Chance The Gardener's Favorite Site

A sure sign of age: Excitement at finding a web site that specializes in horticultural tools.

Golden-Arched Sanctuary

Here’s an unusual theory on why McDonald’s is so popular overseas: It’s a sanctuary for culture-overloaded tourists.

Indeed, despite its vaunted reputation as a juggernaut of American culture, McDonald's has come to function as an ecumenical refuge for travelers of all stripes. This is not because McDonald's creates an American sense of place and culture, but because it creates a smoothly standardized absence of place and culture — a neutral environment that allows travelers to take a psychic time-out from the din of their real surroundings. This phenomenon is roundly international: I've witnessed Japanese taking this psychic breather in the McDonald's of Santiago de Chile; Chileans seeking refuge in the McDonald's of Venice; and Italians lolling blissfully in the McDonald's of Tokyo.

[HT: Arts & Letters Daily ]

The Untied States?

The question of whether the United States could fragment has been with us since the beginning and reached its culmination, of course, during the Civil War.

It continues to linger, of course, as many immigrants appear to be here solely for economic opportunity and our elites cringe at the concept of assimilation. All in all though, surveys indicate that for all of the screaming, Americans hold some very strong bonds. Even our politicians haven't reached the severe personal divisions that can be found in Britain and, to a much greater extent, in France and Italy.

Part of our glue is pragmatism. Americans will listen to the ideologues if they propose something that works. The Street Smarts Test that is applied by the average voter saves us from the fanatics. I recall a person who observed that you can put together a sensible argument that the voters have always chosen the best candidate for president. Partisans will object, of course, and yet the less passionate are one of the keys to our preservation. It may dilute the passion but it also dilutes the poison.

"Single white Earthling Seeks Klingon"

The Christian Science Monitor has an intriguing article on the very specialized nature of Internet dating services, but if you are a science fiction fan and want to go directly to the action, how about the site for Trekkies?

GM - Nissan - Renault?

GM investor and billionaire Kirk Kerkorian is urging GM to make an alliance with Nissan and Renault.

So far, the response from investors has been better than the one from the company.

Probable Cause

It was good to see that the FBI could catch a group like the Florida bombers. By coincidence about that time, the director of the FBI in New York, Mark Mershon, visited our offices. Mr. Mershon made it clear that the FBI will not monitor or surveil anyone, including Muslim extremists, without a "criminal predicate." Generally, probable cause is the gold standard for watching. Mr. Mershon said that if someone keeps his head down and nose clean in the U.S., he can function with a great deal of freedom. That's a rough but workable description of our system.

This traditional, all-American tradeoff between liberty and risk works OK in a country populated with standard criminal types; most eventually work their way up to a police database. But what about the world of Islamic fanaticism whose recruits, notably suicide bombers (or pilots) are nearly all first-timers? Does "our system" mandate that we allow an Islamic fifth column to fly beneath the radar of probable cause and into buildings? Do we have to settle for catching bottom-feeders like the Florida plotters while the smart boys, planning a smallpox attack in Detroit, stay below what they've read is the threshold for FBI curiosity or a FISA warrant?

Daniel Henninger on the challenge of rights versus security in an unusual war.

Judge or Jury?

If you are a defendant in a federal criminal case, you definitely want the case decided by a judge and not a jury.

Here's why.

Hungry?

Some food stories are too good to pass up:

The Twinkies Cookbook

Mega cholesterol in a can

And, of course, the perfect food to whip out at that next Greenpeace meeting.

Lunch with Warren

That lunch with Warren Buffett was finally auctioned off for $620,100, but hey, you get to take along seven friends so it's really a bargain.

Right.

The option to bring friends could create a lot of stress. Which friends would make the cut? Do you invite talkative friends or ones who would sit back and let you press Warren for investment tips? You don't want someone talking about his golf game or her trick knee as the clock ticks away.

A reality TV show is missing the boat on this one. They could film the planning for the lunch, the lunch itself, and then Warren walking away shaking his head.

"Best" Jobs?

Political Calculations has taken Money magazine's list of the best jobs in the United States and improved it.

These lists can frustrating because (1) they are vague; (2) they leave out a lot of neat jobs; and (3) their definition of "best" is debatable.

