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Roast porpoise anyone? Medieval recipes go online
Chefs searching for authentic medieval recipes for porpoise, pike and blancmange can now look up the instructions online.Ginny
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Thursday, June 18, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Banned in Utah
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Banned in Utah
In other "Utah in the News," news, Esquire magazine's Answer Fella presents a sampling of banned in Utah vanity license plates, with a brief description of why these plates were considered taboo.
I was a little surprised "GOBUSH" was banned, I thought this was dubya country after all.
But hey, at least somebody is thinking of the children.
Ginny
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Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Take it easy in Michigan's Harbor Country
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Take it easy in Michigan's Harbor Country
Explore sand dunes, lounge on beaches, then retire to family friendly cottages or romantic bed-and-breakfasts.Ginny
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i am surrounded by incompetence
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i am surrounded by incompetence
This is interesting. It's from an article entitled "Creative Solutions" in the current "New Scientist" magazine.It's hard to stay upbeat when your penny-pinching bosses are counting paper clips and coffee grains, but here's some good news: you don't need to be cheery. Workplace discontent may just be a vast, untapped source of creativity.
"For a long time, it seemed that all companies cared about was job satisfaction," says Jing Zhou at Rice University in Houston, Texas. She and colleague Jennifer George wondered whether dissatisfaction was really such a bad thing. To find out, they surveyed 149 employees at a drilling equipment company. Without revealing their ultimate purpose, they asked workers dozens of questions about their work lives, including some to assess their level of job satisfaction. They also interviewed the workers' supervisors and asked them questions about which workers regularly came up with "creative solutions", "fresh approaches" or "new ideas".
Surprisingly, people who were dissatisfied and willing to pipe up were found to be the most creative (Academy of Management Journal, vol 44, p 682). "It was very striking," says Zhou, "and counter-intuitive."
Zhou and George reckon that employees who become disgruntled have four options. They can jump ship, taking any ideas they might have had on how to improve things with them, or they can stick around and whine, reaffirm their allegiance, or shirk their work. Neither the loyalists nor the shirkers have any impetus to work for change. The whiners, by contrast, spend a significant part of their day ruminating on how things can be improved. That is a creative force we can no longer afford to ignore, Zhou argues.
She points out that disgruntled employees are often discouraged from voicing complaints, so their valuable insights are stifled. The study found that the creativity of whiners could only be harnessed with the help of supportive colleagues who listened to and channelled their discontent. "Top managers really need to rethink how to do things," she says.
In a similar vein, Bruce Charlton at the University of Buckingham in the UK says that by overvaluing people who toe the line we are killing creativity in the sciences. In a paper entitled "Why are modern scientists so dull? How science selects for perseverance and sociability at the expense of intelligence and creativity", he argues that the long, tedious road to tenure ruthlessly weeds out the more imaginative people in favour of conscientious scientists who won't rock the boat.
COMMENT: Okay, I'm going to have to stick my hand up on this one. I am one of life's great whiners. I don't only moan for Engla...
Ginny
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Friday, May 08, 2009
Northwest e-mail accounts to be converted to Delta
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Northwest e-mail accounts to be converted to Delta
Roughly 38,000 employees of carrier Northwest Airlines, which was acquired by Delta Air Lines Inc., will be getting Delta e-mail ...Ginny
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Friday, April 10, 2009
Rachel Maddow & Behind the Scenes of NOM Video
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Rachel Maddow & Behind the Scenes of NOM Video
As Pam wrote, the original InterTubes video of the NOM auditions is down. However, Rachel Maddow's take on the auditions is now up -- and it includes what was put up on the InterTubes.
So, without any further comment -- this is an interesting news segment from last night's Rachel Maddow show:
Rachel Maddow: We do not know how Human Rights Campaign got access to the audition tapes, but because they did we do know that pretending to be a straight person hurt by gay marriage, umm...is apparently very, VERY challenging.
And, just because I'm not commenting doesn't mean you can't. 
(You can pretty much guess what my comments would be just from the fact we found a way to get the audition videos back up, hee-hee!)
~~~~~
Related:
* Transcript: Thom Hartmann and NOM's Brian Brown
* SF Columnist scorches desperate National Organization for Marriage ad
* National Organization for Marriage's hired guns for fact-free hate
* National Organization for Marriage's new tactic: fear-mongering without using the word 'religion'
* Towleroad: 'Pro-family' fear-mongering zombies release gay marriage scare ad
Ginny
I can has iPhone?
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
My quest for the dodo bird, and other obsessions: Adam Savage on TED.com
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My quest for the dodo bird, and other obsessions: Adam Savage on TED.com
At EG'08, Adam Savage talks about his fascination with the dodo bird, and how it led him on a strange and surprising double quest. It's an entertaining adventure through the mind of a creative obsessive. (Recorded at EG'08, December 2008, in Monterey, California. Duration: 15:39.)
Watch Adam Savage's talk from EG'08 on TED.com, where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 400+ TEDTalks -- including more talks about what makes us happy.
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Ginny
I can has iPhone?
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
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