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Week 5, 2006
THE BEST SELLERS (recent popular articles):
1) CNN/Global Office: How will your firm survive the future? [Les PME anglaises manquent de dispositifs de réponse en cas de catastrophe.]
2) Reuters: Save money? Nah, just win the lottery [Beaucoup d'Américains ont plus de confiance dans la loterie que l'épargne pour devenir riche.]
3) Personal website: Leasing in India [The evolution of Leasing in India. Voir la suite ci dessous.]

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THE REGULARS: Summary
4) Le texte plus abordable de la semaine/Scholastic: See you on the curling court! [C'est bientôt les JO d'hiver, avec cette semaine une présentation sur le sport du curling.]
5) Puzzle: Mine exit [Un casse-tête.]
6) CNN/Global Office: World's longest job title revealed [Le problème des titres de poste obscurs dans les entreprises.
7) AUDIO/On the Media: Absolut exhaustion [Emission radio avec transcription, cette fois-ci sur l'abandon par le vodka Absolut de ses campagnes publicitaires mettant en scène la bouteille.]

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1) CNN/Global Office: How will your firm survive the future? [Les PME anglaises manquent de dispositifs de réponse en cas de catastrophe.]
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/BUSINESS/12/28/disaster.planning/index.html

How will your firm survive the future?

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Despite a year which saw natural and man-made disasters strike at tragically regular intervals, many small- and medium-sized businesses are still operating without contingency plans and effectively gambling on their futures, a new study has found.

The last 12 months has seen turmoil on a staggering scale, from the tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean region to the hurricanes that battered the U.S. Gulf coast. Terrorists targeted the London transit system, while explosions at a major oil depot north of the English capital also took their toll on the capacity of many businesses to remain trading as usual.

Nevertheless, the study found that little or no planning was taking place in almost half small or medium enterprises (SMEs) surveyed on how they would cope in the aftermath of a disaster or disruption. The study, compiled by Professor Jean-Noel Ezingeard of London's Henley Management College, pointed to the Buncefield oil depot blasts in December as an example of why businesses need better planning.

In the days after the incident, some airlines operating out of Heathrow airport were forced to ration fuel by the airport's operator BAA. This caused delays for some flights, including long-haul routes. But under contingency plans developed by airlines and airport operators, near-normal services was able to be maintained. "[Those plans] enabled us to stabilize supply and demand for fuel and continue operations for the 186,000 passengers that fly to and from Heathrow every day with minor disruption to some passengers and no cancellation of flights," a BAA spokesman said.

Wake-up call

Professor Ezingeard said the blasts should act as a wake-up call for small and medium enterprises.

"A lot of SMEs tend to focus on the day-to-day aspects of the business but never look at risk control. Something like Buncefield, where businesses three miles away were affected, should bring it into focus," he said.

His survey of British SMEs found 46 percent had no planning in place on how to maintain trade after a disaster or during an ongoing disruption, while 37 percent of senior managers admitted to relying on luck. Three-quarters of those SMEs surveyed had not reviewed their provisions against disruptions since the London terror attacks in July.

As it happened, businesses appeared to bounce back quickly after the attacks. A Confederation of British Industry survey found 24 percent of firms reported a loss in sales and orders in the immediate aftermath, but that was down to 13 percent one week later.

But given the potential for a drop in consumer confidence in the wake of such attacks, as well as the cut to transit services for weeks afterwards making it difficult for some firms to keep trading, this was "endemic of a much wider failing" among many businesses to make adequate plans.

The reasons for the refusal to face a possibly fraught future varied and at times contradictory, the research showed. Some SMEs felt potential problems were too big to worry about, or were small enough to be tackled as they arose. Some understimated the impact of a disruption on the business, while others said that if a disaster had not yet happened, it was not urgent enough to plan for.

"Every business owner should be looking at the effect an incident could have," Professor Ezingeard. "Firms should have contingency plans in any event the business can tick over. They need to prepare for the impact on trade, turnover and stock."

He added that 40 percent of affected business fail as a result of an external disruption. "Too many of Britain's SME managers bury their heads in the sand when it comes to continuity planning. [But] for most businesses, the only cost to the business will be their time."

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2) Reuters: Save money? Nah, just win the lottery [Beaucoup d'Américains ont plus de confiance dans la loterie que l'épargne pour devenir riche.]
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/09012006/80/save-money-nah-win-lottery-survey.html

Save money? Nah, just win the lottery - survey
Reuters Monday January 9, 07:13 PM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than one in five Americans believe the best way to get rich is to win the lottery, while 11 percent say inheriting money is the way to go, a survey showed on Monday.

Asked the most practical way to accumulate "several hundred thousand dollars," 21 percent chose winning the lottery, compared to 55 percent who thought saving something each month for many years was best, according to a survey by the Consumer Federation of America and the Financial Planning Association. Three percent of those surveyed thought a big insurance settlement was the best way to become wealthy.

The poor were the most likely to say winning the lottery was the most practical way to gain wealth -- with 38 percent of those earning less than $25,000 a year choosing that option compared to just 9 percent of those earning $75,000 or more.

