We Learn to Communicate before We’re Born

Apparently, I’ve been preparing for my career in communications since before I was born.

A new study (via Neatorama) reveals that humans begin to learn their native language in the womb. Comparisons between babies a few days old in France and Germany reveal that newborns cry — the earliest form of human communications — in their native language.

Led by Kathleen Wermke of the University of Würzburg’s Center for Prespeech Development and Developmental Disorders, a team of scientists found that fetuses are not only become familiar with the sound of their mother’s voice in the womb, they’re also learning some important communications patterns inherent in their native tongue.

French newborns, for example, tend to cry with a rising melody, whereas German newborns prefer a falling melody. Those patterns are consistent with characteristic differences between the two languages, according to Wermke. (While French children call for “Papá,” German kids want their “Pápa.”)

Believe Me, It Was High-Tech in Its Time

One of my guilty pleasures is Smithsonian.com’s “Today in History” feature; and I was pleased to see, at the end of last month, an acknowledgement of the important advance in technology pioneered by Hymen Lipman of Philadelphia. On March 30, 1858, Lipman was issued a patent for his breakthrough concept: attaching a piece of rubber inside one end of a pencil to serve as an eraser.

(Regrettably, 17 years later, the U.S. Supreme Court would revoke the patent, ruling that “a pencil with an eraser is just a pencil with an eraser and not a new invention.” Churlish of them, in my opinion.)

According to the Chicago Tribune, the U.S. is the single largest market for wood-encased pencils today … in part, because it is the instrument-of-choice when it comes to solving Sudoku and crossword puzzles. It’s also immensely useful in all of the communications professions … but especially public relations and journalism. Unlike a pen, a pencil never leaks, surprises you by running out of ink or freezes in cold weather. Despite its many virtues, however, I know people who haven’t written anything with pencil — let alone erased it — for years now.

At the risk of sounding like Andy Rooney, I have to say that I have nothing but pity for my colleagues who were born into a high-tech universe in which the delete button is sufficient to their needs.

10 of the “21 Dumbest Moments in Business”

I don’t know anyone who wasn’t happy to see the back end of 2008. It was a tough, tough year. There was, however, at least one bright light in the dismal landscape: The “21 Dumbest Moments in Business – 2008”, Fortune magazine’s annual list of the year’s “most laughable corporate moves.” As Fortune reports, it “proves that, even in moments of crisis, stupidity lives on.”

What I found particularly interesting is the number of these crises and scandals that could have been averted if the parties involved had taken a moment to conference with their chief communications officer, public relations firm or PR consultant about what our CEO, Ken Makovsky, calls a “PR bailout.”

Here’s an abbreviated version of the top 10 business gaffes of 2008. Check out the complete list for a look at all 21 of last year’s monumentally dumb moments.

1) Detroit execs flying to D.C.
2) Detroit execs driving to D.C.
3) Henry Paulson's initial $700 bailout proposal:
4) The final bailout
5) The Mozilo e-mail
6) The iPhone 'I am rich' app
7) Paulson's 'bazooka'
8) Tough talk from Fannie Mae
9) Scandal at the Department of Interior
10) GM's Lutz on global warming