Heavy Metal Medicine

A bit of extra traffic recently, a few new visitors, so a few random words about Rana. I like Nature. I like heavy metal. I like food. Naturally, I don't like heavy metal in food.

The words were not so random really, the Journal of the American Medical Association tested 230 Ayurvedic products - I hesitate to call them "medicines" because to use that word would surely have required controlled testing. Anyway about 20 per cent of the products had significant levels of lead, arsenic or mercury.

I have some sympathy with the local predicament. According to the LA Times: "the researchers and other experts surmised that the contamination had less to do with the manufacturing process than with the soils in which the herbs were grown." And around Bhopal at least, US corporations have contributed to toxification of a wide area.

But I have no sympathy for those who knowingly import and distribute poisons. Defending his products in the same paper: "Based on WHO standards, our products are perfect. They have not exceeded any limits." So said Kush Khanna (there's a Hindi joke in that name) who runs Bazaar of India in California.

The trouble is that WHO limits are 500 times greater than California limits.

The Skeptic Games

With due credit to the Lay Scientist for setting up the games a month ago, the closing ceremony for the Skeptic Olympics brings together the finest performances of the last two weeks. Like a temporary traffic restriction, usual rules have been suspended for the event.

First up, winner of gold medal in the 100 meters, and unofficially declared the fastest human alive is the awesome Greta Christina. Out of the starting blocks and into my InBox in record time we have "The Problem of Unfishiness: Religion, Science, and Unanswered Questions"

Then we have another big hitter. Winner of a gold medal in baseball is Holfordwatch with a must-read showing how even those nice chiropractors are joining the legal intimidation party instead of answering criticism. Then, like a modern day Jim Thorpe, Holfordwatch switches sports and wins another gold in the softball with thoughts on The Elmhurst Epidemic: classic example of the cultural and scientific clash between CAM and medicine.

Just behind Greta in speed of submission, the second fastest human alive and also picking up a gold in the relay, we have the Evolving Mind reminding us that "You Aren’t What You Eat" lucky that, or else I'd be a banana.

The two hundred meters is another pure event with a long established world record that held an almost mystical spell upon other competitors. But smashing through that ignorance we have a splendid tale of "pareidolia and anthropomorphism" so a well-deserved gold medal to Breaking Spells

Then we move on to the big hairy spinning beast. Gold medal in the hammer throw goes to Hyphoid Logic with the tale of the Bigfoot that wasn't. Not everyone can see it (something about Internet Explorer versions) but Hyphoid Logic also got a gold medal in the rifle event. An easy target but a fine shot with a heady mix of prayer, blasphemy and gas prices.

The high jump is one of the original olympic sports and a very pure event, it is amusing to see who can drop from highest onto those jokers at Answers in Genesis. Winner of the gold medal is the legendary Bing McGhandi at Happy Jihad House of Pancakes who easily cleared the immense white cliffs of Dover.

Next up we have the javelin. As with dismissing the arguments of the anti-vaccination brigade, this is an ancient and honorable sport. Gold medal winner goes to Elvis Sightings with a Queasy Comparison.

For the ultimate all-round athlete we need to look to the decathlon. Winner of the gold medal is the mighty Skeptico with Negative Energy Research showing that we all have supernatural powers. Even you. Yes the professional skeptic is as psychic as the professional psychic.

Fastest across the water, winner of the 50m freestyle swim was Daylight Atheism who simply drove across the pool with Run Your Car on Water. Coming last was this odd chap who thought he could walk across but he sadly drowned in the attempt to prove it.

Gold medal winner of the high dive competition is the unsinkable rubber duck, a fairly obvious dive winner really. Collecting the award is Skelliot who uses his podium position to plug Australian Science Week.

Admittedly based on the judge's subjective opinion, but I'm the subjective judge here, winner of the gymnastic floor event is HumbugOnline looking at the obvious techniques of the self-help-merchants with SHAM Fallacies.

Now a difficult sport, attempted only by the brave few. Taking on Michael Shermer and the Drake Equation in Greco-Roman Wrestling, a sport that is as old as civilisation itself, we have aardvachaelogy, and Martin wins gold with a knockout blow … even skeptic heroes sometimes need to be corrected.

Over at the showjumping arena, men and women compete on a level playing field, as level as the horses allow anyway. Podblack Cat wins easily with a Winter Of Research And Retention, Gender, Sex And Science - a big subject but a big performance.

Cycling is a sport that has a long history of accusations of drug use, so it's appropriate that a doctor should win gold here. PalMD explains why Doctors Aren't Preachers.

Not originally part of the games, but quite possibly my favourite event, we have beach volleyball (sorry, gratuitous link). It's bright and colourful and entertaining, and the Primordial Blog wins gold for due skepticism about the end of the world.

And of course the epitome of the olympics, the big showpiece event, the ultimate test of endurance, that has to be the marathon. The gold medal goes to the expected winner, Orac shows a clean pair of heels to those who claim his writing is funded by "big pharma" with a detailed exposition of when clinical trials are designed by marketing.

That only leaves the closing ceremony. No graphics on this site, so see Cectic for great skeptic entertainment and a few fireworks.

So now, at the end, the torch passes on to the Skeptic Dictionary. He sums up what these games are really about, the common sense in skepticism. This is Ancient Wisdom, where magic meets science. To take part send your next skeptical submission to SC95 at SKEPDIC.COM before 9/11, you know it makes sense.

The Holiday Coast

No recent posts. Went on holiday to the coast for the English long weekend. Well, when I say "the coast" it's fairly loose terminology.

Imagine we live in mid New Jersey and rarely travel north. And I suggest to the holiday rep to book a place in Long Island, that's the place we want to be. But it's peak season, so unsurprisingly I get called back with the message that there were no vacancies at the obvious places there. So I say "ok then, at least get somewhere in New York".

We got a place in Albany.

Of course counties in England tend to be a lot smaller than states in America so the distances involved weren't quite so bad, but the basic relational geography stands. Sometimes we need to be clearer with our directions.

Faster Higher Stronger

The Olympic motto is "Citius, Altius, Fortius" - Latin for "Faster, Higher, Stronger".

Note that it does not say "Faster, Higher, Stronger, X"

where X is "scored higher by judges for those they think looked most elegant while prancing around the arena"

Also, it's not "who has the most money". The UK has invested heavily in cycling, bikes that cost thousands and velodromes that cost millions. And it has reaped many rewards. But in addition to Pursuit and Sprint and Madison and Keirin, if there was an olympic cycling competition to determine who could carry the most family members on a single iron bike while navigating heavy traffic on potholed roads, I think the developing world would stand more of a chance.

Six and Out in Melbourne and London

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms.

That's today's quote from Google. One thing about George Orwell, he certainly had courage.

