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January 30, 2009
Four For Friday
Q1: - Drugs: Fueled primarily by Internet sales, the International Journal of Clinical Practice recently reported that the counterfeit pharmaceutical market could reach $70 billion dollars by 2010, Alarmingly, the Journal reports, these include fake drugs that could have devastating consequences, like counterfeit medication for potentially fatal conditions like cancer and high blood pressure. Have you ever--or would you consider--purchasing pharmaceutical drugs online from a foreign-based provider or company?
Q2: - Rejuvenile: Rejuvenile's are what marketers are now calling people who cultivate tastes and mindsets traditionally associated with those younger than themselves. For example, the iPhone recognizes and plays to the rejuvenile trend by featuring brightly colored icons and playful features that reflect a kid-like tone, whereas the Mini Cooper lets every boy or girl live out their fantasy of driving a Matchbox/Hot Wheels-like car in real life. Do you consider yourself a rejuvenile?
Q3: - Credit: The credit score--that annoying but all-important numerical expression based on a statistical analysis of a person's credit files that represents your creditworthiness--is getting a lot of play these days. With the availability of credit tightening and more people going into debt because of the state of the economy, many people stand to lose ground over the next few years--not gain it--when it comes to their credit score. How concerned are you with your credit score? Do you, for instance, use a fee-based service to monitor and check your credit score, or could you give a rats-you-know-what about your credit rating?
Q4: - Place: A new national survey by the Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends project finds that nearly half (46%) of Americans would rather live in a different type of community from the one they're living in now. When asked about specific metropolitan areas where they would like to live, respondents rank Denver, San Diego and Seattle at the top of a list of 30 cities, and Detroit, Cleveland and Cincinnati at the bottom. Reasonably speaking, would you like to live somewhere other than where you currently reside?
January 23, 2009
Four For Friday
Q1 - Salary: Earlier this week, U.S. President Barack Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum revealing his intention to freeze the salaries of approximately 120 senior White House staffers who make more than $100,000 per year, saving the government about $400,000 over the next 12 months. Ironically, President Obama currently earns $400,000 per year, along with a $50,000 expense account, a $100,000 nontaxable travel account, and a $19,000 entertainment allowance (the same as President George W. Bush). Do you think the President of the United States should be paid a salary? Why or why not?
Q2 - Murder: According to CBS News, 13,000 Americans are killed by drunk drivers every year. Authorities call it an epidemic. They say that despite all the publicity, all the education campaigns, and all the advertising over the past decade, the number of drunk-driving fatalities has not gone down. In New York's Nassau County, district attorney Kathleen Rice believes that if you want to stop drunk driving, you have to treat it as a serious crime with serious jail time, which in one recent case means prosecuting a drunk driver for First-Degree Murder. Related: A growing number of states and foreign countries have banned the use of cellular phones while driving automobiles. If an automobile driver kills an innocent person while talking on a cell phone while driving, do you feel they should be prosecuted for murder?
Q3 - Employment: If your employer told you the company was moving to a neighboring state and you had the choice to accept a 25% increase in salary and move with the company at the company's expense or take a severance package equal to 25% of your current salary with no opportunity to file for unemployment, what would you do?
Q4 - Sleep: Studies show most people fall asleep within seven (7) minutes of placing their head to a bedroom pillow. Generally speaking, how long do you think it takes you to fall asleep, and, do you do anything special (e.g., take a pill, listen to the radio, watch television, read a book or magazine) to help you fall asleep?
January 16, 2009
Four For Friday
Q1 - The American Dream: This question comes courtesy of John Zogby, President of Zogby International and the author of The Way We'll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream. Which of the following statements best represents your goals in life?
- A. I believe the American dream means material success. It is possible for my family and me and for most middle-class Americans to achieve.
- B. I believe you can achieve the American dream through spiritual fulfillment rather than material success.
- C. I believe the American dream means material success. It exists but is more likely to be attained by my children and not me.
- D. I believe I cannot achieve the American dream, whether material or spiritual, nor can most middle-class Americans.
