Archive for February 2008
Waterboarding: How to Motivate Your Employees
Salt Lake Tribune. It must be the mormons or John McCain.
A supervisor at a motivational coaching business in Provo is accused of waterboarding an employee in front of his sales team to demonstrate that they should work as hard on sales as the employee had worked to breathe.
In a lawsuit filed last month, former Prosper, Inc. salesman Chad Hudgens alleges his managers also allowed the supervisor to draw mustaches on employees’ faces, take away their chairs and beat on their desks with a wooden paddle “because it resulted in increased revenues for the company.
The suit claims that Hudgens’ team leader, Joshua Christopherson, asked for volunteers in May for “a new motivational exercise,” which he did not describe. Hudgens, who was 26 at the time, volunteered in order to “prove his loyalty and determination,” the suit claims. Christopherson led the sales team to the top of a hill near the office and told Hudgens to lie down with his head downhill, the suit claims. Christopherson then told the rest of the team to hold Hudgens by the arms and legs. Christopherson poured water from a gallon jug over Hudgens’ mouth and nostrils – like the interrogation strategy known as “waterboarding” – and told the team members to hold Hudgens down as he struggled, the suit alleges. “At the conclusion of his abusive demonstration, Christopherson told the team that he wanted them to work as hard on making sales as Chad had worked to breathe while he was being waterboarded,” the suit alleges. Hudgens left Prosper because of sleeplessness, anxiety and depression he experienced after the waterboarding, the suit claims. He required psychological counseling for emotional trauma, the suit claims.
The suit accuses Christopherson and Prosper of assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and wrongful termination. It also accuses Christopherson of interfering with Hudgens employment relationship with Prosper.
New Mobile for the Baby
How would you like this mobile to mesmerize your little one.
Rain Making Bacteria?
Researches from LSU, Montana, and France have found evidence that meteorologists are still WAY off.
Christner’s team examined precipitation from global locations and demonstrated that the most active ice nuclei — a substrate that enhances the formation of ice — are biological in origin. This is important because the formation of ice in clouds is required for snow and most rainfall. Dust and soot particles can serve as ice nuclei, but biological ice nuclei are capable of catalyzing freezing at much warmer temperatures. If present in clouds, biological ice nuclei may affect the processes that trigger precipitation.
George Bush Has Done More to Combat Global Warming than Al Gore
From the nytimes:
When it comes to specific steps to foster conservation or produce more energy, the public is deeply torn, the poll found. Respondents said they would support higher gasoline prices to reduce dependence on foreign oil but would oppose higher prices to combat global warming.
Movie Music Digest With Radio Lab Guy
The Morning News provides a movie music digest with Jad Abumrad of Radio Lab.
Here’s one of John Zorn’s more interesting music videos:
Here is some Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead and most recently “There Will Be Blood”
Perez Hilton: Making the World Safe for Smooth Jazz
Perez Hilton’s new find: The Puppini Sisters were already the gift of choice for grandmothers around the country this past Christmas.
What’s next for our favorite cash-plush Man-tween?
We predict Paul Anka!
William Buckley was a Marketing Whore too
From the nytimes:
As a senior, he was given the honor of delivering the speech for Yale’s Alumni Day celebration, but was replaced after the university’s administration objected to his strong attacks on the university. He responded by writing his critique in the book that brought him to national attention, in part because he gave the publisher, Regnery, $10,000 to advertise it.
Cont. Perez Hilton Is A Marketing Whore
It’s starting. In relation to my earlier Perez Hilton post.
The U.K. is going through a huge retro movement right now!From Amy Winehouse to The Pipettes and Duffy, everything old is new again. And it’s HOT.
The Puppini Sisters are no exception!
We don’t even know if they’re actually related, but this trio from London totally brings an Andrews Sisters vibe to their songs.
Their vintage twist on the ’80s classic by The Bangles, Walk Like An Egyptian, is just delicious.
Enjoy it below and then CLICK HERE to check out some other tunes from the Puppini Sisters.
No one likes to read at the UN
From dirt to country in less than a hundred words (there may be other steps)
Letter dated 5 June 2006 from the President of the Republic of
Montenegro to the Secretary-General:
In line with the results of the referendum held in the Republic of Montenegro on 21 May 2006, organized in accordance with article 60 of the Constitutional Charter of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, in my capacity as President of the Republic of Montenegro, I have the honour to request the admission of the Republic of Montenegro to membership in the United Nations.
Accordingly, I should be grateful if you would arrange for the present letter to be submitted to the Security Council and the General Assembly as soon as possible.
For this purpose, a declaration made in pursuance of rule 58 of the provisional rules of procedure of the Security Council and rule 134 of the rules of procedure of the General Assembly is appended to this letter (see enclosure).
(Signed) Filip Vujanović
President of the Republic of Montenegro
[FP via bookforum]
The Gawker Comparison is teh Suck
Gawker is small potatoes
gawker tmz “perez hilton”
TMZ and Perez Hilton are out there bum rushing US weekly and Star for tabloid and celebrity coverage; when was the last time you saw Perez Hilton target B-level executives at Conde Nast for a takedown? Does Julia Allison even register at TMZ?
