this pieces of historical charm(1). Because of the high winds and the overall weather conditions of the area the lighthouse was well constructed. It still sits today in much of the same way it did in the past. 

The lighthouse keeper and his family lived many miles from civilization and children either walked or took a rowboat to school. Visitors were rare but occasionally someone would traverse the dirt road to see the great view. Children were born and livestock raised on that little paradise on the point. Life was relatively boring and spent reading, engaged in family time, or daily chores. 

There are a few structures in the area that you can spend around an hour and half exploring. Each carload will cost $5 but the panoramic view of San Diego and the ocean are worth it. If you get lucky you may just see a whale making its way through winter migration. 

While visiting the lighthouses you may also want to make your way back to the memorial cemetery located on both sides of the entrance to the park. This is hallowing ground and a place where previous service members rest. In the spirit of remembrance you may use or copy any of the memorial pictures below (memorial pictures only). 

1800 Cabrillo Memorial Dr
San Diego, CA 92101

9:00 AM to 5:00 PM

Website

Technological and Labor Skill Advancement Increases Economic Output

Economic systems have both inputs and outputs. When outputs exceed the total inputs, the system is seen as unsustainable. A paper by Brestschger and Valente (2011) delves into a method of measuring the sustainability of resource rich countries. Even though their focus is on oil producing countries, they do have some broader implications. 

Most studies seem to rule out the concept of technological progress and trade gains to determine economic viability. Technology has the ability to lower the cost of transactions and increase overall outputs. Thus, technological advancement can lead directly to an export market and more sustainable system. 

Net investment is a concept that focuses on the net increases in all the productive assets of the local economy. Such net investment are measured by adding all of the technology and labor productivity increases and subtracting things like depletion of natural resources. The more information available the more accurate such evaluations become. 

The model proposed by the authors includes an expression of net investment from:

1. International trade in different types of inputs

2. productivity growth in final sections

3. cost-reducing technology in resource extraction

A large percentage of resource-exporting countries are unsustainable because of negative net investments. This means they are losing resources and not hedging the influx of capital to ensure that sustainable growth beyond these resources occurs. According to net investment, the economic capital flow is moving outward.  

If w were to apply the findings of this study to other areas using a similar schema we would conclude that economies that can raise their value of products and export them on the market have net inward flows of value. The wealth of an area increases while those countries that export resources without raising the values significantly are less sustainable.  Technology and local labor skill have the ability to convert lower value products to higher value outputs that increase local wealth. When considering global economies hubs can use local technology and skills to purchase lower value inputs from other places in the world and develop them into higher value products that are sold on the market to increase the wealth of an area. 

Bretschger, L. & Valente, S. (2011). International trade and net investment: theory and evidence. International Economics and Economic Policy, 8 (2).