- E. None of the above... I have my own view of what the American dream is, and I am capable of achieving it.
- F. None of the above... I have a different view of what the American dream is, and I am not capable of achieving it.
Q2 - Value: It's not just the American dollar that's losing value. A government agency has decided that an American life isn't worth what it used to be. The "value of a statistical life" is $6.9 million in today's dollars, the Environmental Protection Agency reckoned in May _ a drop of nearly $1 million from just five years ago. (The Associated Press discovered the change after a review of cost-benefit analyses over more than a dozen years.) Though it may seem like a harmless bureaucratic recalculation, the devaluation has real consequences. When drawing up regulations, government agencies put a value on human life and then weigh the costs versus the lifesaving benefits of a proposed rule. The less a life is worth to the government, the less the need for a regulation, such as tighter restrictions on pollution. What value do you place on your own life? Does $6.9 million seem high or low to you?
Q3 - Branding the Incident: Quickly after yesterday's crash landing of a US Airways jetliner in New York's Hudson River, television networks began referring to the incident as "Miracle on the Hudson." Do you appreciate that television producers "name" incidents such as these, or do you think its a waste of time and energy to devote critical news gathering and reporting resources to the "branding" of news stories.
Q4 - Decorating: A popular Los Angeles-based interior designer has been chosen to redecorate the White House. Michael Smith was named this week as the Obama's choice to put their mark on the private quarters in the East Wing of the executive mansion, including the bedrooms of their daughters. If you could completely redecorate any room in your house at someone else's expense, what room would you choose and what would have done to it?
January 9, 2009
Four For Friday
Q1 - Afterwards: If you want to help the Chesapeake Bay in the afterlife, a Georgia company has a burial option you may want to consider. Eternal Reefs, Inc., mixes cremated remains into concrete used to make "reef balls" that it places at sites along the East Coast, a service it markets as an environmentally friendly and less-expensive alternative to traditional burials. In the waters off Miami, the Neptune Memorial Reef offers an underwater burial plot for cremated remains, as well as an attraction for divers who can swim among its gates, paths and statuary. Have you decided yet what should be done with your remains when you die? If so, are you going to be buried or cremated? If not, is the 'cremation and burial at sea' option described above something you'd consider?
Q2 - Mail: Imagine having a mailing address on one of the best-known, most prestigious streets in the world (think Park Avenue in NYC or Market St. in San Francisco), even if you reside in another city or state ― and being able to access, read and manage mail sent to that address online, 24/7, from wherever you are. That's exactly what Earth Class Mail, a Seattle-based start-up, offers its customers. When you sign up for the service, you have you mail routed to one of the company's addresses/locations, where computers scan the outside of envelopes and alert you by email when you've got mail. Then, you log in to your Earth Class Mail account and select which pieces of mail you want opened, scanned and e-mailed to you, and which ones should be left unopened, shredded and recycled. Is Earth Class Mail a service you think you'll ever use? Why or why not?
Q3 - Q&A: If you could receive the answer to any three questions, what questions would you ask and who would answer?
Q4 - Picture This: The Polaroid is back... sort of. Polaroid has unveiled a new digital camera with a built-in printer. The PoGo produces 2 x 3-inch pictures and, just like the original Polaroids, they take about a minute to develop. The $200 camera is slated to go on sale by early April. Think you'll buy a digital camera with a built in printer?
January 2, 2009
Four For Friday
Q1 - Admission: Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, is considering whether to raise its academic admission requirements so that students earning non-honors high school diplomas wouldn't be accepted. Do you think it's okay for public colleges and universities to require such rigid entrance requirements, or, should public colleges and universities consider each applicant on his or her own merits regardless of whether they graduated high school with honors?
Q2 - Feelings: What matches your mood right now?
Q3 - Co-Workers: If you could choose anyone--dead or alive--as a co-worker, who would you like to work with and what position within your company would that person hold?
Q4 - Ownership: If you are with a small group of people (i.e., in a car or small conference room) and you initiate a silent-but-deadly flatulent emission, do you own up to it or simply ignore it and hope everyone else does the same?
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