Jinn of Quality and Risk

My beagle, whose job description is "scan roadsides for squirrels," is in the back, moving from one side window to the other. Each time he shifts, sensors in the seat take note, and the right rear headrest whirrs up as the left one whirrs down. For the next two hours, the headrests dance in tandem, as if trying to provide comfort for restless spirits. ... To operate innumerable features [of the BMW 745i] — including the audio, climate and navigation systems, the built-in phone and all sorts of programmable settings for the locks, the lights and the like — you use the disk on the armrest, called the iDrive controller. ... Though intended to be intuitive, iDrive is maddening, especially at first. [NY Times reg.req.] 

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you ... 

When somebody is torn over a decision, some aspects will be attractive and encourage acceptance; others will be displeasing and create resistance. Researchers refer to persuasive strategies that work by making an offer more attractive as "alpha" strategies. Those that work by minimising resistance to the offer are called "omega" strategies. Dr Knowles operates at the omega end of the alphabet. 

[The Design-the-Box exercise] is great to open up a session to initiate a project. In this exercise the entire team, including users, breaks up into groups of four to six (this works best with cross-functional participation). The team makes the assumption that the product will be sold in a shrink-wrapped box, and their task is to design the product box front and back. This involves coming up with a product name, a graphic, three to four key bullet points on the front to "sell" the product, a detailed feature description on the back, and operating requirements. Eminently applicable in a workshop environment. 

The set of practices and processes being discussed under the banner of "Agile" software development and project management are thought to offer the most benefit in fluid, volatile environments. An "exploration factor" should be used to identify highly exploration-oriented projects (vs very stable problem environments) based on a combination of the volatility of the requirements and the immaturity of the technology platform: 1) business requirements can be: erratic, fluctuating, routine, or stable; and 2) the technology is: bleeding edge, leading edge, familiar, or well known. 

If this is "far right," "racist," "extremist," etc. then one has to ask what mainstream European party —whether center-right or social-democrat— is essentially different? None.

For the record, I disagree with many elements of Pim's platform (even taking into account that I am mostly ignorant of specific Dutch political and economic circumstances) because it does not advocate sufficient progress in terms of economic freedom and dismantling the Welfare State. 

At first approach, one may think that the problems of fatigue, alertness impairment and sleep deprivation faced by competitive athletes sailing solo around-the-world couldn't possibly relate to everyday living. However, the reality is that the issues that these competitors face are not substantially different from those experienced in the workplace and the strategies they use to deal with sleep deprivation could have a great deal of relevance. 

Winston Churchill became Prime Minister on May 10, 1940. When he met his Cabinet on May 13 he famously told them that I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. Five years later, the blood-thirsty tyrants of Germany and Japan were finally defeated.