2002-11-25»
Moen's Law of Bicycles»
Seth has linked
to a Google
search for "Moen's Law of Bicycles", in order to explain what "Moen's Law
Of Bicycles" is. Unfortunately, the blogosphere being what it is, Seth's own
diary entry is now the number one hit on his own Google search. The second
entry is currently another blog
entry from someone else, noting that Seth is now the number one hit on his
own search. In an attempt to prevent the link spiralling into
meta-uselessness, I'll now invoke fair use to quote Moen's Law of Bicycles in
its entirety, and hope my overuse of the phrease "Moen's Law of Bicycles" will
throw this somewhere near the top:
MOEN'S LAW OF BICYCLES
In the mid-1970s, bicycles suddenly became very popular in the USA.
Massive numbers of people were suddenly in the market, few of them
knowing anything about bicycles, and many could distinguish poorly if at
all between good equipment and bad; good customer service and bad.
Consequently, poorly made bicycles (which cost less to make) undercut
well made ones (and poor customer service out-earned the good variety),
because their superior value ceased to be perceived. Over time, the
overall quality of available bicycles declined considerably, almost
entirely because of this dynamic with customers, recovering only after
the fad ended, years later.
Moen's Law holds that "Good customers make for good products." Quality
thrives only when people can tell the difference. When they haven't a
clue about the products and how they work, schlock merchandise prevails.
(From A First
Look At You-Know-What, Blue Notes, Sept/October 1995 Issue)
Weird things about America, #3,318»
- nobody seems to know about oral rehydration
therapy.
Stuck in the Basque country in the eighties with not much of the language
and a lot of food poisoning, ORT kept me off an intravenous drip and nursed me
back to life in a couple of days. Since then, whenever I've had really bad
diarrhea, oral rehydration salts been the first thing I've bought or mixed up
to get me back on my feet.
ORT is was described by the Lancet as "the most important medical advance
this century. It was discovered by US researchers in 1968, and is now used by
38% of all diarrhea cases in the world, saving millions of lives. It's also
fantastically cheap - it's just a magic ratio of sodium and glucose and water.
Unfortunately, I have a really bad memory, so I can never remember what the
magic ratio is. So, for the record, it's:
- 1 Liter of Clean Water
- One level teaspoon of salt
- Eight level teaspoons of sugar
Mix it up well, and drink in small sips. It's as easy as that.
I was stumbling around New York, very ill, this week, and asked in a
pharmacy about ORT. They said they'd never heard of it, and to buy some
Gatorade. Apart from the fact that Gatorade is more expensive, it just
isn't the same thing. Gatorade has too much sugar and not enough salt
for the magic to work.
In cases of diarrhea, it's really difficult to get water into the human
body, because the usual method - absorption through the intestinal wall - is
broken. ORT works because the glucose provides an alternative transport across
the intestinal wall for the sodium, which increases the concentrate of the
salts behind the wall, which means the water moves across far more easily.
But you need to get the ratios right. Gatorade doesn't have it. Apparently
the kid's electrolyte fluids (like Pedialyte and Kaolectrolyte) are better,
but even they seem to be full of weirdness (like Pedialyte 'goes bad' very
quickly). And why just for children? I don't get it.
International Rescue»
DELTASS
looks like a real life
Thunderbird 5. I hope John Tracy is okay up there.
Who would you like to talk against Palladium?»
I've let this lie fallow for far too long, but perhaps RSS feeds mean that
not watering a blog doesn't mean that it dies beyond recovery.
Aaanyway, the BBC is looking for someone to stand up against the
boys from Microsoft and Intel when they explain how great Palladium
and LaGrande will be for consumers, producers, and - oh, but who else could
there be? It's for a TV interview in the UK next week, and they've already
asked Alan Cox and Ross Anderson. I can't think of anyone off the top of my
head, which is generally an indication that I'm being dense. Do you know
someone? Are you that someone? Let me
know, and I'll mail the BBC.
Hooray for the Lazyweb!
