Daring Move

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Daring Move

Wal-Mart is marching on its own in its decision to support employer-paid health care. It is a daring move that has upset peers in retail and in most of industry for that matter. But, the company is so large it can take a contrarian position and make it stick. Why Wal-Mart has decided to break ranks is not entirely clear, but it obviously has good reasons for doing so. Economically, with its huge employee population, the company will be able to negotiate better deals for health insurance than smaller competitors.

From a PR perspective, the company's position is forward thinking and guaranteed to put it in a better light. Even if in the end employers don't have to provide health insurance, Wal-Mart will have gained a reputation for concern for employees. This is a huge change from a few years ago when the company was accused of exploiting its workers.

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FW: TED's Facebook fans asked Gever Tulley absolutely anything -- and he answered

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TED's Facebook fans asked Gever Tulley absolutely anything -- and he answered

Today, Gever Tulley, founder of the Tinkering School and the man behind today's TEDTalk, agreed to answer any question that our TED Facebook fans proposed. Here are his answers, accompanied by a personal note:




I thank you all for your excellent and thought-provoking questions. Since Tinkering School is itself being tinkered with, it is always interesting to share ideas and see what people think. I tried to answer as if you were sitting at the kitchen table with me now, except that I am able to ramble on unchecked.


I hope that you will all follow along on the blog as we update nightly during Tinkering School starting on July 12th.


As a father myself, I find that parents are overly cautious with their children. How do you respond to critics who claim that children can't handle power tools which will in turn lead to death/dismemberment/lawsuits? -- Nick Wilson


Firstly, I try never to think of the person asking this question as a "critic". I recognize that I am more comfortable with the notion of children being capable than most modern parents, but there is a valid concern at the heart of the emotionally charged issue of putting potentially life-threatening tools in kids hands. I put it in the context of all of the dangerous activities we participate in as toddlers -- like toddling (or is that toddlering?). There is no question that a child can seriously injure themselves by falling flat on their face, but we learn, through a series of very minor bumps and knocks (some worthy of yelling about, some we don't even notice), to put our hands out and catch ourselves before our noses meet the floor.


In their wonderful book The Body Has a Mind of It's Own Sandra and Matthew Blakeslee describe some of the amazing science behind how, when we pick up a stick or a tool, our minds extend our sense of "self" out to the end of that stick. We can "touch" things with the stick and get a very accurate "feel" for the object we are "touching". So, it stands to reason that a power tool is just a very dangerous stick and we can learn feel through it as well -- we just need the safe context in which to learn how to mitigate the risks the power tool presents. These risks are both real and imagined in many cases and part of the learning process includes dispelling the imaginary risks by developing skill through practice.


It is often easier to teach the child to use th...

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O.K. Condoms : Truck [Image]

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O.K. Condoms : Truck [Image]

O.K. Condoms : Truck [Image]
Don't say, "It won't happen to me"
Advertising Agency: RPM Radar, Istanbul, Turkey
Creative Director: Robert Paul McMillen
Art Director: Emrah Meshur
Copywriter: Derya Banista
Photographer: Emrah Meshur
Published: May 2009

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So Long and Thanks for All the F-Tests

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So Long and Thanks for All the F-Tests

I've been reading a truly excellent book by Joshua Angrist and Jorn-Steffen Pischke called Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion. It's not written for a general audience, but if you pulled an A- or better on a college-level econometrics course (and if you love Freakonomics), then this is the book for you. It should be required reading for anyone who is trying to write an applied dissertation. It is the rare book that captures the feeling of how to go about trying to attack an empirical questio; and it does this by working through two or three dozen of the neatest empirical papers of the last decade (often coauthored by Angrist). It is also peppered with references to Douglas Adams's writing -- so what's not to like?

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Local as Differentiator

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Local as Differentiator

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Several years ago, Hilary Brown decided to open a burger joint in Lawrence, KS. She readily admits that folks around town questioned whether the world, or for that matter Lawrence, needed another place to get a hamburger. After all, this is a college and fast food is plentiful.

Brown tells that to her doubters she enthusiastically replied, "what I'm creating is the next generation of burger joints." Local Burger, as her restaurant is called, takes into consideration where food comes from as well as the environment, unnatural additives, and sustainable agriculture. All of the creative dishes served at Local Burger are prepared from foods grown or raised no more than 200 miles away (some less than 5). In addition, most products are organic and gluten free, including local wine and beer.

The restaurant is billed as The World's Most Local Burger and the menu even features a chart displaying products purchased from local farmers and suppliers and the distance to each. It also happens to be one of the few places around where you can get elk, buffalo, pork, turkey and tofu burgers.