African Americans and those over the age of 65 were also more likely to believe winning the lottery was more practical than saving each month -- at 30 percent and 31 percent, respectively.

Stephen Brobeck, executive director of the Consumer Federation, said it was of "some concern" that so many people thought the lottery was their best chance at wealth. "It appears that these Americans both greatly overestimate their chances of hitting a lottery jackpot and greatly underestimate their ability to build six-figure wealth by patiently making regular savings contributions over time that benefit from interest compounding," Brobeck said.

The survey of more than 1,000 adults also found only about half of Americans understand the meaning of personal wealth -- which includes financial assets plus home equity and other assets minus consumer debts -- and less than half know how much personal wealth they have.

Brobeck said the typical household had a net wealth of $100,000, mostly in home equity. About 5 percent had net wealth over $1 million, while nearly 1 in 10 households had zero net wealth -- meaning their debt exceeded their assets.

While financial planners believe about half of young Americans could accumulate $1 million over a period of 30 years, fewer than 1 in 10 of Americans believe they could save that much money, the survey showed. "Planners know that it is easier for individuals to build personal wealth than they realise," said James Barnash, chair of the Financial Planning Association.

The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

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Leasing activity was initiated in India in 1973. The first leasing company of India, named First Leasing Company of India Ltd. was set up in that year by Farouk Irani, with industrialist A C Muthia. For several years, this company remained the only company in the country until 20th Century Finance Corporation was set up - this was around 1980.

By 1981, the trickle started and Shetty Investment and Finance, Jaybharat Credit and Investment, Motor and General Finance, and Sundaram Finance etc. joined the leasing game. The last three names, already involved with hire-purchase of commercial vehicles, were looking for a tax break and leasing seemed to be the ideal choice.

The industry entered the third stage in the growth phase in late 1982, when numerous financial institutions and commercial banks either started leasing or announced plans to do so. ICICI, prominent among financial institutions, entered the industry in 1983 giving a boost to the concept of leasing. Thereafter, the trickle soon developed into flood, and leasing became the new gold mine. This was also the time when the profit-performance of the two doyen companies, First Leasing and 20th Century had been made public, which contained all the fascination for many more companies to join the industry. In the meantime, International Finance Corporation announced its decision to open four leasing joint ventures in India. To add to the leasing boom, the Finance Ministry announced strict measures for enlistment of investment companies on stock-exchanges, which made many investment companies to turn overnight into leasing companies.

As per RBI's records by 31st March, 1986, there were 339 equipment leasing companies in India whose assets leased totaled Rs. 2395.5 million. One can notice the surge in number - from merely 2 in 1980 to 339 in 6 years.

Subsequent swings in the leasing cycle have always been associated with the capital market - whenever the capital markets were more permissive, leasing companies have flocked the market. There has been appreciable entry of first generation entrepreneurs into leasing, and in retrospect it is possible to say that specialised leasing firms have done better than diversified industrial groups opening a leasing division.

Another significant phase in the development of Indian leasing was the Dahotre Committee's recommendations based on which the RBI formed guidelines on commercial bank funding to leasing companies. The growth of leasing in India has distinctively been assisted by funding from banks and financial institutions.

Banks themselves were allowed to offer leasing facilities much later - in 1994. However, even to date, commercial banking machinery has not been able to gear up to make any remarkable difference to the leasing scenario.

The post-liberalisation era has been witnessing the slow but sure increase in foreign investment into Indian leasing. Starting with GE Capital's entry, an increasing number of foreign-owned financial firms and banks are currently engaged or interested in leasing in India.

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4) Le texte plus abordable de la semaine/Scholastic: See you on the curling court! [C'est bientôt les JO d'hiver, avec cette semaine une présentation sur le sport du curling.]
http://teachers.scholastic.com
See You on the Curling Court!
By Becky Wenger

CURLING
A team sport, curling consists of sliding a heavy stone across the ice and stopping it as close to the center of a target, called a house, as possible. Sweepers control their stone's destination by brushing a path in front of it with brooms made out of horse hair and hog hair.

The centuries old sport has only recently became an Olympic sport. This is the third time curlers will take part in the Winter Olympic Games. Curling is a centuries old sport with a historic background—and a set of peculiar rules and tools.

I had the great experience to learn about curling out on the ice with the U.S. women's Olympic Curling Team. I met the curlers at a media summit in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in October. The summit was held by the U.S. Olympic Committee to introduce the media to the athletes most likely to go to the 2006 Winter Games in Torino, Italy, in February.

Let me explain what you may not know about the unusual sport of curling.

First, curling is not about your hair! Curling is a winter sport played on an ice rink. Two teams of four players each compete against each other from opposite ends of the ice.

One player "shoots" the curling stone, which is a 42-pound rounded hunk of polished granite, down the ice. Shooting is actually pushing the stone (which is really heavy) down the ice toward a target. You push it from a squatting position, using a handle on top of the stone. The target is like a bull's-eye on the ice. This is called "shooting the stone."

If the stone starts slowing down too soon, or veering off its path to the target, two curlers from the team "sweep" into action. These team members are actually called sweepers and for a very good reason. They use broom-like instruments to rub the ice in front of the moving stone to try and change its path or speed it up.

