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One World, One Dream - that was the official slogan of the Beijing Olympics of 2008. The words encapsulate an aspiration of the Olympic movement, to bring about global harmony through the medium of elite sport. But onto that sweeping canvas of rosy idealism, a team of researchers led by Shirley Cheng have just cast a bucket-full of reality. Their new study shows that the 2008 Olympics ...

Woody Allen had this to say:

1. "Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.".

2. "I believe there is something out there watching us. (Unfortunately, it's the government)

3. "There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman?"

Sure, relationships can get complicated, or does have its complications that probably any author about relationships is bound to discover it soon. ...

This was a nice article I received in an email bulletin – this is an edited version as the original was a little long.

How Does Your Website Make Me Feel? By Philippa Gamse

When people think about the Internet, they think about technology – but the most intriguing aspect of your online business isn’t about the technology. It’s about human connections, and how you can create these in a virtual environment. It’s commonly understood that ‘people buy emotionally, not intellectually.’ ...

Apparently when the Discovery Channel broadcasts ‘Shark Week’ which this year starts on August the 2nd visits to Florida beaches decline dramatically. Presumably, the Discovery’s programming makes the waters no less safe (I hope). However, after watching a week of kicking legs seen from a shark’s eye perspective from below, the idea of shark attack is refreshed in our minds and we choose not to offer ourselves as bait. This phenomenon is known in decision-making as the availability heuristic or ...

I am on my way to the trichologist today to see if there is any chance of sticking my hair back into the bald patches that resulted when I started pulling out my hair in frustration at eleven half-witted over paid Muppets again dismally failing at the World Cup. Yup this is one of those England dismal failure rants again. In passing did you know that a player such as Wayne Rooney is paid five centuries (500 years!!!) worth of the national minimum wage a year for this claptrap.

I ...

I was out last night on our annual glowworm hunt where we live close to Hedgecourt in Sussex. Every year about now we get sometimes the marvellous site of dozens of glowworms glittering in our fields. Yesterday we caught our first sighting in the dung heap close to the stables and I have attached to the post soem pictures of the little beasties.

Will update daily on the findings with more info about the weather and situation here so we can see if we can tease out what makes for a ...

Measuring Service Quality

When determining whether service delivery is meeting service expectations, it is useful to seek the views of service users. Quite often, an organisation will use a SERVQUAL questionnaire to gain the views of service users.

SERVQUAL (Service Quality) is a self-administered questionnaire designed to measure how customers view/judge service quality. Parasuraman et al (1994) defined service quality as the degree of discrepancy between customers’ ...

Moving non-core activities performed in-house to specialists outside the company helping the* business to focus on core competencies and improve performance standards is the main premis of outsourcing. The growth and rewards of this practice can be quite high but the downsides are daunting.

So what are the pros and cons of outsourcing?

The potential from outsourcing and BPO related activities:

• Savings in terms of cost from labour arbitrage
• Productivity

...

Planning a Green Christmas

The song tells of a white Christmas, but that refers to the weather and the Christmasy atmosphere that snow can bring. Planning for a green Christmas is all about being environmentally active and aware while saving money as well. In times of economic uncertainty that must surely be a good thing. And of course, if the weather brings a little bit of white covering too, then that makes a green Christmas perfect!

Exchanging gifts is a common practice ...

Computer Diagnostics

The diagnostics that are associated with computers can help to identify any problem or failure that computers show when they are having problems. Diagnostics are used to test out the computer system, which includes both the BIOS and memory, software, and even the hardware that is attached to the computer.

The most common types of problems will occur when your computer is down to very low resources, which can either be a low amount of RAM, or a ...

Hi BizFacers

Most people will of course be aware about the great Welsh Panthenon of Gods - who lived on the windy slopes of Snowdon where year in an out aided by the great God of rain Dwnpwr mingled and delved into the matters of men and women. Interfering and generally making whoopee until fed up with the rain and the god awful food in Wales (especially the leeks and warm beer) they disappeared back to their mountain top retreat.

Anyhoo -- The Gods of Wales
...

Feasibility Study Project Management Template


Feasibility Study Project Management Template

Is your project feasible?
The best way to find out whether your project is feasible is to complete a Feasibility Study. This process helps you gain confidence that the solution you need to build can be implemented on time and under budget. So here’s how to do it in 5 simple steps...
Completing a Feasibility Study
A Feasibility Study ...

A day in the life of a stressed out House-Person

I was there doing the washing up - yes I know this is unheard off - when that black and white idiot of a dog of ours starts the hound of the Baskervilles impression and begins to bark the bloody place down. I don't know what it is with Border Collies but they spend most of their day looking at the entrance to the drive waiting for someone to turn up then proceed to bark their flipping heads off - she's turned postie into a nervous wreak ...