It's not only the likes of Sherry Jones and Taslima Nasreen who have shown courage. Scott Adams gets it too. But it would be too easy to just relate tales of Jon Swift and Lenny Bruce and Monty Python and a long history of comic subversion. Let's turn to cricket instead. There are many lessons for life in The Art of Captaincy and Opening Up, but most autobiographies are dross. And in CricInfo yesterday we are back to Orwell:

Upon hearing of the bugs squashed on the wallpaper of the hotel opposite his, young kitchen hand George Orwell did not beseech the bugs to write his book for him. Down and Out in Paris and London is no less grisly or educational a read for the lack of bugs' insights. Yet in cricket we see the bugs everywhere, furnishing us with their bug's-eye perspectives, and not just any old bugs but former top-level bugs.

But those "bugs" that Christian Ryan refers to are some serious big names in the world of cricket. So there goes his chance of getting any exclusive interviews with them. That was brave too.

Buying Gold

Why does India win so few Olympic medals? So asked Marginal Revolution and a billion Indians.

Firstly, congratulations to Abhinav Bindra for winning India's first ever individual gold. But looked at in the national medal tables , we are slightly behind Mongolia and Kazakhstan. In fact, on a per capita count, scaled to population, we would do even worse.

Not everyone dares to suggest genetic factors. I do. But these factors primarily apply to average performance in particular pure athletic disciplines. There surely must be some events where focus and investment and dedication can bring results, even with a largely fixed genetic pool. The enormous strides made by China, and even by the UK, since the last games prove this.

The usual glib answer is "get cricket into the games". That's only partially true, even if India's most popular sport were to be included, presumably in one-day format, there's still a good chance we'd be beaten by Australia (or Sri Lanka, like today).

There are better candidates, more guaranteed to get us a medal. Billiards. Chess. Kabaddi. And with enough "pressure" any sport can be included in the games. And by "pressure" perhaps we just mean money. According to a BBC investigation: if you are careful enough and clever enough and you really want the golden Olympic ticket for your sport, there is every reason to believe that you can get your event onto the podium.

Yet I still ask, given a developing nation's other priorities, is it worth it?

Restaurant Tips

I wrote a few weeks ago about the difficulty of finding a restaurant that does not have prices on the menu. Yet though I perhaps came from a more extreme angle, taking a famine-based twist to asking for more, I nevertheless believed that many others would share my opinion there, surely it is simply better to go for a meal if you know the complete price up front. Yet sadly not a single suggestion.

But though I expected to share common opinion on food prices, I think my opinion might be more individual on waiter tips. I mention it now because both Marginal Revolution and Freakonomics have raised the subject just in the few days since my note. One obvious idea is that the price of the meal should explicitly include service and the waiting staff should earn decent wages without relying on the whims of fickle customers. The same as shop sales staff. That's a common suggestion anyway. Many restaurants routinely add 15% to the bill as standard. But that is not the best way to relate how much value was added by the waiter.

As a slightly more original idea, I suggest that you could tip a standard hourly figure, for example minimum wage rate, or some fraction of it per customer. If the waiter is supplying x tables, then she will get at least x times minimum wage. Plus any basic salary. It reflects the time that she actually spent "working for you", the current practice of food bill plus 15 percent means that she is compensated less for delivering many bargain courses than for delivering a single overpriced bottle. Perhaps more importantly, the new suggestion means that a waiter in a cheap-food restaurant does not get paid less than a waiter in an expensive-food restaurant for exactly the same level of service.

I'm not saying that's what I do, I'm only suggesting that's what we could do.

Skeptic, Moi?

There is no explicit religious or political branding on this site, but for a taste of my views on those areas, the links to the left might give you a taste. But my self-imposed post word limit precludes detailed analysis here. So I don't usually suggest skepticism about the claims of astrologers or religious leaders or faith healers. Sorry. I usually suggest ridicule and derision.

However there does need to be a place for more considered reasoning of those claims, and one place is the skeptics' circle. I've mentioned it before here. Guidelines for posting are here. And if you want a place in the next edition, due August 28th, write to me here.

The Ministry of Silly Games

The Olympics continue to ask plenty of questions for our brave athletes. As always, Monty Python continues to provide answers.

I understand the point of a competition to determine who can run the fastest or jump the highest or swim the fastest - but the ministry of silly games has decided that just seeing who is quickest across water from one bank to the other does not give enough scope for lanky Americans to pile up the medals. So we have backstroke and breaststroke and butterflystroke and sidestroke and sunstroke and heatstroke.

But this is unfair on athletics, the original olympic sport. We have various distances but only two basic kinds of track race, "freestyle" and "silly walk". There needs to be another race where you run backwards. Another race where you run with your legs splayed out to the side. Another race where you run, in honour of John Cleese, in full "goose-step" style and you are disqualified unless your leg stays perfecty straight reaching up at least to shoulder height on each step.

That's what they do in the pool. Alternatively, ditch the silly walks and return to olympic ideals.

Top Five Spreadsheet Rules

Remember this quote from Hal Varian: So what’s getting ubiquitous and cheap? Data. And what is complementary to data? Analysis.

And some of my earliest words on this site: It is true. I like collecting data. I have epic spreadsheets full of data.

Then much more recently I said my guiding principles of spreadsheet design to follow shortly, so as you'd expect, here's a top five:

1. No bitmaps. No logos. No extra graphics whatsoever. The spreadsheet should look nice, of course, but it should look nice because of the clarity and elegance of the information presented within it.
   
   
2. No extra colours, lines, shades, formats. Less strictly observed than the rule above, but a rule nonetheless. Of course there should be colours, lines, shades - plenty of them, as many as needed - but it should all be there only to segment and highlight the areas that need it. There should not be "extra" formatting.
   
   
3. No macros. Obviously, because they could harbour viruses. Less obviously, because they are hidden, because they need to be applied separately. Everything in the spreadsheet should be open and clear. I have all sorts of complicated functions and formulas in my spreadsheets, but they are explicitly within visible cells, not within macros.
   
   
4. No hidden sheets, no hidden columns, no hidden formulas. Clearly I am not trying to protect something sold as a commercial application, I am talking about those spreadsheets that we all develop and distribute on a daily basis. By allowing "anyone" to pick up and enhance and improve your work, everyone benefits. Like open source principles on a closed source product.
   
   
5. Everything above suggests that it is the data that is critical, not the fluff around it. So get the numbers right. That's the most important rule of all.
   

I am rich

I don't have an iPhone. But I do appreciate its features. And I do like the idea of this iPhone application.

