Standard Retail Practice

We call this "researching the competition".


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It's Patriot Day!...Hurray?

Today is Patriot Day. Not to be confused with Patriot's Day or National Patriotes Day. It is the commemoration of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks enshrined in United States law.

M informs me that you are supposed to wear red on Patriot Day. This presents a problem for me because of certain procedural difficulties I have with laundry. However, M told me that it is okay to wear a deep maroon instead. Whew! I wasn't sure where to go for the official color scheme for Patriot Day.

Let's get to the nut of the issue, Patriot Day is a stupid name. I'm not saying that it is stupid to be a patriot or to remember lives lost in a calculated attack on civilians and its aftermath. It's just the name that is dumb.

We aren't celebrating some special person who was particularly patriotic. We aren't celebrating some special event of the country. We aren't even remembering something was was uniquely American. Although the attacks happened on planes of the United States in the United States, the people who died on that day came from countries around the world. The intent of the attacks was to hurt the US, but also was to strike at the entire non-Islamic World. Remembering the attacks and deaths by waving a flag is the wrong thing to do.

A part of the officially mandated observances, we are all supposed to observe a moment of silence at 8:46 Eastern Daylight Time. This is a better way to remember the day. Take a moment to think about what happened. Take a few minutes to remember where you were when you heard the news. Talk to friends about what was lost. Re-read the articles and reports about the attacks, so you won't mis-remember.

Maybe, we would call September 11 "Remembrance Day".

Which is exactly what President Obama did.



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Ancient Cup Decoded and National Geographic

National Geographic had an article today entitled "Bible-Era Mystery Vessel Found -- Code Stumps Experts". I enjoy Nat'l Geo's coverage in general, but I do have qualms about their accuracy. As far as I can tell, they are always more accurate than the mainstream media, however they fall short of being entirely correct and they do occasionally go for the cheap headline.

This article is a good example of both. The information was initially correct, but is now outdated. A translation has been made. As for the headline, not being able to immediately decipher a code isn't the same as being "stumped". It took a while, but eventually the reseachers were able to decode the inscription with help from others in their field.

What did it say?

"Rome's Third Legion was assigned to Judea and all I got was this dumb cup!"

Flu News for the Stores

Here's a memo I sent to the store this morning. It has some general information that is useful even outside of our small world. Some of this information is a summary of a summary, but it is a place to start the conversation:

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TO: All Stores

FROM: Jairus

RE: Good news and bad news about the flu

Good News:

There is some good news about the H1N1 (swine) flu: it is no more deadly than the seasonal flu. If you, as an individual, can survive the regular flu, than you can survive the swine flu. For most of us, there is no reason to retreat into the bedroom with a three month supply of food to wait out the pandemic. If you get sick, you will be miserable, but will survive.

Bad News

The bad news is that you are more likely to get it. New estimates say that about 50% of Americans will get the H1N1 virus. (http://wellness.blogs.time.com/2009/08/25/h1n1-death-projections-doing-the-math/). This is significantly more people than get the regular flu. Even though the chances of an individual dying from the flu are the same as the regular flu, more individuals will likely get H1N1, so more people will die.

What You Can Do:

What can you do? First and most importantly: GET VACCINATED! This year, you need to get 2 flu shots: one for the regular seasonal flu and the second for H1N1. Vaccine manufacturers are trying to make the shots available as quickly as possible. You may be able to get one as early as mid-September. Keep in touch with local pharmacies and your doctor’s office so that you will know when you can get a shot.

• CDC recommends a yearly seasonal flu vaccine as the first and most important step in protecting against seasonal influenza. While there are many different flu viruses, the seasonal flu vaccine protects against the three seasonal viruses that research suggests will be most common.
• Vaccination is especially important for people at high risk of serious flu complications, including young children, pregnant women, people with chronic health conditions like asthma, diabetes or heart and lung disease and people 65 years and older. Seasonal flu vaccine is also important for health care workers, and other people who live with or care for high risk people to prevent giving the flu to those at high risk
• A seasonal vaccine will not protect you against novel H1N1.
• A new vaccine against novel H1N1 is being produced and will be available in the coming months as an option for prevention of novel H1N1 infection.
• People at greatest risk for novel H1N1 infection include children, pregnant women, and people with chronic health conditions like asthma, diabetes or heart and lung disease.

The immediate and ongoing thing to do to prevent infection of you, your family, and your friends is to follow the usual guidelines to avoid the flu.

• Wash your hands, using soap and scrubbing, several times a day in addition to the usual practices of washing before and after meals and before and after going to the restroom.
• Use hand sanitizer frequently and vigorously while you are working at the counter.
• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way.
• Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
• If you are sick with flu-like illness, CDC recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities. (Your fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.) Keep away from others as much as possible. This is to keep from making others sick.
• While sick, limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.
• Visit the CDC website (http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/) to find out what to do if you get sick with the flu and how to care for someone at home who is sick with the flu.

As store management, there are several things we would like you to do to assist people in fighting the flu.

• Keep hand sanitizer on the counter for the staff.
• Supply facial tissue (Kleenex) for your staff and for the customers.
• Send your staff members home when they are sick. Do not make exceptions.
• When vaccines become available, remind your staff to get a shot. When we get more information on the availability of the vaccines, we will let you know about reimbursement for the shot.

The H1N1 flu pandemic is a health emergency. How serious and how deadly it is depends on whether we take action or not. If we take precautions, then next year, we can listen to the bloggers and talking heads on radio and TV complain about how overblown the preparations were. If we don’t take precautions, we can listen to them ask whose fault it was that so many people were sick and so many people died.

It's easy to see how it was hidden...

An interesting blurb from NPR showed up in my news reader:

I haven't had time to listen to the article, yet. I would really like to know more about the half-person they killed.

Hello, Sir or Madam. May I interest you in fraud?

I was driving up to the house with a big bag of Mexican take-out when I noticed that someone else was pulling up to the curb. As I turned into the driveway, he got out with his handy clipboard and started to look over the roof. I was hoping in vain that he was looking for a rare condor and thought he had spotted one, but as I got out of the car, he started up the driveway towards me with the ever useful, “Sorry to interrupt you…”

He was a general contractor who was offering to inspect my roof and provide a report for my insurance company. That’s according to the information he handed me in writing. What he said was that, since our neighborhood had been declared a “catastrophe area” that my insurance company could not raise my rates if I filed a claim and that he could get me a roof for no more than my deductible, guaranteed!

The idea is that he inspects the roof and finds damage from winds and hail. Because of the age of my roof, patching will not work, so I have to get a whole new roof. Just glancing at my roof was enough to show him that I have significant wind uplift and missing shingles to qualify for a new roof. He assured me that he would use all kinds of great materials and labor and that his work is top-notch!

Sounds great! Except the part where I conspire with him to commit fraud.

My roof has no wind uplift. I don’t even have missing shingles because Gomez & Son replaced them about a month ago. What he was actually proposing was to lie about the condition of my roof and stick the insurance company with the bill.

Yes. Hmmm.

So, he will lie to the insurance company, but he will tell me the truth about the quality of his work and materials. He will lie to the insurance company, but I should trust his guarantee that I won’t pay anything over my deductible. I guess I should trust him because he had a business card and a flyer and he shook my hand.

I know it is foolish, but I think that I will turn him down.

Speechless

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/jul/06/willie-herenton-delay-resignation-mayors-office/?partner=RSS


...or holding my tongue...