When you sweep the ice in front of the stone, it creates friction that causes the ice to melt. That causes the stone to hydroplane in the melted water so that it keeps moving. (Hydroplaning means to skim the surface of the water.)

The final curler watches how the stone is moving and yells to the sweepers when and where to sweep. The object is to get the stone as close to the target as possible.

Curling sounds easier than it really is. Curlers have many strategies that they use, from how to shoot the stone to how to sweep to how to direct. One very important strategy of curling is knowing the condition of the ice. Some ice is fast and slippery, while other ice is slow and sticky. Knowing how the ice affects the stone is very important.

Curling takes a lot of upper body strength and physical training. "We do weight training every other day and for upper body we do a lot of bicep curls and a lot of situps, because sweeping pumps from the core," said 20-year-old Jessica Schultz, a member of the U.S. women's Olympic Curling Team. "We work on our pectorals and abs and our lower back especially, and then do a lot of squats and lunges."

How does a person get started in curling? "I became interested in curling from my neighbor in Alaska," Jessica said. "She just wanted us to come out and try one time, so my family and I all went down to the curling club and started curling."

Another U.S. women's team member, Maureen Brunt, learned at a very young age. The 23-year-old from Wisconsin has been curling for 17 years. "My parents curled and they took me out there when I was 6 and I didn't stop after that," she said.

So do you know enough about curling to give it a try? I am definitely going to get involved and play a few games. It sounds like a wonderful sport, and the athletes are all awesome. See you on the curling court !

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6) CNN/Global Office: World's longest job title revealed [Le problème des titres de poste obscurs dans les entreprises.]
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/BUSINESS/02/10/plain.speaking/index.html

World's longest job title revealed

LONDON, England (CNN) -- If your company employs an "optical illuminator enhancer" to clean the windows, or you have a "director of first impressions" working on reception, then it might be time for some straight talking in the office. Job titles have always been dressed up or embellished to make them sound more exciting, glamorous or important than they really are.

According to a survey two years ago in the UK, seven out of 10 workers said they would prefer a grander sounding job title to a pay rise.

But soon someone working for a northern English library service will be able to claim that they have what is perhaps the world's longest job title. In an advertisement published this week, Lancashire County Council invited applications for the post of "temporary part-time libraries North-West inter-library loan business unit administration assistant."

According to the Plain English Campaign, which promotes the use of simple, understandable language, the position beats the previous record set by an advert six years ago for "part-time healthcare team foot health gain facilitators."

Not all companies take such a rigidly formal approach to titles. Ben & Jerry's, the U.S. ice cream firm, lets its staff choose their own, with the consequence that it now employs the "Grand Poobah of the Joy Gang" and the "Primal Ice Cream Therapist." And Jeff Taylor, the head of international recruitment firm Monster, prefers to be addressed formally by the title "Chief Monster."

But Plain English Campaign spokesman John Lister told CNN that opaque job titles were symptomatic of a toleration of impenetrable language in the workplace. "A problem with a lot of job titles is that people focus on where the person will fit in, rather than concentrating on what the person is actually going to be doing," said Lister. "The office is where people feel the need to concentrate more on their image and how they come across rather than getting their message across.Also within a lot of organizations you have a lot of different levels of bureaucracy and hierarchy and that makes the problem of communication worse."

English may not be the only language in which meaning occasionally gets lost in a blizzard of words. But Lister said its adoption as the international language of business made the need to make it as plain and simple as possible more important then ever. "When you have people using a second language or if you're translating material it can very easily be misinterpreted," he warned, pointing out that nuances and metaphors such as sporting analogies can often be lost, or misunderstood, in translation.

As well as being confusing, over-complicated language can also be bad for business. Korean Airlines handed a lucrative contract to build flight simulators to a French company because its employees spoke a simpler and more intelligible English than their counterparts at a British rival.

Lister said that companies could save time and money by changing their staff's approach to language. "Managers in particular can help the cause by fostering a culture where the use of words to impress rather than inform isn't rewarded," he said. "And also by putting across the point that communicating clearly is a good thing that saves time and money for the company. Start with very plain English making the point you are trying to put across and then dress it up if necessary to make it more formal or professional. Start with the point and the meaning and then move onto the words rather than the other way round."

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7) AUDIO/On the Media: Absolut exhaustion [Emission radio avec transcription, cette fois-ci sur l'abandon par le vodka Absolut de ses campagnes publicitaires mettant en scène la bouteille.]
http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/transcripts_011306_skin.html

ABSOLUT EXHAUSTION

January 20, 2006

RICK KARR: From natural cures to the water of life. Absolut Vodka's rise from obscurity to the top of the premium vodka category it essentially created is a case study in effective advertising. Its 25-year print campaign was simple, centered on the shape of the bottle, and memorable, if occasionally inscrutable. But this week, Absolut dropped the campaign. The brand launched its first television ad, which features images such as the Absolut Road Trip, which is an Apollo moon landing to the rest of us, and only one shot of the iconic bottle. Richard Lewis spent years at the ad agency TBWA\Chiat\Day supervising the Absolut account. He's also written two books on the campaign, Absolut Book and Absolut Sequel. Richard, welcome to On the Media.

