KEY POINTS:
Ian Young says: "I work at the headquarters of a unit at Whenuapai Air Force base, where I received a package delivered by courier on Friday morning. The spelling on the address slip caused much amusement. 'Headcourters' made it sound like we work in a dating agency."
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Interesting excerpt from management book, Recreating The Corporation, by Russell Lincoln Ackoff. "The tenants of a large office building complained about the increasingly poor elevator service. A consulting firm specialising in elevator-related problems was employed to deal with the situation. It first established that average waiting time for elevators was too long. It then evaluated the possibilities of adding elevators, replacing existing elevators with faster ones and introducing computer controls to improve utilisation of elevators.
For various reasons, none of these turned out to be satisfactory. The engineers declared the problem to be unsolvable. When exposed to the problem, a young psychologist employed in the building's personnel department made a simple suggestion that dissolved the issue. Unlike the engineers, who saw the service as too slow, he saw the problem as one deriving from the boredom of those waiting for an elevator. So he decided they should be given something to do. He suggested putting mirrors in the elevator lobbies to occupy those waiting by enabling them to look at themselves and others without appearing to do so. The mirrors were put up and complaints stopped. In fact, some of the previously complaining tenants congratulated management on improvement of the elevator service."
(Source: Growabrain.com)
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Gillian Linkins suffers one of the world's most bizarre phobias - a fear of buttons. Gillian, 22, can't even stand to be in the same room as friends and family who wear them. She first realised her fear aged 7, when she refused to put on her school blouse. The sight of buttons sends Gillian into panic attacks and boyfriend Nate Dorrington, 23, can only wear clothes with zips. Her phobia - officially named Koumpounophobia - affects one in 75,000 people.
(Source: TheSun.co.uk)
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Two German Air Force sergeants were suspended after being caught moonlighting selling sausages based on an old family recipe requiring human blood. Their first batches were made with their own, but as demand grew, they allegedly asked their colleagues. According to instructions from one of the men's grandmothers, all blood must be fresh. "Do not use too many breadcrumbs," she had written, "but if the blood starts to curdle, stir in a teaspoon of wine vinegar."
(Source: Daily Telegraph)
Today's Webpick: This CBS report is from March, 1975. Edward J.Daly, owner of World Airways, sent a Boeing 727 aircraft to Da Nang, Vietnam to pick up stranded woman and children. Instead, the aircraft was swamped by military personnel, desperately clambering aboard the aircraft. There were 260 people aboard the plane, which was designed to carry 105. Watch it here.
These are the very best online videos from Ana's online magazine Spare Room.
