1) Dancers seemed to be more likely to talk to a customer that had just walked in. Almost before he could get settled.
Be attractive to new customers, but understand its easier to keep the regulars. Make sure that new customers immediately feel important.
2) Dancers tend to approach the same type of men. This is more pronounced by the race of the dancer.
Know your market. Explain your value in an easy way, that is understood by the market you are selling to.
3) Every action, including feigned interest, is designed to generate revenue.
Always be generating internal value. I used to tell people that worked for me that for every dollar I paid them, they should generate three.
4) Customers that are cheap or refuse the company of a dancer, will soon find themselves completely shut out.
Dont waste time on customers that will not generate revenue or internal value. ‘Nuff said.
5) Customers that feel special will spend more money.
Make the right customers feel special. Have a VIP list. Be transparent about the value specific customers bring.
via The Economics of Stripping.
This is a great historical overview of the computer. Quite long video, but worth watching the first hour, with Alan showing how most ‘modern’ computing ideas had been invented and tested in labs in the 60s. Via the Tekkie Blog.
In chapter two of his first year economics textbook, economist Greg Mankiw includes a table of propositions to which most economists subscribe, based on various polls of the profession. Below is the list, together with the percentage of economists who agree:
- A ceiling on rents reduces the quantity and quality of housing available. (93%)
- Tariffs and import quotas usually reduce general economic welfare. (93%)
- Flexible and floating exchange rates offer an effective international monetary arrangement. (90%)
- Fiscal policy (e.g., tax cut and/or government expenditure increase) has a significant stimulative impact on a less than fully employed economy. (90%)
- The United States should not restrict employers from outsourcing work to foreign countries. (90%)
- The United States should eliminate agricultural subsidies. (85%)
- Local and state governments should eliminate subsidies to professional sports franchises. (85%)
- If the federal budget is to be balanced, it should be done over the business cycle rather than yearly. (85%)
- The gap between Social Security funds and expenditures will become unsustainably large within the next fifty years if current policies remain unchanged. (85%)
- Cash payments increase the welfare of recipients to a greater degree than do transfers-in-kind of equal cash value. (84%)
- A large federal budget deficit has an adverse effect on the economy. (83%)
- A minimum wage increases unemployment among young and unskilled workers. (79%)
- The government should restructure the welfare system along the lines of a “negative income tax.” (79%)
- Effluent taxes and marketable pollution permits represent a better approach to pollution control than imposition of pollution ceilings. (78%)
You want a better economy, with more wealth and jobs? Then take note of the above.
via David Farrar’s Kiwiblog.
In a landmark decison, the New Zealand government has assigned intellectual property rights in the traditional Maori haka, the Ka Mate, to Ngati Toa, a North Island tribal group.
The haka war dance, made famous by the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team, was officially handed back to a Maori tribe on Monday 11 February to stop it being ripped off by Hollywood directors and international advertising campaigns.
While the government’s action is largely symbolic, it is considered immensely significant by Maori leaders. “Ngati Toa’s primary objective is to prevent the misappropriation and culturally inappropriate use of the Ka Mate haka,” the official settlement letter read.
Examples of uses that Maori have found objectional include a 2006 television advertisement by the car maker Fiat in which Italian women performed a slapdash rendition of the haka (traditionally performed only by men), and the 2007 case where a New Zealand bakery featured a mock performance by gingerbread men. Ngati Toa elders were also incensed when the haka was performed in the Hollywood movie Forever Strong, about a high school rugby team in the US.
The agreement was a special provision in a $NZ121m compensation package awarded to eight tribes as part of the Treaty of Waitangi negotaiations over land rights abuses. John Key, New Zealand’s prime minister, said the issue was about cultural redress and not money. If a company wanted to use the haka for commercial reasons there should be a recognition of the tribe’s cultural interests. How this would be handled in the final treaty settlement was still a matter of discussion, he told the New Zealand Herald. He said he did not believe the All Blacks would be considered as commercially exploiting the haka.
“They are our national sports team and they have had the rendition of Ka Mate for a long time … There will neither be any restrictions on them in terms of their use or rendition of Ka Mate, nor any charge for doing so,” he added.
Internet Explorer’s share of the browser market is dropping, with a significant drop of 7% market share in the past year (according to figures released by the internet metrics provider, Net Applications).
It looks like FireFox has grabbed the lion’s share of users from Microsoft’s browser, with a gain of just under 4% to 21.5% (FireFox first went over 20% in November). Safari has also gained on Internet Explorer, with a 2% increase (to 8.3%).
Google’s new addition to the ‘browser wars’ has just over 1% of the market, with Opera’s share dropping to .7%.
For what its worth, Internet Explorer, FireFox and Safari still command over 97% of the browser share.
I saw the Ron Jeffries tweet about his Amazon Web Service Statement. For comparison, I’m using the S3 service to store about a gigabyte of pictures, a SUSE 10.3 image, and about 2.5 GB of podcasts for some church sites.
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