The Buriden's Ass ‘method’ of decision making is used when two or more equally attractive alternatives exist and it is difficult to make a choice. It is of course based on the old fable of Buriden's Ass, who starved to death because he was tethered halfway between two equally large and succulent piles of hay - he couldn’t make up his mind which one to walk over to and eat. The approach is really simple; if the outcome of a choice between two options in terms of benefit is equally attractive focus ...

Pay Attention to governance structures and manage Outsourcing for success

In the Service Level Agreement the governance structure must receive special attention with all the relevant review and management processes, including escalation procedures should things go wrong. Furthermore, built-in mechanisms for changeover time must be included to account for continuous improvement. Obviously, targeted reduction in price is to be expected from normal improvements in technology or process, ...

Do not get ripped off in an outsource agreement the staff notice it first

The success of the Service Level Agreement (SLA) is also observed closely by your staff. We have seen in our outsource work that staff notice only too well whether their original employer is getting value or just being ‘ripped off’ and often have great fun when it does go wrong. This keen appraisal of how it works in practice impacts upon their own motivation and their relationships with both you and the outsource ...

How many bacteria in a doner kebab - Bristol University Student finds out the hard way

I was talking to her indoors about her sisters son who's at Bristol University who just had a nasty run in with Gastroenteritis following a 'delicious' late night snack of a donar kebab (despite repeated warnings from his mum) after consuming a quick ten pints at the student union bar. This nasty ailment is an inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract involving both the stomach and the small intestine ...

Stiff competition in the penis enlargement industry

After a period of relative quiet and normality I have noticed my inbox is becoming inundated with spam posts again. As normal I still get the occasional post about the little pink or blue tablets some of them almost looking as if they were sent via legit sites but of late it is the stiffening competition in the penis enlargement industry which is giving me gip. Apparently you can gain inches to your anatomy (in minutes) by wearing ...

The Prince William Cup - another obsequious gesture by the WRU

A new rugby trophy was apparently chosen by Prince William first son of Prince Charles the Halfwit from three different designs presented by specialist jewelers in Wales; Mari Thomas, from Llanelli and Nicola Palterman from Neath won the commission to create the cup. The creation is 55*cm high, 1.5*mm gauge trophy as their biggest and most their most elaborate job to date - see pic below for the monstrosity. The blurb ...

I read with interest an article in the Sunday paper this week on the assertion that Bees 'Decision Making Strategy' (sic) could help the business world to come to more informed decisions.



Apparently swarms send out 'scouts' to assess the quality of a potential site for a hive. The insects then report back to the old hive and do a 'dance' to describe the benefits of the site. The study concluded that the swarm then comes to a group decision on the best ...

Christmas 2008

It's that time of year again when itinerant panhandlers (carol singers) make their annual pilgrimage to my front door appear on my door-step attempting to sing a few strangled verses of some long forgotten carol before being sent away with a flea in their ear and a recommendation for a few singing lessons by yours truly.

The year before last as I reported in my last Christmas message some group of lads came around and made a vague attempt at Silent Night. ...

World Toilet Day Celebrations in Chipping Norton

As we all know last week (the 19th November) saw the celebration of world toilet day - I know 'what another crap day' - well yes actually. As we know a visit to the bathroom is a regular ritual for all of us and a person will go to the toilet about 6 to 7 times a day and with all that flushing that takes place will use around 30% of the 60 gallons of water used by an average person in the UK daily. It is something we all take for granted ...

The Railway Chronicles - starlet's bags under eyes forces new photo shoot

I was on the way up to see one of our northern NHS clients this time on what is now the national express line (what happened to the GNER?) - this was to be a difficult discussion about why they could not have a piece of software which is valued at well over a hundred grand installed for four pence halfpenny - but that’s not the subject for today as I must protect our beloved clients. I was reading through some ...

Car park Charges abolished and then chaos ensues

At the beginning of the financial year in gods country (Wales) the first minister announced that car parking fees, the subject of much controversy in the principality and elsewhere, were to be abolished. This 'lead' was not followed by the Department of Health in the UK at large who said England would not be following the Welsh example -"We have no plans of forcing hospitals in England to subsidise their car parks with resources that ...

Most people who have little time for a monarchy or are of a republican orientation focus too much on the minutiae of the royals as they currently are. Worrying about a Prince Philip's faux Pas - which actually livens things up a bit except for his rather implicit racism - the minor civil list cost in the scheme of things and on the small issues. Whether they pay tax or make a contribution to our balance of payments or can possibly break a deadlock in the house of commons are not significant problems. ...