I, Cringely | Taguchi Me This: "You see advertising and marketing are usually considered to be more art than science. Sure, a fair amount of statistical analysis is used to be sure the person who is reading an ad, watching a commercial or hearing a message is from the target audience, but the message itself is largely a work of art. When marketing and advertising are taught in universities, much of what is taught is anecdotal -- what has seemed to work before. But it doesn't have to be that way, at least not according to James Kowalick and Mario Fantoni, two guys who say they can show you how to use science to design ads that cost less while being 10 or more times as effective as doing it the old way."
(washingtonpost.com) : "Employees at the Department of Agriculture's main cafeteria were just sitting down to lunch on Friday when security guards ordered everyone in the huge eatery to leave.
Al Qaeda? Bomb scare? No. Mouse droppings. The D.C. Department of Health closed the cafeteria for failing to pass inspection.
Yes, the USDA, home to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the meat and poultry inspectors -- the agency that is part of the federal system for protecting the nation's food supply, was in violation of the D.C. Health Code.
There were several citations, according to the inspection report, including: 'water leaking excessively' in the ceiling, employees not wearing hair restraints, and inadequate cleaning of the inside of ice machines, cabinets, surfaces and equipment.
The biggest problem, however, seemed to be mouse droppings found everywhere -- in the dry storage room, by the salad bar, behind the ovens, near the serving line, ...
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