City Size

Answer quickly. Which city has more people?

1. New York or Los Angeles?
   
2. Boston or Memphis?


3. Phoenix or San Francisco?


4. San Diego or Dallas?


5. El Paso or Milwaukee?

Check out the USA Today list of the top USA cities ranked by population.

[Answers: 1. New York; 2. Memphis; 3. Phoenix; 4. San Diego; 5. El Paso.]

Quote of the Day

Someone said that God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December.

- J.M. Barrie

Miscellaneous and Fast

Narcissistic horndog update: And this has nothing to do with politics.

Tracy Harger on whether a scooter is the answer to high fuel prices.

Ancient Club Med site found in Paris.

Writing in Outside, Emily Matchar reports on a death on Denali.

No probable cause? The Christian Science Monitor on laptop searches at the border.

Perils of Pioneers: Michael V. Copeland, writing in Fortune, on the development of the Tesla electric car.

Car & Driver looks at gas-sipping models.

Christopher Hitchens provides information on a book drive for The American University of Iraq.

Didn't make the cut: Adrants reports on Playboy's Hot Blogger Contest.

Extraordinary: Coca-Cola and Africa

Coca-Cola says it is the largest private-sector employer in Africa. Its system of distribution, which moves the sugary drink from bottling plants deep into slums and the bush a few crates at a time, may employ around 1m Africans.


Read the rest of The Economist story on Coke's impact .

When Distrust Sparks Backlash

Whenever I surface the issue of how signs of distrust can foster resentment, some HR-types and line managers look at me as if I've challenged the law of gravity. Don't I know, they argue, how much employees steal from organizations? Don't I realize there are predators out there?

Of course I do. And their comments have caused me to consider just what is it about some management actions and policies that I find objectionable. My conclusion is that the irritating practices are those that achieve little aside from insulting good workers.

Consider two practices:

A department store that has suffered from employee pilferage requires that its sales workers use clear plastic purse-like containers instead of regular purses, briefcases or handbags so, when they depart through the employee exit, the security personnel can spot anything that looks suspicious without having to search every bag. It's not my favorite practice but it's acceptable because it is one of the less obtrusive ways of addressing a problem and it is reasonably direct.

On the other hand, consider a firm that prohibits its sales personnel from giving out their direct telephone numbers because the firm wants to monitor all client contacts through a main number in order to ensure that sales people aren't making outside deals with customers. That firm has adopted an insulting but ineffective practice. The unethical sales person who is determined to work around the requirement can easily do so. All the requirement has done is to make legitimate client contact harder for the honest employees while reminding them that they are not trusted. It is a daily irritation for the ethical sales people because they find themselves having to follow a practice that is both insulting and useless.

Why have such a practice?

Punitive Damages

Ted Frank analyzes the U.S. Supreme Court decision on punitive damages and sees continuing opportunities for plaintiff attorneys.

Quote of the Day

To me - old age is 15 years older than I am.

- Bernard Baruch

Presentations: One Size Does Not Fit All

Along with several other consultants, I recently received an email asking if I'd be interested in conducting a leadership program for a large company. Normally that would have elicited some interest because I teach leadership workshops but this one had a catch: I had to teach their leadership workshop.

The message made it sound as if teaching a program that was developed by someone else would be easier. After all, I wouldn't have to prepare a class from scratch. I could just walk in and start talking.

Right.

If you've ever taught a class you know the problems hidden in that assumption and if you've ever had to teach someone else's program, you're especially aware of how hard that can be. The organization and pacing may be off, the terminology may be different, and the program may include some exercises you wouldn't use. In other words, it probably won't fit.

The assumption about simplicity resembles those made regarding short speeches. A short presentation can be much more difficult than a long one because you have less time to cover key points and yet that reduced content still has to reach the same number of people in an effective manner.

What should you do if you are ever compelled to fill in for another speaker? My advice is to break the rules. Reorganize the presentation so it fits your style of presentation. If you fail to do so, your speech will - to borrow a line from Earl Long - look like socks on a rooster.

Miscellaneous and Fast

Tired of today's look-alike cars? You can get a 1957 Chevy. [HT: Rick Miller]

Wall Street vote: Which party is getting around 70 percent of the corporate political contributions from Wall Street securities firms?

Charles Murray on educational romanticism and No Child Left Behind.


Business Week reports that copyediting is being outsourced to India.

Wired notes that crud-eating bacteria are being used to save cultural relics in Italy.

Victor Davis Hanson contrasts the styles of the two presidential candidates.

Ed Koch wants a third party in New York.

Neatorama looks at the ten richest people of all time and how they made their riches.

Sing. Dance. Make Lemonade.

Stanley Bing has issued a call to action for financial web sites: Start getting upbeat! An excerpt:

The last time this happened to our economy, the public had one great solution to the challenge of keeping the national spirits up: stupid movies. This explains the entertainments that were popular between 1929 and World War II. Screwball comedies. Musicals featuring concentric circles of feathered women dancing, swimming. Horse operas.

The Internet now faces a similar opportunity which, if not taken at its crest, may lead to the demise of the medium. This is most true, I think, of financial websites, which may, if they are not careful, assume the role of the cranky old uncle at the wake who sits in a chair in the corner and refuses to get drunk with the rest of the mourners.