Sunday, March 28, 2004

Wal-Mart Hits More Snags in Its Push to Use Radio Tags to Track Goods. Wal-Mart has been forced to revise its timetable for requiring suppliers to put radio frequency tags on their shipments. By Barnaby J. Feder. [New York Times: Business] 11:07:08 PM    comment []

Sweat the Cheesy Stuff. Petty, cheesy morsels of corruption are like the proverbial "broken windows" of violent crime. If we all look the other way, the consequences can be dire. [New York Times: Opinion] 2:56:54 PM    comment []

100% of Norwegian teens have a mobile phone. A Smart Mob reader translated this report from the Norwegian Telegram Bureau (Thanks Richard!) In Norway, all teenagers between 16 and 19 years of age have a cell phone. When teens say that "everyone has a cell phone" it's no joke. According to a new study, 100% of all 16 to 19 year olds who were surveyed, replied that they have their own cell telephone. This compares to the rest of the population where 86% have a mobile telephone. Norwegians send an average of 2,8 private text messages per day, but young women between 16 and 24 are the most active: They send over 8 text messages per day on average. The questionnaire was developed and sent out by the national statistical office in Norway (Statistics Norway) in cooperation with Telenor. Statistics Norway is no fly by night organization. They are perhaps the best group in Norway for analyzing random samples of individuals. Thus, the results are reliable. Basically the report says that they could not find a 16 to 19 year old in Norway who didn't own a mobile phone. [Smart Mobs] 11:47:58 AM    comment []

Aggreg8 is an "easy way of keep track of all your favourite websites without visiting each of them individually." [Scripting News] 10:57:12 AM    comment []

The Case of the Cherry Hill Cluster. At least nine people who ate at the Garden State Race Track in New Jersey have died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease since 1997. Evidence of mad cow or a strange coincidence? By D.t. Max. [New York Times: Science] Fascinating . . . 9:39:36 AM    comment []

SUNDAY COMICS [Begging To Differ] 9:30:16 AM    comment []

That Cali Thing Comes to Maryland It's exactly the wrong weekend to skip the shopping – this coming week all hell breaks loose as the entire state of Maryland goes somewhere other than Giant or Safeway to buy food. The two chains will be closed Tuesday while workers vote on a proposed new contract (which would cut their benefits, pensions and wages), and then there might be a strike. The stores claim to have "contingency plans", but not having to cross picket lines to get your groceries probably counts as one more reason to shop at Costco. And therein lies the problem.  Giant and Safeway used to be institutions, but they're being pushed towards the margins -- by Walmart, BJ's, the non-union competition.  About the only things they've got going these days are name recognition and ubiquity -- you can't go half a mile around these parts without seeing one of the chains. Really. They pop up in all kinds of weird places, which certainly makes them handy in an emergency or case of sudden craving.  Contact lens solution? Rotisserie chicken? No problem.  And here's my favorite part: Giant and Safeway open up stores which they know in advance will be empty. Stores located too near other stores, in neighborhoods where there just isn't a demand for three Giants in as many blocks. They do it for the sake of "market dominance," and I guess it works after a fashion. Sounds expensive, though.  No wonder they're looking to screw the workforce. [Global Suburb] 9:28:07 AM    comment []