RICHARD LEWIS: Thank you. Good to be here.

RICK KARR: So here's a brand that, back in 1979, when it first entered the U.S. market, it was nearly unknown. It wasn't even all that – [OVERTALK]

RICHARD LEWIS: It wasn't nearly unknown. It was entirely unknown.

RICK KARR: And my understanding is it wasn't even all that popular in "Country of Sweden," as it says on the label.

RICHARD LEWIS: No. Actually, it was a product that had been around Sweden for over 100 years, but they weren't doing enough business to merit its continuation. So they really had to pump up the export. And the United States, being a rich country and a country with a lot of vodka drinkers, seemed like a great place to go.

RICK KARR: Okay. So by the early 1990s, sales of Absolut had increased about 150-fold, according to some research that we did. Is that all down to the advertising? What was it about this campaign that worked?

RICHARD LEWIS: Well, I think everything about the campaign worked because what the advertising managed to do was sort of become a cultural marker. So, for instance, when Andy Warhol anointed, in a manner of speaking, Keith Haring to do the next Absolut Artist ad, there was also an unveiling of the piece of art at the Whitney. So there was a big event, which attracted the press, that helped make the brand, you know, more well-known. What was unusual is that artists flocked to the campaign to help make themselves famous, what I call reverse borrowed interest. There was an artist, pretty well-known now, who will tell you that Absolut really launched him. His name is Romero Britto. He lives in Florida, born in Brazil, and he's a real character. And it was Absolut that put Britto on the map.

RICK KARR: That old campaign did have this iconic status. I mean, I think about college dorm rooms in the '80s or '90s where you'd see a lot of the ads on the walls of students' rooms. Was that part of the aim, to get people to almost like start collecting these ads?

RICHARD LEWIS: You can't create a campaign and say, okay, we're going to make these ads collectable. That is never going to work. But because they looked so darn good, people would want to hang them up on their walls. In fact, it even showed up in an episode of "The Sopranos," because when Meadow went to Columbia, you know, she decorated her dorm room with Absolut ads.

RICK KARR: Do you remember offhand which ads Meadow Soprano had on the walls of her room?

RICHARD LEWIS: Oh, Rick, she must have had 60 ads up on the wall.

RICK KARR: [LAUGHS]

RICHARD LEWIS: And I suspect, you know, Meadow didn't hand-pick them. But clearly in the late '80s and the early to mid-'90s there was a craze about it, deservedly so, because I think it's going to be remembered as, if not the greatest, certainly right up there, print advertising campaigns ever. You know, even Advertising Age, when it ranked the best campaigns of the 20th century, noted that Absolut, which was ranked number seven in the hundred best campaigns, was the only one to do it without TV. Print actually works. People do read magazines. Imagine that!

RICK KARR: [LAUGHS] By law, vodka has to be tasteless, colorless and odorless. I mean, vodka is pretty much vodka, right? So as an advertiser, how do you define Absolut as something that's different? Is it the "cool factor" of these cultural associations?

RICHARD LEWIS: I think people, first of all, become convinced that the vodka tastes different. Grey Goose has become a very successful brand on a taste platform. Can I identify one vodka or another after a blind taste test? Not at all. Goran Lundquist, who was the president of Absolut, had a great line. He said, "People are drinking the ads as much as they're drinking the vodka." And I think Absolut tasted better because of the advertising.

RICK KARR: Richard, thanks a lot for joining us. We appreciate it.

RICHARD LEWIS: You're welcome.

RICK KARR: Richard Lewis is an alum of the ad agency TBWA\Chiat\Day.

RICHARD LEWIS: [CHUCKLES]

RICK KARR: And he's the author of Absolut Book and Absolut Sequel.

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8) Mother Jones: Limited ambitions [Une litanie de statistiques pour montrer comment les choses restent difficiles pour les femmes aux Etats Unis.]
http://www.motherjones.com/news/exhibit/2006/01/limited_ambitions.html
Limited Ambitions
Why Women Can't Win for Trying

Clara Jeffery (editor)
January/February 2006 Issue Women make 80¢ on the male dollar, even accounting for time off to raise kids. If that factor is not accounted for, women make 56¢.

Over her career, the average working woman loses $1.2 million to wage inequity.

Since 1963, when the Equal Pay Act was signed, the wage gap has closed by less than half a cent per year.

In 1963, RFK withdrew his nomination to a club that had spurned a black official and formed a club that didn’t admit women.

3 board members of Catalyst—a workplace-equity advocacy group—belong to Augusta National Golf Club, which bans women.

One is the CEO of GE, which won a 2004 Catalyst Award, although the company has a below-average rate of female executives.

Companies with women in top jobs see 35% higher returns than those without.

74% of female executives have a spouse who’s employed full time. 75% of male execs have a spouse who’s not employed.

42% of female execs over 40 don’t have kids.

For full-time working fathers, each child correlates to a 2.1% earnings increase. For working moms, it’s a 2.5% loss.

Every industrialized country except the U.S. and Australia has paid parental leave with a guaranteed job on return to work.