It was "developed" by someone called Armin Heinrich and it costs a thousand dollars and it does nothing. Or to be more precise, it does nothing except display a little red ruby icon that "reminds you (and others when you show it to them) that you were able to afford this"

Classic. The application is called "I am rich" although some would call it "I am something else"

Unfortunately Marginal Revolution reports that "it has since been removed from the App Store".

I agree with Kottke that this removal is odd. Anyway, before you laugh at the people who bought it, take a look at the designer label that is so prominent on your shirt or handbag ...

Sex Tests

With the Olympics fast approaching, the pinnacle of worldwide athletic achievement, there has been a bit in the news about the "embarrassing" and expensive tests that suspects will be forced to undertake to prove that they are female.

The solution is blindingly obvious. A cost save and an efficiency win. And a better purer competition.

Simply scrap the tests. Have one competition, open to anyone; male, female or transgender.

The point is similar to that I mentioned regarding fit women in short skirts.

But oh no say the dissenters, the vast majority; the women need a separate competition, something not provided to other genetic groups. Some women would certainly beat some men, but the top female would not expect to win against the top male. So we should restrict each contest only to those with particular characteristics? Well, arguably yes. We should restrict the competition to those who are genetically human. But within that rather broad category, the competition is to decide who can run the fastest, jump the highest, throw the highest, etc. Surely that is an olympic ideal.

As should be evident in my views on medieval religions, I'm not misogynist, I genuinely love diversity. It would be great to see a woman break through the hegemony of male domination and beat the men at their own game. All under-represented groups should be encouraged to compete. And as the number of olympic sports increases, I'd hope there will be new ones where women tend to hold the top positions, and it is only a few brave men who try to match them. But for that to be possible we need to scrap the sex discrimination.

A Few Good Menu

Slightly personal note, we got the new V+ box yesterday. And still seeing adverts everywhere implying that television is unimaginable without Sky+, I will say again that Sky are only selling the idea of time-shift TV; compared to others, their user interface is just rubbish.

But while we are on the subject of menu options, another personal recommendation. For anyone with direct family members who have lived through a famine, food is a very precious thing. Today I can afford to never be hungry. And my simple plea: restaurants, I just want to go to a place that does not have prices on the menu.

I do not ever want to, even unconsciously, be thinking of incremental costs when asking for more. Equally, when entertaining in a public place, I don't want my guests to feel even the slightest hint of guilt when ordering. I'm not talking about an all-you-can-eat help-yourself buffet, there are plenty of those, I am simply referring to a good quality reasonably priced restaurant (not a tapas bar) where you pay a set fee per person and order whatever you like from an extensive menu. Sounds so obvious. Yet I only know of one in all London. There must be many more, but where are they?

I'm sure there are loads. After all, I don't expect a "pay-whatever-you-wish" place that relies on the generosity of customers. And as for "moral hazard" concerns, that establishments would be bankrupted by system abusers, that argument is garbage. It would apply even more to the thriving buffets where the big eaters can tuck in to their hearts' content. In other places like Red Corner there is much more control; each item is ordered and served individually, so the restaurant has far more ability to prevent abuse. It is a good business idea. It should be copied.

Beer, Music and Science

Loud music in bars encourages people to drink more, unless it drives them off. That's old news now, and we can attest from personal experience anyway.

The results, published online in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, show that the louder the music, the more swiftly the drinkers finished their beer, ordered more – or left.

But though I was not very impressed by that conclusion, I was very impressed by the research of Katherine Sanderson of Nature. She simply looked at some of the other publications of Nicolas Guéguen, Professor of Behavioural sciences at the Université de Bretagne-Sud who led the study. A few examples of his published research from his website:

1. Semantically induced love and helping behavior

2. The domestic dog as a facilitator in social interaction: An evaluation on helping and courtship behaviors.

3. The effects of women’s cosmetics on men’s courtship behavior.

4. The effect of a woman’s smile on men’s nonverbal behavior.

5. Women’s eye contact and men’s later interest: Two field experiments

Well done to Katherine for the spotting them, that is real research. And well done to Nicolas for getting away with it.

The Economics of Acting

Not the acts that candidates put on to feign corporate enthusiasm that I noted earlier, this is about the real thing.

It's almost a recession, it is getting harder for many people to find work in many industries. But my Dad keeps getting calls from his agent; why? Obviously he is a great actor, his legendary religious work proves that, but there may be broader economic reasons too. According to professional screenwriter John August:

Casting people are having a hard time finding actors of a certain age, especially minorities, for episodic parts. These are the "day players" — roles in which an actor might have a scene or two in a given episode, never to return.

Day players aren’t extras. There is actual acting required. Casting directors will bring in a few candidates to read for the part, and the producers/director will pick. A good day player can really elevate a scene. A bad day player is a disaster.

If you’re trying to cast a day player in their 20s (say, a car wash attendant), it’s easy. You’ve got thousands of people to choose from. Even if you need a specific characteristic — say, Russian-speaking — you’re going to have great candidates.

But according to the screenwriter, there is a huge shortage of older ethnic folks who can perform on cue. He suggests some reasons in the article, clearly being only a day player is unlikely to satisfy a lifetime's aspiration for the ambitious migrant, additionally perhaps the career choice of "actor" was not an acceptable one for many ethnic groups, perhaps some older first-generation immigrants simply cannot speak English clearly enough while those who are more eloquent and integrated and educated already feel financially secure.

My family is full of exceptions.

Free the slave

I asked a frivolous question in the last post; over at Marginal Revolution some serious economists have discussed broadly the same issue in a more serious way:

1. Risk Free No Longer - Government Bonds were generally considered the safest investment, but even they can be insured, and the premiums required to do so are rising sharply.

2. Spend More Today - that is the general suggestion to those who expect their salaries to rise, to those who have welfare guarantees, and to those who expect to die soon.

But I leave you with a comment from that article. Isn't real happiness freedom? And isn't freedom in a capitalist/consumerist system money?

The Choice of the Slave

Poor Cristiano Ronaldo. He may be a talented footballer but according to Sepp Blatter, head honcho of FIFA, he is a modern day slave. According to Pelé and many others, he is not.

Ronaldo has a reputation for being a bit flash with the cash, for not investing wisely. But the winger is reputed to earn about £120K per week. If he doesn't spend it or give it away, if he did want to keep it all secure while setting up the Cristiano Ronaldo Home for Retired Footballers, where would he put it?

He could put it into the bank, but maybe no bank is safe now. Even if the government stepped in to bail out the bank, it would only compensate about three days of work for him. So that's barely any use at all.

He could invest in property. But our friends Fanny and Freddy suggest that the property market could be set for a serious crash.

He could buy gold and diamonds. But they would need to be insured. And if banks collapse, then surely insurance companies would follow?

He could invest in the stock market. But that isn't doing very well either, and it's hardly a safe investment anyway.

