Hard and brittle plastic

Very slow bullets

2009-10-15T23:57:54Z

Always apologize

2009-09-25T17:05:42Z

Saying sorry really does cost nothing, EurekAlert: Economists have finally proved what most of us have suspected for a long time – when it comes to apologizing, talk is cheap.
According to new research, firms that simply say sorry to disgruntled customers fare better than those that offer financial compensation. The ploy works even though the recipient of the apology seldom gets it from the person who made it necessary in the first place.
The ... Nottingham School of Economics' Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics ... set out to show whether customers who have been let down continue to do business after being offered an apology. They found people are more than twice as likely to forgive a company that says sorry than one that instead offers them cash. ...
[C]o-author Dr Johannes Abeler said the results proved apologies were both powerful and cheap. He said: "We know firms often employ professional apologists whose job is to say sorry to customers who have a grievance.
"You might think that if the apology is costless then customers would ignore it as nothing but cheap talk - which is what it is. But this research shows apologies really do influence customers' behavior – surprisingly, much more so than a cash sweetener.
"People don't seem to realize they're dealing with an expert apologist rather than an individual who feels genuine shame.
"It might be that saying sorry triggers in the customer an instinct to forgive – an instinct that's hard to overcome rationally."
Researchers worked with a firm responsible for around 10,000 sales a month on eBay, controlling its reaction to neutral or negative feedback. Some customers were offered an apology in return for withdrawing their comments, while others were offered €2.5 or €5.
The simple apology blamed the manufacturer for a delay in delivery, adding: "We are very sorry and want to apologize for this." Customers offered money were told: "As a goodwill gesture, we can offer you €5 if you would consider withdrawing your evaluation."
Because customers had no idea they were taking part in the experiment, their behavior was completely natural and unaffected. Some 45% of participants withdrew their evaluation in light of the apology, while only 23% agreed in return for compensation.
The study also discovered that a higher purchase price further reduced the number of customers willing to forgive for cash. Yet the size of the initial outlay had no effect on the willingness of participants to settle for simply reading the magic words: "I'm sorry."
Dr Abeler, an expert in behavioral economics, said: "It's interesting to note our setting should have made it hard for an apology to work.
"The apology was delivered by a large, anonymous firm and wasn't face-to-face, and the firm had a clear incentive to apologize.
"All of this meant the apology should have been regarded by the customers as calculated, insincere and just cheap talk. Yet it still yielded much better outcomes than offering cash compensation – and our results might even underestimate its effects."

Apparently, this also works for doctors:

Apology a tool to avoid malpractice suits, by Lindsey Tanner, Associated Press: ...Some malpractice-overhaul advocates say an apology can help doctors avoid getting sued, especially when combined with an upfront settlement offer.
The idea defies a long tradition in which doctors cultivated a Godlike image of infallibility and rarely owned up to their mistakes.
The softer approach, now appearing in some medical school courses and hospital policies, is drawing interest as national attention has turned to reducing both medical errors and the high cost of malpractice insurance...
The hospitals in the University of Michigan Health System have been encouraging doctors since 2002 to apologize for mistakes. The system's annual attorney fees have since dropped from $3 million to $1 million, and malpractice lawsuits and notices of intent to sue have fallen from 262 filed in 2001 to about 130 per year...
Dr. Michael Woods, a surgeon in Colorado ... said his research has shown that being upset with a doctor's behavior often plays a bigger role than the error itself in patients' decisions to sue. ...

Accountants have also figured this out.

So, I bought a TV

2009-09-02T23:34:40Z

I did the same thing to Best Buy that is driving bookstores out of business. I went there, looked at the merchandise, played with it, and bought it on Amazon for $60 less. From inside the store, in fact. (iPhones are nice that way.)

Though you don't get the instant gratification that you would if you bought it the traditional way.

Hopefully, I'll be less bored now.

Coffee

2009-08-14T22:32:11Z

Before I moved to California, I had maybe 2 cups of coffee my entire life.

Now, I'm addicted. Sort of. I only have coffee two or three times a week, so it probably doesn't count as an addiction. And I still don't really like it. But caffeine is so much more necessary.

Biology is so cool

2009-08-12T23:18:43Z

Fungus turns carpenter ants into ZOMBIES!

Should I buy a tv?