86% of guests on Sunday-morning political talk shows are men. So are 80% of the guests on The Daily Show.

Only 5 of 20-odd “thought-leader” magazines have ever had a woman as editor-in-chief. Two of those jobs were held by Tina Brown.

Only 24% of recent works in The New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, Vanity Fair, and the New York Times Magazine were written by women, according to WomenTK.com.

1/3 of those were articles on gender or family or were short stories or memoirs.

41% of Mother Jones’ writers during the same period were women. This issue only 11% are.

Magazines that run lists of “best” firms for women to work for often accept pay-to-play advertising or use self-reported data. Working Mother lists firms facing class-action suits for sex harassment and pregnancy discrimination.

Working Mother recently found Allstate, American Express, and General Mills among the 8 best firms for women of color. At each, 30% of new hourly hires are women of color, but 0% of newly hired executives are.

Women over 65 are almost twice as likely to be poor as men.

Actresses over 40 account for 9% of movie roles. Actors over 40 account for 30%.

Anne Bancroft was 36 when she played Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate. Dustin Hoffman was 30.

Chances that a Best Actress winner portrayed a prostitute, a nun, or a mute: 1 in 8.

Since orchestras started requiring musicians to audition behind screens, the number of women hired has increased 20%.

40% of married professional women feel their husbands do less work around the house than they create.

Each teenage girl increases a mom’s weekly housework by 1.5 hours, but leaves a dad’s unchanged. A teenage boy adds 3 hours to mom’s chores, and an hour to dad’s.

Heavyset women get fewer promotions and face more job discrimination. Heavyset men do not.

Models weigh 23% less than average women. In 1986 it was only 8% less.

The above statistics were quoted in a press release for a Dove product whose adcampaign uses full-figured models but the use of which is claimed to reduce cellulite.

Asked to pick a partner for a relationship, college men tend to choose women in subordinate jobs. College women show no preference, nor, for a one-night stand, do men.

Men only earn 3/4 as many B.A.s as women. Some colleges now admit to practicing affirmative action for male applicants.

Only 1/3 of female Ph.D.s who get on the tenure track before having a baby ever do so.

31.5% of Iraq's parliament are women. Only 15% of the U.S. Congress are women.

15 African nations have a higher percentage of female legislators than does the U.S.

69% of men believe America would be better off if women occupied more top political jobs. Only 61% of women agree.

Among Republicans, that split is 52% to 34%.

Under Bush , the Labor Dept. has eliminated 25 publications on pay inequity and child care.

After a woman filed a sexual-harassment complaint against her Merrill Lynch superior, he circulated an article titled “Stop Whining,” which warned that “constant complaining can cost you your job.”

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9) Seattle Times: Horizontal corduroys make you look phat [Entretien avec l'inventeur du velours cotellé horizontal, qui semble-t-il ne fait pas grossir]
 http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2002712783_cords03.html

Horizontal corduroys make you look phat

By Pamela Sitt, Seattle Times staff reporter

There is a myth that exists in the world of high fashion — let us call it the "corduroy conspiracy" — and Chris Lindland is on a mission to break it wide open. Sideways.

As creator of Lindland's Cordarounds, which have gained notoriety for their curious horizontal wales, it is in Lindland's best interest to insist that horizontal corduroy does not make you look fat.

"You can see how, particularly on the skirt, the horizontal alignment is more of a texture than the dreaded horizontal lines that women fear," Lindland said in a recent phone interview. "Sometimes it takes an outsider to make folks think differently about fashion."

The skirts are probably a tougher sell, women being women and all. But since launching in 2005, Lindland's Cordarounds (www.cordarounds.com) have become a kooky phenomenon and even inspired a recent cartoon in The New Yorker.

There's currently only one store where you can walk in and buy a pair of corduroy pants that go sideways instead of up and down, and that store happens to be in Seattle. The owner of Queen Anne men's boutique Oslo's liked them so much, he wrote to the San Francisco-based online retailer repeatedly until the company agreed to let him sell Cordarounds.

"We've been very successful selling them online. We're like an online fad," Lindland said. "There have been a ton of retailers who have contacted us, but [Oslo's owner] John McDowell is a cuckoo fan of Cordarounds. Basically, he's a nice guy, and if someone is nice enough to write to you 10 times ... "

We wondered what could make anyone go cuckoo for corduroy, so we asked.

Q: Why make corduroys that are horizontal instead of vertical?

A: I simply asked how come they never made them and nobody gave me a good answer. I thought I'd make them for the hell of it.

Q: Nobody makes them because horizontal stripes make you look fat.

advertising
A: I can honestly say that's a misconception that in no way applies to a man and the clothing decisions he makes. I myself was not aware of the fashion taboo of having horizontal stripes. It took an ignorant person with no fashion background to come upon this discovery.

Q: Are you surprised by the response?

A: Everybody likes them. It's a novelty. If you're gonna buy a pair of cords every year, and you can buy a pair that's slightly different, why not do it? We've sold over 2,500 pairs online. All you need to do is to make that subtle a change to something people commonly wear, and all of a sudden, it's a breakthrough. It just seems like some crazy fluke that nobody thought to do it.

Q: Can the horizontal waling catch crumbs?