So where should poor Ronaldo invest his earnings?

iconomics

Supply versus demand. Price correction versus rationing. Three current examples.

Firstly, crude oil. Those ostriches and optimists who think that the high price of oil is just a temporary blip caused by "speculation" in the futures market should face reality. Our lifestyles will change. For some of the economics, Paul Krugman.

Secondly, petrol. Not the long term year on year price increase caused by the point above, but the refusal to change prices in the face of temporary supply restriction. For an example of the madness, my post here.

Thirdly, the iPhone. In this case, scarcity is deliberate strategy. And I think a bad strategy. Apple could have managed this so much better. As usual, Seth Godin has some suggestions for how.

Becoming an Expert

In football, my club is the one I play for, not the one I "support". I try to have the same outlook in work, getting involved is better than not, creating is better than consuming. And in music?

As a manager, as a recruiter, you look for the rough diamonds, those in whom you see the potential to be experts in their field. Are they born or made? One view is that of Anders Ericsson:

Counter to the common belief that expert performance reflects innate abilities and capacities, recent research in different domains of expertise has shown that expert performance is predominantly mediated by acquired complex skills and physiological adaptations.

That's perfectly clear. So if I spend enough time practising on the guitar, I may become like Brian.

However the British Psychology Digest injected some reality today, quoting more recent research. More practice can only make you an expert if you have a basic level of musical aptitude to start with.

The New Society

I mentioned it back in the old world, but on those rare occasions when it reflected its tagline, The Real Hustle was great television. Patronising perhaps, but we all draw some pleasure from seeing the comeuppance of selfish idiots who thought they could make a quick killing.

Increasingly however, the programme does not trade on the greed but instead on the generosity and kind spirits of the supposed "victims". It suggests that everyone who asks for help should be treated as a crook, every id displayed to you should be treated as a fake id, everyone who stops you to ask for directions is just trying to pick your pocket. It may be true, but it is evil. It is the opposite of civilised society.

But like the greatest creation of Jim Steinman, there is hope in the box. On the internet, it pays to be generous. Provide more links out and more people will link in. I'm paraphrasing Neil Perkin here, but the more that you drive people away, the more you will draw people in. A great business model. As Tim Berners-Lee seems to be saying more and more, the web is not technology, it is people connected. It is society. Common Sense.

Monkish Ignorance and Superstition

The folks at the Language Log, in addition to some fairly technical discussion of innate linguistic tendencies, often highlight people who just get get it completely wrong about the "rules of grammar". So they usually identify fools. But yesterday they identified liars.

It is similar to the case I mentioned on 7th March where a sly salesman changed my quote. It was not just correction of spelling or grammar; although I hope you find no fault here, I actually care little for those. What piqued me was a change in implied meaning.

Yesterday was the same idea, but a far more serious example. Thomas Jefferson is a hero, the Declaration of Independence was just an expression of Common Sense. His entire life's work was an attempt to elevate science and reason over outdated ideas of hereditary privilege and superstition.

So George Bush quoted Thomas Jefferson in his Independence Day speech. Directly from the transcript on the White House website: "May it be to the world, what I believe it will be — to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all — the Signal of arousing men to burst the chains, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government."

An egregious lie. Completely missing from the middle of the quote above, after "to burst the chains" and before the comma were the crucial words: "under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves"

That's all that was omitted. You can see why George's speechwriter chose that omission.

From everything I have ever read of him, Thomas Jefferson wanted to build a new world free of organised religion, a state without church. Not only does George Bush seem to want to reverse that decision, he seems to want to rewrite history to do so.

Under Pressure - Money Matters

Different people react differently to pressure - some crack, some thrive. But research indicates that if things matter too much, then performance suffers. The undercover economist wrote an excellent article on this subject today.

The researchers offered simple challenges to impoverished villagers in India. If the incentive was an average day's income then the performance was significantly better than if the incentive was equivalent to six months of income. With such enormous life-changing amounts, the pressure was just too much. Even using rich professional footballers instead of poor Indian villagers as lab rats, the basic conclusion is the same.

That sounds obvious. But remember The Apprentice, where every other candidate seemed to say "I want this more than anyone", and I ridiculed the phrase, saying no serious businessman should be taken in by that bullshit. Well the research would seem to suggest that those who want it the most are those whose performance drops the most. So perhaps, in the really big crunch situations, other factors being equal, those who are already financially secure, or at least those who have the most outside opportunities, will perform significantly better than those for whom the result really matters.

The Gods In

Five recent quotes from the legendary Seth Godin:

1. The magic of low-hanging fruit

It's way more profitable to encourage each of your existing customers to spend $3 than it is to get a stranger to spend $300.

2. Only borrow money to pay for things that increase in value

It's a short list: your business, your house and your education, mostly. Stocks if you're smarter than me. That's pretty much it.

3. There is no such thing as price pressure

Your sales force and your customers may scream that you need to lower your price. It's not true. You need to increase your value. If people don't want to pay, it's because you're not delivering enough value for the money you're charging.

4. Silence is a virtue

If the best thing you can think of is a bad pun, random capitalization and a weak photo (salt and pepper included!) it's probably better to do nothing at all.

5. What if this were my last post?

Would this post be worthy?

Breaking the Rules

It's halfway through the year. It's one year into this blog. According to vjack:

Why do you blog? The more important traffic and readership growth are to you, the more I'd recommend a 1 post/day target.

How new is your blog? The newer it is, the more I'd recommend averaging 1 post/day.

And over the last year, I have written 1 post/day. It's one of the rules.

It was the last day in the office for a friend today, not through choice, what is a cost saving for the client is a loss of income for the contractor. He is on Facebook, but like many, fears the consequences of potential employers looking into it. My view on that is unchanged. Everything there is public, that's why it was posted. It's the same with this blog, and I think there is already enough here to show far more numeracy, literacy, organisation and originality than in most of the CVs that I see. Some of it may be controversial, but that just shows courage and lateral thinking ability. I hope.

So time to stop. No more daily posts. Well time to slow down anyway.

One Year Old Today

It's been a whole year since post one. Time to take stock. In the holistic tradition of this blog, almost like it's indexed, this should also pull the last few posts together.

So the blog is perhaps like a real-time roadmap of middle America in these times of high gas prices. Well laid out, straight lines and an organised structure. Very clear and easy to read. Plenty of open space. And hardly any traffic!

Room to breathe

Despite my respect for the originator of the quote, I don't buy the cliché that the UK and US speak very differently. There are probably far more differences between regional accents just within England than there are between English and Americans. At least in the business world, perhaps unfortunately, we sound very similar.

However across Europe, things sound very different. Yet they look broadly the same. Old buildings, little roads, people on the streets. But it's weird, people are talking incomprehensively. In America, you can understand the language perfectly, but the look of the place is completely different. Not because they have fundamentally different goals and aspirations from Europeans. But because they have more space.