Using local as a way to differentiate an otherwise commodity type business and then backing it up with every brand element and process is a powerful way to fight chains and the need to compete solely on price. Brown's strategy and business model have landed her on the pages of Gourmet, Bon Appétit, Outside and on the Sundance Channel. You can follow Local Burger on twitter.

In our current economic environment, local has a nice feel to it as well.

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La convivencia y sus peligros

La convivencia y sus peligros

 

La oí gritar y comprobé que durante un par de semanas llevaba gafas oscuras para que no se le notaran los moretones. Su esposo es militante del Partido y en el barrio nadie le recrimina sus excesos de testosterona. Ambos forman parte de un cuadro de violencia doméstica que se silencia en los medios y se enraíza en la cotidianidad. Las víctimas, como ella, se sienten doblemente maltratadas. A la bofetada y al grito se le suma el silencio de quienes no quieren aceptar –o al menos hacer público– que tras las puertas de los hogares cubanos no siempre reina la armonía y el respeto.

La obligada convivencia, a causa del déficit inmobiliario, hace que muchas mujeres y niños sean objeto de humillaciones y golpizas. No podemos escuchar sus testimonios ya que –institucionalmente– apenas se reconoce que en esta "isla idílica" las palizas hogareñas  son frecuentes. Al no divulgarse las estadísticas que demuestran su incidencia, se hace difícil conmover a la opinión pública nacional y llevarla a rechazar estos ataques.

Cómo hacerle saber a una mujer que huye de su casa para no enfrentar los puños del marido dónde hay un refugio para pasar la noche, si no a través de los medios informativos.  De qué forma conocerá  ella sus derechos de llevar al atacante ante los tribunales si la tele y la prensa no hablan del asunto. Cómo crear repudio social hacia los abusadores cuando apenas podemos conocer que existen las víctimas. Las vemos aguantar, esconder bajo el colorete las trompadas y mirarnos, a ver si nos damos cuenta de lo que las instituciones y los medios parecen no notar.

Generación Y 8/7/08 12:42 AM Yoani Sanchez Generación Y Comments

How to Learn-a-Palooza

How to Learn-a-Palooza

This past May in Washington, D.C., people came together in the neighborhoods of Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle to teach each other everything they know.  Literally. 

Learn-a-Palooza is a one-day event in which temporary classrooms are set up across Washington D.C., and regular people share their knowledge and skills with their neighbors for free.  This is the second year for the knowledge bonanza, intended to bring communities together, and workshop topics ranged from everything from "Personal Finance for Young People," to "How to Be a Brazen Burlesque Dancer."

For this Idealist Community Podcast, Julia Smith attended Learn-a-Palooza, and brought her voice recorder along with her, interviewing both workshop leaders and participants.  Julia shares her experiences and insight, and lets us listen in on some of the workshops.  Join us for an episode of community-building, information-gathering, knowledge-sharing, and a lot of plain old fun!

Click here to download. (0:14:16)

Click here for the complete transcript.

Click here for more information on Learn-a-Palooza 

The Idealist.org Podcasts 7/31/08 12:54 PM Idealist Community

Thinking Allowed:

TA: Chinese students 30 Jun 08

On Thinking Allowed this week, Laurie Taylor explores the relationship between male clients and female sex workers and looks at how that relationship evolves over time with sociologist Teela Sanders. And Professors Hugo de Burgh and Greg Philo discuss the experiences of Chinese students studying in the UK.

Thinking Allowed 7/30/08 1:00 PM

Dog Meat ‘Debate’ Heats Up?

Dog Meat 'Debate' Heats Up?

Seoul City is conducting sanitation inspections of dog meat restaurants, leading to fears in some circles that the inspections represent a first step in the eventual legalization of dog meat.

Of course, long-time readers of this blog know my position on the matter — you can have my bowl of dog meat soup when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.

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The Marmot's Hole 7/17/08 9:40 PM Robert Koehler Korean Culture South Korea Comments

Algo para evadirse

Algo para evadirse

Soporta la doble jornada, una como secretaria y la otra como madre y ama de casa, gracias a unas pastillas de diazepán que esconde en su cartera. Ningún médico se la ha recetado, pero ella misma encontró el camino hacia la paz probando varios fármacos. Sólo bajo el efecto producido por una dosis -cada vez más alta- de la pequeña píldora, sobrelleva las reuniones del Partido, las colas para la comida y las exigencias alimentarias de su familia.