A: The ridges are not ridged enough to catch crumbs. But they make no noise when you walk in them.

Q: Is it true that Cordarounds are a) a girl magnet and b) a conversation-starter?

A: Women do instinctively touch your leg. This is marketing gold. It's a very funny thing, people will always ask me about my pants. Yes, it becomes a conversation piece. Cordarounds can essentially hijack conversations at cocktail parties or wherever you are. We know when people are buying these pants, they're buying a story.

Q: What is the story?

A: I send out e-mails every week. We give people new material all the time by which to discuss their Cordarounds. My goal is to put a new funny anecdote in people's mouths on a weekly basis. ... We've succeeded, essentially, by being funny.

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10) The Economist: Kickball [Un jeu de cour de récré remballe les adultes américains.]
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_VDGTQDJ
Kickball: Up off the couch
Oct 20th 2005 | LITTLE ROCK

At last: a sport for American beer drinkers

ON ANY Sunday afternoon you can expect to see a squad of Zombies, dressed in spray-painted white button-downs with fake blood dripping on their arms, an oversized inflatable fish as a mascot and, in the background, plenty of beer. Like the Eco-Savants, the Loaded Bases and the Betty Ford All Stars, the Zombies are an Arkansas kickball team.

Kickball, a playground game created in the Czech Republic in 1922, might be described as a mixture between baseball and soccer. Players kick a big soft ball and run between bases. It is quickly becoming the team sport of choice for what might be called “mature athletes” in cities in the South and mid-west.

The Little Rock Kickball Association was founded by Larry Betz, a former bartender, in 2004. Mr Betz, who now calls himself “the Grand Poobah of All Things Kickball”, managed to pull in 16 teams for his first spring season. In the current autumn season, 51 teams—nearly 1,000 players—have signed up to play.

Officially there is a competitive league and a more laid-back version. In both, players are often seen drinking beer and smoking cigarettes while on the field. But it does have a competitive edge—personified by the Killer B's, a ferocious group who had won every game they had played in the past two years until they were humbled by the Superfriends earlier this month. For both the athletic and less athletic visits to physical therapists are common, with one frequent complaint being a strained quadriceps muscle in one's kicking leg and a nasty bruise on the inner thigh.

Mr Betz believes that kickball offers a lot of “non-jocks” the chance to be a part of a team; many players never participated in sports in high school. In many ways, kickball's main competitors are social clubs such as the Rotary and the Kiwanis; like them, the league spends a lot of time raising money for charity.

The Little Rock Kickball Association is part of a loose Kickball Rebel Alliance, which includes teams from other cities, including Washington, DC, and St Louis. The going rate to play is $200 per team. There is a more stringent outfit: the World Adult Kickball Association (WAKA), which started seven years ago, and now claims 22,830 players stretching across 1,030 teams and 118 divisions in 20 states. It holds its world championship in Washington, DC, next month and is busy building up leagues overseas (including one set up by marines in Iraq).

WAKA calls kickball “the new American pastime” (the motto is trademarked), charges each player $65 to join and doesn't allow alcohol on the field of play. In Little Rock, where kickball is a child's game for partially-fit grown-ups, this all seems dangerously professional. A sport that started making money or banning beer on the pitch would be dangerously like all the other games kickballers were no good at at school.

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11) The Herald: Why modern offices only let you work for 11 minutes [Encore plus sur l'étude comme quoi on ne peut travailler que 11 minutes d'affillée au bureau sans être dérangé.]
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/53977-print.shtml

W hy modern offices only let you work for 11 minutes
BRIAN DONNELLY January 10 2006

It has been described as multi-tasking madness as office workers struggle to balance their normal workload with an increasing number of e-mails and other demands. New research has found that, instead of helping workers through the day, new technology can bring increased stress and disruption to busy staff. The study shows modern-day staff work for just 11 minutes before they are interrupted by an e-mail, phone call or a metaphorical tap on the shoulder from a colleague.

Researchers have calculated that interruptions consume an average of 2.1 hours of every working day, or 28% of the average person's routine. It has reached such an extent that workers are becoming locked in what was described as a mire of multi-tasking, and one expert said there had been a tenfold rise in the number of people suffering from what he called work-induced attention-deficit disorder. The two hours of lost productivity included not only unimportant interruptions and distractions, but also the recovery time associated with getting back on track.

Once people are interrupted, it takes an average of nearly half an hour to return to the original task, but some workers admit their concentration is ruined for the rest of the day.

The report, The Cost of Not Paying Attention, was written by a research team headed by Gloria Mark and Victor Gonzalez, of the University of California.
They studied a random sample of 36 office workers and found that the employees devoted an average of just 11 minutes to a project before the ping of an e-mail, the ring of the phone, or a verbal interruption from a manager or colleague pulled them in another direction.

Once they were interrupted, it took on average of 25 minutes to return to the original task, if they managed to do so at all that day. Workers in the study were juggling an average of 12 projects each, a situation one subject described as "constant, multi-tasking craziness". The five biggest causes of interruption were a colleague stopping to talk, being called away from the desk (or leaving voluntarily), arrival of new e-mail, doing another task on the computer, or a phone call.