2009-07-30T18:33:03Z

And get cable, probably. I get bored a lot and that doesn't help the whole depression thing. Reading is hard. TV is bad, in the sense that I just sit there, but it seems that I don't know how to get out of the house. (Though being bored definitely pushes me in that direction.)

I don't know. Sometimes I think, since I'm destined to be alone for the rest of my life, I should learn how to be alone. But I hate it.

bleah.

My kind of summer camp

2009-07-23T00:37:30Z

A camp for humanists, not bible thumpers.

In Boston tomorrow!

2009-07-01T16:41:10Z

Just reminding people. My phone number is (617) 519-6874. And I'll try really hard not to forget it this time.

A slightly more understandable Star Trek spoiler.

2009-05-25T02:58:10Z

Here

How many mining ships can take on a warship, even from two centuries earlier? A properly handled sailing ship of the line would destroy an oil rig.

And where does a mining ship get photon torpedoes? (They used a weapon lock on the Kelvin, and shot something that looked like torpedoes. It's not like they had time to convert themselves to a warship while falling into a time warp.)

Waterboarding is TORTURE

2009-05-23T23:22:59Z

Not that I had any doubts, but:

The current equivalent

2009-05-23T22:50:14Z

Spoiler for Star Trek

American Pie

2009-05-22T00:49:11Z

I just heard "American Pie" on the radio for the first time in a while, and I started to think about the possibility that Obama would get assassinated and what that would do to the country. I think it would be a more devastating blow than Kennedy's death, but I wonder if that's because I live in the here and now vs. living in the 60's.

I do really like this president, even if I disagree with soMe of his decisions. I like his approach. And hopefully we will have for 7 2/3 more years.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

The Onion pegs Domino's Pizza

2009-05-14T17:49:05Z

Well worth watching

A brilliant take on the stress tests for the banks

2009-05-11T19:50:44Z

SNL comes through.

Complaint of the day

2009-05-11T19:17:08Z

"Juco" meaning "Junior College" is a word in Scrabble. "Ok", meaning "Ok" isn't.

Afghanistan's only pig...

2009-05-06T20:37:25Z

is quarantined.

The privacy of (in)Justice Scalia.

2009-05-01T22:32:02Z

A professor at Fordham Law School assigned his Information Privacy Law class to compile all the details of Scalia's life. They made a dossier, which included his

home address, his home phone number, the movies he likes, his food preferences, his wife's personal e-mail address, and "photos of his lovely grandchildren.

I just thought it was funny. I believe that privacy amounts to more than Scalia does, and he was clearly discomforted by the dossier.

(And the prof's response.)

Is this real, or faked?

2009-04-27T23:35:16Z

Yet another YouTube video. (This one involves sheep, not singers.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FX9rviEhw

The good die and the evil continues

2009-04-23T20:39:08Z

In 2003, a soldier killed herself. Of course, we can never know why, but she refused to torture prisoners, was reprimanded and then killed herself a few days later, in September 2003.

more here

Torture

2009-04-22T21:31:50Z

I'm getting physically sick reading about how we, as Americans, tortured. I've resolved to stop reading about it, but I really do not respect Obama right now. We need to have Bush, Cheney, etc. tried for war crimes.

This isn't politics. This is ethics. They tortured people for no reason, and if we do not put them on trial... I don't know. But it isn't the USA I signed up for, and believe in.

Most challenged books of 2008

2009-04-21T21:15:52Z

From the ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom

The 10 most challenged books of 2008 reflect a range of themes, and are:

1. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group

2. His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman
Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, violence

3. TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

4. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
Reasons: occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, violence

5. Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
Reasons: occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, violence

6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited to age group

7. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

8. Uncle Bobby's Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen
Reasons: homosexuality, unsuited to age group

9. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

10. Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper
Reasons: sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

Taxes

2009-04-16T19:59:24Z

Inner beauty

2009-04-15T04:50:09Z

Many have probably already seen this, but for those who haven't, this is worth watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Gay marriage is WRONG!

2009-04-10T16:07:30Z

Found on the net. Unknown source.

1) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

2) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

3) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

4) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

5) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Brittany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

6) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

7) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

8) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

9) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans

This is fun.

2009-04-09T02:55:53Z

Dropping balls, with music.

http://balldroppings.com/js/

I'm not completely sure why the balls change size.