Apropos of Nothing

Lake Superior State University releases its annual list of abused and otherwise overused words. Prior lists available by clicking here.

The long winters allow people to concentrate on the (mis)use of the English language
Although we missed our opportunity for 2007, Blipverts will nominate loyalty for 2008.

Autoblog, Not Money, Owns a Dictionary

Money magazine posts a story about Toyota drivers purchase of another Toyota. Money’s headline:

Toyota no. 1 in customer loyalty, GM close behind

Autoblog’s headline:

Toyota tops in customer retention

Loyalty and retention may be synonymous but they are not the same word because they represent different concepts.

Blipverts remain loyal to the lovely Lauren

Hold that Tiger. Spend that Dollar

Clemson University football fans continue their tradition of spending where their feet are. With the team’s appearance in Atlanta for a bowl game, Clemson fans pay their bills with stamped $2 bills. The bills are marked with Tiger paw prints on them. This practice represents one of the best ways for merchants and banks to gauge the financial impact of an event such as a bowl game.

An Economic Tiger

My CEO Is Smarter Than Your CEO

People tend to be risk adverse because we focus on the potential loss rather than the potential gain when making a decision. To lessen the chance of making a bad decision, we collect information to reduce the amount of perceived risk associated with the decision. In the context of hiring or promoting personnel, human resource executives and their consultants behave in similar fashion. To reduce the chances of picking a bad candidate, these people rely increasingly on cognitive intelligence tests.

The money quote:

There are hundreds of established intelligence tests on the market, so if you are committed to establishing an assessment program, you might want to try a few to find one that fits your business.

My IQ is 210 and my acumen is 0

No Checks. No Balances. No Knowledge.

Dean Starkman correctly takes the business press to task for missing the housing meltdown. Starkman credits the New York Times for its well done story on the Federal Reserve’s role in this mess. He also notes the story is eight months late. Starkman provides reasons why papers like USA Today, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, etc. fiddled while the housing market burned. He does not cover three glaring reasons.

Tevya joins the New York Times as a staff writer

A Good Step for Logic

Jonathan Weisman, writing in the Washington Post, correctly rips into Mike Huckabee for supporting a national sales tax. What you expect from a presidential candidate who maintains a strong anti-science stance?

Opposing science and tax policy since 1995

The better fix for the tax code may die from a thousand cuts as the Democrats destroy reform one of their best legislative pieces passed during the Great Society.

Twilight of Statistics Use

Caleb Crian, writing in the New Yorker, drags out dodgy statistics to scare the bejeezus out of the readership. Strap on the helmet and turn on the light because we are going deep into the bullshit.

Easy boys, the BS is piled thick here.

HLC, not Waves, Tell the Better Story

I am a Boomer, You’re a Boomer, Wouldn’t you want to be a Boomer too?

The Boston Globe puts on its generational glasses to look at the presidential candidates. Through these thick lenses of lazy reporting, the paper lumped Barack Obama in with the Boomers. Many took umbrage at this lumping action. The Globe then asked random pundits for their definition of a generation. Similar to snowflakes, no two measurements of a generation cohort appear the same.

This lack of consistent measurement points to one of many problems for using generations as a lense for analysis and prediction.

Hang 10, Boomers!

Mapping Knowledge

Companies worry about how to organize and locate their knowledge. Hence, they spend millions on technology to over come these issues. Maps represent a new approach in knowledge organization because it provides a graphic organization of knowledge. Strange Maps covers many different approaches to graphically capturing knowledge. Lots of good stuff there.

Oh, the places you can find

Paying for Creativity

Major record labels continue their journey to obsolescences. They jettisoned their promotion responsibilities to MTV and Clear Channel long ago to concentrate on brand management responsibilities. The major record labels fail in their current role because they ignore their consumers to focus on sales of compact discs. Because they no longer promote their acts, the major record labels lost their ability to listen to consumers. Instead of responding to changes in the market, record labels alternately sue the pants off their consumers or turn their backs on legal (i.e., paying) services.

If they don’t buy a cd from our bland flavor of the week, then sue them the snot out of them!
On Wired’s web site, David Bryne provides some different approaches for artists but not for brand managers from the record labels. For the artiests, these approaches mean they will get paid. Also, check out David Byrne and Thom Yorke’s thoughts on music’s worth. Wired includes lots of clips too (HT: Filmoculous).