Edward Hallowell, a leading psychiatrist, said he had seen 10 times more people in the number of patients with what he described as work-induced attention-deficit disorder than in recent years. Dr Hallowell said: "They complained that they were more irritable than they wanted to be. Their productivity was declining and they couldn't get organised." He has branded workers' compulsive use of mobiles, computers, and Blackberries as "screen-sucking".

Business leaders recognised that interruptions happen, but said they should be managed alongside regular workload. David Lonsdale, assistant director of CBI Scotland, said: "Interruptions, from within or outwith the workplace, can sometimes make it seem hard to get things done, particularly with the growth in use of new technology. "However, unexpected calls or queries do not necessarily have to disrupt the working day. Less urgent items can be done later, and those pop-up boxes and bells that signal the arrival of new e-mail can be disabled. Telephone calls can also be screened. "Constant questions from colleagues might suggest they have been given inadequate training or instruction from the outset."

Mary Czerwinski, a senior researcher at Microsoft, has been helping the computer giant design alternatives to current software products to allow workers to stay on task for longer periods, even as on-screen interruptions arrive.

In next-generation systems, interruptions are designed to be less intrusive, without flashes, pop-ups or pings. For example, e-mail alerts will appear on the periphery of a screen that is larger than today's standard, so that workers remain concentrated on their main task.

People such as Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, claims to stay focused by avoiding junk food and doing daily workouts. Although a serious multi-tasker and mobile phone fan, Ms Rice does not rely on e-mail or a hand-held computer, but carries her agenda in her head.

Donald Trump, the entrepreneur who once negotiated a book deal in 15 minutes, believes in slowing down and focusing when the office gets too frenetic. He said: "I will literally take a breath and allow things to settle a bit. I also set aside quiet time each morning and evening for reading and assessing."

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The British concept of hire-purchase has, however, been there in India for more than 6 decates. The first hire-purchase company is believed to be Commercial Credit Corporation, successor to Auto Supply Company. While this company was based in Madras, Motor and General Finance and Instalment Supply Company were set up in North India. These companies were set up in the 1920s and 1930s.

Development of Hire-purchase took two forms: consumer durables and automobiles.

Consumer durables hire-purchase was promoted by the dealers in the respective equipment. Thus, Singer Sewing Machine company, or Murphy radio dealers would provide instalment facilities on hire-purchase basis to the customers of their products.

The other side developed very fast - hire-purchase of commercial vehicles. The dealers in commercial vehicles as well as pure financing companies sprang up. The value of the asset being good and repossession being easy, this branch of financing activity flourished fast, although until recently, most of automobile financing business was in hands of family-owned businesses.

Leasing and Hire-purchase: A vanishing distinction:

Essentially, asset-based financing in India particularly by non-banking financial companies is split in two documentation modes - lease and hire-purchase. These two are technically different instruments, but in essence, there is not much that differs between the two, except for the caption. Click here for more on comparison between lease and hire-purchase.

In spite of the substantive similarity, historically, there has been a diametric separation between these two forms. The assets usually subject matter of hire-purchase have been different from those generally leased out. Leasing has been used mostly for plant and machinery, while hire-purchase has commonly been used for vehicles. Even the players have been different.

The reasons for this diametric distinction are more historical than logical. Hire-purchase, essentially a British form, entered India during the Colonial era, and thrived as almost the only form of external finance available for commercial vehicles. For the financiers, as witnessed World-over, commercial vehicles was the natural choice for several asset-features he loves: lasting value, ready secondary market, self-paying feature, etc. Hence, the industry of hire-purchase became synonymous with truck-financing. Besides, the motor vehicles laws gave the surest legal protection any law could give to a financier: the financier would not have to carry any of the operational risks of a motor vehicle, and yet, any transfer of the vehicle would not be possible without the financier's assent.

Leasing, essentially a US-innovation, entered the country significantly in the early 80s, and was propagated as an alternative to traditional modes of industrial finance. Besides, the early motivation (which continues with a number of players even now) of leasing was capital allowances, more significantly the investment allowance, which was not available for transport vehicles. Hence, the leasing form historically clung to industrial plant and machinery.

For several years, there was no lease of vehicles, because the Motor Vehicles law protection was not applicable to a lease, and there was no investment allowance on vehicles, and for reciprocal reasons, there was no hire-purchase of industrial machinery.

These reasons have vanished over time.

* The Motor Vehicles law now treats leases and hire-purchase at par from the viewpoint of financier-protection.
* Investment allowance has been abolished, and hence, there are no predominant tax-preferences to a lease.
* The RBI treats lease and hire-purchase at par and has stopped giving a distinctive classification to leasing and hire-purchase companies.
* The accounting norms lead to the same effect on pre-tax income, as also balance sheet values, be it a lease or hire-purchase transactions.

Therefore, income-tax and sales-tax treatment apart, there is not much that is different between lease and hire-purchase. The choice between the two is by and large open, subject to tax consequences.