Have You Seen These Photos?

These "Top 10 stock photography cliches" cracked me up.

We've certainly seen them on many a business web site.

[HT: 2Blowhards ]

Meet a Black Person

An enterprising twist on the fact that Aspen, Colorado does not have a large African American population.

What's Around the Corner

I love reading predictions, even when their authors may be way out there on the edge.

An array of futurists is featured in this Slate article. Excerpt:

Robb is no visionary. His basic take on the future is that the same historical forces that have been at work for thousands of years will still be at work, and that America won't be immune to them. The fact that street gangs in São Paulo can firebomb police stations, that Maoist guerrillas are threatening India's high-tech prosperity, and that a handful of rebels are stealing hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of oil in Nigeria and Iraq all affect us directly. Living in New York or Los Angeles, it seems hard to imagine that the constant kidnappings that terrorize the rich in Mexico City will ever happen here. Then again, we never thought terrorism would happen here, either.

Several other thinkers share Robb's thoughts on techno-realism. Philip Longman, author of The Empty Cradle, is convinced that "the comfy chair revolution" will strengthen the hand of fundamentalists worldwide. In Longman's future, the forces of reaction won't win by force of arms; they'll win by outbreeding the secular world. Then there's Barry Lynn, a former editor at the magazine Global Business and author of End of the Line. Lynn has become an unlikely anti-globalization guru by arguing that the global supply chains we count on are too fragile to survive a major shock. We're at risk whenever there's an earthquake in Taiwan, a terrorist strike in Saudi Arabia, or a power failure in Portland.

The Real Illusion

Laya Sleiman knew in law school that she wanted to work at a big, corporate law firm in New York when she graduated. But the 27-year-old, now a first- year associate, had no illusions about what it would take to get ahead at a prestigious firm once she arrived.

Ms. Sleiman often works until 10 p.m. on weeknights and usually puts in five hours of work on the weekends. She had to give away her dog, Bean, because she didn't want to leave him alone at her apartment all day or pay a dog walker.

I think this is a sad story. She actually wants to work in a place that treats associates like Kleenex. There is a big difference between working long hours because you love the work and doing so because you are hoping that some third parties, who may be completely indifferent to your best interests, will reward you.

Another point: Did she show her dog more consideration than her firm has shown to her?

Fireworks

I recall the old days when, as one commentator put it, you'd buy fireworks from a roadside stand and receive a safety lecture from some lanky guy who was missing a couple of fingers.

Hard as it is to believe, not all states permit the easy sale of explosions and I live in one of the risk-adverse ones. That's why this video of some real Americans setting off a huge amount of firecrackers created a certain longing for my childhood of cherry bombs and Roman candles.

I only wish they'd set them off at night...in somebody's living room.

That would have been neat and daring.

Land Rush

Business Week has a real estate blog. Today's post is on the pre-Zillow site: Property Shark.

Is that anyway to talk about realtors? Well, yes, now that we've considered it, perhaps it does have a certain accuracy.

The Coke Send-Off

I've often wondered what takes place inside a Coke machine.

This very creative ad provides the bizarre answer.

"The greatest public works program in the history of the world"

The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 would create what Eisenhower’s secretary of commerce called “the greatest public works program in the history of the world.” The bill authorized the building of the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways—turning the word interstate into a noun while radically and permanently altering the American landscape.

Two formative experiences had made Eisenhower a staunch advocate of a national system of superhighways. The first came in 1919, when as a young Army staff officer he accompanied a cross-country motor convoy meant to determine how the nation’s roads would accommodate the newly motorized armed forces. Struggling along roads that he described as “from average to non-existent,” the 81 cars and trucks took 62 days to cross the country, averaging 5 miles an hour.

By contrast during the occupation of Germany after World War II, the future President saw firsthand the Reichsautobahnen, the national high-speed highways that Hitler had ordered built beginning in 1933. Besides accelerating commerce, the roads had proven a boon to the German army. Eisenhower became convinced that America needed something similar.

Read the entire article here.

Considering America

The point is that the United States is a country where the ordinary guy has a good life. This is what distinguishes America from so many other countries. Everywhere in the world, the rich person lives well. Indeed, a good case can be made that if you are rich, you live better in countries other than America, because you enjoy the pleasures of aristocracy. In India, where I grew up, the wealthy have innumerable servants and toadies groveling before them and attending to their every need.

