Lauren Wu dot com

You must check out apostrophell, "... where we laugh, cry and scream at the ritual abusers of the innocent little apostrophe."

What a great site! I cringe when I notice people misuse the apostrophe, e.g., the Hugh Grant/Sandra Bullock movie "Two Weeks Notice" is in fact spelled incorrectly. Feeling high and mighty about my superior grammar, I decided to take the apostrophe test.

I got four wrong.

Humbling yet educational at the same time.

Great WSJ article (subscription may be required) today about rumors and gossip in the workplace.

"Rumors really fly when at least two conditions are met: high degrees of anxiety and lots of uncertainty. Then, two basic kinds of rumors -- wish rumors and dread rumors -- emerge, says Prof. Rosnow." [Ralph Rosnow is a former professor of psychology at Temple University].

"Rumors are typically hypotheses with potential widespread impact. Gossip, on the other hand, is usually presented as fact, and tends to be more about people, the professor explains. Gossip flourishes, research shows, in organizations where members are highly competitive and someone could benefit from tainting a rival."

In some situations, rumors are helpful for conveying information through an organization via back channels. According to Allan J. Kimmel, a marketing professor at ESCP business school in Paris and author of "Rumors and Rumor Control", "In moderation, it can be used to influence decisions, vent feelings to relieve stress, signal status or power, nurture cohesiveness, and translate job tasks and policies into understandable language."

A lot of rumors can be put to rest by those in the know. I respect managers who regularly keep their employees informed by communicating with them in an honest and open manner. Otherwise, it's frustrating to be blindsided by unexpected news, especially when you first discover it from an external source, e.g., the newspaper.

I received an email from Jocelyn L. today, who stumbled upon my weblog after doing some research on Krispy Kreme doughnuts (yay) and its fat content (*sigh* an old gripe of mine). I noticed a beautiful poem that was part of her signature so I'm posting it here to share with y'all:

   Yesterday is history,
   Tomorrow is a mystery, 
   but today is a gift. 
   That is why they call it the present.

Given how there are so many fires in Calfornia lately, I thought it was an appropriate time to post the definition of "inflammable" here (from M-W.com Word-A-Day), especially since it's commonly misused.

inflammable \in-FLAM-uh-bul\ adjective

1. 1* : flammable
2. 2 : easily inflamed, excited, or angered : irascible

Example sentence: "The U.S. Commerce Department adopted rules banning inflammable children's sleepwear in the 1970s."

Did you know? -- "Combustible" and "incombustible" are opposites but "flammable" and "inflammable" are synonyms. Why? The "in-" of "incombustible" is a common prefix meaning "not," but the "in-" of "inflammable" is a different prefix. "Inflammable," which dates back to 1605, descends from the Latin "inflammare" ("to inflame"), from "in-" (here meaning "in" or "into") plus "flammare" ("to flame"). "Flammable" also comes from "flammare," but didn't enter English until 1813. In the early 20th century, firefighters worried that people might think "inflammable" meant "not able to catch fire," so they adopted "flammable" and "nonflammable" as official safety labels and encouraged their use to prevent confusion. In general use, "flammable" is now the preferred term for describing things that can catch fire, but "inflammable" is still occasionally used with that meaning as well.

This Saturday, 10/25/03, Red Bull hosted their second annual San Francisco Red Bull Flügtag Competition where teams create flying hand-made machines and launch them off a pier. Here are the rules:

1. Human Powered - Flight crafts must be powered entirely by human muscle power. External energy sources (including rubber bands, motors, springs, etc.) are forbidden, as are existing wings (e.g., hang glider or a parachute canopy).
2. Less than 30' wide - So the craft will fit on the launching ramp.
3. No more than 450 lbs (including the pilot) - So the recovery crew can do their job safely.
4. Craft Cost - Limited (discreet) sponsorship of crafts is accepted.

Flying crafts are given a score between 1 and 100. They are judged by these three criteria:

1. Distance - The farther the better. Most of the submissions we saw didn't go past 45 feet.
2. Creativity - (Almost) more important than distance is craft design. According to the website, "It's not enough that it flies. Actually it's not even required that you fly at all. A dramatic stone-like path into the water can lead you to victory if your craft is outrageous enough."
3. Showmanship - Teams are given a 2-minute skit prior to launch. We saw some hilarous routines that were carefully choreographed to music.

I checked the results today, and defending champions El Toro Guapo won again this year. Oregona Wagoner STOL came second, and Running of the Red Bulls (obvious pandering to the organizer) took third place.

Thanks to Simian Design, I found Sean Kenney's website. Amongst other things, Sean has created a LEGO Homer Simpson and a LEGO VW Beetle.

