Back when I was investigating grey-marketers and various fraud-types, there was nothing I loved better than a darn good sting operation. Teresa Nielsen Hayden talks about the sting that various SF and fantasy writers and others took part in (with the blessings of the TLA) against PublishAmerica.
The book excerpts are both a scream to read and fine examples of how *not* to write. The book is available for purchase, and I sure know that I'm going to buy a copy!
An interesting abstract regarding job satisfaction and health. Back in grad school V1.0, when I was doing I/O Psych, anything that showed an r-squared greater that 0.3 was paid attention to.
That the correlations are greater than 0.3 (which usually indicate multiple factor correlation) are interesting in that, while there are other facotrs, there's definitely something going on here.
A no duh--if employees are unsatified with their job, their health suffers. It's a good thing that the studies are being done, because we need something other than a gut feel in this area.
I've just finished "How Full is Your Bucket", which explores a number of the same themes. Are we getting back to job satisfaction as an area of interest to employers? I'm interested in whether this is a more positively (aka "Happy employees are productive employees") or negatively (aka "Employees who leave cost us a bundle to replace, and the lawsuits! We need to fix this!") motivated event.
Or this is nature's way of telling you that you have too much money!
Not sure what's worse--the music or the schmaltzy photos.
No, not the nasty-bad version from last year.
I was watching Iron Chef America in-between World Jr Hockey games today, and my first reaction upon seeing "The Chairman" was --"hey, isn't that Crying Freeman?"
Okay, that says a bunch about my movie viewing habits, but yeah, I was right. The new chairman is Mark Dacascos. He's not playng it nearly so much over the top as "Chairman Kaga", but he's having a good time.
So, the coupons and adverts for the annual "It's New Years, time to diet" extravaganza are here.
Two trends:
1. We're in the second year of "low carb everything you can think of". Kraft is betting a lot that low-carb craze will stick around for at least one more year in the mid-section of the US vs the coasts. It already looks like both coasts are moving away from low-carb for low-carb's sake.
It doesn't appear clear whether the coasts are moving towards "appropriate carbs", ala the South Beach Diet, or just a melange of diet stuffage while things sort themselves out.
I'd like to see the best of these products kept alive, as much for all my diabetic friends, who are enjoying the side-effects of the low-carb diet interest as anyone. And there is a significant type II diabetic population out there who can use the low-carb products as well. Trouble is, controlling your blood sugar isn't nearly as sexy as losing weight. Go deal....
2. Portion Control--the 100 kcal packages of treats have expanded into new products. This is Nabisco's gambit. Note that Nabisco is now a part of the Kraft Food conglomerate. However, there isn't enough upside on 100 cal snack packs to cover for all the "CarbWell" Kraftiness if it crashes and burns. If the movement is towards total calories, it will make for a nice transition point while Kraft either ditches the low-carb, or reformulates appropriately.
The Slim-fast people have decided to get on the Opti/Nutri-fast bandwagon. If they're going to do that, all they need to do is make sure that their product tastes marginally better than either of the "professional" products. I haven't tasted any of these, but I've been told by my Osteopath (who's also a bariatric physician) that the stuff you have to buy through your Doctor tastes amazingly nasty. In any case, someone who does the meal replacement will have to deal with how to do maintnenance with real food, which, after dealing with the sheer boredom of the diet, is definitely the "oh no" moment.
But not a lot new under the sun this year. More of the same products--just more of those products.
Next year might be very interesting as the market does its shift. And if you're particularly enraptured with a low-carb product, I'd suggest you keep a good stock of it--you may find out that it's been pulled from the market as the interest drops.
Today was clean the appliances I don't use out from the kitchen and into the donation boxes. It was like an archaeological dig into the last 15 years of Ron Popeil. Among the stuff that went into the boxes were a popcorn popper, a pasta maker, an electric citrus juicer, a deep fryer, multiple bundt pans, "checkerboard" cake pans, and other things that were taking up sapce, gathering dust, and not being used.
Next on the list will be some old Circulon that's been replaced by Caphalon. When the non-stick pans are no longer non-stick, it's time for them to go.