In the United States, on the other hand, the social ethic is egalitarian, regardless of wealth. For all his riches, Bill Gates could not approach a homeless person and say, “Here’s a $100 bill. I’ll give it to you if you kiss my feet.” Most likely the homeless guy would tell Gates to go to hell. The American view is that the rich guy may have more money, but he isn’t in any fundamental sense better than you are. The American janitor or waiter sees himself as performing a service, but he doesn’t see himself as inferior to those he serves. And neither do the customers see him that way: They are generally happy to show him respect and appreciation on a plane of equality. America is the only country in the world where we call the waiter “Sir,” as if he were a knight.

From a 2002 article by Dinesh D’Souza on what’s so great about America. Read it all here.

Private versus Public Employment

Is there a huge difference between working in government and working in the private sector?

Yes and no.

I've worked in both sectors and can attest that the idea that governmental employees are overpaid slugs is, in general, a myth. Some of the most professional and hardest-working people I've encountered are in government and some of the worst performers are in the private sector.

That said, let's consider the differences:

• Budgets. Size makes a difference here. Small, private sector firms can be much more budget-conscious than larger private firms or governmental agencies because they are closer to the edge. They live with the immediate impact of cash flow. There is more of a sense of We rather than They.
• Terminations. Private sector firms are less likely to carry deadwood because their adherence to the employment at will doctrine makes it easier to fire people. In contrast, public sector managers know that terminations of employees who have passed probation can be appealed to the civil service board and they will have to make the case or the employee will be restored to the job. That encourages public sector managers to get their evidence in line but it can also cause them to tolerate or transfer poor performers.
• Publicity. Private sector managers know that unless they do something extreme, their chances of hitting the front page of the local newspaper are remote. Public sector managers live with the prospect of news coverage or a complaint to a political board. One citizen can complain to a city council and people scurry to investigate the allegations. One shareholder complains at an annual meeting and people yawn.
• Service expectations. Customers who are upset with a company's performance can walk across the street to a competitor. That's not so with irate citizens who know they have fewer options. If you think that means that governmental employees have less fear when it comes to ticking off a customer, see the above paragraph.

The differences are there, but the similarities are greater. All in all, the name of the employer is less important than its character and competence.

Quote of the Day

Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.

- Napoleon Bonaparte

Krauthammer on Unifying Iraq

Charles Krauthammer discusses amnesty in Iraq:

Our objective in any war is not revenge but success. Confederate soldiers who swore allegiance to the U.S. were pardoned after the Civil War, even those who had killed Union soldiers. We gave amnesty to legions of Japanese and Germans who'd killed thousands of Americans in World War II.

And those amnesties were granted after total victory. In conflicts in which there is no unconditional surrender -- civil strife that ends far more ambiguously as in El Salvador and Chile, for example -- amnesty and reconciliation are the essential elements for the establishment of a stable democratic peace.

In Iraq, amnesty will necessarily be part of any co-optation strategy in which insurgents lay down their arms. And it would not apply to the foreign jihadists, who, unlike the Sunni insurgents who would join the new Iraq, dream of an Islamic state built on the ruins of the current order. There is nothing to discuss with such people. The only way defeat them is to kill them, as we did Zarqawi.

But killing them requires depriving them of their sanctuary. Reconciliation-cum-amnesty gets disaffected Iraqi Sunni tribes to come over to the government's side, drying up the sea in which the jihadists swim. After all, we found Zarqawi in heavily Sunni territory by means of intelligence given to us by local Iraqis.

May I Volunteer for the Next Study?

Does money buy happiness? Not according to this study.

[HT: Drudge ]

Diet and Justice

Sometimes history throws a real curveball:

Could bad rye have been a factor in the Salem Witch trials?

Going for the Masochist Market

I held off from posting when I first saw these ads for Maneland Jungle Lodge because I thought they were a twisted hoax.

Apparently not. Why would an establishment want to advertise in a manner that would scare off the guests?

Time to Sing Some Blues

A classic list of observations on the blues.

