Research & Rescue

Panera's Pay-What-You-Want Restaurant

I've heard of this concept before and wondered if it would work. Apparently, it does. Panera Bread gave customers suggested prices for its menu items and the majority of patrons paid in full. Moreover, Panera thinks it should be able to recover costs for doing this within just a few months.

I can see a couple of ugly caveats, given my musings on human nature lately. The first is the people who will say, "Well, Panera is clearly able to cut the price, so they should just cut the price on the menu and let me pay less." The second is the notion that every business will do this and , therefore, we can cut the social safety net.

Here's hoping, though, that the success of this experiment will spread across the restaurant industry in this difficult economic climate.

Read about it at www.good.is

Is non-profit necessarily a better world?

I had an interesting discussion last Friday with some local business people and artists about irritating things that happen in corporate culture - the kinds of things that make you feel as if you're a Dilbert character. One of them astutely pointed out that small businesses come with their own share of idiosyncrasies. I have been there too and will verify that. I think that many of us in the corporate world fantasize about "giving up the rat race and doing something that matters". While that's important and perhaps even noble, it's also important to remember that human nature is at play in whatever work environment you are. I have been on some volunteer endeavors that were worthy of psychoanalysis. There can be just as much cattiness, sniping, incompetence, etc. than anywhere else.

Rosetta Thurman has some great related advice for those seeking positions in the non-profit arena. The grass is not always greener.

A friend of mine just decided to quit her nonprofit job. It was making her so miserable that it would sometimes bring her to tears. As I spoke with her, I was reminded that many people think just because you work for a good cause, your workplace will always be hunky-dory. You’ll come into the office or program site in the morning and everyone will be smiling and jumping up and down with excitement about saving the world. And your boss and board members will be just swell people of the highest character. While these are all nice sentiments about nonprofit work culture, they’re just not always true. Nonprofit workplaces can be plagued with the same irritations as for-profit companies: office politics, incompetent bosses, lying, stealing, lazy co-workers, etc. But if you don’t go into it with rose-colored glasses, you can avoid hating your nonprofit job.

Read the rest at www.rosettathurman.com

Sometimes I hate mommy #tabbytuesday

 

Immigrant farm workers' challenge: Take our jobs

SAN FRANCISCO -- In a tongue-in-cheek call for immigration reform, farm workers are teaming up with comedian Stephen Colbert to challenge unemployed Americans: Come on, take our jobs.

Farm workers are tired of being blamed by politicians and anti-immigrant activists for taking work that should go to Americans and dragging down the economy, said Arturo Rodriguez, the president of the United Farm Workers of America.

So the group is encouraging the unemployed - and any Washington pundits or anti-immigrant activists who want to join them - to apply for the some of thousands of agricultural jobs being posted with state agencies as harvest season begins.

All applicants need to do is fill out an online form under the banner "I want to be a farm worker" athttp://www.takeourjobs.org, and experienced field hands will train them and connect them to farms.

Read the rest at www.washingtonpost.com

Cultural identity in whales

...many biologists who study whales and dolphins ...urge that negotiators redouble efforts to abolish commercial whaling and dolphin hunting entirely. As these scientists see it, the evidence is high and mounting that the cetacean order includes species second only to humans in mental, social and behavioral complexity, and that maybe we shouldn’t talk about what we’re harvesting or harpooning, but whom.

“At the very least, you could put it in line with hunting chimps,” said Hal Whitehead, who studies sperm whales at Dalhousie University in Halifax. “When you compare relative brain size, or levels of self-awareness, sociality, the importance of culture, cetaceans come out on most of these measures in the gap between chimps and humans. They fit the philosophical definition of personhood.”

How much more personable can you get than to wave the flag for tribe or team? Among sperm and killer whales, Dr. Whitehead said, “there’s a feeling of what one might call ethnicity or cultural identity, of saying, ‘This is my clan, and it’s different from the others.’ ” One way whales express their ethnicity is through dialect. Every clan has its signature call, and in regions of the ocean where two clans overlap, the differences between calls become exaggerated. “It’s like if you’re Irish and you run across someone who is Scottish or Welsh,” said Dr. Whitehead. “You’ll speak with an even stronger Irish accent to make it really clear whose group you belong to.”

via www.nytimes.com (hat tip Chris Blattman)

What's So Bad About Antiperspirant?

Antiperspirant has long been the punching bag of the personal-care world: It's been slammed with claims about how it causes Alzheimer's and breast cancer, it's been blacklisted by crusading hippies, and it's been the subject of many "please forward to everyone you know" emails. It's true that long before people were wondering what was in their shampoo, they were a little nervous about their deodorant or antiperspirant. And yet we all use it, every day, and for good reason: Smelling sucks.

But even as the viral scares have died down, many experts still think we're better off not using the stuff. In order to better understand why, it's helpful to look at some of the main ingredients used in them and figure out what, if anything, there is to be scared about. Then the better part: what to use instead.

(Unsurprisingly, almost all antiperspirants use roughly the same ingredients, so we've surveyed a particularly popular men's, a women's, and a unisex and assessed the most commonly used and controversial ingredients.)

Read the rest at www.good.is

Centerfold #Caturday

Watch out, Mister Licky - Chaco's got his mojo working today. You've got competition in the cuteness department.

 

Super Sexy Abdominal Thrusts

I'm probably really going to skew my hit rate by posting it but it's too good to pass up. Thanks to Decisions for Heroes - developers of a fine rescue team software package - for sharing!

Video: Mike Rowe on hard work

Those of you know me personally know what a TEDhead I am. Yesterday evening, I spent some time rooting around the TED site because I saw that there was something called an associate membership that included shipments of books (!). The price was daunting, so I decided to root around some more to find the book list. As far as I know, there isn't one. So, I set out to make one and will share when I'm done. BUT... while on my quest for speakers' books I came across this gem. Who would have thought that Mike Rowe would be a TEDster? Actually, it looks like it's a TED partner conference on entertainment but still.

It's a great video, though I didn't really care for his statements about OSHA and I have a feeling that many of the people to which he refers (saying they don't think it's important) agree with me. If you think I've misinterpreted what he said, set me straight. I may be oversensitive. At any rate, Rowe's anecdote about his show on sheep is hilarious and this one's well worth your time.

Action: Don't reduce Medicare payments to doctors

Received from Democrat Women of Sandoval County via e-mail today:

Doctors accepting Medicare are scheduled to receive a 21% reduction in reimbursements based on current Medicare law. AARP has been lobbying strongly to get Congress to stop this reduction – we believe that such a reduction will discourage doctors from accepting Medicare. AARP has been pushing Congress to take action before the upcoming summer recess.

Please call 1-800-944-6711 (toll free) to reach our U. S. Senators and provide the following message: "I need access to my doc. Please fix this before the recess!”