The One to One map

I like maps. Wherever I go, I always like to get hold of a local map to see where things are in relation to each other, something that's not always easy to visualise when you're just looking round a strange country.

The scale used is obviously important, but some things on a map are not to scale - the width of roads on a national atlas is the obvious example. Even looking at local area ones, that same measure can be misleading. On a UK road atlas, you see a road marked as an A road and a newcomer might assume that it's a major route, multi-lane, high speed, free of traffic lights, etc. Then you actually travel on the road and realise it could be a road through London where average speed is 10 mph. In contrast, you could see a single thin line leading out from the thick green line of the US Interstate, then find yourself on another six lane dual carriageway ... driving up and down the highway looking for an exit ... you can see your destination, but just can't get to it. Sorry, I digress.

But an ideal scale would surely be one to one. When I was about seven years old, I remember reading of such a map in a fictional story, at that age I was probably reading Norman Hunter rather than Luis Borges; anyway the map could never be unwrapped because it would cover the entire country. So clearly an impossible dream.

However, today, combine GoogleMaps with SatNav, we're just about there.

Big Car Small Car

There are still a lot of big cars in America. A colleague in charge of certain North American automotive metrics today pointed me to a recent study from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business that proved the regularly quoted mpg figures are often misleading.

Simple numerical facts. As usual here, considering my own example instead of copying that from the study:

First car is a typical one, one that does 30 mpg. Could increase by 10 mpg to give 40 mpg.
Second vehicle is a large SUV. It does 15 mpg. Could increase by 10 mpg to give 25 mpg.

Where is the bigger benefit? Both increase by 10 mpg so benefit is the same, right? Wrong.

First increases mpg by 33%, second increases by 67%, so the second gives twice as much benefit, right? Wrong.

Say the SUV increases only by 33% like the first case, 15 up to 20 (corresponding to 30 up to 40). The benefit is the same, right? Wrong.

If the SUV increases only from 15 to 18 mpg, it still saves more fuel than increasing the car's mpg from 30 to 40. I've said it before: However far the journey.

The Europeans have been using litres per 100 km for years. It just makes more sense.

Traveblog

When you are on a trip, work or holiday, it is traditional to write an initial post saying that blog updates will be infrequent and unreliable for a while.

However, while you are on a trip, there is a regular stream of new and unusual experience - if everything were the same then there would be no point travelling - and this provides good (at least original) material for the blog.

But I'm not sure that I want this to become a travelogue. I suppose that's what Twitter and suchlike are for. While I ponder, this constitutes filler for the day.

Stereotypes

Live blogging. Spain versus Italy. Extra Time. Whenever a game is without a goal and there have not been many chances, the cliche is always the same, the sterotype is always the same: it's a chess match.

This game is not like that. The cliche is in the teams. Spain are pretty to watch, knockng it around with the ball fizzing across the turf. Slick one-touch passing. The beautiful game. Perfect football ... except for one thing, typically lightweight and always muscled off teh ball in challenges, and despite the bullish centre forward, toothless in attack.

Italy have embodied their cliche too. The dour, negative tactics. Their one creative midfielder (Pirlo) not playing. No width in midfield. Fullbacks who stay back. Catenaccio. The dying swan impresson after the slightest challenge. The "injured" player even crawled back onto the pitch to waste more time. World cup finalists apparently playing for penalties from the kickoff.

Fabregas is stepping up for the final penalty ... justice!

(links later - the fastest post on the web)

Basic Stuff

Chemistry again. Not the Girls Aloud album, not the science of predicting human attraction, neither my ABCD of the blogosphere. Just real simple high school chemistry.

To keep your drains are fresh and clear, the advertisements suggest bleach. If that doesn't work, before calling the professional drainbusters, the last throw for the consumer chemical solution is a caustic solution called one shot.

Bleach is sodium hypochlorite. One shot is concentrated sulphuric acid.

Bang.

Objects in the rear view mirror

may appear closer than they are.

So wrote the musical genius, the songwriting legend, the greatest theatrical composer of the twentieth century, Mr Jim Steinman. That description was perhaps a little over the top, but it does reflect my opinion, he's been an idol of mine for decades. And as he himself has often stated, if you don't go over the top, you can't see what's on the other side. He's more known for intense symphonic power epics than for catchy melodies, but some people just can't stop humming those tunes now. Superb.

Actually, in terms of the science, it's surely wrong. In order to get the maximum range of vision, any curved rear view mirror is usually convex. So objects in the rear view mirror may be closer than they appear. The opposite of the title. Have a look, that's what the text on your mirror probably says.

But of course the reverend Steinman was not talking about real mirrors.

If life is just a highway, then the soul is just a car.

Work, Love, Suffering

There is not much else really.

Enjoying Your Work

After a long day trying to clear the paperwork and a long evening trying to clear the drains, I read this article on the BBC site. It veers from banal observations to fairly random quotes, but there were also a whole load of good lines. A top five, slightly paraphrased:

1. As noted by the Austrian psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, there are three paths to meaning - work, love and suffering.

2. Meaning is a bit like happiness - the more you go out looking for it the less you find.

3. However menial your daily tasks, do them well. According to Richard Sennett's new book, The Craftsman, this ability to master a skill and then practice it well satisfies a basic human need.

4. Managing is one of the most thankless jobs in the world. What managers are mainly trying to do is to get other people to do things that they don't want to.

5. Petty bureaucracy is what destroys pleasure at work. The meetings, the second guessing, the pointless duplication, the politics, we all moan. Just let us do the damned job.

Fuely Truckers

Sorry for the spoonerism. But clearly I don't go with the flow here.

As the tanker strike wound on yesterday, the enterprising owner of a fuel station changed forecourt price to align demand with the change in supply. It was exactly the same procedure that he had been doing for the other 364 days of the year. Exactly the same procedure that every other fuel station manager also does all the time. Exactly what every businessman needs to do to survive.

But fuel price watchdog petrolprices.com put out the nonsensical statement: "Putting the price up so much at a time when drivers in the South West are being hit worst by strikes is inexcusable."

The tabloids deliberately stoked up the hysteria, then did everything possible to prevent sensible mitigation of its consequences.

The undercover economist got it right. The nation got it wrong.

Undiversification

Prosody. That's the word I was looking for. Back when I referred to the "unique sound of a language". Back when I said that I prefer my name to be pronounced differently depending upon the language being used at the time.

Mark Liberman attempts to quantify it at the oft-quoted Language Log, which is also the place to go if you want to debunk crazy theories that English needs to replicate the rules of Latin grammar.

According to Not the Nine o Clock News, the hardest words to say in English are Kinda Lingers. I suggest that a cunning linguist could do better.