Excerpt:

1. Most blues begin ‘‘woke up this morning.’’

2.‘‘I got a good woman’’ is a bad way to begin the blues, unless you stick something nasty in the next line.

I got a good woman— with the meanest dog in town.

3. Blues are simple. After you have the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes.

got a good woman
with the meanest dog in town.
he got teeth like Margaret Thatcher
and he weighs 500 pound.

Read the rest here.

Tips on Losing

Slacker Manager on how to lose a great job in six months or less.

When you email, always do so in the heat of the moment. Remember to be aggressive and/or defensive, but also embrace hyperbole, gross exaggeration and mischaracterization. Be sure to pad your “To:” and “Cc:” lists extensively so that nobody is left out. Unless you’re talking specifically about them, in which case you should not include them.

Pepper your speech with phrases from other languages. Latin is a good start. Ergo, ergo (be sure to pronounce this “AIR-go” and not “ER-go”). After uttering the phrase, be sure to pretend you said nothing at all, or else explain the phrase with some impatience, and/or a patronizing tone. Ergo (dryly now: “That means ‘therefore’”), ergo. Consider the liberal use of “air quotes” while speaking (further, consider throwing some personal style into your air quotes, such as one palm facing out and one facing in).

[HT: BusinessPundit ]

Courageous Patience

Admiral Hyman Rickover, discussing the development of the nuclear submarine program, observed, "Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous patience."

Patience, of course, depends upon one's definition of time. What may seem patient to one person may be dilatory to another. When Chou En-lai was asked his opinion of the French Revolution, he replied, "It's too soon to say." American attitudes - so well summarized by the Nike slogan "Just do it" - favor action and equate lengthy pondering with indecisiveness. Americans are extremely tolerant of mistakes that are made in the course of action. They recognize that such things happen. They are less understanding, however, of the leader who will not get the wheels moving. That is one reason for the lasting affection for President Franklin Roosevelt's approach to dealing with the Great Depression. He may not have always done the right thing, but he did something.

Americans are skeptical of any leader or intellectual who wants to think it all out ahead of time. They know the world doesn't operate that neatly. The commander who can make decisions in response to changing circumstances will be far more effective than the cloistered intellectual who is risk adverse. George McClellan's knowledge of Napoleon's battles would have wowed the Harvard faculty but it was the mud-splattered and action-oriented General Grant who won the Civil War.

But that brings us back to time and specifically the issue of timing. In some crucial matters, leaders know that there will only be one bite at the apple. Resources must be developed. Execution must be tested. The same critics who moan for fast action today will later shout that rash behavior produced disaster. The wise leader has to distinguish between decisions that can wait and decisions that must wait.

With regard to the latter, the leader has to adopt an attitude of indifference. Despite our desire for a world in which everything happens now if not sooner, certain projects require large dollops of time. It takes a gutsy leader to stand up to the pressures of precipitate action; a leader, in short, with courageous patience.

Come The Revolution

Forget about losers like Che Guevara. Rupert Murdoch is the real revolutionary. [People like Bill Keller of The New York Times are starting to look like Marie Antoinette.] An excerpt:

Perched on the edge of a bright white power sofa on the supernaturally quiet eighth floor of the News Corporation’s global headquarters, the last thing Rupert Murdoch looks like is a fire-eyed revolutionary. Starched cuffs. Courtly manner. A month past his 75th birthday. But then he starts talking. “To find something comparable, you have to go back 500 years to the printing press, the birth of mass media – which, incidentally, is what really destroyed the old world of kings and aristocracies. Technology is shifting power away from the editors, the publishers, the establishment, the media elite. Now it’s the people who are taking control.”

And he’s smiling.

Read the whole thing.

Supreme Court on Detainees

A 5 - 3 decision by the US Supreme Court against the use of military tribunals for Guantanamo detainees.

Watch or Else

Seth Godin's Purple Cow theory of ads that stand out from the pack can be seen in this sweet ad about a vicious, evil, psychotic, guinea pig.

The Sting

What happens when an African scam artist, seeking an easy fleece, sends an email to what turns out to be a British scam artist?

This series of exchanges.

[HT: boingboing ]

Films to Watch Over and Over

Click here and then scroll down for the list of films that film makers and critics watch over and over.

