One of the ugliest noises

One of the worst ways to wake up is to the sound of your cat barfing, and you have to just lie there and wait for her to finish, because if you try to get her to linoleum she'll just run to her go-to spot under the bed, and that will massively complicate the clean up effort.

I watched our other cat throw up once, and it was such a massive load that he actually backed away from it as he was puking, like a dump truck moving as it tilted out a dozen cubic yards of whatever. I remember that incident well, because it was then that I learned an important lesson: never pick up brand new cat chunder, because it is the temperature of the inside of a cat, and that warmth increases the gross factor by a lot. Ya gotta let 'em cool down.

Our cats are very good at remembering to do the technicolor yawn right in the major carpeted walkways, but one accidentally threw up in the kitchen once, and it was so easy to clean up I barely remember it.

I wonder if there's a website where you can find out which breed of dog is most likely to find cat puke tasty? Or even better: which breed will be most likely to just eat your cats.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go accidentally leave the front door open.

Quote of the Day

"The very notion that on any given story all you have to do is report what both sides say and you've done a fine job of objective journalism debilitates the press. There is no such thing as objectivity, and the truth, that slippery little bugger, has the oddest habit of being way to hell off on one side or the other: it seldom nestles neatly halfway between any two opposing points of view. The smug complacency of much of the press--I have heard many an editor say, 'Well, we're being attacked by both sides so we must be right'--stems from the curious notion that if you get a quote from both sides, preferably in an official position, you've done the job. In the first place, most stories aren't two-sided, they're 17-sided at least. In the second place, it's of no help to either the readers or the truth to quote one side saying, 'Cat,' and the other side saying 'Dog,' while the truth is there's an elephant crashing around out there in the bushes."

-- Molly Ivins, columnist.

Odds Are, It's Wrong

"Science fails to face the shortcomings of statistics."

DIVOGA 8-Pocket Folder

Here's my review of this folder. I really have looked at a lot of these folders lately, and this is clearly the best one I've seen so far. The writing may be a bit over the top, but I believe in this folder, and it is never more than a few feet from me (except when I'm paragliding, of course).

This pocket organizer impresses me with the following qualities:

-- The metal wire binding is smaller and much more robust than the plastic slot-based ones I've found on other similar organizers (some of those didn't even make it to the checkout counter before the tabs had come apart).

-- This is not a cheapie corkscrew/spring binding, but a well-designed 2-coil per hole locked design that feels sturdy, yet accommodates easy movement of the covers and folders

-- The folder opens flat and stays flat, and you won't have to worry about plastic fatigue as you would with the other all-plastic bendy organizers, or the tearing that happens after even moderate use of the paper-based pocket folders.

-- The pockets are attached on three sides, keeping in what you put in them (nothing can slide out the into the middle as happens with the pockets that are only attached at the bottom and the outside edge)

-- The front and back pockets, being part of the cover, are black; but the inside pockets are translucent, so you can easily if a smaller note or sticky note is still in there

-- being metal (the wire binding) and plastic (everything else), this folder can take almost infinite use without scuffing; and will not suffer the indignity of doodles-- the smooth black lightly-textured surface remains clean and new-looking

-- an ebony monolith protecting your contents. This folder is the office supply equivalent of the little black dress: always in style, and useful for so many occasions of varying formality

This product meets all of my needs, and I'll be on the lookout for other Divoga products. (I had not heard of Divoga before yesterday: I am just an office drone who appreciates a stylish and well-designed product).

The Wisdom of Wikipedia: Mean World Syndrome

"Mean World Syndrome is a phenomenon where the violence-related content of mass media convinces viewers that the world is more dangerous than it actually is, and prompts a desire for more protection than is warranted by any actual threat."

Survey pitfalls and suggestions

Surveys are everywhere these days, and a lot of them bug me. Here's some tips for those creating surveys:
  • Keep your survey short: a long survey is less likely to be taken in full, or at all, and my guess is that the longer a survey is, the more skewed the resultant data will be, because only those with really strong opinions (positive or negative) will slog on through it all. The longer your survey is, the less reflective of reality will be the results. Don't believe that since you've "got" the user you can ask them every question you always wanted to ask them; your users realize that your survey is an expenditure of their time for a pretty small payoff (the slight chance that their data will effect some change in a product or service).
  • It is certainly the case for me, and I suspect others as well, that the sheer number of feedback I'm asked for makes me engage in only the ones for which I feel very strongly (positively, or especially negatively), which skews the results.
  • Don't say it should "only take about 5 minutes" if it has more questions than can even be *read* in that amount of time.
  • Consider using binary choices ("I am [] satisfied [] unsatisfied") to gather data, rather than a 1-10 range or something similar. When you use a choice, you can report that "customer satisfaction is up 3% compared to last month", instead of saying "customer satisfaction rose from 72% to 78% from last month to this month, but the standard deviation is 18% and rose 7% from last month". Keep it simple.
  • When I see a big grid of a dozen 1-10 range "how important is this to you" questions, it makes me mad… see point number 1
  • Ranking lists of things in order of importance is also something I dislike, because it takes a long time, and I never seem to be happy with the choices I make overall
So let's keep those surveys short and simple. And maybe produce not so many!

One-Minute Bread

"I wanted something very, very simple that delivered great results in 60 seconds of prep time or less. It may take you a few tries to get below the one-minute mark, but I think you’ll enjoy the results every time!"

What a daft way to stop your spaniel eating the milkman

"As we know, one man once got on one plane in a pair of exploding hiking boots and as a result everyone else in the entire world is now forced to strip naked at airports and hand over their toiletries to a man in a high-visibility jacket."

Quote of The Day

"...the purpose of bureaucracy is to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline - a problem that largely goes away if you have the right people in the first place. Most companies build their bureaucratic rules to manage the small percentage of wrong people on the bus, which in turn drives away the right people on the bus, which then increases the percentage of wrong people on the bus, which increases the need for more bureaucracy to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline, which then further drives the right people away, and so forth."

- Jim Collins, from Good to Great.

Pork's Dirty Secret: The nation's top hog producer is also one of America's worst polluters

"America's top pork producer churns out a sea of waste that has destroyed rivers, killed millions of fish and generated one of the largest fines in EPA history."

Pain 'should be viewed as a disease in its own right'

"Chronic pain needs to be recognised as a disease in its own right, experts say."

Quote of The Day

"Extroverts are energized by people, and wilt or fade when alone," writes Jonathan Rauch in The Atlantic. "In contrast, after an hour or two of being socially `on,' we introverts need to turn off and recharge. This isn't antisocial. It isn't a sign of depression. It does not call for medication. For introverts, to be alone with our thoughts is as restorative as sleeping, as nourishing as eating. Our motto: `I'm okay, you're okay - in small doses."'

- Wendy Dennis, in House and Home magazine, December 2009