Jan. 16th, 2006

anthonybaxter: (Default)
The case of the disappearing teaspoons: longitudinal cohort study of the displacement of teaspoons in an Australian research institute


Objectives To determine the overall rate of loss of workplace teaspoons and whether attrition and displacement are correlated with the relative value of the teaspoons or type of tearoom.

Design Longitudinal cohort study.

Setting Research institute employing about 140 people.

Subjects 70 discreetly numbered teaspoons placed in tearooms around the institute and observed weekly over five months.

Main outcome measures Incidence of teaspoon loss per 100 teaspoon years and teaspoon half life.

Results 56 (80%) of the 70 teaspoons disappeared during the study. The half life of the teaspoons was 81 days. The half life of teaspoons in communal tearooms (42 days) was significantly shorter than for those in rooms associated with particular research groups (77 days). The rate of loss was not influenced by the teaspoons' value. The incidence of teaspoon loss over the period of observation was 360.62 per 100 teaspoon years. At this rate, an estimated 250 teaspoons would need to be purchased annually to maintain a practical institute-wide population of 70 teaspoons.

Conclusions The loss of workplace teaspoons was rapid, showing that their availability, and hence office culture in general, is constantly threatened.
anthonybaxter: (Default)
So why the FUCKING FUCKING FUCK would cisco decide that the two-letter code for "Spanish" in IOS 12.4's configuration of voice applications is "sp"? In what tiny, special world is this even vaguely sensible? Or "ch" for "Chinese"? I mean, it's not like they have an excuse of ignorance: in the US, spanish is more or less the second language; while selling kit to help the Chinese government monitor the poor bastards they rule over is a total growth industry for them.

Although, to be fair to cisco, it's not like this stuff is standardised. Oh, no - wait! It is! ISO 639.

Christ, I hate this crap.
anthonybaxter: (Default)
[livejournal.com profile] jwz deserves pain for pointing this out: http://www.youtube.com/w/The-Peace?v=7QTyI7kFa9g&search=morning%20musume

Really, make sure you wait for the boy dancers to turn up. Oh... my... god. My god. I will never look at a flamingo the same way again.

And now I must go scrub out my brain.

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