Dilbert's second annual exuberantly non-scientific Weasel Poll results are in. Based on 35,874 voters, the winners are:

• Weaseliest Organization: Recording Industry Association of America
• Weaseliest Company: Microsoft
• Weaseliest Individual: George W. Bush
• Weaseliest Profession: Politicians
• Weaseliest Country: France
• Weaseliest Behavior: Blaming fast food restaurants for making you fat

"Tall people earn considerably more money throughout their lives than their shorter co-workers, with each inch adding about $789 a year in pay, according to a new study."

Darn.

I burst out laughing when I saw this anecdote on MetaFilter.com (posted by monju_bosatsu):

"In my country, we have two parties. The stupid party, of which I am a member, and the evil party, which we oppose vehemently. Sometimes my party wins, in which case we get lots of stupid legislation. Sometimes the other party wins, in which case we get lots of evil legislation. Occasionally, the parties act together in what we call 'bipartisanship,' in which case we get legislation which is both evil and stupid."

This Wall Street Journal article titled "For Asian Women, Weight-Loss Rule 1 Is Skip the Gym" reminds me why I used to be so unhappy with my appearance.

"The traditional Chinese ideal of beauty emphasized not just pale bodies but tiny feet and hands. Today, the feminine ideal of weak and wan remains, even as women gain independence through their jobs. For some, staying slim is a way to reconcile that, psychologists say. In some women's magazines, slimming products and services make up 50% of the ads, according to a new study by the Hong Kong Eating Disorders Association."

In Southeast Asia, women are obsessed with being skinny. No matter that they can't climb a flight of stairs without running out of breath or have a high % body fat, they just want to be stick thin. They'll do almost anything to lose weight: ingest diet supplements, e.g., teas, gels, pills, or use electrical impulse machines to firm up muscles. Anything, that is, except for eating a well-balanced diet or exercising.

In case you're wondering just how thin these women aspire to be, let's just say that the Fancl House beauty and slimming center uses movie star Gigi Leung in their advertisements. Gigi is 5'10" and weighs 120lb and has a BMI (body mass index) of 17.2. Given that the normal BMI range for Asian populations is 18.5-23 kg/m², Gigi is underweight. It's no wonder that "In the past eight years, Dr. Sing Lee, founder of the Hong Kong Eating Disorders Center, has seen a 20-fold increase in eating disorders, including anorexia." How sad.

Remember the infamous Claire Swire email and Peter Chung email: both private communications that were eventually forwarded to more than 1 million people around the world? Don't laugh. That could be you. According to the WSJ article (subscription may be required), you can now view the emails of Enron employees in this searchable online database, courtesy of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

"The e-mails roughly cover the years 2000 through 2002. At no charge, viewers can troll through the e-mail boxes and calendars of 176 current and former Enron executives and employees, most of them involved in the company's power-trading operations. The names of the e-mails' senders and recipients are still attached.

Sadly, some of the emails are of a personal nature and are now for all the world to see. Once again folks, unless you wouldn't mind having something posted on the Internet (literally), don't put it in an email... or instant message for that matter.

Sent to me from my dear friend Ingo:

1. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me, either. Just leave me the hell alone.
2. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and a leaky tyre.
3. It's always darkest before dawn. So if you're going to steal your neighbour's newspaper, that's the time to do it.
4. No one is listening until you break wind.
5. Never test the depth of the water with both feet.
6. It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
7. If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments.
8. Before you criticise someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticise them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.
9. If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.
10. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat & drink beer all day.
11. If you lend someone $20, and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
12. If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
13. If you drink, don't park; accidents cause people.
14. Good judgment comes from bad experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.
15. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.
16. A closed mouth gathers no foot.
17. Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side & a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
18. Generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your mouth is moving.
19. We are born naked, wet, and hungry. Then things get worse.

According to this Wall Street Journal article (subscription may be required), the cap on H-1B and L-1 visas available to foreigners will be significantly reduced.

"H-1B visas allow specialty professional workers, generally with college degrees, to work in the U.S. for up to six years. The majority of these visas have been used for computer programmers, engineers and other high-tech workers, but recently they have gone to teachers and health-care workers as well. L-1 visas allow companies -- both small businesses and multinational corporations -- to transfer executives, managers and workers with 'specialized knowledge' of the company from overseas operations to U.S.-based divisions."

The annual cap for H-1B will be reduced from 195,000 (the limit since 2000) to 65,000. Similarly, the new annual L-1 limit will be 35,000, compared to 314,000 that were issued in 2002. The change will likely impact the technology sector the most, "In the federal fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2002, new H-1B visas issued for computer-related occupations fell nearly 77%, to 25,637, from 110,713 a year earlier, according to the Department of Homeland Security." Other major industries that will be affected include health care and teaching: in 2002, doctors, nurses and teachers received more than 20% of H-1B visas.