Comenzó por comprárs....

Generación Y 7/15/08 2:11 AM Yoani Sanchez Generación Y Comments

The Price Of Life

The Price Of Life

The EPA recently reduced the value of a statistical life by 11%. Your life is now only worth $6.9M to that government agency. This number is used in cost/benefit analysis to determine how many lives would need to be saved in order to justify the cost of a regulation. So now, with the lower value, more people would need to be at risk of death in order for a change be deemed cost-effective.

What I find disturbing is the method used to calculate it:

The EPA figure is not based on people's earning capacity, or their potential contributions to society, or how much they are loved and needed by their friends and family -- some of the factors used in insurance claims and wrongful-death lawsuits.

Instead, economists calculate the value based on what people are willing to pay to avoid certain risks, and on how much extra employers pay their workers to take on additional risks. Most of the data is drawn from payroll statistics; some comes from opinion surveys.

So basically the Bush administration's anti-regulation folks are being rewarded for having made the economy go down the shitter, right? People are so desperate for jobs that they're willing to do even risky ones at low wages and, because of that, the companies providing the risky jobs at low wages get to avoid regulations?

Unfogged 7/14/08 8:11 AM Becks

Understanding the Yugen Element In the Beauty of Japanese Arts & Crafts

Understanding the Yugen Element In the Beauty of Japanese Arts & Crafts

When Westerners first began to visit Japan in the mid-1500s they were struck by the refined beauty and quality of the country's arts and crafts. It was a kind of beauty and quality that they had never seen before.

This special quality of Japanese things was so commonplace that the Japanese themselves did not consider it unusual. Everything they made, including simple household utensils, had the same quality.

Quoting from my book The Elements of Japanese Design:

Yugen beauty referred to a type of attractiveness ­ beneath the surface of the material but in delicate harmony with it ­ that registers on the conscious as well as the subconscious of the viewer. It radiates a kind of spiritual essence.

For a definitive look at the Japanese view and creation of yugen beauty, see Elements of Japanese Design - Key Terms for Understanding & Using Japan's Classic Wabi-Sabi-Shibui Concepts.

Japundit 7/10/08 11:00 AM Boye Lafayette De Mente Art Beauty Books Japan Japanese History Only In Japan Comments

Periodismo o literatura

Periodismo o literatura

A propósito del Congreso de la UPEC

Al terminar el preuniversitario tenía el capricho de ser periodista. Entre tres amigas contratamos una profesora particular que nos repasaba para las pruebas de ingreso a la universidad. Aquella mujer insistía –hasta llegar a molestarme- que nunca iba a lograr ser una buena reportera, sino que todo en mí apuntaba a otra profesión: la filología. Su maldición se cumplió pues terminé metiéndome con las palabras, la fonética y los conceptos literarios, en lugar de correr tras las noticias.

No sólo la profecía de esta Tiresias habanera me alejó de la labor informativa, sino la convicción de que en una sociedad marcada por la censura, por el oportunismo y la doble moral, ser periodista era el origen de mil y una frustraciones. Había conocido a Reinaldo, expulsado de Juventud Rebelde porque "su línea de pensamiento no se ajustaba con la del periódico" y ver sus deseos de escribir, malgastándose en una dura jornada como mecánico de ascensor, fue el puntillazo final a mis sueños adolescentes.

La Glasnost había pasado y en Cuba un sabor a oportunidad perdida se extendía entre los reporteros y sus frustrados lectores. La tele nos repetía que las producciones aumentaban, que el país resistiría y que el "invencible líder" nos llevaría a la victoria, mientras nuestras vidas desmentían cada frase triunfalista y cada cifra engordada. Una y otra vez respiré aliviada de no haberme hecho periodista.  Creí sentirme a salvo en el mundo de la metáfora.

Sin embargo, no estaban tan alejadas ambas profesiones, ya que una buena parte del periodismo que se hace en los medios oficiales cubanos tiene mucho de literatura. Pues sí, tratando de escaparme hacia la ficción, lo novelesco y lo teatral, encontré que de eso mismo estaban llenos los telediarios cubanos: de personajes que nadie se cree, de historias futuristas que nunca llegan a materializarse y de rostros sonrientes seleccionados entre miles de caras angustiadas.

Con su vaticinio, aquella profesora ilegal quería advertirme de algo que descubrí por mí misma años después: que entre la ficción de nuestra prensa y la de nuestros novelistas, la segunda me iba a proveer de más certezas.

Generación Y 7/9/08 12:33 AM Yoani Sanchez Generación Y Comments

Can't telecommute? Watch this!

