PSoTD

Effect Measure has the details. It's just amazing how much crap this Congress embraces.

Last September, I blogged about Omaha Steaks, and how they had been overzealous in their telemarketing of one-time customers, at least based on my own personal experience. It was a simple post, and referenced a Business Week article. It did not receive much attention.

Since then, this blog has gained a bit more popularity, but nothing astounding. Still, a few of the search engines have somehow determined that my Omaha Steaks post was worth a higher profile on search results for Omaha Steaks. And with the swell of online shoppers that hit the search engines in the past few weeks, this blog has received a surprising amount of traffic for that term.

This doesn't seem to have much impact on my blog, as most visitors come to the site from that search to find a bit of information out about Omaha Steaks that they haven't seen before, and then scurry back to the search engine for more. This isn't a long-term traffic issue for the blog, but it is evidence of empowerment of bloggers on the image of corporations and their behavior. I'm able to discuss the topic of a company's behavior and it actually is seen. It may even have some small bit of economic impact.

We're seeing that on a much larger scale with organizations like Wal-Mart and Ford. I think it's important that bloggers realize they have a small but growing impact on at least the online impression of a company, and to be responsible in that impact - but that means to use the power, and use it well.

So... if you think you have received a raw deal from a corporation, or there's a business practice that you find hard to accept, then present it, calmly, objectively and intelligently. There will be a time when people do a Google or MSN or other type of search for the business. And it's quite possible that at a time when people are searching for "customer creating" information about the business, you'll be providing an unvarnished view of the organization. Prospective customers will notice. Eventually, so will these companies.

Three trends I've noticed this year in the cards we've received:

1) Professional family photograph cards are down. Normally we get over 5, sometimes nearly 10. So far we have 1. I think this is a good trend, not because I don't like seeing the pictures, but because they all have the same posed look about them.

2) People are sending non-denominational cards. If you want to look at where the term "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings" has really taken off, look at the Christmas cards you've received. People play it safe, and want their cards to cheer anyone regardless of faith. No harm in that.

3) It seems like a lot more people are making their own Christmas Cards. And to that, I say COOL!

Stupid, stupid, stupid...

Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti has pushed through parliament a new 25% tax on all hardcore pornography.

Previous attempts to raise new revenue by taxing pornography have failed.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: when government gets in the business of making revenue from a practice, it becomes a partner in protecting that practice. There are two very good reasons to be opposed to a special "pornography" tax:

1 - It is a tax based on a morality judgement of a product and its users and not based on any economic policy;

2 - It puts the government in the position to protect the hardcore industry as a "special" revenue source since it is taxed at a special rate.

But this tax has another reason it's particularly silly - the government is going to be put in the position of officially defining "hardcore" for purposes of taxes. I suspect that definition varies from person to person. Good luck with that, Italy.

I just think this practice of creating state-government economic fiefdoms is a longterm horrible idea...

State-run venture capital funds are increasingly financing early stage technology companies, picking up some of the slack left by private venture capitalists in the wake of the stock market bubble's burst, experts tell the E-Commerce Times.

Thirty-six states have venture funds, and the largest is Maryland's, started in 1994. Overseas governments also sponsor venture capital funds for their nascent technology industries, raising tens of millions of dollars for start-up firms.

Why is government out there competing with private industry? Why is government out there directly financing companies? Incentives for company behavior through tax and other policies is one thing, although I have disagreement with a lot of that. But handpicking specific companies? Why is that a government responsibility again?

Funny. You hardly hear anything about the battle of multinational corporate interests against smalltown traditions - even commercial traditions - during Christmas. And yet, here's another victim.

America's First Christmas Store to close after 70 years

You can't shut down Christmas.

But from the emotional reaction to Greg and Dee Buchanan's plan to close America's First Christmas Store - a name its owners say isn't just a boast - you'd think Santa's sleigh was grounded for the season.

"I hate it," customer Jeannette Crandall said of the impending closure. "The Christmas Store is Smethport. People come from all over just to visit it."

"But, then, I guess everything changes."

For 70 years, the Christmas Store has delighted children and adults with fanciful displays of dozens of decorated artificial Christmas trees and miniature Dickens villages.

Its fabulously cluttered and meandering four rooms sparkle with thousands of ornaments and gifts from around the world, including Italian nativity sets, handmade Santas from American craftsmen, and German nutcrackers.

After owning the store for seven years, Dee Buchanan said she and her husband want to spend more time with their 12-year-old son and plan to close for good Jan. 21.

"It's very difficult. I've really loved this," she said. "One of the best parts of (the announcement) has been all the kind words we've had from people. Many of them are really upset. This was more than just a business to them."

Smalltown sole-proprietor Christmas shops surviving in the age of Walmart and the Internet? Hard to do.

As PennLive reports,

Fluoride news went by book, firm says

I guess that is possible. But as the article also says:

"If it had been a terrorist situation, we would have been completely in the dark. We found out by word of mouth, not by any official means," said Bonnie Bentz, a Camp Hill resident.

Which in essence means, it may have been by the book, but the book is outdated and really kind of sucks in the age of the Internet. Still waiting to read that great reason for why the company didn't post news about the leak on their website.

And by the way... doesn't the Federal Government have anything to say about the performance of every responsible party in this case? Where's Homeland Security? Where's EPA?