What's in a name

Watching Euro2008, we constantly get to hear the commentators mis-pronouncing foreign names. The ITV commentator who constantly refers to "Nicola Anelka" (sic) is simply an idiot. But that's an easy target. More controversially, I suggest that we sometimes go too far trying to get the right native pronunciation, sometimes it's ok to Anglicise...

My name is Rana, I am writing in English, but I have a different name in Bengali. My name in Bengali is Rana.

I have neither the knowledge nor the keyboard to accurately write out all the different phonemes involved, but in some respects English is a very limited language. Only twenty-six letters, though other sounds can be created through combinations of those letters. I actually like the limited set used here, it gives extra scope for pun and games. Bengali has over forty letters including more than one that approximates to n. The first is like the English one. The second is a bit different, and it is not the same as the Spanish ñ either. My name uses the second one. More significantly, within my Bengali name, the stress is not so strongly on the first syllable.

But, and this is the message here, if you are talking in English then keep your pronunciation in English. Don't try to completely copy the native phrasing. I've said it before. It just sounds odd.

Euro 2008

The Czech was trying to remove the Austrian's shirt, the Italian was giving the Romanian a loving arm around his neck, the Frenchman was just trying to hold the Dutchman as close as possible. It was meant to be football.

But this isn't the place to read detailed match reports from the Euro2008 football championship. What looks like an update here will probably be a dubious analogy to a current television show, or a reflection on some incident at work.

Apart from the obvious official news and sport sites, the place to go for daily game updates is http://cupidpas2008.blogspot.com

It's great. Unlike the form that my team is showing there.

Talk Like An Apprentice

Top five examples of meaningless babbling bullshit that demonstrate absolutely nothing without a proper explanation:

1. "I'm a straight talker, I don't bullshit, I don't backstab". They all say that at the beginning. Does anybody ever say otherwise?

2. "I'm a winner". That's why you're sitting in the losing team about to get fired.

3. "I always give one hundred and ten per cent". Yes, everyone else goes around saying "I always give ninety per cent"

4. "After all I've been through, I really deserve it". Why? Oh you've had a hard life. Compared to a third world refugee?

5. "Please, I want this more than anyone". That never gets the ridicule it deserves. After four series, we finally heard Claire questioned when she repeated it in the final, but Lee used almost exactly the same words a few seconds later.

Leave it out. It impresses nobody. Except Sir Alan Sugar.

The Group of Death

Choice of TV viewing today, Euro 2008 continues, and it's the final of The Apprentice.

But let's stick to football. A major football tournament can never be complete without the early establishment of a Group of Death ... This time round the reaper is pointing his bony finger in the general direction of Italy, Netherlands, France and Romania.

1. Italy: An undoubted history of success, the most consistent top achiever. But somehow has also acquired a bit of a reputation for sneaky underhand tactics.

2. Holland: The most flat, but probably my personal favourite of the four. However according to the classic quote "too orange to be taken seriously"

3. France: Another powerful and consistent contender. Has a loud and strong global presence despite a comparatively weak local league.

4. Romania: Quietly efficient. The least prominent and least recognisable of the four, but still qualified well ahead of the finals.

Incidentally, if we are to imagine an Apprentice equivalent of Group of Death, four top rated contenders, what if they brought back the two top females from last year to go with the two top females from this year?

More Time Management

Not your time, other people's …

Despite the implicit oxymoron in the phrase, there is very little that a direct manager can do to directly manage, at least in terms of positive feedback. Of course in the longer term there is pay and bonus and opportunity for advancement, but within typical large corporations those are often more directly influenced by much higher levels of management, by personnel departments, by collective bargaining agreements and by other external influences. And there are softer factors; recognition and praise and general mentoring and guidance and leadership. But in terms of specific positive incentives, there is little that can be done during day-to-day operations.

However, in order to meet the flexible requirements of the flexible workplace, the least that a manager should do is show more flexibility. However junior her staff, she should allow them headroom and discretion. For example in a typical operation with an eight hour workday, there is no way that every day has exactly eight hours of work within it. There are some days when it is essential to do more than eight to meet immediate business deadlines. The obvious corollary is that there are times when it does not affect the business if particular staff work for less than eight.

Despite that, I'm not a believer in the old cliché of "she gets the job done, hours don't matter at all". That's wrong. Time counts too. Nobody can foresee and estimate everything required by "the job" in advance, so there is sometimes a requirement to just "be there". Contingency. Bums on seats. So the total should add up to (at least) those contracted. However a manager must be able to move hours, even if she is not permitted to create hours. It is impossible to manage normal business fluctuations without this discretion.

Sweet Charity

I'm not sure about this one. It may offend.

You get a charity request where the requestor is doing something difficult or dangerous in return for a donation. Should that make you more likely to contribute than just shaking a collection tin? I'd say yes, the arduous task shows genuine commitment to the cause, it is an indicator that the cause is genuinely a worthy one.

But, and this is the slightly troublesome bit, a lot of people actually pay their own money to perform directly comparable tasks, whether running in marathons or scaling new heights. So if you know that the requestor is using the donation to facilitate what is basically their hobby anyway, should you be wary?

On balance I'd say it doesn't matter. Even if the first x of the collection goes to fund the event and everything above that goes to the charity, then it's still worthwhile. That's obviously the case if x is only a small fixed sum but it's still the case even if x is a significant percentage; because it still leaves a contribution to charity which would not otherwise be raised, the requestor's task is only a side effect to the primary cause.

However let's go one step too far. Maybe that side effect is not a hidden cost but actually a hidden benefit. We don't actually care for most of the charities that solicit donation. But we do tend to care for the people who are requesting the donation. Perhaps we are simply more willing to help pay for a friend's adventure than for an anonymous sufferer's cure?

Medium Rare

That last note was not a particular endorsement of the V+ personal video recorder, it was a response to the Sky+ advertising hype that specifically uses celebrity endorsement of a product to imply that there is nothing better.

Under the terms of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Act 2008, I should point out that I have never worked for Virgin Media and have no commercial arrangement with them. Neither with Sky. But we got one set up for my parents, and the other for the in-laws. But now that they time-shift their viewing, I can no longer use my psychic powers to predict what time they will call us at home.

Incidentally the professional psychics failed to predict some consequences of the same legislation - apparently honest spiritualists could be targeted - there's a joke there somewhere.

Time Shift Television

David Gower, Ross Kemp, Felicity Kendall, Michael Parkinson. Icons of English society.

They say: "Get Sky Plus and you can't imagine TV without it". I certainly can. TV is a lot better without it. Of course I can't imagine TV without a PVR, but there are far better ones.

