His plan to co-operate with Mr Berlusconi to push through reforms in the national interest was humiliatingly swept aside by the prime minister.

ECONOMIST: Italy

The hopeless and shamed person, who has been hiding his alcoholic behavior for years, even decades, is not required to be unceremoniously and humiliatingly revealed.

FORBES: A.A. in the Age of the Internet - We Pause for a Primer on "the Program"

Esther Rantzen, a celebrity candidate running in a seat whose previous incumbent had been among the most egregious expense-fiddlers, won a humiliatingly small number of votes.

ECONOMIST: Election results

The Tories have fallen humiliatingly low in local government.

ECONOMIST: How to see through the spin

Virtually every other obituary and news story from left, right, and center has been unanimous in agreement that Berezovsky was financially ruined, basically bankrupt, and, humiliatingly, reduced to selling off his accumulated assets and artwork.

FORBES: Was Boris Berezovsky Murdered? The Evidence Strongly Suggests No, But Luke Harding Says Maybe!

Before I go into a breakdown of the actual process of the Idea Gauntlet, I want to share with you a lesson from an interview with Steve Jobs that was conducted right before Jobs joined Apple for the second time as CEO (after being fired in humiliatingly public fashion).

FORBES: Insight From Competitors: The Idea Gauntlet