Calgary

Spent the week working in Calgary, Ab.  Nice city with a beautiful view of the rocky mountains.  I liked the cool weather, nice restaurants and easy going people.  I walked from the Marriott in front of the tower to work each morning.  One day took the light rail, two stops to the office, very convenient.  They have an indoor walkway called the +15 so you can avoid the really cold days.  Also a nice promenade street with shops, etc. Visit if you get a chance.  Go here for the official tourism site Visit Calgary.

technorati tags:Calgary

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Jet Blue Debacle

This was the 5:30 wakup call to get from Albany out to JFK for my 1:10 flight on JetBlue, Thursday, Feb 14, 2007.

The car, from Enterprise, was a mild mannered 4 banger with stained carpets and a malfunctioning window washing system. I was like Jim Carey in "Dumb and Dumber" trying to see throught the windshield, pulling over every 20 miles on the Thruway at the rest stops. I took a gander at the Taconic before the booth operator convinced me to backtrack the 10 miles to the Thruway, what a great stroke of fortune. Can't believe what a great job they did getting the road in shape and rest stops every 25 miles or so. Those high taxes in New York are helping your tourists get around, thanks.

So I made it to Enterprise at about 11:30 am. They did a great job with service as usual but the car was weak. The only thing about enterprise is they try so hard to provide good service that it's overdone. Then at the end they ask the obligitory, "so did we provide excellent customer service?" Am I taking a survey? Are you going to give me a coupon? Are you going to get a raise? Ok, they're nice and friendly but real, non-robotic nice and friendly is somehow better.

Next stop, the train to the terminal and the terminal. No big deal everything looks great they have an nice bag drop area and place to get a bite. My salad, powerbar and drink work out to about $20 but the food and the selection are great. Ok, breeze through security then...


It turned into a debacle. The morning flight and the evening flight to Houston were cancelled. My flight, the 1:10 boarded at 5:00 pm est, took off at about 9:00 pm est and landed at 1:00 cst. How about that! I felt luck, there were people there from the day before. JetBlue was telling everyone that the next available flight was next Tuesday. The told people to call the 1-800 number but the 1800 number said that they were not accepting calls!

Again, I felt very fortunate to fly. Many people were waiting in the terminal for my seat. The woman I sat next to connected from Boston. She said it looked the the Superdome during Katrina. I thought, they didn't have sushi and brie available down there, not so bad.

I met many nice people on my stay at JFK. We were trying to think of what it would take to passify such a crowd. There was not information available and flight were randomly cancelled or you were strung out until 11:30 pm at night, the departure time moving from hour to hour, then unceremoniously cancelled.

More communication would be good. And how about going to Wallmart and pick up a truckload of pillows and blankets for everyone. Setup a buffett line and bring in a few big screen TVs. Have your executives camp out with the common folks. Talk about an opportunity.

Learn, don't blow it next time.

Inkblots

Nothing better to do? Interpret this image of Prince at the halftime show of the superbowl and get upset about it. Maybe he was dancing suggestively too? It's a rock and roll show, what do you expect? The guy is playing the guitar, the musical phallus. Isn't every instrument a musical phallus of some sort? This is just another way to make the buzz last a little longer.

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Customer Service

Seth Godin talks about the monopolies that don't have to provide customer service but pretend they do as they ram policy down are throat, ala TSA, phone company, power company, city government, cable company, etc. What I can't understand is how small service oriented businesses can employ people who act comatose and look like they crawled out from under a bridge. Go to your local McD's in any big city and order a coffee, then go to a Starbucks and do the same. Enough said?

Read Seth Here

technorati tags:service

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Texas gov., lawmakers in vaccine dispute

Governor Perry is taking one from Bush's playbook here. If you're not for the mandated vaccination of young girls for cervical cancer with a drug sold by his supporters then you must be soft on cancer. Don't want to "protect" the youth of Texas with a very profitable "safe" vaccination from the people that sold you Vioxx. We're the government, our friends at the drug company asked us to help you. I thought George was the master of this back pocket bag job.
Here's the clip, click the link for the full article.

By LIZ AUSTIN PETERSON, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 5 minutes ago AUSTIN, Texas - Gov. Rick Perry's office challenged lawmakers Wednesday to override his order that schoolgirls be inoculated against the virus that causes cervical cancer, acknowledging for the first time that the Legislature holds that power.