My own list:

Northwest Passage
Chariots of Fire
Schindler's List
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Ben Hur
The Third Man
Topsy-Turvy
Signs
My Fair Lady
Rear Window
Charade
High Noon
The Maltese Falcon
The In-Laws (with Peter Falk and Alan Arkin)
Mountains of the Moon
Hombre
The Madness of King George
Master and Commander
To Kill a Mockingbird

Coercion in the Workplace

Here are three common forms of coercion in the workplace:

Physical Coercion. The large, menacing employee or boss uses size or physical ability as a form of intimidation. Many employees, who fear the humiliation of being intimidated more than being beaten itself, defer to this individual. These individuals thrive in unregulated areas, where supervision is nominal and where there are no other forces to counter the aggressor.

Deceptive Coercion. This approach can be used by both large and small. The idea is to gain control over the other person through the manipulation of information. The most common application is the lie. Many people view lying as a simple character flaw. They miss the extent to which it is a tool of coercion. Individuals who cannot gain power through honest persuasion or through physical coercion use deception.

Manipulative Coercion. This approach may involve deception and even physical coercion, but it can also encompass the use of charisma and favoritism as well as the withholding and granting of privileges. As in the case of all of these approaches, the manipulator may rationalize the behavior by asserting that it is necessary to accomplish the mission. The charismatic manipulator can be especially effective as emotionally dependent followers suspend independent judgment in order to maintain the approval of the manipulator. Factions on teams may withhold approval from a co-worker

It is not unusual to find teams in which there are tacit alliances between coercive personalities. For example, a physically coercive person may be allied with a manipulator and both may use deception with each other and with outsiders.

Organizational success can be seriously determined by the degree to which physical coercion is banned, deception is scorned, and manipulation - which will always be with us to some degree - is minimized.

Airbust?

Worldwide attention is now focused on the tensions between French and German operations of Airbus, and on the awkward dual management system, with bizarre titles like "Co-Chief Executive Officer" reflecting a system where every key job going to a Frenchman has to be balanced by another key job with a German, and where it seems nobody is in charge.

More here on the problems surrounding the production of the new Airbus A 380 super jumbo jet.

Quote of the Day

A nation that puts equality - in the sense of equality of outcome - ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom. The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom, and the force, introduced for good purposes, will end up in the hands of people who use it to promote their own interests.

- Milton Friedman

Graham On Procrastination

This essay by Paul Graham on procrastination is marvelous. An excerpt:

I've wondered a lot about why startups are most productive at the very beginning, when they're just a couple guys in an apartment. The main reason may be that there's no one to interrupt them yet. In theory it's good when the founders finally get enough money to hire people to do some of the work for them. But it may be better to be overworked than interrupted. Once you dilute a startup with ordinary office workers-- with type-B procrastinators-- the whole company starts to resonate at their frequency. They're interrupt-driven, and soon you are too.

Errands are so effective at killing great projects that a lot of people use them for that purpose. Someone who has decided to write a novel, for example, will suddenly find that the house needs cleaning. People who fail to write novels don't do it by sitting in front of a blank page for days without writing anything. They do it by feeding the cat, going out to buy something they need for their apartment, meeting a friend for coffee, checking email. "I don't have time to work," they say. And they don't; they've made sure of that.

Bizarre Products

Okay, I've been cranking out papers today.

It's time for a bizarre products break.

Highly practical: A combination USB pen, MP3 Player, FM radio, and voice recorder.

Very strange: Bacon-scented air freshener strips for your car. Just the thing to impress a date.

Whimsical: A tropical island hammock tied to fake palm trees. I may put this in my office.

Smart Car

DaimlerChrysler is going to introduce the Smart car in the United States in 2007.

The car fits into half of the standard parking space. It's eight feet long and five feet wide and, I believe, has pretty neat look.

My prediction: It will be a hit...if the price isn't crazy.

Customer Service

Emergence Marketing has posted a tale about dealing with poor customer service with an airline.

Unfortunately, that's shooting fish in a barrel. We all can come up with stories of terrible customer service. [I'm 6'2" and will not take airline customer service seriously until they provide more legroom in coach.]