"Its [Sky+] success is built on word of mouth, so it seems natural to tap into that strong sense of advocacy in our advertising," said Brian Sullivan, the managing director of Sky's customer group.

It is to old TV what Windows 3.1 is to DOS. But we've moved from Windows 3.1. For those with cable, the V+ box has more storage, can record two while watching a third, allows you to keep watching and listening while setting up schedules, the user interface is simply much better. But it does not have the same marketing.

The Hills Are Alive ...

... with the sound of football.

Thanks to the majesty of the IPL, there has been a lot about cricket recently. Tomorrow attention switches to football, as the European Championships commence, with Switzerland and Austria co-hosting, and every game broadcast live in England.

But England are not playing. In many ways this is a good thing. It forced a change of management, and hopefully a more professional approach that will be less pressured by the whims of a few star players.

And, more importantly, it means that we can enjoy the football. We can enjoy the game without the blinkered jingoism of many commentators. And without the agony of partisan support. May the best team win.

Though I hope it's Holland.

Future Planning

Paul Krugman is a columnist for the New York Times, and he looked back today. Back in 1996, for the centenary of the NYT magazine, he was asked to write an article imagining that he was in 2096 looking back on the world of one hundred years ago.

He had just five main points. Quoting directly:

1. Soaring Resource Prices
The first half of the 1990's was an era of extraordinarily low prices for raw materials. In retrospect, it is hard to see why anyone thought that situation would last.

2. The Environment as Property
in a world where billions of people can afford cars, vacations and food in plastic packages, the limited carrying capacity of the environment had become perhaps the single most important constraint on the standard of living.

3. The Rebirth of the Big City
...urban density favored personal interaction, which turned out to be essential.

4. The Devaluation of Higher Education
These days, jobs that require only 6 or 12 months of vocational training -- paranursing, carpentry, household maintenance and so on -- pay nearly as much as if not more than a job that requires a master's degree, and pay more than one requiring a Ph.D.

5. The Celebrity Economy
The fans attend these concerts not to appreciate the music (they can do that far better at home), but for the experience of seeing their idols in person. In short, instead of becoming a knowledge economy we became a celebrity economy.

Excellent. The big issue is that there are limited natural resources. The last point is a consequence of information becoming free. Remember he wrote all that back in 1996 imagining the vastly different world of 2096. The future is coming a lot faster than we think.

Liars

A reprise. But it's so relevant again.

Sir Alan Sugar, star of The Apprentice, used to start each show with the line "I don't like liars, I don't like schmoozers, I don't like bullsh**ers".

The four candidates left after yesterday's semi-final prove that actually he does. All four embody those qualities, as do many of those who were fired, they were positively praised after spouting the same ego-babble in their interviews.

But I fully admit, those three qualities should really help you to be a good salesman of tat, maybe that's what Sir Alan is actually looking for, though I suggest that other qualities are more important to be a good manager of people.

Short Note Long Note

As noted in my ten rules of blogging, I try to maintain a strict daily word limit here. So it's easier for you. It's harder for me.

I saw a presentation today that used the classic quote from Mark Twain, paraphrasing from memory: "I don't have time to write a short letter so I'll write a long letter". But he did not really say those words. It sounds the sort of thing he would say, so people believe it and propagate it. So here are five real quotes:

1. No church, no nobility, no royalty or other fraud, can face ridicule in a fair field and live.

2. The Church has opposed every innovation and discovery from the day of Galileo down to our own time, when the use of anesthetic in childbirth was regarded as a sin because it avoided the biblical curse pronounced against Eve.

3. And every step in astronomy and geology ever taken has been opposed by bigotry and superstition.

4. Civilization largely consists in hiding human nature. When the barbarian learns to hide it we account him enlightened.

5. Supposing is good, but finding out is better (I'll add in the links/references tomorrow:)

Premier League Entertainment

Top five reasons why the Indian Premier League could be considered better than the English Premier League.

1. Developing local talent. The number of foreign players allowed in each IPL team has been capped at four. Equally there is a requirement that young local players must be included in the squad. European Free Trade laws, designed to maximise business profits, have been leveraged to prevent that here (despite FIFA suggestions).

2. Tension. The English Premier League was decided on the last day. Great. But as soon as Ryan Giggs scored ManU's second goal about twenty minutes from the end, then the result was more or less sure. The IPL season went down to the very last second, the last ball of the last over of the last match.

3. Interesting Team Names. Why append the name of the city with the word "united" when the club is one of the most divisive elements in that city. Call it after a brand of cigarette. Or after a very special car.

4. Drugs. The captain of the English Premier League winners missed his drug test because he was shopping. Pathetic. The captain of the Indian Premier League winners definitely took his drug test, and he even slimmed down specially for it.

5. Cheerleaders. That's all.

Man goes bananas

Talking of fruit, the two best in the world …

There were once many kinds of bananas prevalent across the world. Today virtually all of those sold in the Western world are not just the same species but often the same individual. Almost all banana trees in commercial plantations are clones of one another, identical twins multiplied by millions, propagated by cuttings. This gives great consistency in size, texture and flavour for the supermarkets. It also means that they are identically susceptible to the same infections - if a virus can kill one, it can easily kill them all. Read Johann Hari for a history of the banana industry, how the CIA aided American multinationals in the suppression of nonconformist elements to construct banana hegemony.

The second instance where supermarket insistence on consistent shape, year round availability and resistance to blemish have bastardised the product is the case of the mango. Those big bland brazilian blobs we see in Sainsbury's are nothing like the delicate delectation of the traditional Indian fruit. The Guardian food supplement yesterday had a similar lament, though it did refer to horrible terms like "pulping" and "smoothies" - yuck, it's a fruit not a drink.

(sic note - yes I know that bananas don't really grow on trees, but neither does money)

Five Portions Per Day

I'm broadly healthy. I've never been a member of a gym, but I play football twice a week and a racket sport once a week. I rarely eat out so I tend to eat home cooked food or white bread sandwiches. I eat fruit almost every day too. But I'm naturally sceptical.

So I have never believed this five-a-day nonsense. I've done a little research, and I still can't find the very first recommendation for it. Let me know if you can point me there. Yet people, apparaently rational sensible people, swear by this rule.

In the absence of a confirmed original reference, I suggest a theory. I suggest that some well meaning government advisor decided that a simple "eat more fruit and veg" message would not work for the mindless sheep who need explicit holy instructions to guide their aimless lives. So he or she decided that five a day was the clear message. But amazingly, some fools took it literally, and the virus spread. Now it is "truth". A normal balanced diet, like an evolved world, is just too complicated for some people to understand. If they've been pigging out on burgers all day then five portions of fruit juice in the evening will "balance" it.