Texas gov., lawmakers in vaccine dispute - Yahoo! News

technorati tags:drug, corruption

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How Humble Leaders Rock

If you've ever thought your boss was one of Satan's minions you might enjoy this article from Trizzle. It's amazing how hostile the workplace can be at times so it's great to see a great leader succeed. I suspect there are many people like this that we don't hear about because they don't toot their own horn.

From Trizzle, "How Humble Leaders Rock"

Our main man, Tony Dungy, won his first Superbowl as a coach of the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.

All week long and after the game, the media has described his “humble” persona.

1. His players love him.
2. He never shouts.
3. He never points fingers.
4. (Well, actually he does: at himself when things go wrong.)

And when bad things do happen (like during the opening kickoff at the Super Bowl), he’s calm, cool, and collected— ready for an action plan to right the wrongs.

You put him in charge of any Fortune 500 company, and you’ll see it soar higher than bald eagle on crack.

technorati tags:Leadership

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Blowing the Whistle on MSG

by Chris Gupta

Blowing The Whistle On MSG Is Our Responsibility, Get The Word Out - Share The Wealth

Current research links MSG to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). FDA records show that MSG was never actually tested, but it was given an automatic GRAS (generally regarded as safe) status as were salt and pepper in the 1950s. Children and elderly are most vulnerable to the degenerative effects of MSG. Here is a brief list of common effects of MSG and some curious statistics published by national organizations. Heart maladies- More than 70 million Americans have one or more forms of cardiovascular disease and 43% of all deaths in the U.S. are related to these problems. The number of cardiovascular operations went up 287% from 1980-1990. Alzheimer’s disease, not an identifiable healthcare cost in 1980, now ranks third after cancer and heart disease among the most costly health problems in America. Four million people afflicted at a cost of $47,000/person/ year, is $188 billion/year in healthcare costs. Headaches & Migraines- $2.2 billion/year are spent on drugs to treat headaches, with a 74% increase in these chronic conditions between 1980-1990. Asthma, which was on the decline until the mid-eighties, now shows a 100% increase in the death rate among children and seniors. Incidence has increased 600% in the last 10 years. The FDA recognizes that uncontrollable asthma” can be caused by MSG, but stops there, unfortunately. Tumors– There has been an 88% increase in tumors since 1982. Birth Defects and Reproduction Disorders - MSG is a known mutagen” (mutates fetuses) and causes significant damage to intellectual development, growth patterns, reproduction and gonadal functions. Neurological/Emotional Disorders - Lab studies show devastating effects on brain development including dyslexia, autism, attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity, schizophrenia, violent episodes (rage), panic attacks, seizures, paranoia, depression, and cerebral palsy. Humans are 5 times more sensitive to MSG than rats which were used in tests. Obesity is one of the most consistent effects of excitotoxin exposure and is a growing problem, nationwide, that knows no age or sex boundaries. In fact, scientists feed glutamate to young laboratory animals as a reliable way of inducing obesity. MSG triggers an insulin/adrenalin/fat storage/food craving response. This depletes seratonin levels which trigger headaches, depression, fatigue, and leads to more food cravings. Fibromyalgia is a growing epidemic. Fibromyalgia patients who eliminated MSG and aspartame during a study conducted by the University of Florida reported complete relief of symptoms (2001). Parkinson’s, ALS, MS, and Huntington’s diseases, like Alzheimer’s, are all progressive neurogenic diseases showing brain/nerve cell damage.

Link to the full story below

Blowing The Whistle On MSG Is Our Responsibility, Get The Word Out - Share The Wealth

technorati tags:health, nutrition, food

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Government Runs the Media

Google: Disabling the Politically Incorrect
Posted by: APR on Feb 01, 2007 - 07:46 AM
Media

As Raw Story tells us, Google has finally addressed link bombs, attempts to influence the ranking of a given page in results returned by the Google search engine. Specifically, and apparently embarrassing for the corporation, entering “miserable failure” in the search engine returned George Bush. Vladimir Putin returned “enemy of the people,” a description not too far off the mark.

“While Google has known about link bombs for years, it had previously expressed reluctance to defuse them individually because it didn’t want to tinker with the objectivity of its Internet search model,” notes Raw Story. However, as we know, in the Bushzarro era, such objectivity is no longer acceptable. Indeed, for a profit-based corporation, it can be deadly.

technorati tags:BigBrother, Media, Censorship

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