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Picard

When we got back to the apartment on Friday afternoon, a couple of us took a nap and the rest unpacked and relaxed. As soon as his nap was over, my husband headed out for a few necessary food items. If we didn't buy the items on Friday we'd be stuck for the rest of the weekend because all the grocery stores around us were closed for the holiday on Saturday and are normally closed on Sunday. So my husband bought some milk, bread, meat, cheese and apples -- at five different stores (the bakery, the cheese store, the Italian store, the grocery store, and the butcher). He just bought the apples at the grocery store so he didn't have to run to the fruit and vegetable store;) We supplemented our meals with some frozen corn, spinach and blueberries, so today I had to restock.

One of the secrets of French cuisine, if I may call it that, is that in France there is a whole chain of frozen food stores to make easy meals. This icy mecca is called PICARD. As far as I can tell, many French use Picard (there are two stores within an 8 minute walk for me).

I can't tell you how many times I have had something at a person's house and when I asked about the recipe, I was told "Picard!" Personally, I buy fruits, vegetables and chicken nuggets there, but there is so much more. For instance, you could buy frozen shrimp that really taste wonderful as shrimp cocktail. There are frozen pastry pie shells (to use with the frozen fruit) when you want to make a delicious dessert for uninvited last minute guests. There are frogs legs, leeks, escargot, steak, salmon, crepes, quiches, galette des rois, soups, and potatoes of all kinds (pommes dauphine are the best). The list doesn't stop. And best of all, if you don't have time even to shop for that frozen food, they deliver -- at least in the Paris area.

-- said Auntie M in Paris

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14) The Economist: American justice [Présentation d'un nouveau livre sur le système de justice courant des Etats Unis.]
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=3764227
American justice:Rough and unready
Mar 17th 2005

*****
Book details:
Courtroom 302: A Year Behind the Scenes in an American Criminal Courthouse
By Steve Bogira

Knopf; 416 pages; $25
*****

America's Bill of Rights pledges fairness and justice for all. But in overworked county courts up and down the land, the reality is often far less rosy

THE United States has one of the largest and most complex criminal-justice systems in the world. Fifty state court systems, each with its own traditions and legal codes, operate in tandem with a large network of federal courts. Both state and federal systems have an elaborate ladder of appellate courts. Some of the most contentious cases begin in state courts but are then allowed to migrate to federal courts.

At the top of this hierarchy sits the Supreme Court. The promise of justice guaranteed by the Bill of Rights and the world's most durable constitution is one of the things that makes America special, even unique. Yet from the bottom of this great legal pyramid, things appear rather different. To the average criminal defendant, standing before a case-hardened judge in a local court, an overworked public defender by his side, the grand promises of the American constitution can seem a world away. Steve Bogira, a veteran reporter, spent a year in an American court to find out what really goes on there.

Mr Bogira's book is a brilliant piece of journalism and a genuine eye-opener. He supplements his acute observations of proceedings in a courtroom in Chicago's Cook County with meticulous research which provides the context, both locally and nationally, for understanding what is going on. He also interviews many of the participants—the judge, lawyers, defendants, witnesses, even the courthouse's police guards—involved in the cases he observes. He visits the crammed jail cells connected to the county's busy courthouse, where defendants are kept before hearings. Deftly weaving all these elements together, Mr Bogira has produced a compelling narrative, that is often more entertaining than most of the cop shows which are so popular on American television.

The picture that emerges is tawdry and disappointing. At the county court level, many of the constitutional rights of which Americans are so proud have degenerated into empty formulas. The vast majority of defendants are too poor to hire their own lawyer, and receive only five or ten minutes with their public defender. Most quickly agree to a plea bargain.

Even the few trials that are held rarely seem to get to the heart of the matter. Witnesses, including the police, lie; lawyers on both sides bend or conceal the truth. Until recently, even some of the judges at the Cook County courthouse were corrupt, although the worst seem to have been caught and prosecuted for taking bribes.

Mr Bogira does not seem to have any specific agenda of his own. He does not lecture the reader or propose any sweeping reforms. But two features clearly emerge from his chronicle.

First, American courts, at least in big cities, are swamped by a flood of non-violent drug offences, most committed by addicts who continually reoffend. This unending, and unsuccessful, war on drug-use has so distorted the legal system that genuine due process, as promised by the constitution and enshrined by two centuries of Supreme Court judgments, is impossible to deliver. Instead a melancholy stream of poor people flows through what is little more than a processing centre.

Second, the taste for severe retribution which has prevailed in America over the past few decades has produced such long criminal sentences that, unless represented by an expensive private lawyer, defendants can no longer afford to exercise even the few rights they do retain. Most publicly defended accused agree to a plea bargain because of an unspoken, though very real, “trial tax”; if they demand a trial and lose, a draconian sentence will be imposed. If they plead guilty right away, they often get off much more lightly, sometimes escaping jail altogether. Judges, in other words, have been given enormous power to bully and cajole defendants, and for most defendants trials have become superfluous. Mr Bogira watches a few cases where even apparently innocent defendants agree to a plea bargain rather than run the risk of a trial conviction.

It may well be the case that impoverished defendants in other countries are not treated any better. Maybe this is the best that can be expected in any busy big-city courtroom which has to process hundreds of cases every year. Maybe. But it is not what most Americans believe their criminal-justice system to be.