Can't telecommute? Watch this!

(VIDEO: Click to watch msnbc.com's interview with author Tim Ferriss)

With gas prices soaring and seemingly no end in site, drivers are going to great pains to save at the pump. But it seems something obvious has been overlooked: skipping the commute and working from home. Fewer than 10 percent of Americans work from home even one day per week.

Much of the resistence of telecommuting comes from companies and bosses who don't trust their employees. New York Times best-selling author Tim Ferriss, who wrote The 4 Hour Workweek, has some tips for getting around that obstacle. You can watch the video by clicking here. It was produced by NBC's Andrew Gross and Colleen Sanvido, and edited by David Bentley. The three-dimensional graphics come courtesty of NBC's Patrick Longstreth.

You can read about Tim Ferriss' telecommuting tips by clicking here.

The Red Tape Chronicles 7/2/08 12:23 PM Bob Sullivan

Britons 'need £13k' to earn a decent standard of living

Britons 'need £13k' to earn a decent standard of living

It is no longer possible to fund an 'acceptable standard of living' on the National Minimum Wage, a new study has revealed. Implying that thousands more households than previously estimated are left coping with life below the poverty line.

Channel: News Tags: UK poverty standard of living income Britain

Propeller.com Hot Stories 7/2/08 6:40 PM digitalfever Array Array Array Array Array Comments

Cairo's gated compounds show rich-poor gulf

Cairo's gated compounds show rich-poor gulf

PALM HILLS, Egypt (Reuters) - The four-wheel-drives outside the terracotta villas include a Lexus and a Porsche, and under the shade of the palms and the bright red poinciana trees men in liveried overalls are buffing them to a shine.

Reuters: International News 7/2/08 8:44 PM worldNews

Soldiers Battle with Cold Medicines

Soldiers hope battle with cold medicines serves as warning to others

CAMP CASEY, South Korea — Pfc. Stephen Wanser's typical Saturday breakfasts were the same as his Friday night dinners: 16 Coricidin Cold and Cough pills, water or soda optional.

Stars and Stripes 6/30/08 9:23 PM

Festival de cine francés

Festival de cine francés

La gran pregunta del sábado por la noche no es ¿qué hacer? sino ¿cómo costear una recreación mayoritariamente en pesos convertibles? Para una pareja joven, el acto de ir a una discoteca puede significar –como mínimo- la erogación de diez "chavitos". De ahí que las fiestas house o las películas del sábado resulten mejor para el bolsillo. Yo me entretengo con los amigos que vienen a la casa y de vez en cuando me voy al malecón, que sigue siendo gratis. Me sumo a veces a los jóvenes que se reúnen en la intersección de 23 y G para pasar la noche conversando, cantando en voz alta y caminando de un lado a otro.

Por eso me siento feliz cuando llega el Festival de Cine Francés y con sólo pagar un subsidiado precio, logro entretenerme algunas noches. Eso sí, nada de tomarse una cervecita a la salida del filme "99 F" o de la comedia "Usted es realmente guapo", porque eso podría significar el salario de un día de trabajo. Después de las funciones, nos quedamos mosqueando en las afueras del Chaplin o nos vamos a casa. El anuncio de la semana de cine alemán me tranquiliza: al menos durante algunos días, divertirse no significará hacerse el harakiri.

Generación Y 6/26/08 6:09 AM Yoani Sanchez Generación Y Comments

Kanji Lessons

So Long: Part 1

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary

Welcome to summer! With the longest days upon us, it seems fitting to take a look at the character for "long":

長 (CHŌ, naga(i): long)

This kanji can also mean "chief, head, leader," but today, for the most part, I'm only interested in its length. I love how 長 elongates the following things in the most charming of ways:

穴   (ana: hole)		長穴   (naga-ana: slot)
円   (en or maru: circle)		長円   (chōen: ellipse, oval)
靴   (kutsu: shoes)		長靴   (nagagutsu: boots)
椅子   (isu: chair)		長椅子   (nagaisu: couch)

The compound 椅子 (isu: chair) breaks down as chair + noun suffix relating to objects such as furniture. Wow, that breakdown was long even without 長 there to elongate it!

Here's my favorite 長 transformation:

芋     (imo: potato)

長芋             (nagaimo: yam)

Yes, that's true! A yam is longer than a potato! I'd never thought about it before.
(more̷

JapanesePod101.com Blog 6/27/08 6:23 AM Eve Kushner Kanji Curiosity Comments

from: Copinthehood.com

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