Except from libertarian slobs trying to justify their unhealthy lifestyles, we rarely see articles criticising this five-a-day rule. Yesterday the Guardian finally did. But it still doesn't come close to the derision I feel for those who treat the rule like religion.

Background Graphics

I work with spreadsheets every day. I create them, edit them, review them. I consider some of them to be works of art. In yesterday's mail I received one with a background logo across the page that made it difficult to read the numbers. My short note back was not complimentary about that feature:

Like most background graphics, it adds to storage space and retrieval time, at the same time as hindering the clear viewing of the data. Bad on top of bad.

And don't give me the "oh it looks pretty" argument, save that for birds and flowers, not for spreadsheets.

( Though a good spreadsheet should look pretty, because of the elegance and clarity of the data there :)

Of course design and white space are important too. My reply was not entirely serious, but I stand by every word there. The official RNB guiding principles of spreadsheet design to follow shortly.

Honk if you support us

Obviously I touched a nerve with the last note. It was intended. In survey after survey, the vast majority of people always respond positively when asked "would you prefer lower fuel taxes?". But it's a really stupid question if phrased that way, without presenting an alternative, like compensating higher taxes elsewhere.

And I've said before that the notes here consciously try not to reflect popular opinion anyway. They should make you think different, if only for a moment.

The reason that truckers block roads is because they find it easy to block roads. A different economic change could cause disproportionate hurt to equal numbers of office cleaners, care assistants, supply teachers, airline pilots, organic farmers, whatever, but they can't all disrupt the whole country so easily. And they don't find it so easy to hoodwink the public with nonsensical survey questions.

And even when a road is not completely blocked, the go-slow or lane restriction always causes jams. Drivers slow down to avoid or gawk. No you prat, I'm not honking because I support your selfish bullying tactics, I'm honking because I want you to get out of the bloody way.

I'm reminded of a joke, this one.

Truck Off

To all those who support the fuel protests.

The UK government has a "windfall" of perhaps a billion pounds because of the rapid price in the price of oil, partly through increased sale price of North Sea crude and partly through increased tax revenues on processed petrol and diesel.

We have two ways to distribute the money:

1a. Use the extra tax revenue to appease a bunch of loud-mouthed fat bullies who use their tankers to block up the roads and cause disruption to millions
1b. The majority of the benefits go to those who use the most fuel. Hummer owners benefit more than hybrid owners.

2a. Use the extra tax revenue to raise the minimum tax threshold
2b. The majority of the benefits go to the poorest members of society, those who can least afford extra fuel costs.

There are a lot of selfish bastards in this country.

Diversity Cold Play

I like diversity. That is not management consulting political correctness, it is a statement of fact about my feelings for humanity. And of course, life reflects cricket and cricket reflects life.

Obviously I cannot help but support my home team, and my unfortunate affection for the mighty Kolkata has been noted elsewhere. But aside from the Knight Riders, my favourite players tend to be those who are the most diverse. As a supporter I want to see the best bowlers, batters and fielders, I don't want every team full of bits-and-pieces allrounders. And I am not alone.

Why is Monty Panesar cheered so loudly whenever he strokes a boundary or takes a catch, even more so than when he takes a wicket? It is not just for his childish enthusiasm, nor for his skin colour. It is because he is so inept at batting and fielding.

There is an old common term used in cricket for the worst batsmen, they are called bunnies, presumably after the stereotype image of the rabbit caught in the headlights. The New Zealand number eleven is a ferret, he goes in after the rabbits.

Phil Tufnell. Courtney Walsh. Devon Malcolm. Chris Martin. We salute you.

MyPod

Last week I finally got an iPod. It's only a low end model, acquired second-hand - basically it's a test to see if I am going to properly buy into the Apple ethos.

Initial impression - I completely agree that it is sleek and elegant and completely intuitive to use. But something about it is wrong. It's too closed. It's Steve Jobs' vision of the world, not mine.

For example ideally any new media player, if connected up to my computer, would immediately show as a set of directories from which I could copy or move files either way. But I have no choice but to download and use iTunes too. I've already got WinAmp and VLC here to run my videos, in addition to Microsoft's own players. Do I really want another one?

As Marc Nohr notes in Marketing Direct:

The shining vision of one man and his coterie of trusted advisers drives everything - and the space for individual expression outside of that clique is minimal, whether you're an employee or a customer.

The author of the article contrasts the Apple approach with "co-creation", where producers and consumers work together, the obvious example being open source software, but it is also applicable in marketing. Because we should all know that customer-centricity, interactivity and dialogue lie at the heart of DM.

Blogging - It's good for you

Scientific American offers reasons to keep going ...

Scientists (and writers) have long known about the therapeutic benefits of writing about personal experiences, thoughts and feelings. But besides serving as a stress-coping mechanism, expressive writing produces many physiological benefits. Research shows that it improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients, and even speeds healing after surgery.

So far so good ...

The frontal and temporal lobes, which govern speech—no dedicated writing center is hardwired in the brain—may also figure in. For example, lesions in Wernicke’s area, located in the left temporal lobe, result in excessive speech and loss of language comprehension. People with Wernicke’s aphasia speak in gibberish and often write constantly. In light of these traits, Flaherty speculates that some activity in this area could foster the urge to blog.

Gibberish?

Circular Reasoning

According to the digital cuttlefish, Friday is limerick day, but don't worry, there's no attempt here.

At times the sentiments on this site are liberal, at times they are conservative, at times they are green, at times they are libertarian, and I don't mind being labelled as any of them - so long as you stick with lower case. However what is more appropriate as a description of the common opinion here is sceptical - of management directives, of psychics, of faith healers, of religion, of popular opinion, of marketing hype. Plus I occasionally delight in adding a little filth (or at least dodgy innuendo) to proceedings.

So in that roundabout way, I suggest that today is the day to visit the Skeptic's Circle.

Winning and Losing

Two bits of good news for many in my extended family yesterday.

1. A victory for sense and science and money over mindless tradition and superstition.

2. A victory for mindless tradition and superstition over sense and science and money.

Two bits of related news for many in my extended family yesterday.

1. It has started raining heavily in northern India, so the last game of the Kolkata Knight Riders was washed out

2. It has started raining heavily in northern India, so fears of drought recede and the temperatures are starting to cool down

Small losses, big victories - but it's hard to see that when your team gets knocked out after so much effort.

Kick off

At last. ITV tonight. It's the big event. Teams from across Europe have been working solidly and focused towards this one day for nearly a year. It's cost a lot of money, but it should generate even more. A group of diverse talent talent from around the world was assembled here in England for this goal, though foreign money (particularly Russian) has been a big influence too. Today it finally comes together and we see the result of all that effort. It will be broadcast to millions watching across Europe. Only a select few made it to the actual party, though plenty will be celebrating afterwards. But some will watch and think, if only...