What is interesting, however, is when an outfit gets it right; not just somewhat right, but so memorably right so you want to run out and tell your friends to use that company's services or products.

What do I recall lately?

• A Bookman's Bookstore clerk who acknowledged a relatively minor inconvenience and immediately handed me a ten dollar credit. I'll go back to them.
• A Marriott hotel audio visual specialist who worked out the kinks in a PowerPoint projector and then checked back periodically to ensure that all continued to go well. [I've trained around the country and have always been pleased with Marriott. service.]
• An airport van driver in Seattle who took a detour to avoid rush hour traffic, explained the route, gave some tips on the traffic system, and kept his sense of humor.

Do you have any other examples of extraordinary customer service?

Playing Hard Ball at Harvard

The biggest gift in Harvard University's history just walked away in the wake of their president's departure.

[HT: Instapundit ]

Hunting and Gathering

This article on the hunter/gatherer psychology of self-service check-out counters raises the question of how long it will be before we will slide our credit card through a processor upon entering a store and then sensors will automatically charge the card when we simply walk out the door.

[HT: pajamasmedia.com ]

The "Nat West Three"

“There is no prima facie case against these three men. They represent no threat to society yet they will still be banged up in a US prison with rapists and drug addicts, deprived of their liberty for up to two years, even while a case is compiled against them. If targeted in Britain for the same offence they would remain on bail and keep their liberty up to and during the trial.”

One reaction to some British investment bankers accused of conspiring with Enron being extradited to the United States for trial.

Well, there are prisons and then there are prisons. If they are denied bail, the odds are greater that they will be with other investment bankers than with rapists and drug addicts.

Not that there's anything wrong with being an investment banker.

831 Flavors

An ice cream shop in Venezuela leaves Baskin-Robbins in the dust.

831 flavors and counting. Of course, in addition to the traditional ones, they include flavors such as smoked trout, black beans and rice, Diet Coke, and asparagus. (Ham and cheese didn't catch on.)

My Bad Boss Contest

Working America is sponsoring a My Bad Boss Contest.

Contestants relate stories about their bad bosses. You may think the stories are simply amusing or horrifying.

I, on the other hand, see them as promising full employment for consultants.

[HT: Angela Gunn ]

Dell and Google

Dell is introducing a new technical support feature:

Instead of having to make a telephone call for an update, customers can quickly see the status of open service dispatches on a computer screen.

"We've removed the mystery of what's going on out in the field," Meyer said. "It's just representative of a different paradigm for infrastructure services."

The tracking ability is the most recent in a string of deals involving Google.

MIA: Human Shields

Christopher Hitchens has some suggestions for some positive protests:

What happened to the human shields? I didn't think it was wise or principled of certain activists to go to Baghdad in 2003 and swear to put themselves between Iraqi civilians and undue harm. (To most Iraqis and Kurds, they looked like sheepish guards who were standing between Saddam Hussein and what was rightly coming to him, and there were protests at their presence. And they did seem to leave when things became nasty.) But the idea of witnessing for peace in this manner has its attractions. That new hero, Rep. John Murtha, repeated a familiar slur the other day, attacking Karl Rove for supporting the war from an air-conditioned office—as if a person with a White House job has no right to an opinion on the war. But would not now be the ideal time for those who hate war to go to Iraq and stand outside the mosques, hospitals, schools, and women's centers that are daily subjected to murderous assaults? This would write an imperishable page in the history of American dissent.

The "Easy Button" Turnaround

The turnaround at Staples was more than an Easy Button, but it helped:

A string of Easy Button commercials premiered in January 2005 and also aired during the Super Bowl a month later. In one spot, called "The Wall," an emperor uses the button to erect a giant barrier as marauders approach; another shows an office worker causing printer cartridges to rain down from above.

Online, Staples created a downloadable Easy Button toolbar, which took shoppers directly to Staples.com, while billboards reminded commuters that an Easy Button would be helpful in snarled traffic.

As a result of the advertising onslaught, customers began asking about buying real Easy Buttons. In September 2005 the company began selling $5 3-inch red plastic buttons that when pushed say; "That was easy." This quarter it will sell its millionth button.

Not since Taco Bell sold 13 million talking Chihuahuas in 1998 have customers so coveted a product based on