Could it be the wave power industry in Portugal?

Seriously. I'm sure a lot of people in Pennsylvania have been looking at their web site this weekend. Why? You can't tell from PAWC's site, but since early Saturday morning, there's been a possible fluoride leak in the water, and residents are not supposed to be drinking water from PAWC...

Residents of Fairview and Newberry townships in northern York County, and several boroughs and townships in Cumberland County, should not use their water until further notice because of possibly elevated levels of fluoride in the water, according to the York County's Office of Emergency Management.

The Cumberland communities are the boroughs of Camp Hill, Lemoyne, New Cumberland, New Kingstown, Shiremanstown, Wormleysburg and West Fairview; and the townships of East Pennsboro, Enola, Hampden, Lower Allen, Upper Allen and Silver Spring.

The emergency management office issued the following advisories:

· Do not drink the water.

· Do not use water for cooking.

· Do not provide water to pets.

· It is OK to use water for washing dishes, bathing and flushing the toilet.

The emergency management office said the advisory is the result of an incident at Pennsylvania-American Water Company, which supplies water to the area.

The lack of news about this on PAWC's site is ridiculous and somewhat irresponsible. The web site is established to spread information. Failing to post about the fluoride does the exact opposite.

Update: As of midday on Sunday, news reports state that the fluoride problem has been resolved and normal water consumption is advised.

This article makes the argument that there are too few in the United States... at least for the produce market as currently structured.

The end of US vegetable farming?

A society that relies on cheap food also relies on cheap labor. Look at the meat-processing industry. Worker conditions are so wretched, so little changed from Jungle days, that Human Rights Watch saw fit to issue a scathing report on the industry last January.

Because meat is perishable and prohibitively expensive to keep frozen over long journeys, meat processing cannot readily be sent overseas — unlike, say, manufacturing. So the trick, as the Human Rights Watch report shows in wrenching detail, is to recreate working conditions prevalent in places like Guatemala, here.

Things are different in the large-scale fruit/vegetable business. Tomatoes, for example, can be picked green, shipped long distance with minimal refrigeration, and gas-ripened near the point of sale. Will vegetable farming move overseas?

For a few months now, media reports about a farm-labor crisis have been emerging from industrial-scale vegetable production areas like California's Central Valley and Arizona's Yuma County. Tales of fruit rotting on the vine abounded. In short, not enough Mexicans are sneaking across the increasingly well-guarded border to harvest fruit and vegetables.

And the ones who do are tending to forsake agriculture for the booming construction trade, which tends to pay more and offer steadier work.

In the past week or two, as California and Arizona prepare for the winter-vegetable harvests — the source of much lettuce now gracing supermarket shelves in places like Chicago and Boston — media reports have grown more shrill. Talk of crop loss continues; but farmers are now talking openly of shutting down.

In this scenario, there's only three options:

Allow the vegetable marketplace to eventually move to other countries with cheaper labor.

Continue to import cheap foreign labor.

Restructure the vegetable industry, from farming to distribution to sales.

The first is not an option that can be publicly accepted, but may be the way it goes due to stagnation and sloth in public policy. The second option is a short-term option that eventually will still lead to the first option. The third option, which the article writer promises to cover in the future, is the best hope to maintain American vegetable farming. I look forward to the future article(s).

Ever thought about the toxins in your sex toys?

Ha, I see Susie caught the same article.

A few months ago, I posted a question about Capital Blue Cross's television advertising campaign featuring their CEO, Anita Smith.

Yesterday, the Harrisburg Patriot published their curiousity about it as well.

There was another blogger wondering about the commercials a few weeks back.

Apparently, they will continue for a while, but that's about all that is really known about the decisionmaking behind the campaign.

It's a major pain in the ass to use them for multiple online subscriptions. Once they expire on you and you get sent a new one, you have to update all your subscriptions or you'll be cancelled.

The weather people were right, we did get a bit of snow that stuck last night, and I've already snowshoveled it off the driveway and walkway.

How long has the snow shovel been around? I don't know, but I do know that there was a little innovation a few years back that is quite a backsaver...

That little bend makes quite a difference on how far you have to bend in order to scoop up snow. Over the course of a heavy snow shoveling, it's quite noticeable. These shovels may cost a smidge more than the old-fashioned flat snowshovels, but I've already made that up in savings on BenGay.

It just goes to show, anything can be improved on, no matter how long it has been around. Thanks to the anonymous show shovel designer who came up with this improvement.

Maybe someday we can have a President who believes in economic development planning for the future...

Sustainability Business Worth $ Trillions

A powerful alignment of legal, financial, and investment interests will see USD trillions directed in the next decade to evolving markets linked to climate change, clean technology and sustainable use of natural resources, a report being prepared for the United Nations predicts.

"The Working Capital Report", to be published for the first time in March 2006 by the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), is the culmination of a series of landmark studies undertaken during 2004-5.

This series of UN-backed studies explores the role of financial service companies and capital markets, and the legal context in which they operate, as they capitalise on new opportunities linked to the concept of sustainable development and more effective management of associated risks.

"There is no question that 2005 will be seen as the watershed when the mainstream banking, insurance and investment worlds realised the scale of the commercial opportunities unfolding in the new carbon, clean-tech and sustainable natural resource markets and, also, the legal risks of not being a leader in this area," explained Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme.